Reflecting on 2023: A Year-End Review and Anticipating the Opportunities of 2024

Assalamualaikum and heartfelt greetings to all. The previous year brought its share of challenges, especially with the pervasive shift to striking a balance between online and on-campus learning. I consider myself fortunate to have revisited the realm of Artificial Intelligence (AI) after more than two decades. During my master’s program, I delved into various AI-related subjects like Neural Networks, Expert Systems, Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Massive Parallel Virtual Machines. The widespread application of AI became a topic of excitement in public discourse, particularly with the emergence of Large Language Models (LLM) and generative AI.

My journey led me into strategic management, optimizing performance, and AI-enabled digital transformation initiatives that gained momentum in the post-pandemic educational technology landscape. As I engage in my customary year-end reflections, I take this moment to retrospect, capturing the essence of key projects. Through this post, I am thrilled to share my experiences and achievements for the year 2023.

AMEE Glasgow:

I had the privilege of attending the AMEE Conference in Glasgow, where we conducted a workshop on “Designing Micro Credential Courses Using Instructional Design Principles.” Recordings of some segments of our workshop are available here. Additionally, I participated in a TEL subcommittee meeting, exploring ways to leverage the AMEE platform for implementing Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) projects globally.

Immersive Learning:

Following the discourse on AI, immersive learning took center stage, with intensive discussions on various implementation methods. This included virtual tours, 3D models integrated into interactive virtual medical cases, 360-degree interactive videos, immersive virtual environments mimicking crime scenes, and projects involving augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR). Further details will be shared in the upcoming section of my post, where I will present recordings of my workshop/talk on immersive learning. I would suggest to explore these tools to have simple immersive learning interaction to high level of immersive learning experience. My first tool would be H5P to start with using different templates, most of LMS have H5P plugin. ispring is second tool to start with they do have free version and paid version. My third tool will be 3d Vista, which is very powerful tool however you need to purchase the subscription. Most of these tools even allow you to incorporate Augmented and virtual reality.

Workshops and Talks:

I would like to summarize my engagement so far for year 2023. I was invited by University of Sharjah for workshop initially but due to overwhelm response we need to convert my workshop to webinar. It was great experience and after the webinar we had lot of engagement and discussion by the participants, I really enjoyed the session. I would like to thanks University of Sharjah management and Dr Mohamed H. Taha for the opportunity to share and learn from the session.

I was invited by Smart University of Medical Science, Iran to conduct webinar on Technology Enhance Learning, where I have explored and discussed future trends in educational technology and how we could adopt and adapt these technologies and tools for enhancing the learning experiences. Recording of my talk is shared in the following table.

I was lucky that our proposal to conduct symposium was accepted in Flexible Learning Pathways in Health Professions Education- Malaysian Association of Education in the Medical and Health Sciences (MAEMHS)- UPM Malaysia. Title of my talk was, “Instructional Design in online micro-credential course” I explored the ID principles and key building blocks for micro-credential course design. Summary of my talk is shared in the table.

I extend my gratitude to the IMU Management for organizing the IMU Staff Trip post Covid-19 lockdown. This year, our destination was Yogyakarta, often referred to as ‘Jogja,’ a city on the Indonesian island of Java renowned for its rich cultural heritage and traditional arts. The visit included exploring the ornate 18th-century royal complex, known as the kraton, which houses the still-inhabited Sultan’s Palace. It was a delightful trip filled with the enjoyment of traditional cuisine and the exploration of picturesque paddy fields.

I was invited as facilitator at ICHPE, Iran organized by Teheran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS). I was given opportunity to conduct two workshops, one pre conference and other during the workshop. During my workshop I explored immersive learning content design and blended learning and how to use different tools to design content. I was assigned chair and judge for short communication sessions. The ICHPE event went well, lot of learning and networking with educational experts in Medical Education. Several more webinar conducted, I would like to thank SIVU and SSME.

