The Arabian Gulf University (AGU) has stressed its commitment to undertaking all possible measures to compensate its students for the lost time and use all available capabilities to reduce graduation delays.
All educational institutions in Bahrain have been shut amid precautionary measures taken to prevent the spread of coronavirus (COVID-19) and ensure the safety of the citizens, residents and visitors.
The closures were initially for two weeks, but the period was extended to ensure the safest conditions are met.
However, despite the closure, AGU moved to ensure that education continues and this week, it resumed teaching the theoretical parts of the curriculum online.
Classes in the College of Medicine and Medical Sciences for the first to the fourth academic years of the Doctor of Medicine program starts on March 22.
The fifth and sixth academic years of the Doctor of Medicine program and postgraduate studies in all the programs of the College of Graduate Studies and the College of Medicine and Medical Sciences and will start on March 27, AGU said.
The university said it has a large team that specializes in distance learning and information technology.
It has played a central role in preparing platforms and ensuring that their steady performance as required to deliver information to students. Faculty members of both Colleges participated last week in several detailed workshops for training on the platforms to be used in the distant teaching.
The College of Medicine and Medical Sciences has successfully delivered teaching for of Year One and 60 groups of years 2- 4 of the Doctor of Medicine Program.
Teaching of Theoretical concepts for the Clinical Years 5 and 6, who normally rotate for practical training in various medical specialties in hospitals, starts next week.
"However, due to current circumstances, students will not be able to continue the practical part of their training, which will have to be delayed until the conclusion of the current coronavirus pandemic," AGU said.
In the graduate studies in both Colleges for Master of Science and Doctor of Philosophy, students can be divided into two groups - those who are at the beginning stage of taking courses and those who are at the stage of working or completing their thesis or dissertation.
Professors of both Colleges of Graduate Studies and Medicine and Medical Sciences are busy preparing curricular materials that will be offered through the Moodle platform and enable them to reach students in their homes in various Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.
In its statement, AGU said that faculty members of the College of Graduate Studies have received intensive training, in small groups, by faculty members of the distant learning Program.
Blended teaching will be delivered through “Moodle” and “Skype”’, “Zoom” or similar platforms. College of Medicine and Medical Sciences will prepare lectures on “PowerPoint” that are supplemented with video or audio commentary.
Students who are at the stage of writing their thesis/dissertation will continue to interact with their supervisors online.
Only the students who have completed writing their theses and received approval from the respective academic committees will be able to proceed to their thesis/dissertation defense.
Defense will be conducted by the supervisory committees and the internal and external examiners through “Skype” or a similar platform.
Students who are conducting laboratory research will have to wait for the resumption of normal teaching to complete their work.
The Business Administration Program at the French Arabian Business School (FABS) has started online teaching for students of the seventh batch.
Last week, the Professor from ESSEC Business School in Paris has delivered the first lecture to students in different GCC countries through the application of "Zoom". Studies will continue for both batches 7 and 8 through the same platform.
SOURCE: BAHRAINNEWSAGENCY