LAHORE: The Higher Education Commission has directed all the universities of the country to go online to save the time of their students during the coronavirus lockdown and their academic year.

In other words, all the universities and higher education institutes have to go virtual using digital platforms to keep the education system moving with minimum disruption. For this purpose, the HEC has asked the universities to coordinate with the Virtual University to get its learning management system (LMS) from it.

The LMS is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery of educational courses, training programs, or learning and development programs. The learning management system concept emerged directly from e-learning.

Its application that could be installed on mobile, laptop and desktop computers and a student is given a log in and password for attendance. After logging into the system the students could get detail about its course consists of recorded videos lectures, assignments, notice board, educational content, assignment of teacher, its running and pending courses, grades of the courses and fee structure.

“Up to 14 public sector universities have contacted the Virtual University to get its LMS for completing the courses of its students,” told Faisal Zia, a spokesman of VU.

He said they had signed memorandums of understanding with some of the universities and they were preparing their courses.

While the universities have been directed to the coordinate with the VU, the university has been functioning without a vice chancellor for the last one year.

VU Rector Dr Abbas Chaudhry passed away last year in March and the position has been vacant since then. The acting charge was given to deputy director finance Dr Naeem Tariq.

Earlier, the government constituted a search committee to shortlist and interview candidates for the post. The committee shortlisted and interviewed 18 candidates on December 11 last.

Sources said that the committee proposed three names for the post of rector and submitted it to the Board of Governors.

The board would send the list to President of Pakistan/Chancellor Dr Arif Alvi to appoint anyone of them as rector. The Virtual University Ordinance of 2002 states there should be 14 members of the board of governors but it was not complete.

The shortage of board members is creating delay in forwarding the summary to the president and the summary has been lying with the Ministry of the Information Technology and Telecom.

The ministry secretary would be the chairman of the board and the VU registrar as secretary while other members include VU rector, secretary of the Ministry of Education Islamabad, the secretary of the Ministry of Information and Media Development, chairperson of the HEC, chairman of the National Telecommunications Corporations, one retired judge of the Supreme Court, one serving or retired rector or VC of a public sector university, three eminent educationists or scientists not being employees of the university, one expert from financial sector and one dean of the university.

Published in Dawn, March 27th, 2020