Heeding lessons from international distance learning

The coronavirus pandemic has quite a few lessons for higher education. Higher education has been dependent on presenteeism and exams and has never really prepared for alternatives. Innovating new models for delivering higher education is needed now more than ever.

Online education has not been a popular mode of delivery in Pakistan. Indeed, most of us in higher education have had trust issues with online and distance learning. No one has ever played devil’s advocate and seen the importance of it in the coming years, for instance, in response to environmental disruption.

Online education has not been imagined in a positive light, even when it has been desperately needed. No one has ever really developed a contingency plan for students who cannot, for legitimate reasons, come to class. The only choice for them has been to delay their assessments. There was no other option.

Although COVID-19 has very few positives, except for maybe the Earth being given time to heal itself, if we want to find a glimmer of light during these dark times it may be that it has pushed us to think more about options for teaching outside the classroom and to realise that assessments can be done differently.

In the past, our obsession with physical presence always took precedence over the learning that was happening. Higher education institutions in Pakistan have always been traditionalist when it comes to ideas about the teacher-student relationship and exams.

International distance learning programmes

There is, however, a precedent. Pakistan is not new to international distance learning programmes. Indeed, they have been around for more than 25 years, with an alumni base now reaching tens of thousands, and they contribute to the economy in a positive way.

The colleges and institutions that are engaged in delivering distance learning programmes have developed their own niche in Pakistan’s higher education landscape. They have been able to develop teaching through various learning management systems, learning how to quality assure distance and online learning, developing a sound understanding of supported distance learning; making them better equipped to handle the sudden disruption to higher education in the country.

Their ability to respond to disruption and to offer their learners support and access to home education in this crisis has been seamless and swift. Their students have been able to complete their courses and have not lost any sleep worrying about the loss of an academic year.

We need to open international programmes and transnational education up to everyone, with students getting access to programmes from top-ranked global universities and their resources, such as e-libraries and research sites. Pakistan’s universities could also mirror their quality assurance regimes and learn from them, sharing best practice.

Opening the doors to global classrooms will give faculty and students access to research and learning opportunities. Partnerships with other universities could, for instance, provide bursaries for teaching faculty wishing to continue their professional development.

Endless possibilities

We need to understand and adapt to the current situation. Pakistan’s higher education contract with students and faculty needs to be rewritten when it comes to distance and online learning. We will have to revisit our social contract with our students and we must devise solutions and better prepare for different situations.

Currently, we are falling short when it comes to providing solutions for the kind of unprecedented circumstances we see now. We will need to be more creative in how we evaluate, accredit and validate students. It is our responsibility to change, develop and provide better solutions for our students. Once you remove the boundaries of your vision, the possibilities are endless.

During the pandemic, we at the Millennium Universal College have seen an increase in international collaboration, with foreign faculty experts no longer needing a visa or security clearance to enter a home in Peshawar or Karachi. Classes suddenly opened up to new possibilities. What we call our ‘link tutors’ and ‘module leaders’ not only helped students, they understood that they needed to bring students together academically despite physical distancing.

Distance education is now ubiquitous – of necessity. This is the time for disruptive thinking and not the time to cling onto our traditionalist approach. The Higher Education Commission needs to replicate the transnational education model, learn from its best practices and make uninterrupted teaching available across cities, districts, towns and villages, like transnational education does across countries.

The need for innovation

We cannot, however, shy away from the potential social challenges associated with online education. In 2019, fewer than 20% of the population in Pakistan had smartphones and barely 25% of the population had internet access. Thousands of students in Pakistan are resisting taking online classes – #werejectonlineeducation was the top trending hashtag in Pakistan in March.

Yet for a country like Pakistan, disruption to its cities and to its education systems, from riots to terrorist attacks, is not new. You would think we would have in place a contingency plan for such situations.

When it comes to the provision of uninterrupted learning we could be a bit more creative and take inspiration from the likes of Sugata Mitra’s Hole in the Wall Project on self-organised learning and stories of people in Kansas setting up school buses fitted with wi-fi to ensure that students who may otherwise not have access to the internet are able to learn while schools are closed.

There are some glimmers of hope. In April, the Pakistan government launched two new educational TV channels, ‘TeleTaleem’ and ‘Taleem Ghar’ in Punjab, which are expected to reach more than 60 million schoolchildren across the country.

These are positive, forward-thinking steps. But higher education must also come out with viable ideas of its own. We, as educationists and academicians, must be responsive and responsible and learn from transnational education and promote a greener way to learn.

Kholah Yaruq Malik is dean and director of quality assurance and internationalisation at the Millennium Universal College, Pakistan.