POLICY GUIDELINES FOR REMOTE/ONLINE EDUCATION DURING

COVID-19 EMERGENCY

INTRODUCTION

1. To provide policy guidelines to all the Faculty Members about conducting Online
Academic Activities during COVID-19 Emergency aiming to maintain uniformity and
Quality Standards thereby bringing the quality of academic activities at par with onsite
mode of education. As it is an unprecedented situation, with no predictable timelines,
extensive efforts and reporting is required (as per the attached format) to maintain the
transparency/evidence and for addressing Student’s Academic issues proactively. HEC
has directed to ensure strict Monitoring and Reporting mechanism during this time
period (HEC letter # 1-10/ED/HEC/2020 dated 02 April 2020 refers).

SCOPE

2. This policy is applicable to Faculty Members including Visiting FMs, Lab

Engineers/staff, concerned staff at the Deptt level, Management, Students (both U/G &
P/G) and also takes into account the concerns of Higher Education Commission ( to
establish Monitoring & Reporting mechanism). PEC conditions, as & when imposed for
Engineering programs, would also be duly covered. The applicability period of this
policy is COVID-19 emergency conditions.

RESPONSIBILITIES

3. Faculty Members including Visiting FMs , Lab Engineers, Department Coordinators,

Head of Departments, Deans and IT Department must ensure compliance of these policy
guidelines.

PROCEDURE

4. Course Structure/Outline:-

(a) Concerned FM must develop or modify Course Outlines as per the format
given at Annex- I.
(b) Concerned FM should share the learning outcomes for the whole course in
the beginning before they break the course into topics and sub topics (it
may have already been done/shared with the students)
(c) The learning outcomes should clearly indicate what the student will be
able to do or would have learnt by the end of the course
 (d) Concerned FM must mention number of quizzes and assignments that
would be taken during the two month’s period or during the remaining
semester (If the current situation prevails).
(e) An FM must develop and submit all assignments (at least three different)
along with worked out solutions as well as grading rubrics to the
Concerned HoD for approval.
(f) The assignments must be submitted by the students within 48 hours.
(g) An FM must keep a record of Assignments.
(h) Every FM must develop and submit 5-6 Multiple Choice Questions based
on the lectures delivered/topics covered during the preceding week. A FM
must submit solutions to the MCQs as well.
(i) Graded Quizzes should be comprised of 10-20 questions (each question
being of 2 number each). The allowed time would be 90 seconds per
question.
(j) An FM must keep a record of Graded Quizzes.

5. Online Lectures:-

(a) An FM may choose Google Class Room, Zoom Software or any other
interactive software with the approval of HoD.
(b) All the HoDs have to share the list of allowed softwares that an FM may
use for interactive session. Zoom, Google Classroom, MS Teams and
Skype are the approved softwares.
(c) WhatsApp and any other chatting apps are not allowed for delivering
lectures.
(d) An FM must develop a timeline/schedule for lecture, graded quizzes and
assignments and share it with the Coordinator and the Class beforehand
ie every Friday for the next week, after taking approval from the HoD.
(e) The Coordinators have the responsibility of sending lecture schedule in
advance (on weekly basis), quiz information (two days before the quiz)
and assignment information (one day before the assignment) to the
students with the coordination of the FM.
(f) The preferred mode for this communication would be email and WhatsApp
messages.
 (g) An FM must develop his/her lecture of about 40 minutes duration followed
by 20 minutes of question/answer session and wrap-up. After 60 minutes,
the FM must end the class.
(h) A Faculty member should upload his/her lecture slides and related
material at least 24 hrs in advance so that students are able to study and
clarify their queries during the interactive session. After the interactive
session, its recording should also be uploaded for the benefit of students.
(i) Those faculty members who are prerecording their lectures are advised to
upload the recorded lectures and arrange live question answer session
using zoom or any other online meeting tool. The session should be
scheduled. Such FMs must develop their complete lecture delivery plan
and share it with HoD for approval.
(j) An FM must keep a record of Class Attendance for each lecture.
(k) An FM must use Annex- II for reporting of lectures on weekly basis. They
must report to the concerned HoD. The concerned HoD will submit
summary of weekly report (Faculty wise) to Concerned Dean, Director
Academics and Director Quality.
(l) Follow up of MS and PhD scholars, in Thesis phase, must be ensured
through regular virtual meetings by Supervisors and GEC members.