No	Event Name	Date	Links	Activity
1	AI in Medical Education – Sharjah University	9 February	YouTube Recording	Workshop
	Smart University of Medical Sciences, Iran	19 February	website	Webinar
2	Flexible Learning Pathways in Health Professions Education- Malaysian Association of Education in the Medical and Health Sciences (MAEMHS)- UPM Malaysia. “Instructional Design in online micro-credential course”	1-2 March	Recording YouTube Channel	Symposium
3	Staff Trip	March	Yogyakarta	Teambuilding
4	Immersive learning content design and blended learning and how to use different tools to design content. ICHPE 2023, Iran	3-5 May	ICHPE Website	Workshops
5	Smart Health Congress	12-14 July	Recording YouTube	Keynote Speaker
6	Design in Online Micro credential Course. AMEE Glasgow-PCW6	26 – 30 August	AMEE Website	Workshop
7	Interactive Content Design for Peer Role Play in Enhancing Clinical Skills Using Virtual Medical Case ICME Baku, Azerbaijan	7-10 October	ICME Website	Workshop
8	Revolutionizing Education AI Technology Enhanced Learning-SIVU	18 Nov	Recording @YouTube	Webinar
9	AI Technology Enhanced Learning – TUMS webinar	12 Dec	Slides of Webinar, Recording	Webinar
10	Blended Learning in Health Professions Education – SSME	19 Dec	Recording	Webinar
11	Peer Role Play in Enhancing Clinical Skills Using Virtual Medical Case	12 Jan2024		

Research Publications:

Our team published several articles and a book chapter on microlearning content design. Details of our research activities can be found on my research gate and Google Scholar platforms. Feel free to contact me if you need any information or would like to collaborate in research.

ResearchGate Profile

Google Scholar Profile

iLRF 2023:

The IMU International Learning Resources Festival (ILRF) is an annual event with this year’s theme being “AI Changes Education: Education Changes Human.” Subthemes encompass immersive learning, gamification, the balance between humanity and technology in education, Metaverse (Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality) storytelling, intelligent tutoring systems, simulations and role-playing, personalized learning, and learning analytics.

ILRF 2023 aimed to address both technical and non-technical aspects of e-Learning, offering opportunities to share knowledge, best practices, and experiences focused on learning innovation and technology. The event featured over ten workshops and webinars, along with engaging competitions, exhibitions, and games that added vibrancy to this annual festival. For a detailed look at this year’s successful event, click here.

Looking Forward to 2024:

Reflecting on the accomplishments of 2023, I am excited about the prospect of delving deeper into AI, immersive learning, and strategic management in the upcoming year. Once again thank you for reading my year end review. Do share your thoughts in the comments how was your side and how you are going to manage all these excited interceptions and enhance your teaching and learning. Feel free to contact me if you need any assistance about technology enhanced learning (TEL).

I look forward to staying in touch with all of you in 2024. Wishing you peace, health, and warm wishes.

Year End Review for 2022 and Looking Forward to 2023

Assalamualaikum and very good day to all of you. It was a challenging year for me as we were still mostly on online learning mode. One year passed very fast, lot of interventions, I was lucky to be involved with digital transformation initiatives which were expedited due to pandemic, lot of institutions were forced to switch to fully online and this makes them to think to invest into their infrastructure and infostructure.  

As usual while writing year-end review I will look back, reflect and summarize key projects. Here, I will share with you my experiences and my achievements for the year 2022.

AMEE Lyon, France:

I got the opportunity to attend International Medical Education Conference, AMEE at Lyon France. Thank you to my Institution in doing all these arrangements. It was a very big event as they merged Ottawa Conference also. I explored a lot and met lot of senior faculty and gurus in the Medical Education. I conducted workshop on flipped learning and got a chance to discuss different products with various vendors at the Exhibition Centre. I am sharing the summarized slides listing the sessions I have attended and vendors I have met during my visit to AMEE.

Ottawa and Amee lyon.pptx from Hasnain Zafar

Metaverse:

Metaverse was again discussed this year. Actually, this concept is not new, advancement of virtual environment platforms, incorporation of 3D objects, global social collaborative interactions make this area very exciting to explore in for medical education. I would like to share some of key platforms you can explore such are Mozilla Hubs, Second life, and Decentraland. For complete list visit my Zeef list sharing on the list of platforms.

