Extract of the Minutes of the Meeting of HoDs on Online Teaching

Subsequent to the Government Notification regarding extension of the closure of the Higher Educational Institutes (HEIs) till July 15, 2020, a meeting of all the heads of departments (HoDs) of FATA University was held at 10:00pm on May 11, 2020 on Skype-Meet. The agenda of the meeting was to discuss the arrangement made so far by the faculty for online teaching and to highlight the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for online teaching in the light of HEC Guidance No. 5 (Online Readiness) as directed by the worthy Vice Chancellor, FATA University, in his email to all HoDs dated April 24, 2020.

All the HoDs showed satisfaction on the preparation of courses for online teaching by the faculty members and have tried to formulate the SOPs for online teaching after thorough discussion and consensus.

The following SOPs for online teaching have been formulated for approval from the OAC:

1.     Existing course outlines (used for face-to-face teaching in the classroom) shall be modified as per online teaching requirements.

2.     Every instructor shall prepare week-wise break down of the whole course contents to be taught online as per the attached Proforma Template (Annexure-1). This proforma includes instructor details, course contents, video lecture length duration etc.

3.     The instructor shall develop course material such as power point slides, handouts, audio/video lectures of the slides (where applicable) etc.

4.     HoD of each department in consultation with departmental focal person shall ensure the standard of video/audio lecture. They shall specifically ensure whether the video/audio lecture and its main highlights match with already shared weak-wise course break down of a particular course. They will also ensure the video, audio and presentation style for maximum understanding by the students.

5.     Once the video contents of a particular course pass the initial quality check criteria by HoD and Focal Person of a department, the same shall be forwarded to the Advisor Academics / Dean.

6.     Upon the satisfaction of the Academic Advisor / Dean, the course material shall be sent to the Online Academic Committee (OAC) for approval.

7.     Once the OAC approves the course contents and related lectures / presentations items, after quality check mechanism, the delivery of online teaching of that course shall be allowed.

8.     The time table for online classes shall be shared with the students ahead of time the teacher intends to deliver the online lecture.

9.     The Focal Person of the OAC shall prepare a weekly report for placing before the OAC after receiving feedback of the students on online teaching and related matters on daily basis.

10.  The OAC shall keep monitoring of the online teaching by considering the feedback received from the students and shall communicate the shortcomings, if any, to the concerned HoD for rectification.

11.  If the concerns shown by the OAC are not addressed by the HOD and/or faculty member within a specified period of time, strict action shall be initiated against him/her for the negligence.

12.  At present, as the University does not have an active Learning Management System (LMS) and generally there are problems in having good internet facilities by the students, the following steps should be taken to facilitate the students:

a.      The instructors should use a variety of technological tools (such as Google-Meet/Hangout, ZOOM, Whatsapp etc.) in delivering their lectures and discussion;

b.     The soft and print material should be provided to students through any possible mean as per the decision of the OAC.

The meeting was adjourned at 2:00pm. 

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