When I met with Sir Dr. Naveed Malik

Note: I met with Sir Dr. Naveed Malik at March 17th, 2014.

I wanted to meet Sir Dr. Naveed Malik (rector of Virtual University of Pakistan) as a Google Student Ambassador to discuss about Google apps for education and Student activities. Finally, got appointment and travelled all the way from Sialkot to reach Virtual University of Pakistan M.A Jinnah Campus in Lahore. It took me almost 3 hours to reach there. After waiting for sometime, I was called by his PA to meet him. When I entered his office, he gave me a warm welcome by saying: Adnan, you are looking very nice in this Google t-shirt 🙂

We talked about so many things related to VU Study and for the betterment of Students. He listened my questions patiently. Hope you will enjoy our discussion:

Me: VU students are already using Google apps for education as their emails are on Gmail but they don’t know about Google Drive which contains Google Docs, Presentation, Forms, Spreadsheet and Google Drawing tools. They can access it by going to http://drive.google.com/ after logging to their University emails.

It is an online tool built on cloud platform. Your files didn’t get corrupted when your machine is off due to sudden power off. This is perfect for students to make their assignments and collaborate. Best for teachers to make notes and spread it to students. Spreadsheets to record grades and Calendar to organize their classes.

Sir: That sounds like an amazing tool. We will inform all students to let them know about these Google apps for Education.

 

Me: Being a Google Student Ambassador in Pakistan, I have organized 6 events so far and it was an amazing journey to go on SEARCH Google Summit in Indonesia. I travelled first time out of Country and was my first plane journey too 🙂

Sir: Adnan, It is really an honor for us to have students like you who are spreading Positive image of Virtual University inside as well as outside of Pakistan.

 

Me: I suggest to use Google hangouts instead of Skype for live interaction with students.

Sir: Thank you for the suggestion. We will consider Google hangouts and give it a try.

 

Me:  Allow the G+ and Google hangouts on University Email ID’s whereas  GDrive is already available.

Sir: This should be fairly straightforward. I will ask our IT staff to look into the possibility.

 

Me: Please create a VU page on G+ like we have on facebook.

Sir: We will consider this. One has to manage such pages and that requires dedicated resources.

 

Me:  If possible, please spread the G+ and FB page on which I am sharing the Googly activities in VU Campuses.

Sir: I will pass on your request to the concerned  department.

 

Me: When you are going to launch PHD ??

Sir: Hopefully from 2015 and classes will be a mix of our current mode combined with live interaction via Google hangouts or some other tool.

 

Me: and for which subjects VU is going to launch PHD ??

Sir: Computer Science and some related areas.

 

Me: Please add programming competition in Fun activities or Student Societies.

Sir: Sure, we will add it in next phase.

 

Me: Registration form for Laptop schemes, how VU students can apply for this ??

Sir: Unfortunately, Govt is not giving laptops to any students of distance education, and that includes VU.

 

Me:  Introduce new Courses in CS/IT like iPhone Application development and other technological/practical courses that are demanding in professional career.

Sir: VU is planning to launch Associate Degree programs in Fall 2014. These programs will include technical skills like the ones you have suggested. These will be very exciting 2-year programs and graduates can always come back to complete their 4-year degrees later.

 

Me:  Introduce new versions of courses like Stanford, They update their courses in every semester and launch their videos on itunes for access of everyone.

Sir: Fundamental courses like those of the BS programs change very little from year to year. We will update the MS courses more often.

 

Me:  It is difficult to provide teachers in every campus but it is also difficult to understand a concept clear without a teacher because of old recorded lecturer.

Sir: We have introduced audio tutorials this semester. This should help students immensely since they will be able to attend live sessions and interact with their teachers.

 

Me:  Some of the students claim that there are some lectures/courses which are very hard to understand because teacher didn’t explained very well.

Sir: You can email me about the courses which are not well taught and we will look into it and re-record it.

 

Me: Sir, Thanks a lot for time. I need one photo with you.

Sir: Sure, Lets go out weather is good too.

 

After meeting, I had to go FAST-NU Lahore to speak on Google Summer of Code. I was invited there by Mishaal Tauseef (Google Student Ambassador).