Webinars/ Workshops:

I would say year 2022 was a very active year as far as workshops, webinars and research publications are concerned. Alhumdullil Allah, I was fortunate to have a chance to practice more inspirational leadership, people management and other project management skills. For detail list of my talks for year 2022 you can visit my blog posts.

Learning Analytics:

Big data and information analytics has been there for a while. How we could use it to do predictive analysis of learning data makes it an exciting area to explore. To make meaningful intelligent decision first of all you need to select appropriate data capture points from whole journey of learners in education ecosystem. Need to have strong platform with data analytics, machine learning algorithms and very customized dashboards for all level of management and stakeholders. Just to share some platforms which can be key ingredients for the success of analytics projects. I would suggest exploring Google Analytics, Power BI, WEKA, SMARTKLASS and Intelliboard which can be integrated with Learning Management Systems and other university portals.  

Learning Resources Repository:

To save processing time, duplication of education resources and easy searching of learning objects, repository will be great solution for any institution. Need to have proper plan to execute repository project at institutional level. I am in support of central digital repository, which will act as single point of sources for digital learning resources for all portals. You can explore sharepoint with ONEDRIVE and STREAM, Dspace, Panapto, Kaltura. Last two are more suitable for video-based content.

Moving Forward:

I am open to explore more for next year and focus more on people management, strategic management, collaboration with international institutions, would like to work with key stakeholders in educational technology and medical education. Thank you for reading my year end review. I will start going live on my YouTube Channel. Please feel free to visit my channel, share and do subscribe my channel. Thank you again. I would appreciate if you could leave some comments for enhancement and further growth.

Sharing recording of my talk on Interactive Content Design for Blended Learning

Research and Workshop Activities for Year 2022

This post is to share with you all my activities for year 2022, share my experiences with you. Feel free to contact me for further information and discussion. I will be happy to share my expertise. Appreciate your feedback and suggestions for improvement.

No	Activities
1	APMEC- Symposium , 12-16 January		Symposium
2	APMEC- Workshop ,12-16 January		Workshop
3	Learning & Technology Conference 2022- Oral Presentation , 24 January, Effat University		Paper
4	JCHS International Conference 2022, 29-31 March 2022, UITM		Outcome oriented e-Learning enhancement based on student feedback and its effect on student experience in online learn
5	Interactive Content Design for Blended Learning, 16 April, SIVU		Webinar
6	Scenario-based Learning in Simulation and Gamification 23rd April, MAHEAM		Webinar
7	23rd Iranian Conference on Health Professions Education (ICHPE)  18-20 May		Symposium on Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL)
8	Workshop on Instrcutional Design and Engagement tools. 27 May and 3rd June		Najwa (Train the Trainer)
9	AMEE Lyon Wokrshop 25-30 August		Flipped Learning
10	Symposium 3: Strengthening education in tertiary education during the pandemic: Were the  innovations proven USIM Sept 13th		Symposium
11	ICHPE– Pre Conference Course on , “RAPID INTERACTIVE E-LEARNING SIZZLING CONTENT DEVELOPMENT”		Course
12	Technology Enhanced Learning  Part II- Futuristic View, at American University of Barbados.		Webinar

Conclusion of great year of 2021, moving forward to 2022.

Assalamualaikum and very good day to all of you. It was a challenging year for me as we have to still stay mostly online learning mode, but I was more confident than last year, mainly due to last two years experience, more buy in for elearning, technology enhanced learning, and Open & Distance Learning (ODL) by faculty and senior management makes interesting to work on blended learning, ODL, micro credentials, and digital tranformation initiatives.

