The Islamic Online University strives to provide quality education at an affordable cost​ for all. It is among the aims of the University to constantly evaluate its teaching methods and to incorporate new techniques of andragogy to ​provide better ​and increasingly flexible online learning experience to our students. In conformity with the aims stated above, from Fall 2015 semester, the University will be introducing a new model of tutorial​ ​support for some of our undergraduate and postgraduate degree, diploma and certificate program students,​ in sha Allah​. ​This method will be gradually expanded to all the courses, bi’idhnillah.​

The new model of tutorial support​ will ​replace the existing system of live sessions (that required students to be online at specific times) with supplementary recorded tutorial sessions. The recordings of these supplementary tutorial sessions will be available 24/7 for the students to watch online and download. Students can pause and repeat the recordings of the supplementary tutorial sessions in order to develop better understanding, take extensive notes, review certain parts, and to revise as necessary.

The programs in which this new method will come into effect are as follows:

• BA in Islamic Studies (Semesters 1 to 8 except ARB 101, TAJ 101 and TAJ 102)
• Bridge Diploma to MAIS (Semesters 1 to 3 except ARB 101)
• BSc, Diploma, and Certificate in Psychology (Semesters 1 to 3)
• BSc, Diploma, and Certificate in Islamic Economics, Banking and Finance (Semesters 1 to 3)
• Intensive Arabic Program (Semesters 1 to 3)
• BEd, Diploma, and Certificate of Education (Semesters 1 to 3)

The new structure will be applicable for the Open Education Program students as well.

As of now, the new method of tutorial support will not apply to the MAIS degree program and semester 4 courses and onwards for the programs identified above. The live sessions will continue to be held.

For the above stated programs included in the new model, there will be no marks for attending the live sessions. The 5% marks of the live session attendance have now been added to the assignments – increasing it to 15%.

The evaluation scheme for the new structure will be as follows:  

This new evaluation scheme will provide opportunity to the students to secure more marks for the efforts exerted in the research conducted for the assignments.

The student-teacher interaction will remain the same as before, where they will have the opportunity to contact the tutorial assistants via the designated Ask the TA forums for each course to clarify their doubts about the study materials, engage in intellectual discussions, and to have group discussions. Thus, enabling the IOU to adopt a student-centered study environment.

​In addition, there will be 2 live sessions per course per semester – one before the midterm exam and one before the final exam – where students may interact with the TA live and ask any questions they have related to the course. Attendance in these sessions is optional. ​The recordings will be available to watch online and download.