KU implementing Moodle-LMS to conduct online classes, exams

KARACHI: The University of Karachi is implementing Online Learning Management Systems to conduct online classes, examination, and assessment during the next semester within the campus as well as in its affiliated colleges.

The Higher Education Commission Pakistan would provide technical assistance in installing and configuring the Moodle-LMS on the campus. The HEC-Pakistan would also extend its support regarding administration, faculty, and students’ training.

The Deputy Director KU Quality Enhancement Cell Jawaid Akram Bukhari expressed while sharing the information with the participants of the meeting on Wednesday. The KU Vice Chancellor Khalid Mehmood Iraqi chaired the meeting which was held at the VC Secretariat, and attended by the HEC Consultant for LMS Dr Muhammad Asim Noor, HEC representatives Alishba Siddiqui and Mansoor Hussain through video link from Islamabad.

Meanwhile, Professor Dr Moazzam Ali Khan, Dr Nadeem Mahmood, Dr Sadiq Ali Khan, Dr Mustafa Haider, Mukesh Kumar, Jawaid Akram and Engineer Ishafaque Khanzada were also present in the meeting.

The KU has already established a committee to manage the procedural and operational activities, which would be in accordance with the directives of the HEC and Quality Assurance Agency. The committee would be supervised by Professor Dr Moazzam Ali Khan while two representatives from HEC are also part of the committee.

The KU VC Professor Dr Khalid Mehmood Iraqi has directed the committee to implement the Moodle-LMS at the University of Karachi as prescribed timelines from the HEC-Pakistan. The committee has been given the task to make sure that the Moodle-LMS would be customized for the campus usage and easy to deliver lectures, and help in processing evaluations, assessments, and monitoring process.

Jawaid Akram briefed the meeting that during the current semester, the majority of the departments and institutions of the University of Karachi were using licensed Microsoft Team tools whereas some teachers were using other applications like Zoom and Google Meet to take online classes.

He mentioned that after the implementation of the Moodle-LMS data of the faculty, courses, and students and lectures would be listed and available at the cloud server. The members of the meeting were informed that the committee would need to acquire data related to the category of courses, list of courses, details of faculty, teaching assistant, lab engineers, students, and course-wise student’s enrollment.

Meanwhile, Dr Muhammad Asim Noor hoped that the University of Karachi after successfully implementing the Moodle-LMS would help other universalities in this regard. He informed the meeting that HEC has already developed and share managerial accounts with the University of Karachi.

Earlier, the KU VC Professor Dr Khalid Iraqi observed that the HEC is supporting the higher education institutions of the country to conduct online classes during the pandemic Covid-19. He said that Moodle-LMS is flexible and could be customized as per the requirements of the varsities.

He directed the committee to collect the relevant information from each department and institution with the help of the head of the department. He observed that chairpersons could also nominate a focal person who would be responsible for collecting, assembling, and sharing the required data and information with the committee.