Should Pakistan start a Virtual University?

It has become commonplace to say that the internet has transformed many aspects of our lives. No where has its impact been more significant (barring business applications) than in education. After the invention of the printing press, the computer and the Net marks a watershed in the progress of knowledge. To emphasize this point, this article is largely based on research done on the Net. It is concerned with the idea of setting up a virtual university in Pakistan using these new technologies.

The realization by many international universities of the global outreach of

the internet has led to a large number of them offering courses and degrees on the Net. The pioneering British Open University which has offered such courses by mail has now increasingly moved over to the Internet, and our national counterpart, the Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) is also planning to so with the setting up of about 10 Internet centers around the country.

New conglomerates are appearing such as Universitas 21

http://www.universitas.edu.au/members.html

that has 21 well-known universities in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. These include McGill, Toronto, Michigan; Edinburgh, Birmingham,

Lund; National University of Singapore, Beijing University; Melbourne, New

South Wales. From this web page you can access all these universities offering courses on the Net. I first came across the launch of this venture while viewing the web pages of the Chronicle of Higher Education http://chronicle.com/ .

For a US perspective one may like to explore the variety of options in

distance and Internet education from:

http://www.geteducated.com/sitemap.htm

and

http://w ww.edufind.com

Among the most impressive list of courses (that I came across) being

offering in engineering came from Georgia Tech :

http://www.conted.gatech.edu/distance/index.html .

Its Center for Distance Learning offers 5 Masters programs in Environmental Engineering, Health Physics/Radiological Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Industrial Engineering and Mechanical Engineering. All these courses are attractive and maybe useful for students being sent on scholarships to the US by our government. I am not sure how the laboratory work is handled.

Estimating that a Master course can requires about 60 credit hours, and that Georgia Tech charges about $500 per credit hour, then it would cost about $30-35,000 if one factors in mailing cost of books and additional fees. This is clearly less than what it would take for a student to do a degree by travelling to and living in the US.

Other than missing the exposure to the vibrant culture and live interaction with professors there, this would be an economical way to study "abroad". The Government may consider encouraging some candidates to take this option.

The course work that the students undertake while staying in Pakistan can be adapted by AIOU (and other institutions who will intend to provide online courses here) to adapt it for the Net in Pakistan. Once this is done these and similar courses can be provided nationally at a fraction of the cost. Without such an input and help from an already developed Masters' program it will be quite difficult to get one of similar standard developed nationally in the short term.

The Virtual University Gazette that list all the important developments in this field is available free from:

http://www.geteducated.com/vugaz.htm

and one would recommend its subscription to those interested in distance learning.

Nearer home India, China and Malaysia have made considerable progress in providing university level course through the Net. Their experience and advice could help us make a quicker entry.

The internet infrastructure for providing access is fairly quickly being installed in cities, and with more government interest in the rural sector it may reach there before long. What now needs to be put in place is a system, which has the capacity to deliver educational material at all levels and to be able to carry out assessment and other features of what a conventional educational institution offers - only better. This article is mainly concerned with higher education and a virtual university.

The natural siting of such a venture is the AIOU in Islamabad, a place that has provided useful educational material for many citizens in outlying parts of the country using TV, videos and mailed educational material. Their degrees are considered equivalent to those offered by conventional universities. [One would, however, like to see the job and salary profiles of their alumni compared those from other public and private universities.]

This is not to suggest that the private sector should not be encouraged in this venture, but by their very nature of operation they would tend to price their courses at the high end and therefore be unaffordable for most students. Already private sector outfits offer certification in computer skills through examinations using the Net, and these are costly.

Dr Anwar Siddiqui, Vice Chancellor of AIOU in a recent workshop organized by

the British Council and the Sustainable Development Networking Program talked about textbook delivery and tutoring through the Net. Newspapers report that the university will set up ten centers for such purpose. The VC is no doubt aware that this is only the beginning. Merely using the Net to deliver material cheaply it is similar to the early days of television when camera merely recorded stage plays and broadcast them. The idea of a totally new TV drama format was to appear later. That should happen to AIOU material too once it adopts the internet as its dominant tool.

Web based education will require the transformation of the course structure, the way material is conveyed and the manner in which it is written in AIOU's text books. Also, with the convenience of quicker interaction between the lecturer or course provider and the students, there will be an increased demand to answer questions posed by students online. This will improve the communications skills of the students and the AIOU lecturers through increased written interaction.

Unfortunately there is a woeful shortage of inspiring university teachers. The few who work in our institutions interact with a small number of students where they teach. These rare specialists and generalists should be lured through financial and other rewards to become part of a group centered in AIOU. Here, as a group, they can develop online courses in areas where there is a big demand. These courses should be linked with the existing and new improved programs that AIOU will air on TV and on radio. Current programs give the impression of being delivered by lifeless puppets!

The core unit of specialists for the virtual university is essential. As expertise builds up around the country, people in other locations, connected by the Net, can become part of the course development team without having to move to Islamabad.

There is a need to use the new foreign scholarship scheme of the Ministry of Science and Technology to train a number of students at the Masters level in information technology related to education delivery. These trained individuals should return to join the team at AIOU.

Where conventional universities exist, place should be acquired by the government on their campuses. Here courses of the AIOU university and its affiliated virtual university component should be held. This would take the form of large computer centers with high speed internet connectivity, video rooms for viewing satellite beamed programs, and laboratories in science subjects for distance learning students. Full time staff would be present to assist. These facilities could also be shared with the university that has provided the space. In fact such a place could become a vibrant social and cultural center housing a range of activities, including the arts and drama.

A large shared facility that caters for the local university itself as well as the AIOU students and the local school kids is envisaged. Another model would be set up several smaller such units around each major city and town. The 10 centers set up by the AIOU could be turned into what is being suggested here.

The internet, and all the educational media are "merely vehicles that deliver instruction but they do not influence student achievement any more than the truck that delivers our groceries causes change in our nutrition" according to Dr Thomas Clark the co-author of classic book "Distance Education: The Foundation of Effective Practice". We will have to invest in our best educators and train many more if we are to gain significantly from setting up a new virtual university. If successful, its impact will profoundly affect all our existing, dormant institutions. It could be truly revolutionary.