Experience/Summary:

As usual year end review I will look back, reflect and summarize key projects. Here, I will share with you my experience and my achievements. I would say year 2021 was very active year as far as workshops, webinars and research publications are concerned. Alhumdullil Allah, I was fortunate to have a chance to practice more inspirational leadership, people management and other project management skills.What I explored most of the time, when it comes to application or practicality in real environment, you need to fine tune theory to adjust your self, your environment, your institution and your team. Always know strengths of all team members, knowing people and managing them and their expectations are keys to success. Trust, empowerment and constructive feedback could help to excel and enhance your team performance. Always willing to explore new things with calculated risk will keep you and your team relevant. Sharing my two cents 🙂

Live Streaming:

Alhumdullil Allah I tried to explore live streaming which I was passive user of different platforms for last several years. Currently I will be coming live on my YouTube Channel, (Please subscribe to my channel, like and share my videos :)). I was given permission to go live on LinkedIn, you can connect me via my profile page. I started my live streaming using HAPPS platform, which allows you to multistream to different platforms, you can check my porfile on HAPPS. I will be exploring more platforms (e.g., clubhouse, tweeter spaces, tiktok and insta live). Stay tuned and appreciate your support by subscribing to all my profiles and giving constructive feedback on my content.

Hybrid/HyFlex Classroom:

I was assigned task to assist team to select appropriate technology(Teachnology) for our institution, we explored different vendors and platforms. we will start small to evaluate hybrid concept and gradually enhance further. I wrote a blog post on Innovative interruptions in web conferencing posted in October, 2020, sharing different platforms, how we could use these platforms to provide virtual classroom features. When it comes to hardware, sky is the limit, but with innovation you can use simple technology and can enhance online, virtual and hybrid learning experiences. Pedagogy is critical to fix first, technology will come last.

Micro Learning:

We always try to simplify and chunk our learning content. Several years ago I heard three minutes thesis presentation. Looking at multinational companies, trying to promote their products with 1 minute videos. We have explored micro Learning concept to engage learner and make micro learning as a great scaffolding approach for learners. I have written a detailed blog post on MicroLearning during pandemic.

Micro Credentials:

I was given task and appointed Project Manager for micro credentials courses design, development and portal design project. We always try to unbandle our curriculum, but due to pandemic high demand to reskill and upskill work force, expedite this initiative. You can access recording of my talk on micro learning and micro credentials.

Workshops/Webinars:

Due to advancement in webconferencing platforms and new trend of virtual events. I was fortunate to attend as speaker/facilitator in several international events without travelling to different part of the world.

I was invited to give talk on Scenario based learning using simulation and gamification at Maastricht University, IRESIM research group. Recording of my talk is shared in the following link:

Scenario-based learning in Simulation and Gamification

Thursday, January 28th, 2021

Wearable Technologies in Medical Education Iran University of Medical Sciences(IUMS) 19th June 2021. Sharing Summary of my talk. Blockchain Technology in Medical Education Iran University of Medical Sciences(IUMS) Jul 03, 2021. Sharing slides of my talk. Finding The Correct Blend To Engage Your Students On-Campus And Off-Campus Using Instructional Design Principles For Designing Online Learning Experiences APMEC 2022 (NUS and UM) Jan 12. 2022

Detail list of all my talks and recording of these talks/workshops can be accessed by clicking here.

iLRF2021:

This is the second year we are going for virtual event, theme for this year’s event is driving digital transformation: adapting to the future learning demands. So far more than two thousand visitors have accessed the website of the event. We are expecting to have more than 50 International IIInnovasi and educational games competition submission.  This year we integrate Discord platform with our event website, to attract and engage gamers and young audience to the event.

https://elearnzone.imu.edu.my/lrf/2021/

Moving Forward:

Looking forward to year 2022, I will be exploring more in immersive learning experiences, Mobile Collaborative Informal Learning (MCIL), Neural Networks, AI, Data Analytics, Digital Tranformation, Authentic Leadership Style, People Management and wellbeing of myself, family and team. Thank you for reaching to this point and feel free to give your feedback to enhance further.

MicroLearning during Pandemic

MicroLearning (ML) is a new buzz word hitting the education and corporate training landscape. To me the concept is not new, for centuries “teachers” facilitators were using this concept. According to Wikipedia simple definition of MicroLearning(ML), “Microlearning deals with relatively small learning units and short-term learning activities. The term is used in e-learning and related fields in the sense of learning processes in mediated environments. Wikipedia

Key to ML is focused, highly chunked, mobile devices enabled, engaging content. Focus should be on delivery rather than content size. ML content could act as a scaffold to actual learning.

