Vice Chancellor Engr. Prof. Dr. Attullah Shah gave an erudite talk regarding “Outcome-Based Education (OBE)” today at the Faculty of Education of Karakoram International University. Shah Zaman, Lecturer at the Department of Behavioral Sciences organized and moderated the talk. This talk is the first of series of lectures held for faculty to shift from tradition methodology to outcome-based education framework in near future to blend with the global academic expectations. Professor Doctor Attaullah Shah stated it is not the volume that is important but the quality. He talked about the importance of curriculum design, delivery, assessment, feedback and considered this learning management cycle to be an essential practice for academicians. He asked the audience about which activities they sort to in their classes and quoted example of eminent academicians who took more than 4 hours long classes with their students still eager to study. He suggested that every class should have an assessment at the end and expressed his wish to develop Learning Management Portal for faculty soon.
Vice Chancellor termed application of knowledge as one of the most important challenges that Higher Education Institutes are facing not only in Pakistan but also globally. He indicated that in top organizations foreign qualified graduates are hired due to the mismatch between what they demand and what we produce.
Dr. Attaullah further stated that this is due to lack of effective assessment methods. He quoted a report (Youth and Skills: Putting Education to work, 2012) of UNESCO that has mentioned skills gap among youth to substantiate his arguments. Dr. Shah also mentioned the recommendations of employer’s perception survey conducted for HEC in 2016 and urged his team to improve assessment methods, inculcate research skills and address the issues raised by a majority of employers such as critical thinking, analytical approach, self-initiative and effective interpersonal communication.
Dr. Attaullah advised the faculty to take new approaches to teach by following Outcome-Based Education (OBE). He urged the faculty to implement OBE by changing Course Content, Teaching-Learning Methods, Assessment & Evaluation Tools, Data & Evidence Collection and Continuous Quality Improvement. He guided the participants to restructure their course learning outcomes, program learning outcomes, program educational objectives and make them align with the vision and mission of the university. He further suggested the audience to see 10 years ahead and think of where we are going to take KIU? What could we do to achieve the vision? and stressed that everything that we do here at KIU should take us towards its vision which will further help us to achieve the vision of a prosperous Pakistan.
Professor Attaullah also discussed six levels of learning according to Dr. Bloom (Bloom’s Taxonomy) in detail with the participants and counseled that it is Comprehension, Application, Analysis, Synthesis, Evaluation and finally creation that should be the center of our teaching at the university. Dr. Attaullah Shah enlightened the faculty about how to design course outlines and program objectives while commending them that not to merge objectives with wish lists.
Vice Chancellor Engineer Professor Doctor Attaullah finally opined that it is the knowledge, skills, and attributes that make the student a successful professional. He summed up his talk with a ray of hope that within a year the university will switch to outcome-based education with the help of this lecture series, which will bring national and international experts and the contribution of the dynamic faculty at KIU who are striving for an academic change.
