International Conference on ODL takes place on Friday

Islamabad: First-ever international conference on Open Distance Learning (ODL) as well as on online system will take place at Allama Iqbal Open University on Friday.

It would be a 2-day event, being cooperatively organized by Allama Iqbal Open University (AIOU) and Higher Education Commission (HEC). The main objective of the event is to prepare a national policy on Open distance to make it well-suited along with the international standard and more effective in delivering quality education to the people from primary to PhD level, said Prof. Dr. Shahid Siddiqui.

The spokespersons of related institutions from home and abroad will join the conference that will spread over 9 working sessions.

The main speakers will include Prof. Asha S. Kanwar, President Commonwealth of Learning, Canada, Tan Sri Dato, Chairman Board of Governors Wawasan Open University Malaysia, A senior Prof. Rory McGreal from Athabasca University, Canada and Naveed A. Malik, Rector, Virtual University of Pakistan.

A national policy on Open Distance Learning is the requirement of the hour to make the system more efficient, Dr Shahid Siddiqui said more while reviewing the arrangements of the upcoming conference. AIOU being the innovator in Asia following this manner of education wished to play a very important role in planning of the policy.

As few other educational institutes have also come up to educate the people through the Open Distance Learning, we are needed to adopt a cohesive system”, he said.

He furthermore said that the planned policy will also assist to institutionalize the ODL system and promote coordination as well as exchanges between the related institutions to ensure quality of education and deliver best possible services to the aspirants. Allama Iqbal Open University will provide its academic as well as its professional support in preparation of the current policy.

The expected result of the conference is to offer a platform to the shareholders to give their inputs for the development of a complete policy on open distance learning for Pakistan.