Possible types of ML Content:

SMS	Infographics		Email with scenario and questions
Tweet	Social Media Post		Text, SMS, MMS, e-mail
Interactive e-poster	Simulation		Podcast
micro-video	micro-Games		Flash cards
short poem	RSS Feed		Labels( instructions on Instruments, Medicine, etc.)

Table showing possible types of Micro Learning

Applications:

Screen-capturing software- Vidyard, Loom, Capture

Web based tools for quiz: Quizlet, Quizzizz, Talentcards

Web based content curation tools: Blendspace, Flipgrid, Padlet, Canva

Podcast: Anchor,  Audacity, SoundCloud

Inforgraphics: Genially Glogster

Gamification: Deck Toys, Kahoot

Micro Video: Edpuzzle, H5P, Wevideo, Thinglink

Whiteboards: Whiteboard, Whiteboardchat, online collaborative whiteboard 

Miscellaneous: Feedly RSS Feed , Word cloud

I would like to share great post by iSpringsolutions, sharing benefits, principles of application, examples of ML. Click on the link above to know more.

Unnecessary component of MicroLearning (ML), we need to do Training Needs Analysis (TNA) to know what learner wants to learn in short duration, informally and while on the go. Include in your ML contents only those parts, good way is asking them questions on the topics to provoke learning. We have to be straight to the point, focused and deliver what learner needs. In standard teaching and learning method, we write learning outcomes, share background, present ideas, provide some examples, demonstrate the process, add some references, etc. In ML it is unnecessary to include all these components. You may pick a learning outcome and ask them questions related to topic and give brief explanation. Try include elementary component into ML and remove unnecessary components.

To conclude, I would like to share some of the basics about ML, “Microlearning is a skill-based approach to learning that delivers information in small, highly focused chunks.” statement mentioned in the post by iSpring solutions, where they share nice content using iSpring software.

Great statistical analysis by Shift about ML, “Why Microlearning is Better for Your Learners (and You too)“

I am sharing recording of my talk and question and answer session with Prof Shahid Hassan on MicroLearning.

Recording on my YouTube Channel

Feel free to share your experience and your thoughts about Microlearning.

Review of year 2020 and moving forward to 2021

Year 2020 was really a challenging one, I am thankful to Allah SWT that with all handwork, training, team efforts and planning for years have let us sail through this really rough sea. Indeed it was real a test for us as we were put on full capacity load and we have to switch to fully online teaching and learning within days, test everything in couples of days and make all our teaching and learning, assessment, training and support services ready for fully online delivery within a week to all our stakeholder.

I was lucky to have been working on different projects, I will be sharing the details in this post, which has helped to enhance my learning, sharpen my managerial skills and knowledge. Alhumdullil Allah, I was also fortunate to work with international institutions on delivering webinars and workshops.

Online Assessment:

We were given task to use and explore MOODLE as tool for online assessment. We were using the platform for many years as assessment tool but had never used it for majority of assessment. After reading at the forums and discussing with experts, major concern was Moodle server enhancement to handle large number of concurrent users, and further more handling intensive computational task of assessment, accessing questions DB with lot of images, videos and other multimedia content. So my focus was on MOODLE server and how to make our portal strong and keeping the portal resources healthy.

My other concern was to upskill all stakeholders about MOODLE features and provide support during online assessment. This project strengthen me and I started believing even stronger that provided senior management support, expert advice, prompt decision making, teamwork, continuous monitoring, helpdesk support and bringing key stakeholder on board would be the critical ingredients for any project success.

Staff Development/Training:

I have been conducting webinars for many years, but year 2020 has put us on spotlight as due to pandemic we could not go to work and we have to work from home instead most of the time. Immediately we had switch to online training. I have written a post on interruption in web conferencing and discussing some tools too.

We explored a lot of tools for webinars and web conferencing. We starting exploring MS teams, ZOOM, WhatsApp, Telegram, Gobrunch, etc. I have listed all these platform and compared the features in my post. Willingness to adjust with the interruption and managing change can lead us to new heights of success. I have applied blended workshop approach, or sometime we called flipped learning approach. Where we use LMS/Online site to blend online(Asynchronous) and online (Synchronous) activities and tasks. Challenging part was engaging most of the participants so we could use engagement tools during workshops and interact with participants effectively.

