Written by by Dr. Jonathan Addleton – FCCU Rector
I joined with others from Forman’s Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT) to celebrate the numerous CLT programs organized during 2023 as well as to honor the various experts who made these training sessions possible. While many of the 3,200 people who participated in CLT programs last year were from Forman, CLT also reached out via Zoom to individuals from 85 universities spread across Pakistan and another 20 institutions of higher learning situated outside the country.
Also, CLT secured its first international research grant, having been awarded funding for a 12-month project on diversity, equity and inclusion from the Professional and Organizational Development in Higher Education.
In addition, CLT organized an online course titled Shaping the Future of Education: AI Across Campus, starting with an initial webinar titled Demystifying AI for Educators on May 13 that attracted more than 1,000 registrations from across Pakistan and beyond. Several international speakers from Egypt, Armenia, Malaysia, Australia and the UK participated via Zoom.
UK-based AI expert Ali Chaudhry led an on-line session on AI: Charting through Ethical Dilemmas, Equity and More, a talk that in this case attracted more than 1,200 registrations from around the world. Yet another AI-related webinar was organized by CLT during May, this one titled Crafting Effective Prompts and led by AI expert Danny Liu calling in from the University of Sydney in Australia.
Looking ahead, some readers of this newsletter may wish to enroll in CLT’s free online course on Research Methodology. Consisting of 20 separate webinars, the course is scheduled to commence on June 3. Please note that there is a single registration for all sessions: Registration Form.
Finally, I am pleased to note that Dr. Mehwish Raza has been appointed Deputy Head of CLT. A member of the FCCU community since 2019, she served as Dean of the Faculty of Education from 2020 until early 2023, after which she was a Fulbright Scholar at Arizona State University where she developed a framework for advancing digital competency for faculty in higher education.