Academic quality means how well an institution supports students in their learning: the teaching, the provisions available, how they are assessed, and the resources made available. Quality assurance is the process for verifying that the standards and quality of higher education provision meet agreed expectations.
The phenomenon of ‘Teachers Capacity Building’ is a continuous improvement process at an individual's distinction to enter teaching until retirement. It is the responsibility of institutions to facilitate and provide opportunities to faculty members to update their knowledge and upgrade their skills to match and exceed national and international standards of student engagement and make their classrooms knowledge revealing, student centric and inclusive to give their students an experience of a life time in their academic journey.
A day’s session organized by Dr. Asma Saleem Qazi, Assistant Prof, Department of Biological Sciences (DBS), NUMS on Dec 20, 2022 at Seminar Hall of the Main Campus was facilitated by Dr. Erum Monis Deputy Director Quality Assurance. The session was attended by twenty-two faculty members.
The facilitator elaborated upon fundamentals of outcome based education and the significance of continuous Quality Assurance for analysis of the best possible use of resources, both human and teaching aids. Analyzing different theories on the subject, various levels of learning prescribed under Blooms Taxonomy were discussed in detail for teaching and assessments, to learn with examples how successful institutions apply Quality Assurance and Outcome Based Education in their institutions and correlate with the perspective of Higher Education Commission, Pakistan announced from time to time.
The aim was to introduce best practices adopted by teachers around the globe. Through an open discussion in an interactive session, faculty members of DBS, being researchers of high caliber, were asked how was their class room different from conventional classrooms and to share one out of the box idea they had successfully implemented to ensure they let the students explore the best of their learning, researching, analyzing and creative abilities.
Professor Dr Jawad Hassan, Head of DBS, invited Professor Dr Uzma Hassan, Head of Public Health Department as the guest of honor. She appreciated the idea of bringing out faculty out of their monotonous routine and share their teaching experiments with their fellow colleagues in a relaxed environment. A group photo was taken after distribution of certificates among the participants by the Professor.
The DBS departmental ‘Capacity Building and Resource Generation Committee’ aims to organize more of such programs to enhance the potential capacity of its faculty and members.