All these platforms are evolving fast to meet user needs and keep on adding new features.

Research Grant and Publications:

Although I was having extensive workload this year, but still I was able to do some research and publications, thanks to colleagues that have supported me.

I was part of this research project team, “Development and evaluation of an innovative mobile application on antibiotics for pharmacology teaching and learning”

I was able to publish some articles and the details are shared here,

Social Media and e-Learning in Pharmaceutical Sciences: A symbiotic role	September, 2020	Kamal Dua, Hasnain Zafar Baloch	Manipal Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Invited Editorial
Developing a Multi Purpose Emergency Remote Teaching Tool during COVID Crisis for Partial Credit Assessment Using Digital Scratch-off (PCADS) Technique for Immediate Feedback and Readiness Assurance Test	December, 2020	Shahid Hassan, Hasnain Zafar Baloch, Mohd Fadzil	International Journal of Science and Research (IJSR)
Online Small Group Clinical Be(side) Teaching (BST) Using Authentic Scenario with Hypothetico-deductive Approach and Gagne Instructional Model	December, 2020	Shahid Hassan, Hasnain Zafar Baloch	Education in Medicine Journal , USM
Development and evaluation of a novel massive open online course in travel medicine for undergraduate healthcare students	December, 2020	Flaherty, Gerard , Hasnain Zafar Baloch, Et al.	International eJournal of Science Medicine and Education

Learning Resources Festival (LRF): (Virtual/Online)

As usual this year we also had our LRF 2020 and we went big by converting LRF to fully online event, it was a challenging task but thanks to organizing team for their creative work at the end the event was awesome. Participants was more engaged and we had used technology intensively. The chosen theme for this year was “Shaping the Future of Learning with Emerging Technologies”.

Workshops and Talks:

Even though this year was bit busy, I was still able to conduct several workshops and webinars internal, national and international levels.

No	Title	Date
1	Introduction to Mobile Apps Development Workshop using MIT App inventor	Monday, 17 February, 2020 9:00 AM-12:30 PM
2	2nd National Webinar – Teaching-Learning and Assessment Preparedness for Online and Remote Learning for Medical Education: Impact on Accreditation	Friday, 27 March, 2020 11:00 AM-12:30 PM
3	Zoom Breakout room Training (Video Recording)	Thursday, 16 April, 2020 3:30 PM-4:30 PM
4	A 3-Day Symposium Webinar on Internationalization of Higher Education (IHE) during Coronavirus Crisis: How to Find Correct Blend for Implementing Online Learning During COVID-19?	Tuesday, 19 May, 2020
5	Content design and development for e-Learning in Medical Education	September 2nd, 2020
6	Student Engagement Tools for Blended Learning	Thursday, 29 October, 2020 2:30 PM-4:30 PM
7	Online Assessment designing on Moodle specially OSPE and OSCE	Wednesday, 16 December,2020 12:05PM -3:00PM
8	Scenario-based learning in Simulation and Gamification	Thursday, January 28th, 2021

Moving Forward:

In year 2020 I got opportunities to work with creative teams handling different projects, I will share with you some of these projects:

Personalized learning is my first pick, Activity completion tracking, Competency framework, learning paths, Chatbot, Seamless integration of different portals to make online learning experiences more cool and personalized.

Digital Transformation, the term I first heard in 1995 when I was doing my BS in Computer Science, explored in detail electronic data interexchange between different systems and even studied protocols to use for this exchange of data. How to switch from manual process to batch, automated and to digitize. I was lucky when I was doing my masters in Computer Science at Penang, I studied Human Computer Interface, Expert system and natural language processing which solidified my foundation and again Alhumdullil Allah I am part of digital transformation team in 2020 to look even bigger transformational project. Key take home message would be that we make sure all our application should be able to talk to each other, have comprehensive change management plan, go slow, upskill staff, make all stake holder ready to embrace digital transformation, provide continuous support and helpdesk service.

