ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) Higher Education Development Programme (HEDP) on Saturday hosted a consortium of nine universities in Lahore University of Management Sciences to identify high-quality asynchronous online courses as part of the new undergraduate core curriculum for the country.
The purpose of offering nationwide online courses is to ensure all students across the country have access to the highest quality of foundational education.
PakistanEdX has been selected as a formal name for this national platform, a press release said.
HEC PakistanEdx platform is developed by the same organisation, which has been a major developer for several international learning platforms. The technology built by the firm has already served over 55 million students worldwide.
HEC will use the same technology to increase access to quality education and make it available for far-flung areas of Pakistan.
The consortium is formulated based on the expertise of these universities in developing and delivering quality online learning platforms. It includes Allama Iqbal Open University, Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences, COMSATS University, Habib University, Hazara University, Lahore University of Management Sciences, National University of Sciences and Technology, and Virtual University of Pakistan.
The new curriculum adds 11 core courses drawn from five broad categories of HEC Undergraduate Policy courses. These universities will contribute courses on PakistanEdX by offering multilingual options in these five categories of arts and humanities, social sciences, quantitative skills, natural sciences, and expository writing.
“HEC aims to create a holistic vision of quality culture for online and blended learning,” said HEDP Project Coordinator Maryam Riaz.
NUST Rector Lt Gen Javed Bukhari said: “Here is an opportunity, where we can learn from each other, and I am very confident that all the stakeholders, including faculty, students, market, and accreditation bodies will join hands with us.”
COMSATS University Rector Dr Tabassum Afzal, while emphasising the significance of using technology, said that globally education is now about clicks and not bricks. He added that HEC’s efforts have taken us to this point and this endeavour will be a huge accomplishment in providing breadth of education for undergraduate students across the country.”
Virtual University Rector Dr Arshad Saleem Bhatti said: “We are standing at a junction where the future of education in Pakistan is being decided.”
LUMS VC Dr Arshad Ahmad said: “The global offerings of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) have skyrocketed, demonstrating that online courses do not replace in-person instruction but rather provide complementary choices to learn anytime and anywhere.”
The consortium will meet on a regular basis to drive this project forward, invite other universities and work together to train faculty members across Pakistan.
