Physical (In-Class) Versus Virtual (Online) Education at Tertiary Level in Pakistan – Perceptions, Experiences and Suggestions

Abstract

During the COVID-19 era, education switched from physical (in-class) to virtual (online) education as a temporary solution to the pandemic. However, online education, which though was not a new phenomenon in the world of education, began strengthening its roots. It was acknowledged by educators of all the disciplines as another way of imparting education. They found it extremely useful because as it enabled them explore the world of education outside of their geographical boundaries. This study explored the experiences of the students regarding virtual classes and took their suggestions to improve the quality of online education. The students were selected from two undergraduate programs of a private sector university in Karachi using convenient sampling method. The participants’ responses revealed that they had mixed feelings of confusion, worry, excitement, happiness, and shock. Similarly, they faced a lot of problems like technical glitches, lack of training for teachers for virtual teaching, clash in the deadlines of various assignments, inaccessibility of the teachers, and lack of screening process of the teachers for marking assignments and projects and unclear instructions. It was concluded that virtual teaching will continue and considering the information and discoveries of this research there are many elements that ought to be viewed as compulsory for smooth execution of online classes. It was concluded that neither the country, nor our educational institutions are ready for this rapid change. Both, the government and the academia, need time to observe, adapt, and incorporate the changes accordingly.