Blended learning.

Byline: Neda Mulji

A 25-YEAR-OLD old takes her new car out on the broken roads of Karachi, on the way to her first job. It has taken her nearly two years to land a job after she graduated with an MBA degree from a local university. There are thousands like her still struggling to find employment.

We often hear the word 'entitled' to describe young people demanding something bigger and better - be it a new digital device, travels abroad, or simply chasing a desire to win an arm-chair argument against their parents in the family living room. The fact is, there is not much room for 'entitlement' in a society where, as Maya Angelou aptly put it, 'joy is an act of resistance'. The girl driving her very first car isn't the only one looking for a bit of joy in the urban madness - millions of others like her are finding ways to subvert deprivation. There are millions of hard-earning parents investing in their children's education only to eventually realise it won't deliver a professionally-driven future.

How effective is a higher education system if it cannot be a launching pad for graduates to be able to afford their own housing, health and improve the quality of their lives? The responsibility to enable the dreams and aspirations of our young generation rests with all those higher education institutes that are preparing them for a career. In the absence of job-embedded learning, there is little connect between a college education and real life needs. Our young graduates are often deprived of the prospects that most universities provide the world over.

Whilst many of our local universities claim to delve into evolving teaching methods and a wider scope of learning, a closer look often shows a gaping divide between theory and practice. For example, the concept of blended learning is currently touted as the next big thing in our higher education institutes but have we got the framework in place to help familiarise teachers with the evolving strategies to use it in classrooms?

Textbooks alone cannot match the benefits of blended learning.

Universities worldwide are using blended learning as a powerful mechanism that combines traditional face-to-face teaching with the digital tools required to prepare students for the demands of a professional life. As higher education experiences in the Middle East show, universities have to reshape methods and policies to transition to blended learning. There is much research that goes into preparing students and...