Online teaching system faces several problems
ISLAMABAD: Loopholes have started appearing in the online teaching system adopted by different universities in the wake of closure of all educational institutions to minimise the spread of COVID-19 pandemic in the country.
Hundreds of students and faculty members of different universities lodged complaints on Prime Minister’s Portal with regard to the online teaching system’s quality of instruction, digital readiness of the instructor, poor internet connectivity etc.
These complaints fall into different categories, including connectivity problems faced by the students, especially those living in remote areas of tribal areas, Balochistan, Gilgit-baltistan and Azad Kashmir where 3G technology is not available yet.
The students in these areas are also finding it difficult to recharge their SIMS, get internet packages, or reload balance because of the current restrictions and many of them were unable to comprehend online lectures because of poor streaming.
Faculty members have also expressed their concerns and were reluctant to visit the respective campuses for delivering online lectures.
The students have also reservations about the quality and effectiveness of online teaching as they could not ask questions in case they fail to comprehend a lecture. They also complain about the voice quality of audio lectures which they find inaudible, besides quality of teachers who, they say are not properly trained in online communication. Some of them also object to the quality of online evaluation.
Virtual University of Pakistan (VUP) Registrar Dr Mohsin Javed said that the conventional mode of teaching was different from online teaching system.
He said the universities did not have any platform to start the online teaching system like Learning Management System (LMS) of the Virtual University. “These universities don’t have any reliable connectivity system between student and teacher and no one knows whether all students and teachers have gadgets like laptop and internet,” he said.
Javed said three things were important in running online teaching system — content delivery, course handling and evaluation. “These universities also don’t have any centralised email system and most of their teachers cannot send educational material via email [to students] without getting proper training,” he said.
He said that on the direction of the Higher Education Commission (HEC), VU was helping 14 universities to build online education system. However, he said it would take some time to become operational.