Category: Higher Education
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Fun of Aurengzeb’s Piety and Inferiority Complex
“اورنگ زیب نے کوئی نماز اور کوئی بھائی نہیں چھوڑا” یوسفی صاحب مزاح نگار تھے، کوئی تاریخ دان نہیں تھے- ان کے اِس “مزاح” کو پڑھے لکھے عقلمند اپنی “تاریخ دانی” کی معراج سمجھتے ہیں اور اپنی غلامانہ زہنیت اور احساس کمتری کا شکار ہونے کا اظہار کرتے ہیں! اُس زمانے میں دنیا کے کسی…
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Sociology of Mail Delivery in villages
انٹرنیٹ سے پہلے خطوط کے زمانے کی طرز معاشرت شہروں میں کیا تھی (امریکہ سے میرے خطوط) ؟ نیچے گاؤں کی طرز معاشرت کا بہت بہترین نقشہ ہے ============ گاؤں کے خط، خیریت، بری خبر، ڈاکیہ، معاشرت از محمود زیدی دوستو، اپنے گاؤں میں دینو چاچا کے نام سے مشہور دین محمد صاحب آج اسی…
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Promise of AI ChatGPT, Chatbots: How much Truth or Falsehood or Marketing Hype
All the information that chat gpt is providing was already on internet and Google. What chatgpt has done is to provide this info using conversation models that select the most important and the most relevant pieces of information that answer your questions by removing the clutter, redundancy, and keeping the answer within the scope of…
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Future of MPhil/PhD in Pakistan
Q: What is the future of MPhil/PhD done through universities in Pakistan? How to build your future through Research? Ans: Future of MPhil/PhD in Pakistan is now the same as the future of MPhil and PhD abroad— Future is only in research organizations and universities doing funded research! Future of MPhil is always a PhD.…
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Prof Abdul Razzaq Memon- Credit for basic concepts of computer design and engineering
زرا عمر رفتہ کو آواز دینا- With our teacher Dr Abdul Razzaq Memon at VCs Workshop at Movenpick! He is currently VC of Preston University. He is 77 now and I crossed 60 recently.He was chairperson of Electronic Engineering Department at DCET during 1980s. October 25, 2022 pic He taught us (80-85 batch) one of…
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How to Design LMS Based Online Examinations in Asynchronous Mode
In medical universities and engineering universities during the 1980s-90s when cheating and copying culture was rampant, faculty members primarily used to rely on viva examinations for awarding final grades. Vivas and presentations even today during on-site classes are preferred for MS thesis, PhD Thesis, capstone projects, final year projects, clinical, lab practicals, and senior design…
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Policy Rate and Inflation Control Fee Theory for Pakistan
Atiq Rehman: Despite the fact that State Bank has fixed policy rate at 13.25, the trading in long term debt market is happening even at less than 10.5%. This means, if there was no indication by SBP, the equilibrium interest rate should be much lower. Now, the market equilibrium is lower and all economists are…
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10 Billion Tree Tsunami and its Reality: Unravelling the complexity of Mega Projects
10 Billion Tree Tsunami ki Haqeeqat kya hai? Reality of 10 Billion Tree Tsunami Mega Project? | Dr Irfan Hyder How leaders can fool educated people about the billions and millions. How complexity increases when you go from millions to billions. We need mega management, not mega projects as Parveen Rahman used to say. خدارا…
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Prof A. G. Saeed of IBA, a role model of God fearing forth rightness
Prof. A.G. Saeed left for the hereafter on the 9th of May, 2022. May Allah give him the best of abodes in the hereafter. Aameen. He left IBA much before I joined as MBA student in 1985. However, heard a lot about him and other stalwarts in the group photo below. In my association with…
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Why you want to be a Religious Scholar or Aalim? Purpose of Education by Mufti Taqi Usmani, Ashraf Ali Thanvi
شیخ الاسلام حضرت مولانا مفتی تقی عثمانی صاحب نے بیت السلام تلہ گنگ میں بیان کے دوران ایک طالب علم سے سوال فرمایا وہ سوال و جواب پیش خدمت ہے۔ سوال: بتاؤ بھائی !آپ علم کس لیے حاصل کرنا چاہتے ہیں کیا مقصد ہے علم حاصل کرنے کا؟ جواب: طالب علم نے جواب دیا کہ…
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How to Identify Synthesis in the tables of your PhD Literature Survey
Instructions to my PhD students:Please note that The taxonomy master and taxonomy detail are only a “structured” way of organizing the information and identifying “codes” and discovering “themes and categories”. It is a tool to help you identify the literature support that leads to your PS. You need to transform this structured information into distilled…
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The Art of Gentle and Soft Persuasion- Dr Zahir Ali Syed
Dr Zahir Ali Syed, Director of UIT (Usman Institute of Technology), was plucked from us yesterday June 11, 2021, in a murderous event reminding Karachites of how Hakim Saeed was taken away from us in a terrorist murder some 25 years ago. Inna lillah e wa inna ilaihi rajioon! He was a mentor to me…
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Leadership Style of Imran Khan as Cricket Captain and as Prime Minister
Imran Khan leadership style: Is IK trying to run the country exactly as he ran the captaincy of Pakistan cricket team? Favoritism in picking up players, holding of personal grudges against fellow players, and being vindictive against those who dared to disagree with him. Habit of making arbitrary and adhoc decisions, which worked in cricket…
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Inter-Disciplinary and Multi-Disciplinary PhD Research
As I look back I am trying to connect the dots that I have been trying to follow the footsteps of Prof Dr JC Browne at UT Austin, TX, in multidisciplinary research. He was, my PhD Supervisor during 1990-95 whose pic is here: JC Browne’s students were from electrical and computer engineering department, computer science…
