Ijaz Shigri
Freeze of first semester (Spring 2020) will also be permissible as special case for new students.
Moreover, for the sustainability of quality, the office of Quality Enhancement Cell (QEC) will check the
quality of lectures in terms of relevance, level, content, resources, user friendliness of materials and
assignments. The HoDs have been given access to view all the courses offered in all programs of his/her
department, so to follow-up and supervise the progress. To enhance the creative skills, HoDs will
communicate shortfalls of lectures (in number, time, content or quality) to the concerned faculty and
repeatedly. In case of any serious shortcomings from faculty, the report will be forwarded to Director
Academics for necessary action as the Director Academics has admin access to view progress of all
faculty members. In addition, the IT team will assist the faculty in uploading and formatting of their
lectures and present weekly report of uploaded lectures and students’ login status. On the account of
internet accessibility problems faced by students, teachers will make sure the availability of lectures and
learning resources on LMS. As well as, for the better understanding and queries of students, WhatsApp
groups will be formed for every class and subject. Students can ask questions, share their ideas and
issues if any, get responses of teachers and other fellow students. Students can also ask question via
email or Facebook messenger or through telephone calls. Hence, all electronic means are being utilized
to better serve the purpose of online education. For the convenience of students , learning options and
opportunities are made as flexible and multiple as possible, ranging from LMS, social media, google
classroom and video/audio lectures uploaded on YouTube, sharing on WhatsApp or FB, Twitter, simple
voice call/message etc. Also, It is instructed that, all the subjects must have its course outline displayed
with clearly stated learning objectives/ expected outcomes, units, textbooks (if any) and references as
the first lecture on top of the course portal. Significantly, assessment modes, tools and mechanisms
including all options of online/offline, project work, live call viva, group assignment and proportion of
marks for sessional assignments and final examination are finalized. The office of Controller
examination will share and notify model and SOPs for assessments along with tentative schedule and
marking scheme of E- Learning as discussed and agreed in the (online) Academic Council meeting. The
final copy of assessment model and SoPs, notified from the office of Controller for the pandemic period
will become part of this emergent online Academic Council and all the policies and procedures in
general will be applicable for the affiliated colleges also.Additionally, separate portal for Affiliated
Colleges has been launched and focal persons/coordinators from colleges have been given orientation,
who will train their faculty on LMS. In view of the remoteness and lack of access to internet connectivity
in valleys, the university has established Valley Based E-Learning Facilitation Centre/desk in each district
and valley of Baltistan, namely, Shigar, Khaplu Ghanche, Kharmang and Rondu, while for the town and
neighbouring areas of Skardu, the City Campus Hassan Colony is declared as facilitation centre.
However, a focal person with computer and internet access will be there to guide at each centre and
students from valleys can visit individually, get resources and lectures of their subjects downloaded from
the facilitation desks. Also, students in remote valleys can visit facilitation centres once a week, to
collect learning materials and submit online assignments at facilitation centres. In particular, the regular
features of LMS are being practiced as a routine academic activity. Firstly, all the faculty and students
are given orientation in the first week of each academic year and are provided with IDs for SIS access. All
regular teachers have their official university email IDs. Timetable and date sheets are auto-generated
by the system. Attendance record is maintained and reports can be generated any time. Secondly,
results are uploaded and final-results are generated by the system. Students have access to their results
after ten days of last paper. When required, rechecking of results and reports is possible. Teacher
Evaluation forms are made available at the end of each semester and these evaluation reports become
record of database and are generated by the system, while students’ evaluation of each subject is
submitted online. Thirdly, teachers can access 80,000 books from E-Library while students can access all
the resources from the portal. Students can check their dues, bus routes, and other matters related to
Students Affairs from SIS and can upload assignments on their dashboard (portal). Finally, teacher can
check and respond to assignments submitted online and give feedback on the same portal, visible only
to the concerned student. Furthermore, University along with HEC have suggested SOP’s to monitor and
conduct the exams during COVID19, but this policy is extraordinary and will not be applicable under
normal circumstances. The SOP’s prepared by the Examination Section, subsequently endorsed by
Academic Council for spring semester 2020 includes: Evaluation Category “A” (in case of non- practical
courses) Sessional (Assignments,Quizzes, Project, Case study, Presentation, viva etc) 50 %. Final term
exam 50%. Evaluation Category “B” (in case of practical of one credit hour) Sessional
(Assignments,Quizzes, Project, Case study, Presentation, viva etc) 40 % Final term exam 40% Lab
/Practical exam 20%. However,the concerned teacher shall adopt any one of the stated above options
(Category A or B),based on technical issues and nature of course, in consultation with the relevant
HoD/Chairman during the online education at UoBS. Subsequently, the concerned teacher shall choose
at least three (03) sessional criteria's (Assignments,Quizzes, Project, Case study, Presentation, viva) in
consultation with HoD. All faculty members should upload course outline on LMS as affiliated colleges
also following the same course outline.