ISLAMABAD: Around 11 universities, from across the country, have agreed to contribute to the development of high-quality online courses to revamp the curriculum.

The Higher Education Commission (HEC) on Saturday hosted a meeting of vice chancellors to discuss the development of asynchronous online courses as part of the new undergraduate core curriculum.

Asynchronous courses allow students to learn at their own pace. The lectures and other study materials are available to them at all times.

The meeting, organised by the HEC’s Higher Education Development in Pakistan (HEDP), formed a consortium of universities to work on the initiative.

The universities have been added based on their expertise and interest in developing and delivering quality online learning platforms and massive online courses.

The consortium included Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU), Islamabad; Aga Khan University, Karachi; Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences (Buitems), Quetta; Comsats University, Islamabad; Habib University, Karachi; Hazara University, Mansehra; Lahore College for Women University; Lahore University of Management Sciences (Lums); National University of Sciences and Technology (Nust); University of Baltistan, Skardu and Virtual University, Lahore.

The new curriculum will include 11 core courses, drawn from five broad categories part of the HEC’s Undergraduate Education Policy courses.

The courses will be available on PakistanEdX, a platform launched by HEDP and supported by the World Bank.

The platform aims to offer Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) to ‘expand the horizon of quality education on a national level especially targeting the far-flung and underprivileged areas,’ according to the HEC.

The HEC has hired a company that has developed online learning platforms like MIT/Harvard’s edx, Wikimedia, etc to design PakistanEDX. The technology built by the firm has already served over 55 million students worldwide, HEC has said.

The consortium of universities will contribute to courses on PakistanEdX by offering multilingual options in five categories of Arts and Humanities, Social Sciences, Quantitative Skills, Natural Sciences, and Expository Writing.

The discussions were led by HEDP Project Coordinator Dr Mahmood Butt reiterated the significance of universities’ input in developing policies and the way forward for PakistanEdx.

HEC Executive Director Dr Shahista Sohail, while chairing the session said, the project will especially benefit female students.

“As a woman, I am glad to be a part of this initiative as it will benefit all irrespective of their gender.

“PakistanEdX will enable women to continue contributing to the economy without compromising their domestic and official responsibilities. Many women especially in disadvantaged areas will benefit as mobility can be an issue for women in many areas in our country,’’ she added.

The quality, sustainability, accessibility and financial models of the project were discussed during the meeting.

The participants also shared ideas on the technical and financial feasibility of the project.LUMS, AIOU and Virtual University vice chancellors agreed to contribute towards PakistanEdX. The meeting also set timelines for accepting credits for online courses, minimum contact hours required and seeking expressions of interest for developing courses.

Published in Dawn, December 19th, 2022