6. Conduct of Labs:-

(a) Lab Engineer/RA should upload lab manual, recorded lab and tasks.
(b) Lab Engineer/RA should upload lab manual after close coordination with
FM teaching the concerned theory part of the course. Concerned HoD
must be on board while doing this.
(c) Lab Engineer/RA must share their schedule on weekly basis with
students. Coordinator must also share this schedule with students. The
preferred mode for this communication would be email and WhatsApp
messages.
(d) Student may ask question from concerned FM teaching theory in addition
to Lab Engineer/RA.
(e) Lab Engineer/RA must develop their lectures of 50 minutes duration plus
10 minutes of question/answer session. After 60 minutes he/she must end
the class. Lab Engineer must ensure clarity/quality of Audio & Video
during the conduct of Lab.
 (f) Lab Engineer/RA should upload their lecture slides and related material in
advance if possible, otherwise soon after the lecture.
(g) Those Lab Engineer/RA who are pre-recording their lectures are advised
to upload the recorded lectures and arrange live question answer session
using zoom or any other online meeting tool. The session should be
scheduled. Such Lab Engineers must develop their complete lecture
delivery plan and share it with HoD for approval.
(h) Lab Engineer must keep a record of Class Attendance for each Lab.
(i) Lab Engineers/RAs must use Annex- III for reporting on Lab lectures on
weekly basis.

7. Addressing Student’s Queries and Grievances:-

(a) An FM must share his/her email address with the students. This email
address would be used by students to send any queries or any other
issues that he/she may be facing related to the lectures.
(b) Students should be advised to send their queries within 2 days after any
lecture and the FM must reply to the student’s queries within 2 working
days. However it is upon gentle and volunteer commitment of the FM, if
he/she answers after the deadline.
(c) For issues related to the quality of lectures, delivery techniques and
course materials, HoDs must share their email addresses with the
students. HoDs must work out a mechanism with IT department so that
complaining student’s ID may not be visible to the FM or HoD. HoDs will
ensure that student issues should be replied (thru WhatsApp or other
means) and resolved amicably which fall under their domain. For issues
beyond the control of a FM, HoD or University, HoD must send a polite
reply explaining the constraints being faced.
(d) For miscellaneous queries, Coordinators may be given helpline mobile
numbers, on which timings should be from 10:00 am to 13:00 pm daily.
Coordinators must ensure that these numbers are powered on during this
time while they may switch off this number at 13:30 pm.
(e) FMs must send reply to student’s queries and issues to coordinators on
weekly basis. Coordinators must compile summary of complaints, queries
and issues being faced and reported by students and share it with HoD.
HoD must share it with Concerned Dean, Director Academics and Director
Quality.
Capacity Building/Orientation of Faculty Members including Visiting Faculty

8. The Chair Deptt and Dean should determine the extent of capacity
building/orientation required (if any), for any FM including Visiting FM, on the use of
Digital Platform being used for the Online Education. This orientation may be conducted
through an in-house Resource person or in close coordination with the AU IT Deptt.
Record of this orientation should be maintained by the Deptt.

Oversight Mechanism by the HoD/Dean

9. The Chair Deptt/Dean should establish an oversight mechanism in order to

ensure quality of Online Lectures being delivered by their Faculty Members including
Visiting FM and Lab Engineers. Online Education must meet the criteria and quality
standards set by AU QEC. Improvements and adjustments (where ever required)
should be instantly made and record maintained for evidence purposes.

10. These policy guidelines are issued to ensure uniform conduct of Online
education in line with HEC’s conditions and best practices for quality education and
should be implemented in conjunction with Quality policy in this regard.

(JAVAID AHMED)
Air Marshal (R)
Vice Chancellor
No. IBD/AU/202/Acad dated: 04 April 2020. Air University
 Annex- I

Course Outline Submission Template

Course Title & Course Code:

Credit Hours:

Course Level:

 Specify the overall course learning outcomes in bulleted form

 Divide the whole course topic wise (please add more rows and columns as
required)
 For each topic:
 Decide the depth and breadth that you want to cover
 Align the objectives with assessment (assignments, quizzes etc)

Learning Outcomes
(a)

(b)

(c)

Primary/Secondary Page/Section/URL of
Topic Resource/Book; the Resource
Topic Title
No. Course Notes for the
Topic

Assignment #

Quiz #
 WEEKLY REPORTING FORM (DURING COVID-19 EMERGENCY) Annex- II

No. of Lectures Actual Delivered Mode Used Class Attendance

Name of FM Department Course Code Duration
Planned Lectures

WEEKLY REPORTING FORM (DURING COVID-19 EMERGENCY) Annex- III

Name of Lab No. of Labs Actual Mode Used Class Attendance
Department Course Code Duration
Engineer/RA Planned Delivered Labs

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