KARACHI,(APP):The academic council of Karachi University in its meeting here Friday approved a proposal to initiate online classes for its students during the current COVID-19 induced suspension of academic activities at the varsity.
The online meeting chaired by Vice Chancellor Dr Khalid Mahmood Iraqi extensively discussed future line of action of the university in accordance with the recommendations of Higher Education Commission of Pakistan.
According to KU spokesman 86 members of the KU academic council unanimously agreed that online classes must be started and that initially the university would facilitate three to five teachers from each faculty as master trainers.
It was agreed that these teachers ( master trainers) would be responsible to train other members of their respective faculties.
The dean offices were decided to be the facilitation hub for the trainers as well as trainees while dean, faculty of education, Professor Dr Nasir Salman would guide the teachers as how to avoid plagiarism and handle copyright issues during online classes.
The online classes/submission of assignments of various courses as per the approved course outline would be continued till July 15.
It was also decided that the online classes may also include the alternative to laboratory related and practical sessions.
Teachers required to conduct online classes from home, in case of any difficulty, would be allowed to use their offices, class rooms or meeting rooms of their respective faculties.
To streamline the exercise each department would be required to constitute a departmental evaluation/student assessment committee by July 15.
It was further decided that during almost a month long duration, July 16 to August 13, classes (each of 40 minutes) would be conducted as smart intervention making up for syllabi that could not be completed during the suspended phase of current year's academic session.
Online assessment of students along with examination and evaluation material was decided to be carried out from August 17 to 20 and that semester examination would be held from August 22 to September 12.
Teaching for second semester would be conducted from September 15 to December 13 and examination for the same would be held from December 14 to 31.
As for evening programmes of KU, online teaching, labs and assessment would be conducted till July 15 while classes/labs for missed parts of the syllabus will be held from July 16 to September 10 followed by finalization of online assessment/ examination/ evaluation of material from September 11 to 13.
The first semester examination (evening programme) will be held from September 14 to 30 followed by the second semester from October 1 to December 31 while examinations for the same was decided to be conducted from January 01 to January 21 next year.