Affordable competitor of Coursera/edX in Pakistan soon will be launched as announced by HEC.
At Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) in Islamabad, the Higher Education Development in Pakistan (HEDP) project of HEC hosted the third meeting of a consortium of 11 universities to create high-quality asynchronous online courses as a component of the new undergraduate core curriculum across the country.
Based on these universities’ experience and enthusiasm for creating and delivering high-quality online learning platforms and huge online courses, the consortium was created. It consists of the Agha Khan University in Karachi, the Balochistan University of Information Technology, Engineering and Management Sciences (BUITEMS) in Quetta, the COMSATS University in Islamabad, the Habib University in Karachi, the Hazara University in Mansehra, the Lahore College for Women University, the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), the University of Baltistan in Skardu, and Senior administrators and vice chancellors (VCs) from each of these universities attended the meeting.
Dr. Shahista Sohail, executive director of HEC, presided over the meeting. Since a woman, I am delighted to be a part of this project as it will benefit everyone, regardless of gender, she stated in her opening remarks. With PakistanEdX, women will be able to maintain their economic contribution without having to give up on their obligations in the home or at work. Mobility can be a problem for women in many sections of our country, thus this will assist many women, especially those who live in underprivileged areas.
Dr. Nasir Mahmood, the VC of AIOU, welcomed everyone and pledged AIOU’s assistance.Dr. Mahmood Butt, Project Coordinator, HEDP, moderated the discussion and emphasized the value of institutions’ contribution in formulating strategies for ODL and PakistanEdX’s future.
11 new core courses that fall under five general categories of HEC Undergraduate Policy courses make up the new curriculum. These institutions will participate to PakistanEdX by providing multilingual alternatives for the five subject areas of Expository Writing, Quantitative Skills, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Arts and Humanities.
This is a progressive news for both students and universities as affordable competitor of Coursera/edX in Pakistan soon will be launched.
