Introduction
With Covid-19 global pandemic and fear and uncertainties attached to it, it has become imperative that education institutes, especially seats of higher learning, shall ensure continuation of academic process to prevent academic loss of learners. In this view, under the guidance and leadership of the Honorable Vice Chancellor, SMI University has also planned to conduct online academic activities, with support from already placed state-of-the-art Learning Management System (LMS) and integrated Video Conferencing via third party applications.
Technology
LMS
Learning Management System (LMS), already implemented at SMIU and being utilized by Students and faculty members alike for academic activities will be used to communicate and carry out the activities other than Video Conferencing. It can be utilized effectively to communicate class timings, issue notifications, upload assignments and all the other subsequent tasks.
MS Teams
HEC has a licensing agreement in place with Microsoft to utilize Microsoft Services, such as MS Office 365 which also includes MS Teams, at its associated universities. MS Teams, is a platform for teleconferencing (including audio and video), which can be used to conduct online classes. This platform easily used by faculty and staff like from all locations and thus can be used by maximum attendees.
Zoom
Zoom is a third-party application, focused towards teleconferencing and online meetings mainly. Although prior to the appearance of Covid-19 it was not much sought after, but since then it has established its repo as the solution of choice for many corporates and academic institutes. Basic Zoom services are subscribed for up to 15-20 users to seamlessly carry online classes. Zoom is also integrated with LMS to upload recordings of every session for easy access by students.
Synchronous Online Classes
Since classes do not have the limitation of a maximum number of students due to usual physical constraints under on-campus classes, we can have as many students in a single class as feasible. Hence it is proposed that different sections of a particular course being taught by same faculty members to be merged into a single class.
A minimum criterion of 5-10 registrations (except Education, Social Development, Environmental Science), is set to start a class online. This is necessary as number of students are interested in and have the necessary resources to take the online class is different than that of number of students who actually enrolled in the course.
Each class shall be recorded and later uploaded onto LMS for access by those students who were not able to attend the live class/facing problem in live classes or for who want to follow-up.
There is a 15-minute question answer session at the end of each session
As all the prerequisites, as communicated by HEC, are fulfilled, online classes will be started from 1st June, 2020 for all Undergraduate, graduate and Post Graduate levels.
Faculty
Faculty are advised to carry out following activities in lieu of carrying online sessions:
Each recorded lecture shall be uploaded on the LMS for review and other purposes.
Faculty members shall upload their full schedule of courses at the LMS to help students in taking appropriate class.
Faculty members shall upload course before the classes by virtue students’ will able to prepare themselves for classes.
Training session are arranged for faculty members to help them in modifying and organizing their courses as per the needs of online delivery.
Each faculty members are required to perform a dry run of online class to gain a familiarity with the process
Assessment
There are 02 options for assessment of the courses:
- All 100 numbers may be distributed over the course timeline in form of different mark assignments, quizzes and projects, with no midterm exams and final exams are to be replaced with mcqs, quizzes, assignments, open book, take home exam may be followed by viva, as decided by faculty and approved by Chairperson and deans.
- All 100 but 40 numbers may be distributed over the course timeline in form of different mark assignments, quizzes and projects. After the possible resumption of on-campus classes, final exams for 40 numbers may be conducted to complete the whole assessment cycle.
Quizzes are held online and marks to be upgraded on the LMS accordingly, whereas Assignments are to be uploaded and collected via LMS
If feasible, written assessment may also be partially or entirely replaced with Viva Voice/oral Exams.
For assessment, discussion boards (both individual and open available on both LMS and video conferencing applications) are to be utilized.
Communication
Link for classes shall be uploaded on both LMS and on shared social media groups (WhatsApp/E-mail) with appropriate guidelines so students can join accordingly.
Faculty members may also communicate with the students via dashboards and bulletin boards
Faculty members need to upload class guides/lecture slides/materials at the LMS beforehand, so that student can go through them before attending the class. Department need to ensure
Faculty members shall be in close coordination with the respective CRs to ensure that every student has access to the class video link
Students may also drop their questions at the LMS which may be answered at the beginning of next lecture
Academic Departments Support
New timetable is developed with merged sections, ensuring efficient use of available live conferencing hosts slots.
Following timings of sessions of 90 minutes are as follows:
S. No. |
Time Slots | No. of Online Sessions |
| 1 | 09:00 am – 11:30 am | 20 |
| 2 | 12:00 pm – 02:30 pm | 20 |
| 3 | 03:00 pm – 05:30 pm< | 20 |
| 4 | 06: 00 pm – 08:30 pm | 15 |
Department shall also ensure that all the required documentation, including but not limited to class guides/lecture slides/materials and readings etc., are completed on LMS for every course before considering it online ready
Each department has evaluated their respective courses and distributed them into following course:
- Online ready
- Online ready with minor modifications
- Online ready with major modifications
- Cannot be taught online
Note: Few faculty members teaching courses like statistics’ and other will face difficulties in teaching, they may visit the university and their lecture may be recorded by TV studio or they may be provided with small white board and a video camera or IT supported device like pointer pen etc.
List of course with due support documents then need to placed in front of OAC for review.
Course Drop facility
SMIU being a public sector University, has been proudly imparting quality education to all its students without any discrimination on the basis of religion, gender, cast or social status. The fact that cannot be overlooked is that many of its students might not have access to proper equipment (Laptop, PC or cellphone) along with the absence of suitable internet connection to join online classes. Hence, the Honorable Vice Chancellor has approved purchase and distribution of internet dongles and Bundles, among the needy students.
To provide equal learning opportunities to all students, it is proposed that students who are unable to join online classes may be provided with option to drop the course/semester and take enroll in any subsequent semester in accordance with university policies. To further ensure that the graduation period may not be increased, these students are allowed to take up to 7 - 8 courses for undergraduate, up to 5-6 courses for Graduate students in the subsequent semesters.
Survey conducted by Department of Students Affairs, is used to estimate the number of students who are unable to join online classes / required internet bundle due to different limitations, as student from outside Karachi and also few from within Karachi not have access to appropriate technological support to avail this opportunity.