A briefing and training session for trainers of Learning Management System ( LMS) activated in view of the COVID-19 pandemic was held under supervision of special International Islamic University Committee.
The committee is headed by Prof. Nabi Bux Jumani and working for different aspects of online education and training of faculty.
The session started with the recitation. Mr. Zulqarnanin Hashmi (Director IT) shared the purpose of the sessions and told all universities have been advised to operationalize online platforms and Learning Management Systems. He told that the IT team is working on the LMS and Aljamia system of IIU to cater the needs of Online teaching in Spring 2020.
Prof. Dr. N. B. Jumani thanked all the participants. He shared that the semester Spring 2020 was going smooth and many of its activities were underway through online modes also. He said that in order to bring uniformity and transparency in various activities, the online classes have been stopped. He apprised that a lot of deliberation is continually taking place within the university to address the issues and implement the guidelines in letter and spirit. He briefed basic components and concerns of Online teaching.
It was told that in light of the guidelines of Higher Education Commission for online teaching, the cascade model was selected for the training. As per devised policy, master trainers will execute training in their respective departments. In addition, the training sessions for master trainers from each department in various groups were conducted.
The Lead Trainers team is headed by Prof. Dr. N. B. Jumani and included Mr. Zulqarnain Hashmi (Director IT), Dr. Mehrosh Khalid (Biological Sciences), Dr. Usman Nasir (Computer Science & Software Engineering), Dr. Asad Abbas Rizvi (Education), Dr. Muhamad Zafar Iqbal (Education), and Dr. Fouzia Ajmal (Education).
The Master trainers were guided about creating and managing courses on LMS and guidelines to provide training to the regular and part time faculty members of their respective departments. The training included online teaching, courses management requirements and hands on practice on LMS and Google Classroom.
The manual as well as Video Tutorial of LMS usage was also shared By Dr. Mehrosh Khalid. The creating of classes and operations using Google Classroom was shared with Dr. Usman Nasir. Dr. Fouzia Ajmal shared experience of using moodle and the module development experience while working in team of European Commission project BLTeae. Dr. Asad Abbas Rizvi discussed the course development including reading material, videos and exercises/assignments. The queries of the participants were dealt in fruitful manner.
Prof. Dr. N. B. Jumani concluded the sessions and desired the deliberate efforts of all during this challenging phase. The sessions ended with thanks and dua for quick recovery from this pandemic.