Najam on WBUR on Challenges of Remote Teaching
Adil Najam, Dean of the Pardee School of Global Studies, was interviewed by WBUR (March 23, 2020), Boston’s National Public Radio station – on moving university classes to remote learning.
The radio report, which explored the challenges and the surprising benefits of online teaching, quotes Najam saying, “we are learning a lot.” Dean Najam points out that professors and students have shown remarkable resilience and passion in adapting to new ways of learning and teaching. However, he adds that the challenges of remote teaching and the toll it can take on both faculty and on students are not trivial.
More from the report, that can be read more here:
This is not the first time Najam has had to shut down a university. In his last job, in his second week, he had to close a university in Pakistan for the first time in its history, because of another epidemic: dengue.
Najam worries about what will happen at BU in a few weeks. He predicts screen fatigue will come very quickly. And students and faculty have to perform in environments not conducive to learning and teaching.
“Students but also faculty have to perform their work in an environment not conducive to that,” said Najam. “The student’s home is not constructed as a classroom. My faculty’s apartment where their kid is also out of school is not meant to be the place from where they teach. That stress might add up, as it would depending on what happens with the virus itself.”
The WBUR report also spoke a variety of other Boston University professors.
Adil Najam is the Inaugural Dean of the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University and was the former Vice Chancellor of the Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS). Read more about him here.