Page 52 - SAMENA Trends - June-July 2020

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan Deploys Microsoft Teams to
Over 100 Universities

In an effort to accelerate remote learning in a safe and secure continuity through the provision of remote learning tools. “As
environment, Microsoft is supporting the Higher Education universities move to remote learning, Teams can provide an online
Commission (HEC) of Pakistan by deploying Teams for official classroom that brings together virtual face-to-face connections,
online and remote learning interactions across more than 100 assignments, exams, files and conversations into a single
public and private universities. The move is in response to the call platform accessible on a mobile device, tablet, PC, or browser.
by the HEC for ideas on how to address the impact of COVID-19 on Through this partnership, we’ve been able to provide access at the
education and research. This pandemic has forced educators and various institutions and are working alongside HEC to ensure the
students to rush into distance learning. “Our strong collaboration smooth training and rollout throughout the country,” says Jibran
with Microsoft has spanned many areas including research Jamshad, Education Lead for Microsoft Pakistan.
innovation, capacity building, and of course the services provided Keeping Remote students engaged
by Office 365. The use of Teams will ease the transition for many Other tools that have been revolutionizing the education
of our members into innovative modes of educational delivery, and experience of educators and learners alike include that of
also help us address the future needs of our students in rapidly Microsoft Flipgrid, a tool for educators that engages students
shifting employment markets”, says Dr. Tariq Banuri, Chairman through creating and sharing short videos. Flipgrid includes
for Higher Education Commission in Pakistan. With the help Immersive Reader, with tools that read text out loud and provides
of Microsoft, the move to a virtual classroom environment has other reading assistance and accessibility features to help ensure
allowed for seamless continuity with no disruption in the learning all students can participate. It also enables students and learners
experience for many students. Functions such as Whiteboard in of all abilities to express themselves with confidence. Educators
Teams allows for a live interactive environment, while educators can also make use of Microsoft Streams to record their lectures
are able to moderate classroom discussions by muting, recording giving them automatic access through their classroom channel
and sharing control which drives engagement. For assessments, on Teams. For ease of reference, having their assignments
educators are also able to easily create and grade quizzes in and other class materials on OneNote provides one repository
Teams using Microsoft Forms. Many industries are adapting to a where all materials are organized and easily accessible. “We
new way of living, working, and learning. Microsoft’s commitment are also acutely aware of the online safety for our students as
is centered on supporting educational institutions to maintain they transition to this new way of learning. Microsoft Teams, as
part of the Microsoft 365 (M365) service, follows all the security
best practices and procedures such as service-level security
through defense-in-depth, customer controls within the service,
security hardening and operational best practices proactively
protecting our customers from security threats, added Jamshad.
On the long term, HEC and Microsoft have created the Education
Transformation Framework (ETF) – a foundational agreement
modeled on the pillars of capacity building, skill certification,
outreach campaigns and the annual Imagine Cup competition.
Digital transformation is an indisputable force revolutionizing our
industries, reinventing our products, redefining our services, and
reshaping the way we work. This means that students will enter a
very different job market. Microsoft is committed to working with
HEC to provide immersive learning that will improve experiences
and education outcomes of the students in Pakistan.

Microsoft and UNICEF Launch Youth Learning Passport in Jordan

UNICEF’s Learning Passport, a global digital the program that will help youth affected platform, which is completely free for
learning platform powered by Microsoft, by COVID-19 to continue their learning young people to access and combines
launched in Jordan in the presence of and skills development at home. As part both offline and online components,
the in the presence of the Minister of of its sustainability program, Zain Jordan includes courses in advanced coding and
Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship, has come on board as a strategic partner software development, digital literacy, life
the Minister of Youth, Zain Jordan, to support youth through the Learning skills, social entrepreneurship and the
and UNICEF Jordan’s Representative. Passport platform. It is the first version English language – with plans to scale
Seventeen young people from across the of the global Learning Passport platform up and expand the learning and training
country also joined the virtual launch of to launch in the region and in Arabic. The opportunities in the future. “Post Covid-19,

52 JUNE-JULY 2020