Syed Tahir;
Fearing that the closure of the educational institutions might go beyond May due to the epidemic, the HEC also directed the universities to arrange online classes and lectures in case the closure is extended. In respond, a large number of students took to social media for expressing their displeasure over the lake of Laptops and access to Internet in remote areas. Yes their complaints and misgivings are genuine. But there’s off course a solution here that Asynchronous learning should be replaced with online classes. The Novel Pandemic Coronavirus is sweeping its way around the world, it’s arrival has changed everything. The news is full of stories about the need to reduce social contact, which for educational organizations, really does negatively impact long-term viability, not to mention the impact on learning opportunities. Sadly, most organizations are now scrambling to identify the options they have in front of them to deal with these two major challenges. ollowing the global outbreak of the COVID-19 in the country, the government of Pakistan ordered the closure of schools, colleges, and universities across the country for three weeks earlier this month before extending it to May 31, 2020. earing that the closure of the educational institutions might go beyond May due to the epidemic, the HEC also directed the universities to arrange online classes and lectures in case the closure is extended. Earlier on March 18, HEC Chairman Tariq Banuri announced to have developed a databank of the online courses and shared it with universities and also asked the universities to prepare courses for dissemination to students. Since Universities have announced to continue educational activities online amid the pandemic, a large number of students took to social media for expressing their displeasure over the lake of Laptops and access to Internet in remote areas. The online classes system is not effective in our country, it has been observed that students in remote areas lake internet facility to attend online lectures which is not safe in present scenario. It may be noted here that the quality of online education, that is being experimented for the first time in history, is not up to the mark as teachers were not fully equipped with the required teaching material and prepared on how to teach online. However Universities have continued their educational activities online amid the pandemic and, a large number of students are protesting against this online classes due to lake of Laptops and access to Internet. But there’s off course solution here. Many students may not have Laptops, but statistics show us that most do have access to Smartphones. Also, given that internet connections can be unreliable, the way to move ahead would be to upload pre-recorded Lectures along with class notes. Students can then access these in their own time convenience. This arrangement is knows as Asynchronous learning. It is the idea that students learn the same material at different times and locations. Asynchronous learning is also called location independent learning and is opposite to synchronous learning where students learn at the same time by activities such as attaining the lecture or laboratory, weather in-person or online. Asynchronous learning ( derived from the Greek language Asyn meaning “not with” and Chronos meaning “time”) accure in online educational environments as a means for teacher and student interactions of termitted communication. Asynchronous learning is time delayed and allows flexibility so that student participants in an online classroom not engage in discussion at the same time. At the lowest end, there are Asynchronous (or recoded) lectures. These are economical or free. They are fine as long as you’re signing up to learn a short topic, which is mostly contest-based. This is not a new idea. The concept of asynchronous learning has catching on over the past couple of years. Many leading Universities have now introduced this form of instruction because it suits students who may otherwise be unable to attend classes on regular hours. It allows for higher enrollments. To add to this is the concept of blended learning, which is a mixture of in-person learning and online instruction. A Lecturer comes in and teaches a class or two and then delivers the rest of the course online before coming back in the final class and summing up the semester. Such an arrangement allows universities to hire teachers who would otherwise not to available. In response to physical distancing and the closure of campuses necessitate by covid-related lockdowns, schools and Universities that continuity of instruction doesn’t miss a beat, and completed their academic activities entirely online with few, if any, glitches or compromises. At Harvard University, even laboratory based courses have moved online simple innovations in pedagogy and teaching methods. For example, for a lab course in genetics, students were required to collect biological samples, and extract and analyse DNA. In the the online version, teaching team collected the samples, recorded a video of DNA extraction process and sent the sequenced data to students for analysis against an existing database. We have to understand one thing: weather we like it or not, this is the future of education, particularly higher education.