Virtual University:
The Virtual University of Pakistan is the first distance learning university in Pakistan based entirely on modern information and communication technologies. It was established by the Government of Pakistan as a public sector, not-for-profit institution with a clear mission: to provide extremely affordable education to students all over the country and abroad. Using free-to-air satellite television broadcasts and the Internet, the Virtual University allows students to follow its rigorous programs regardless of physical location. It thus aims at alleviating the lack of capacity in existing universities while simultaneously tackling the acute shortage of qualified professors in the country. By identifying the top professors of the country, regardless of their institutional affiliations, and requesting them to develop and deliver courses, the Virtual University aims at providing the best courses not only to its own students but also to students of all other universities in the country.
Recognition:
The Virtual University of Pakistan holds a Federal Charter, making its degrees recognized and accepted all over the country as well as overseas.
Governance:
The Board of Governors is the apex body of the University, responsible for the general supervision and control of administrative, academic and financial affairs and having the power to lay down the policies of the University. The Rector is the chief executive and academic officer of the University; this position's responsibility is to ensure that the provisions of the Virtual University Ordinances Statutes, Regulations, and Rules are faithfully observed in order to promote teaching, research, administration, general efficiency and good order of the University. Authorities of the University include:
Executive Council
Academic Council
Boards of Studies
Advanced Studies and Research Board
Selection Board
Finance and Planning Council
Affiliation Committee.
Officers of the University include the Registrar, the Director Finance, the Director Administration, the Controller of Examinations, Manager IT and the University Auditor.
Bachelor of Science Programs:
The Bachelor of Science program prepares its students to meet the demanding challenges of the modern workplace. The degree requires more than 130 credit-hours of work. In the senior year, student will be required to spend a good deal of time completing a capstone project. Typically. this project will be done in collaboration with industry, under the guidance of a professional nominated by the University. The curriculum for various majors is based on the recommendations of the National Curriculum Revision Committees approved by the Higher Education Commission (HEC). However, the Academic Council of the University may update the curricula from time to time.
Virtual University of Pakistan offers two types of 132 credit-hour programs
Bachelor of Science programs for Intermediate or Equivalent Certificate holders
Bachelor of Science programs for lower Bachelor degree holders (FAST TRACK program)
Master's Degree Programs:
Students who have completed their Bachelor's degree (with at least 45% marks) from a recognized university or institution can apply for admission to Master of Computer Science (MCS), Master of Information Technology (MIT) and Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs. These programs comprise seventy-two credit hours each, spread over four semesters and allow graduates to upgrade their skill sets into the requirements of the modern knowledge era. Rigorous curricula allow graduates of these programs to compete effectively with their counterparts who have graduated from corresponding four year baccalaureate programs.
Students completing their 16-year education in computer science and information technology field are provided the opportunity to take admission this advanced level degree program. According to HEC criteria, these degrees are equivalent to an MPhil program offered by any other university in the country.
Suitability of VU Programs:
People which are currently in job, and want to do Master Program, for them VU is a wrong choice, because of its ever changing policies, tough assignments time line (2-4 in each subject), quizzes(2-4 in each subject), they are online, but their mechanism of examination is very old, they are monitoring tightly, but they are not making paper efficient enough, so they can check the ability even it is solved with the help of book. for the invigilation, they are using Yahoo accounts. so, as a overall, if you have good memory, and you are doing very easy job, you can do it.
Programs by Faculty:
Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology:
Master of Computer Science
Master of Information Technology
Faculty of Management:
Master of Business Administration
Campuses:
Virtual University was founded in 2002 since which it has expanded operations to reach more than sixty cities throughout the country with more than one hundred associated institutions providing infrastructure support to students. In addition, Pakistani students residing in several other countries in the region are also enrolled in the University's programs.
Virtual University has two types of campuses, its own, and those that are run by other organizations. These private campuses use buildings in private institutions in various cities. These facilities are required to have a computer lab and Internet access.
Milestones and Achievements:
VU feasibility study final feasibility report. December 8, 2001
President of Pakistan inaugurated the Virtual University of Pakistan. March 23, 2002
First batch of 500 students starts classes. March 26, 2002
Federal Charter granted by Government of Pakistan. September 1, 2002
VU start broadcasts over its own TV Channels VTV1, & VTV2. June 15, 2004
VU selected as coordinating institute of multi-country IDRC funded project. March 1, 2005
VU, in keeping with its Open education Resources policy, puts is lectures on Youtube November, 2005
Launch of MCS, MIT and MBA programs. March 6, 2006
Launch of two new TV channels VTV3, & VTV4. September 26, 2006
VU become Asia Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) member. November 7, 2006
VU agreement with Ujala TV Dubai for telecasting VU programs. November 30, 2006
VU agreement with University of Veterinary & Animal Sciences of offering joint BS Bio-informatics program. May 25, 2007
Launch of MS program in Computer Science. Fall 2007
Launch of B.A., B.Com., B.Sc. (2-year programs). Fall 2009"
VU Launch its In-House Developed LMS (Learning Management System)and other MIS(s) By IT Department. Spring 2009
Virtual University of Pakistan held its First Convocation on Tuesday 18 May, 2010 simultaneously at Peshawar, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Jamshoro, Karachi and Quetta.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Distance Learning
Distance Learning:
Distance education, or distance learning, is a field of education that focuses on the pedagogy, technology, and instructional system designs that aim to deliver education to students who are not physically "on site" in a traditional classroom or campus. It has been described as "a process to create and provide access to learning when the source of information and the learners are separated by time and distance, or both.
