By Ali Imran
ISLAMABAD: A large majority of Allama Iqbal Open University students expressing displeasure, over online learning and management system’s poor connectivity and abrupt failure, have called it “a mess”.
AIOU management’s two online learning and management initiatives, Campus Management System (CMS) and Learning Management System (LMS) that switched over traditional education have failed to produce desired results.
The students from all over the country have complained about the constantly interrupted or failed connectivity with the university’s application meant for online classes. Hours’ long daily power load-shedding, they said, was worsening the situation. An undergraduate student Naeem from Bahawalpur sharing his ordeal with this scribe said, “The internet facility is slow here. Sometimes the websites are too busy and connectivity with university’s app is not ensured. Thus we miss our classes.” Sometimes moderators’ non-availability online is also an element needed to be addressed, he complained.
Another female student Sadia from Jhelum complained, “Login system causes problems, as many users try to log in simultaneously, it doesn’t connect”. A student Uzma from Lahore voicing her concern said, “System seems to be overburdened and it has no capacity to accommodate maximum students who join the class at the same time, the website fails to respond”.
Uzma requested the university management to give some flexibility in attendance keeping in mind the current energy crisis and internet connectivity problem.
A University official, privy to the issue requesting anonymity, admitted that both online apps CMS and LMS have problems and university was cognizant to the issue and it had made a Rs. 270 million agreement with the Microsoft to remove lacunas and ensure hassle-free e-learning. “Currently some 80 per cent students have the connectivity and login problem for classes and workshops’”, he conceded.
On a query of reportedly significant drop out of students due to online switchover, he admitted the problem but declined to give figures.
A faculty member of the university giving his version suggested, “Keep the admission system online, but the previous traditional system should be reactivated to better facilitate the students from all across the country.”
The situation in distant areas of Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Kashmir and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, he said, was more concerning where internet facility was still a day dream.
An official from top hierarchy of the university commenting on the issue explained that, “The new technology that is developed and introduced anywhere certainly has few problems and same is the case with ours as well”.
While most students responded positively to the new systems and policies the university was working to improve it further. And our recent agreement with the Microsoft team would definitely help resolve all the issues, he assured.
