The Virtual University of Pakistan delivers education through a judicious combination of broadcast television and the Internet. By identifying and utilising the best Professors and domain experts of the country, regardless of their institutional affiliations, the Virtual University develops and delivers meticulously designed courses to its students.
The same high quality courses are also available to students of all other universities in the country through free to air television broadcasts. The University owns and operates its own four television channels VTV-1, VTV-2, VTV-3 and VTV-4. These free-to-air channels may be received by using a simple digital receiver and solid dish antenna.
Most cable operators also carry these channels nation-wide. Students attend their lectures either at Virtual Campuses or from home. Interaction amongst students or between students and their teachers happens over the Internet. Students registered at Virtual Campuses are provided computer and Internet facilities while those studying from home have to have access to a computer with an Internet connection at home.
The University has deployed a comprehensive Learning Management System (LMS) on its servers to enable student-teacher interaction (http://vulms.vu.edu.pk). One of the major components of the LMS is the Moderated Discussion Board (MDB) whereby VU students can interact with faculty members. The MDB provides a very efficient mechanism for students to pose their questions on subject matter covered in the lectures and is available 24 hours.
The MDB is extremely fine grained, providing separate sessions for each lecture of each course. VU faculty monitors this board on a continuous basis and answers to student questions are provided within a short space of time. The major advantage of the MDB is that all questions asked by students are visible to their course community, as are the answers provided by the faculty members and this closely mimics the face-to-face question/answer experience of the conventional classroom.
In addition, read-only access is made available to previous question/answer sessions and this constitutes an extremely useful study resource for students. Of course, the facility to review previous discussions is simply impossible in a conventional environment. In addition to being broadcast over the University's television channels video lectures of all courses are also available on multimedia DVDs at a nominal cost.
The DVDs enable students to review lessons at any time and at their own pace. Soft copies of lecture handouts/notes are available on VULMS and may also be purchased along with DVDs. (http://bookshop.vu.edu.pk). Midterm and final examinations for every semester are conducted in a formal proctored environment at exam centers designated for the purpose throughout the country.
Invigilators appointed by the University conduct the examinations. The formal examination atmosphere assists in critical quality assurance of the student assessment system. All examinations are conducted electronically (but not on line). The electronic examination files are then forwarded to the Virtual University offices for grading.
Moreover, a unique examination system has been launched whereby, student can now select his own examination centre and date sheets according to his/her convenience and choice. This combination of technologies and efficient utilisation of national infrastructure allows the Virtual University to offer an identical educational environment to students all over the country including far-flung areas.
For the first time, students from small towns and remote areas have access to the same highly qualified professors who were previously accessible to their large city counterparts only. The initial results indicate that talent hidden in these regions is now becoming visible and empowered. This has far reaching positive implications for the socio-economic well being of the country.