VU Sialkot campus conducted orientation classes of newly admitted students from 26th October to 29th October, 2020 both morning and evening sessions to familiarize students to their new environment. Students were formally welcomed and introduced to the culture of the campus and Virtual University mode of education. Each session was of 4 hours with Multimedia presentations. More than 600 students attended the Orientation classes and Labs.
The main purpose of orientation is to minimize unknown fear of use of computers and to remove any uncertainty in minds of the students regarding ONLINE mode of education and make them comfortable with VU way of learning. Educating the students in ONLINE mode of education and make them aware that they can only be successful and make best use of online education to its optimum level if they learn computers and become proficient in using VULMS. In these sessions, we tried to make students realize that situation of COVID-19 is still uncertain, in these circumstances Virtual University is the only university that stands out because its mode of education is already ONLINE. VU is equipped with complete well designed online set up/VULMS and has potential to meet challenges of online learning. We took extra measures and gave more emphasis on learning each and every feature of VULMS so that in case students would have to study from home they must know how to take lectures, make assignments, how to contact instructors and seek help.
Following areas were covered in orientation sessions
1. Purpose of orientation
2. Introduction of Virtual University
3. Introduction of campus & faculty
4. Complete introduction of VULMS with demonstration
5. VU Examination system
6. VU CPL (Computer proficiency license)
7. New trends in education. MOOCs & Coursera
8. Introduction of new technologies i.e. IOT (internet of Things)
On commencement of classes we ensured students must spend enough time in lab to learn and practice VULMS. We requested VU to share comprehensive video of new VULMS which will also help new students to learn LMS.