Mix reality (Augmented Reality/ Virtual Reality) is another term which I have been involved for many years and in 2020 we tool great leap ahead in designing interactive content with limited resources. Thank you to the very small team who did great job in delivering several projects. In 2021 I am planning to have even more projects to make online learning experience more interesting.

I would like to commit myself to increase my social presence and do put more content on the web for general audience. While exploring live broadcast platforms, I recently discovered HAPPS.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning would be other area to explore further and implement these algorithms in different projects.

I will be exploring and learning more about corporate cultures and how to do human resources management more effectively to produce great results.

I wish year 2021 will be more interactive, less challenging as far as COVID19 is concerned, and result oriented year for all of us. Dear audience your feedback will help me grow. Do drop a line or two. Thank You.

Innovative Interruptions in Web Conferencing

I would like to share two new tools I have explored in the area of web conferencing… leading the COVID interruption. The first platform is

1. GoBrunch: Cool feature of GoBrunch is a free platform for maximum of 400 participants and the best thing I like is the lite interface of the platform as you have choices to pick different layouts of meeting/webinar with lunch tables with different configurations. You can also have multiple screens sharing. I am sharing the link https://gobrunch.com/ for you to explore more. GoBrunch is a 100% free platform to create webinars. Interactive feature even when in replay of webinars…isn’t it cool.

Copied from https://gobrunch.com/

GoBrunch is a cool platform to conduct webinar, I have explored to use it for one of our event as the platform for virtual event and slightly innovative ways to configure the platform you would make your event participants engaged and make them feel virtual as if they are on brunch table. I would like you to explore GoBrunch and do let me know how you use it and share you experiences in comments. Thank you.

2. VOWEL

Vowel is a video conferencing tool that makes meetings better and more collaborative. Looking at the introductory video “Agenda feature” is cool. I have requested the access to this platform. I will update the features I liked most once I got access. Vowel is great for brainstorms, UX research, daily standups, and planning meetings. You can get transcript of your meeting as text file. cool!!!!

Can’t wait to test the feature of Vowel, no echo even you have multiple participants in the same room.

If you have used it do kindly share your experiences in the comments section.

Web Conferencing

The main purpose of this post is to explore different web conferencing tools available and which one will be appropriate for your needs. I will be focusing more on ZOOM and Microsoft Teams.

	ZOOM	MS Teams	Google Meets	Webex
Maximum members (users) (Free)	100	300	250	100
Maximum members (users)	500	10,000	NA	200
Background blur on video calls	NA	Yes	NA	NA
Share screen	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
White board	Yes (4/5)	Yes (3.5/5)	Yes (3/5)	Yes (4.5/5)
Breakout rooms	Yes (5/5)	Yes (3/5)	No	Yes (2/5)
Teams collaboration features	Yes (4/5)	Yes (4/5)	Yes (5/5)	Yes (4.5/5)
	ZOOM	MS Teams	Google Meets	Webex
Instant Messaging	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Custom Background Image	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cancellation of background sound	Yes	NA	Yes	NA
Video enabled Participants per Screen	49	9	25	NA

Table showing features of different platforms

Each of these tools have their own pros and cons. Most of these platform are giving free access with limited features due to COVID19. Slides of my web conferencing workshops

I am sharing here my video of workshop where I explored Zoom and MS Teams basic features. Try explore and do let me know in comments if you need to know more about these tools.

I would like to share the list.ly list of web conferencing tools. Kindly share your preferred tool/platform and why you pick it? I would appreciate if you could list down three best features of selected tool. Thank you.

Sharing Activities for Last Few Weeks

I would like to share my activities for last few weeks, first activity was our major annual event of International Learning Resources Festival, we have started this festival in 2013 as small event, now with the help of great team from different departments, it grows big and every year we improve our activities and competitions from pervious years. To know details about the event. I am sharing our festival site :

https://elearnzone.imu.edu.my/lrf/2021/

Festival page

During this festival Our team won gold awards for following projects during innovation projects competition.