"In other words, distance learning is the process of creating an educational experience of equal quality for the learner to best suit their needs outside the classroom. Distance education courses that require a physical on-site presence for any reason (including taking examinations) is considered a hybrid or blended course of study. This emerging technology is becoming widely used in universities and institutions around the globe. With the recent trend of technological advance, distance learning is becoming more recognized for its potential in providing individualized attention and communication with students internationally. The most widely cited pedagogical theory of distance education is that of "transactional distance".
History:
Distance education dates to at least as early as 1728, when "an advertisement in the Boston Gazette...[named] 'Caleb Phillips, Teacher of the new method of Short Hand" was seeking students for lessons to be sent weekly.
Modern distance education has been practiced at least since Isaac Pitman taught shorthand in Great Britain via correspondence in the 1840s.The development of the postal service in the 19th century led to the growth of commercial correspondence colleges with nationwide reach.
The University of London was the first university to offer distance-learning degrees, establishing its External Programme in 1858.The Society to Encourage Studies at Home was founded in 1873 in Boston, Massachusetts. In Australia, the University of Queensland established its Department of Correspondence Studies in 1911. Another pioneering institution was the University of South Africa (University of the Cape of Good Hope), which has been offering Correspondence Education courses since 1873. In New Zealand, university-level distance education or extramural study began in 1960 at Massey University. The largest distance-education university in the United Kingdom is the Open University, founded 1969. Spain's Public UNED (which is not an Open University) was founded in 1972. In Germany the FernUniversität in Hagen was founded 1974. There are now many similar institutions around the world, often with the name Open University (in English or in the local language). More than a dozen of them have grown to become 'mega-universities' , a term coined to denote institutions with more than 100,000 students.
The first president of the University of Chicago, William Rainey Harper developed extended education and was considered one of the founders of “learning by correspondence programs”. The University of Chicago instituted the first Extension Service in the United States through the use of mail, reaching out to a vast group of students internationally.
Charles Wedemeyer of the University of Wisconsin–Madison is considered one of the fathers of modern distance education in America. From 1964 to 1968 the Carnegie Foundation funded Wedemeyer's Articulated Instructional Media Project (AIM) which brought in a variety of communications technologies aimed at providing learning to an off-campus population. According to Moore's recounting, AIM impressed the British who imported these ideas and used them to create the first Open University, now called United Kingdom Open University (UKOU), to distinguish it from other open universities which have emerged. UKOU was established in the late 1960s and used television and radio as its primary delivery methodologies, thus placing it in the forefront of applying emerging technologies to learning. All "open universities" use distance-education technologies as delivery methodologies.
In addition, there are many private and public, non-profit and for-profit institutions offering courses and degree programs through distance education. The most successful example during this period was Coastline Community College, launched by Bernard Luskin having no campus and offering distance education telecourses through KOCE TV in Orange County, California. Levels of accreditation vary; some institutions offering distance education in the United States have received little outside oversight, and some may be fraudulent diploma mills. In many other jurisdictions, an institution may not use the term "University" without accreditation and authorisation, normally by the national government. Online education is rapidly increasing among mainstream universities in the United States, where online doctoral programs have even developed at prestigious research institutions.
In the twentieth century, radio, television, and the Internet have all been used to further distance education. Computers and the Internet have made distance-learning distribution easier and faster. The private, for-profit University of Phoenix, which is primarily an online university, now has 200,000 students and expects to serve 500,000 by 2010, yet little is known about student success or lack of success in such a fast-growing institution. In 1996, cable pioneer Glenn Jones and Bernard Luskin launched Jones International University as the first accredited fully online university accredited by a regional accrediting association. JUI is accredited by the North Central Association of Schools and Colleges.
In 2006 the Sloan Consortium reported that more than 96 percent of the largest colleges and universities in the United States offered online courses and that almost 3.2 million U.S. students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2005 term.
The use of online legal education is a rapidly growing phenomenon in the United States. The California State Bar registers and regulates (but does not accredit) online law schools. For a detailed discussion of distance learning legal education.
