Aligarh: Online learning is the panacea to the pandemic’s dire global impact on education and the transformative changes, replacing the traditional setups of face-to-face lectures and this is what came through in the two-day International Conference on ‘Online Learning and Innovation in Teaching Pedagogy’ of the Center for Distance and Online Education, Aligarh Muslim University.

In the first keynote address, Dr Moon Moon Haque, Acting Dean of Gulf Medical University from  UAE, remarked: “Quelling the Covid impact on global education was of paramount importance since the beginning of the pandemic and immediate steps were needed to train teachers for adapting and improving in the new world of online learning”.

“It goes without saying that teachers have not only built the expertise to utilize technology for engaging classes, but they have also successfully kept a track of the progress of students through the online modes”, he said.

“Education is transitional and changes with the advancing technology. Online platforms have been a boon to education and new modes and systems have impacted the learning and teaching pedagogy”, said Dr Ramesh Chander Sharma, Dr BR Ambedkar University of New Delhi.

Delivering the second keynote address, he spoke on open educational resources, learning management systems, content management systems, Massive Open Online Courses and e-learning initiatives across the globe.

The Chief Guest of the inaugural function, Prof Ajmer Singh Malik, Vice-Chancellor of the Chaudhary Devi Lal University of Haryana, explained the benefits of MOOCs and Prof Rihan Khan Suri, Chief Guest of the valedictory session spoke about the use of gadgets in online and distance mode of learning.

Prof Nafees Ahmad Ansari, Director, CDOE and Organizing Secretary of the conference, said: At the CDOE, we have successfully achieved the transition to online education by bringing students from across the country to the online learning platforms.

Dr Nida Khan conducted the inaugural function and Dr Furqan Khan extended the vote of thanks.

Dr Shehnoor Shan conducted the valedictory session—in which Dr Mohd Taqi proposed the vote of thanks.

A total of 84 papers were presented in the seven technical sessions of the conference.