No	Team	Title
1	Hasnain, Fadzil, Marliana, Dr Hira, Dr Low	DEVELOPMENT OF PHARMACEUTICAL FORMULATION-BASED CASE STUDY USING STORYLINE: A TECHNOLOGY-ENHANCED LEARNING
2	Hasnain, Fadzil, Dr Hira, Leong Mei, Tang Lai	DEVELOPMENT OF E-DEMO AND E-DATA INTERPRETATION TOOL FOR PARTICLE SIZE ANALYZER: A STEP TOWARD TECHNOLOGY-ENHANCED LEARNING
3	Dr. Chan Li Li, Dr. Teoh See Wie, Hasnain Zafar Baloch	HUMAN PARASITOLOGY: MICROSCOPIC DIAGNOSTIC FLASHCARD MOBILE APP
4	Dr. Heethal, Prof Renu, Dr. Htet Htet, Dr. Ismail Abdul Ssttar Burud, Hasnain Zafar Baloch	DEVELOPMENT AND EVALUATION OF AN INNOVATIVE MOBILE APPLICATION ON ANTIBIOTICS FOR PHARMACOLOGY TEACHING AND LEARNING

5th International Conference on Health Professions Education (ICHPE)

The International Conference on Health Professions Education (ICHPE) is one of the premier conferences in the field of Medical Education, hosted in Pakistan by the University of Lahore (UOL). In August 2014, the first ICHPE conference was held in Lahore, the theme of the conference was “Health Professions Education: The Change Imperative”. 

The second ICHPE conference was held after a hiatus of four years, under the theme “Emerging Trends in 21st Century” and was heralded as one of the best Medical Education conferences of that year in Pakistan. The following year the third ICHPE conference was hosted by UOL. Theme of the conference was: Student Centered Education: Missing Piece in the Preceptor’s Belief” and for the second year in a row the conference garnered unbounded praise and appreciation, not just in Pakistan but also from the international participants as well. The 4^thICHPE was one of the largest virtual conferences on medical education and it was attended by 1500 plus delegates. 

We at UOL give utmost importance to the health care issues and the health and safety of our conference attendees and delegates is of paramount importance to us. Catering to the (social distancing concerns) current pandemic, we have decided to host the 5th ICHPE as a virtual conference. This year the theme of the conference is, “TechMed: Changing the landscape of Medical Education through technology Enhanced Learning”. I was invited to conduct preconference workshop for about 3hours on, “Interactive Content Design Using Elearning Tools for Developing Online Learning Experiences”.

Sharing slides I used during my workshop

Online Assessment Design Tools:

I was invited to give a talk on Open Book Exam (OBE), focus of my talk was on online assessment design tools, at symposium, which was a special virtual parallel event to Imamia Medics International’s (IMI) North American Conference. I shared with participants, H5P and demonstrated how to create one best answer (OBA) and show them other options they could use to design online assessment, showed them how to export the assessment items to LMS and how to create items on H5P platform. Sharing with you all slide I refer to during my demonstration.

LinkedIn and YouTube Live

Lastly I would like to share great news that I got approval for going live on LinkedIn, which I was try for several months. Thank you to LinkedIn team for giving me opportunity to got live on my profile. I will be sharing about technology enhanced learning and interviewing experts in the area of medical education and educational technology. Please subscribe to my LinkedIn page.

Currently I am using Prism free live streaming studio so I will be streaming live to my LinkedIn and YouTube channel. I am sharing my YouTube channel feel free to subscribe

https://www.youtube.com/c/HasnainZafar1999

I would like to share micro-credential course on which I have been involved in, It is course which we have been brewing for more than 8 years as internal staff development activity. Now its offered to external participants as a micro-credential course. I would like to share my video in which I explore micro- learning and micro-credentials.

Let me share the flyer, feel free to share and scan QR code to know more about the course.

Thank you if you have reached to this line. Appreciate your feedback.

Happs Live Broadcast Platform

Today I am going to explore Happs broadcast platform. I did my first live broadcast using Happs. Still learning and exploring different features. You could watch my first broadcast.

https://happs.tv/post/plG9U0VZlG6drLIDB9SR

https://happs.tv/post/plG9U0VZlG6drLIDB9SR/embed

Do give me your feedback on my first broadcast. Thank you.