In Ontario, Canada the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities established the elearnnetwork.ca in 2007 to provide access to students in small and rural communities across Ontario who wanted to pursue college or university courses from their community by distance education.
In the province of Manitoba, the department of Education, Citizenship and Youth provides three options in distance education: Independent Study Option, Teacher Mediated Option and Web-based Course Option.
The Independent Study Option (ISO) provides the opportunity and flexibility for both school-age and adult learners to study a wide range of compulsory optional print based distance education courses from Grades 7 to 12. This form of distance education also provides students with support by email or phone. The Independent Study Option also offers several courses in French. In the event that a student leaves the province on a temporary or permanent basis, the ISO also provides the opportunity for continuing the study of Manitoba curriculum en route to receiving a Senior Years graduation diploma.
Teacher Mediated Option (TMO) supports the delivery of distance learning courses that are scheduled within the school day and use a variety of technologies to assist students including: instruction twice a school cycle for 40 minutes per class by audio teleconference, recording of classes as required for use up to five days after the class has occurred, and corresponding with an instructor between classes by email or phone. These courses are only available to students attending school or an adult learning centre.
Web-bases course in Manitoba are available to schools wishing to deliver high school courses on the internet. Manitoba uses the Blackboard learning System CE version 6.2. While being delivered through the internet, these courses are taught by a teacher who may be off-site. Assignments are submitted online by students to teachers, and a final examination is written on site
Technologies used in delivery:
The types of available technologies used in distance education are divided into two groups: synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronous technology is a mode of online delivery where all participants are "present" at the same time requiring a timetable to be organized. Web Conferencing is an example of synchronous technology. Asynchronous technology is a mode of online delivery where participants access course materials on their own schedule. Students are not required to be together at the same time. Message board forums, e-mail and recorded video are examples of asynchronous technology.
Synchronous Technologies:
Web-based VoIP
Telephone
Videoconferencing
Web conferencing
Direct-broadcast satellite
Internet radio
Live streaming
Asynchronous Technologies:
Audiocassette
E-mail
Message board forums
Print materials
Voice Mail/fax
Videocassette/DVD
On Demand Streaming (Delayed)
There are also Learning Management Systems or Learning Content Management Systems which can be used for both Synchronous and Asynchronous learning. (LMS is not so much a learning tool as a framework for an instructor to better administer the classroom.)
Usefull Links:
http://www.punjab.gov.pk/
http://www.fpsc.gov.pk/
http://www.nwfppsc.gov.pk/
http://www.hec.gov.pk/
http://www.spsc.gov.pk/
http://www.bpsc.gob.pk/
http://www.ppsc.gop.pk/
Distance education, or distance learning, is a field of education that focuses on the pedagogy, technology, and instructional system designs that aim to deliver education to students who are not physically "on site" in a traditional classroom or campus. It has been described as "a process to create and provide access to learning when the source of information and the learners are separated by time and distance, or both.
"In other words, distance learning is the process of creating an educational experience of equal quality for the learner to best suit their needs outside the classroom. Distance education courses that require a physical on-site presence for any reason (including taking examinations) is considered a hybrid or blended course of study. This emerging technology is becoming widely used in universities and institutions around the globe. With the recent trend of technological advance, distance learning is becoming more recognized for its potential in providing individualized attention and communication with students internationally. The most widely cited pedagogical theory of distance education is that of "transactional distance".
History:
Distance education dates to at least as early as 1728, when "an advertisement in the Boston Gazette...[named] 'Caleb Phillips, Teacher of the new method of Short Hand" was seeking students for lessons to be sent weekly.
Modern distance education has been practiced at least since Isaac Pitman taught shorthand in Great Britain via correspondence in the 1840s.The development of the postal service in the 19th century led to the growth of commercial correspondence colleges with nationwide reach.
The University of London was the first university to offer distance-learning degrees, establishing its External Programme in 1858.The Society to Encourage Studies at Home was founded in 1873 in Boston, Massachusetts. In Australia, the University of Queensland established its Department of Correspondence Studies in 1911. Another pioneering institution was the University of South Africa (University of the Cape of Good Hope), which has been offering Correspondence Education courses since 1873. In New Zealand, university-level distance education or extramural study began in 1960 at Massey University. The largest distance-education university in the United Kingdom is the Open University, founded 1969. Spain's Public UNED (which is not an Open University) was founded in 1972. In Germany the FernUniversität in Hagen was founded 1974. There are now many similar institutions around the world, often with the name Open University (in English or in the local language). More than a dozen of them have grown to become 'mega-universities' , a term coined to denote institutions with more than 100,000 students.
The first president of the University of Chicago, William Rainey Harper developed extended education and was considered one of the founders of “learning by correspondence programs”. The University of Chicago instituted the first Extension Service in the United States through the use of mail, reaching out to a vast group of students internationally.
