DefinePK

Abstract

The study had the objectives to compare genderand Locality wise perception of the studentsregarding new initiatives of student support services in O pen and d istance l earning (ODL) atAllama Iqbal Open University ( after COVID 19 Scenario . The study’s purpose was tofind the perceptions of the students about services for them regarding admissions, mailing,tutorials, library, web services etc. and examinations. The population and sample included 1555(266 male and 1289 of two strata as ( 33% with 518 (88 male and 430 female) stud entswere selected respectively that were enrolled in Bachelor of Education (B.Ed. 1.5 Years) duringsemester Spring 2023. The questionnaire was used as research tool. The software, StatisticalPackage for Social Science (SPSS) was applied to analyze the collected data. F requencydistribution and t test for respondents ’ data were found by SPSS software. It was found thatservices related to the examinations d epart ment we re required to be improved . It was concludedthat there was no significant difference among the students regarding admissions, mailing,tutorials, examinations, library, web services and call centre. However, rural and urban studentsperceived that the se rvices regarding examination differently. It was recommended thatimproved and effective use of ICT is imperative to further strengthen the student support servicesby strengthening LMS Portal existing already for ODL for submission of assignments andevaluation as formative as well as summative too For future direction it was suggested that samekind of study may be conducted in each province of Pakistan.