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Murphy’s Law and Project Leadership during Change Implementations
Whenever we use technology, we should always do a pilot. Do you recall IBA’s entry test fiasco of medical colleges of Punjab in late 1990s which was widely covered in the media of that time? I saw the fiasco unfolding in front of my eyes from close at IBA where the untested scanner was put…
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Using Rubrics to Manage Anxiety Created by LMS Based Online Assignments
Open ended assignments such as case studies, project reports, real life problems that are open book and are take-home types often lead to a mismatch of expectations of the students with that of the faculty members. This mismatch can make students work on Final Assignments for even 10-15 hours, not knowing whether they have met…
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How much time does it take to write an Exam in the LMS Based Online Exam Taken in Asynchronous Mode
How much time does it take to write a 3-hour exam in an LMS Based Online Taken in Asynchronous Mode? My expectation from faculty members is that their question needs to be a 3-hour exam, the “estimated” writing time for the answers should be 3 hours. The exam paper is typically loaded on LMS as…
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Assumptions of Conventional Exam vs Assumptions of LMS Based Online Exam
What are the underlying assumptions and presuppositions of conventional examinations and how do they differ from their counterpart assumptions and presuppositions of the LMS based Online Exams especially those conducted in asynchronous mode. The differences are explained below: Here is a brief description of an extemporaneous talk that I recorded before putting the thoughts down…
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Why There are so Many Assignments on the LMS
A reply sent to the student who was complaining about excessive assignments. An assignment in each session is typically given by a faculty member for the benefit of students. Assignments provide opportunity to students to get their attendance for a class session because students can not be “forced” to “attend” the “synchronous” class session on…
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Which Option You should Choose: Pass-Fail or Letter Grade
This post describes when to use a pass-fail option and when not to use the pass-fail option. It gives you scenarios in which to select what. If you do not know the maths of how a CGPA is calculated, and you have never put your courses on an excel and computed the CGPA by inputing…
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Understanding the Four Critical Stages of LMS Technology Assimilation- A Case Study of a Pakistani University
At IoBM, we crashed into the use of LMS at a breakneck speed. However, our assimilation of LMS (Learning Management System) which is just another technology is following the well known critical stages of assimilation of technology [1]. We had started our implementation in Fall 2019 and by the time the lockdown happened we had…
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What is Originality in PhD Research- Explained Through a Concrete Example
I have often seen explanation of “originality” in research through abstract terms and ideas. Here I will try to explain the concept of originality in PhD research through the concrete example of Moodle which is an LMS. This example is chosen because PhD students today are very likely to have come across an LMS and…
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Dr Shahid Amjad and Leadership of Lahore School of Economics
Met Dr Shahid Amjad Chaudhry, Rector Lahore School of Economics at the picturesque campus on Burki Road on Jan 21, 2020. Got to see the peacock dance as I entered the beautiful campus. It was as if the peacock gave me a special welcome (or do they perform for every visitor). Saw one of the…
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Faculty Development, Motivation and Retention
Faculty Development and Retention Policy: Role of Faculty in Academic Excellence Report Date: 26 August 2003 Objectives To develop the institute as a Center of Excellence in university level education requires that faculty is motivated to contribute to the: 1. Excellence in teaching standards by actively participating in the development of courses, curriculum and instruction…
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How Correct is My Data-Cardinal Rules for Data Collection
How Correct is My Data: Cardinal Rules for Data Collection Written: May 2, 2007 A marketing manager of a pharmaceutical who has recently joined the company is looking at a report lying on his table about the performance of the sales representatives, their individual targets and the actual achievements. He needs to know what is…
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Senator Mazhar Ali – Dreams and Achievements
Sen Syed Mazhar Ali was a man who was ahead of his time. He was a visionary who could appreciate the role of IT in creating wonderful opportunities for Pakistan in 1980s. His apartment complexes set the standard for high quality during 1970s and early 1980s. His Gulshan-e-Maymar town was conceived and constructed decades ahead…
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How HEC and PEC Policies Fuel Extremism
How HEC’s Policies Fuel Extremism [Written in May-June 2017] This is with reference to news item “COASto address VCs on preventing extremism”. This meeting was called to discuss shocking incidents in which university students have been found to be involved in taking law in their own hands, killing others and taking part in heinous terrorist…