Charles Wedemeyer of the University of Wisconsin–Madison is considered one of the fathers of modern distance education in America. From 1964 to 1968 the Carnegie Foundation funded Wedemeyer's Articulated Instructional Media Project (AIM) which brought in a variety of communications technologies aimed at providing learning to an off-campus population. According to Moore's recounting, AIM impressed the British who imported these ideas and used them to create the first Open University, now called United Kingdom Open University (UKOU), to distinguish it from other open universities which have emerged. UKOU was established in the late 1960s and used television and radio as its primary delivery methodologies, thus placing it in the forefront of applying emerging technologies to learning. All "open universities" use distance-education technologies as delivery methodologies.
In addition, there are many private and public, non-profit and for-profit institutions offering courses and degree programs through distance education. The most successful example during this period was Coastline Community College, launched by Bernard Luskin having no campus and offering distance education telecourses through KOCE TV in Orange County, California. Levels of accreditation vary; some institutions offering distance education in the United States have received little outside oversight, and some may be fraudulent diploma mills. In many other jurisdictions, an institution may not use the term "University" without accreditation and authorisation, normally by the national government. Online education is rapidly increasing among mainstream universities in the United States, where online doctoral programs have even developed at prestigious research institutions.
In the twentieth century, radio, television, and the Internet have all been used to further distance education. Computers and the Internet have made distance-learning distribution easier and faster. The private, for-profit University of Phoenix, which is primarily an online university, now has 200,000 students and expects to serve 500,000 by 2010, yet little is known about student success or lack of success in such a fast-growing institution. In 1996, cable pioneer Glenn Jones and Bernard Luskin launched Jones International University as the first accredited fully online university accredited by a regional accrediting association. JUI is accredited by the North Central Association of Schools and Colleges.
In 2006 the Sloan Consortium reported that more than 96 percent of the largest colleges and universities in the United States offered online courses and that almost 3.2 million U.S. students were taking at least one online course during the fall 2005 term.
The use of online legal education is a rapidly growing phenomenon in the United States. The California State Bar registers and regulates (but does not accredit) online law schools. For a detailed discussion of distance learning legal education.
In Ontario, Canada the Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities established the elearnnetwork.ca in 2007 to provide access to students in small and rural communities across Ontario who wanted to pursue college or university courses from their community by distance education.
In the province of Manitoba, the department of Education, Citizenship and Youth provides three options in distance education: Independent Study Option, Teacher Mediated Option and Web-based Course Option.
The Independent Study Option (ISO) provides the opportunity and flexibility for both school-age and adult learners to study a wide range of compulsory optional print based distance education courses from Grades 7 to 12. This form of distance education also provides students with support by email or phone. The Independent Study Option also offers several courses in French. In the event that a student leaves the province on a temporary or permanent basis, the ISO also provides the opportunity for continuing the study of Manitoba curriculum en route to receiving a Senior Years graduation diploma.
Teacher Mediated Option (TMO) supports the delivery of distance learning courses that are scheduled within the school day and use a variety of technologies to assist students including: instruction twice a school cycle for 40 minutes per class by audio teleconference, recording of classes as required for use up to five days after the class has occurred, and corresponding with an instructor between classes by email or phone. These courses are only available to students attending school or an adult learning centre.
Web-bases course in Manitoba are available to schools wishing to deliver high school courses on the internet. Manitoba uses the Blackboard learning System CE version 6.2. While being delivered through the internet, these courses are taught by a teacher who may be off-site. Assignments are submitted online by students to teachers, and a final examination is written on site
Technologies used in delivery:
The types of available technologies used in distance education are divided into two groups: synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronous technology is a mode of online delivery where all participants are "present" at the same time requiring a timetable to be organized. Web Conferencing is an example of synchronous technology. Asynchronous technology is a mode of online delivery where participants access course materials on their own schedule. Students are not required to be together at the same time. Message board forums, e-mail and recorded video are examples of asynchronous technology.
Synchronous Technologies:
Web-based VoIP
Telephone
Videoconferencing
Web conferencing
Direct-broadcast satellite
Internet radio
Live streaming
Asynchronous Technologies:
Audiocassette
Message board forums
Print materials
Voice Mail/fax
Videocassette/DVD
On Demand Streaming (Delayed)
There are also Learning Management Systems or Learning Content Management Systems which can be used for both Synchronous and Asynchronous learning. (LMS is not so much a learning tool as a framework for an instructor to better administer the classroom.)
Usefull Links:
http://www.punjab.gov.pk/
http://www.fpsc.gov.pk/
http://www.nwfppsc.gov.pk/
http://www.hec.gov.pk/
http://www.spsc.gov.pk/
http://www.bpsc.gob.pk/
http://www.ppsc.gop.pk/
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