In this post
- Blended learning
- Benefits of blended learning
- What’s happening in Pakistan
- Other Initiatives in Pakistan’s education sector
All avenues of life have been severely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The daily norm of life these days is something that people have adapted to. The most rapid transformation we have seen has been in the education sector. Overnight, teachers adopted their syllabi to online platforms. However, as the pandemic continues, Prime Minister Imran Khan, in collaboration with the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training has launched an initiative for blended-e-learning. Let’s explore what the initiative is about, and how it will help facilitate students during and after the pandemic.
Blended Learning
Blended learning is a hybrid system that has been designed to redefine the traditional classroom. It is a hybrid learning system that integrates technology and traditional instructor-led classroom activities to provide a learning environment in the digital space. This is basically aimed at giving students more flexibility to customize their learning experiences, so while technology plays a key role, not all learning occurs in the digital classroom, but through a blend of two.
If this initiative is tailor-made for Pakistani schools and widely adopted, then there is a good chance that more Pakistani students will be able to benefit from it, especially under extraordinary circumstances such as these.
There are numerous benefits of blended learning. Pakistan might be new to incorporating this new strategy, however, there are proven benefits of it as quoted by international school chains.
Benefits Of Blended e-Learning
Blended e-learning is advantageous for both students and teachers. It is a model that employs the best of the traditional and technological tools and produces a unique learning experience. These benefits can broadly be categorized into two; benefits to teachers and learners.
Let’s take a look:
Benefits To Faculty
With fast adaptation, faculty can benefit from blended learning through:
- Tracking students’ performance: Teachers can easily evaluate how students are responding, specific to each module. As it employs a number of tools, it makes it easier to provide something for students to have an outlet they can prove themselves in. Moreover, it also helps create a roadmap progress report of students which can be passed on to other teachers as the students progress.
- Enhanced communication: As pupils today are growing up with the most technology that has ever been witnessed, it is a good measure to connect lecturers with students through online platforms.
- Edtech knowledge: Blended learning is producing pupils who are prepared for the future world of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. It is essential that these new-age thinkers have all the essential tools to contribute to the digital world.
Benefits For Students
- Peer Support
Blended Learning allows for greater dialogue as students engage in chat rooms that are not only restricted to their particular campus. Through these, students are able to express their ideas in a creative way, design and execute projects, and stay connected with one another through mutual platforms.
- Easy Access & Flexibility
Through online platforms, students can easily access resources, which ultimately saves on costs as well. Another important aspect of blended learning is flexibility which allows students to pick and schedule their classes as per their needs. This helps facilitate students who are working part-time or do not have equitable electronic devices per person.
- Improved Retention
Studies show that with blended learning, there is a higher percentage of retention as compared to traditional methods.
- Learning Effectiveness
As technology advances, students are more adaptable to screens rather than books. Studies have shown that through various tools being used in Blended Learning, students are more readily able to learn.
As blended e-learning comes to Pakistan, we hope it reaches pupils in far-off areas and completely revamps the country’s education system.
What’s Happening In Pakistan For Blended e-Learning
For the launch of a blended e-learning initiative, rigorous research of the subject matter is required. For this reason, Ministry Education has decided that the initiative will only be launched after its pilot project has been successfully carried out.
For this reason, an agreement has been signed between the Federal Directorate of Education, Knowledge Platform, Tele Taleem and Robotics Mea. The four will work together in developing a tailor-made blended e-learning platform to rapidly diversify the traditional classroom methods. During the pilot project, different technological mediums will be used for varying educational levels. Responses will then be gathered from both teachers and students from over 80 classrooms, to get a better understanding of the initiative, the effectiveness of the technologies it employs, and how that impacts students’ learning. Teachers will be trained on how to use the hardware and prepare digital contents.
As per the details announced by Federal Minister Shafqat Mahmood, as soon as the pilot project reveals positive results, the federating units will be informed and a nationwide blended e-learning initiative will be launched.
Moreover, efforts are being made to develop new-age curricula that more schools can adopt. STEM, an integrated problem-solving approach that uses Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics is also being incorporated in blended e-learning. These will employ different tools such as robotics kits, IOT kits with science and math curriculum. But that’s not all! Discovery innovation labs will also be set up in the schools so children can have access to all tools of blended e-learning.
Apart from this, a number of new initiatives have been introduced by the Education Ministry for higher education so that more students can benefit and improve their overall education.
Other Initiatives In Education Sector
Recently in a joint consultation meeting with Germany, Pakistan has said that it will expand the scope of cooperation in the education sector by engaging the Higher Education Commission so that Germany can become a top destination for Pakistani students. Already, more than 5,000 Pakistani pupils are enrolled in various German institutes.
Moreover, Pakistan and the United States have also expressed interest to deepen engagements in education and culture. It is worth mentioning here that Pakistan and the US already share a dynamic relationship as the two have been collaborating in various sectors, especially education. With a persistent record of successful applicants, Pakistan is the only country that sends the greatest number of students on various Fulbright Scholarship Programmes. Further deepening of cooperation between the two countries means even more opportunities for students.
Apart from this, the Chinese Ministry of Education is successfully running a non-profit organisation, the China Scholarship Council (CSC). Through this programme, a large number of students from Pakistan are now studying in China.
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This is the latest update on Blended E-Learning in Pakistan. For queries, write to us at blog@zameen.com. Also, keep checking Pakistan’s largest property blog, Zameen Blog for the latest news on Pakistan.
