Lessons learned in managing ICT systems for online learning

This paper discusses the challenges faced and lessons learned during the management of an online educational network in Sri Lanka. In all aspects of learning, technology can make a significant impact. Technology, when used appropriately, can be very effective in terms of interactivity among learners, between learners and the content and between learners and teachers, especially in contrast to print-based traditional distance education. Most difficulties that arise are due to constraints of scale, time and space and can be effectively addressed using technology. When implemented effectively, learners, teachers and educational institutions all benefit. Opportunities created in such a context for a country like Sri Lanka are enormous. At the same time, any failure to access teaching/learning material can create a very negative impression and is instantly compared with the face-to-face learning environment. Managing Information and Communication Technology (ICT) systems to cater to the above requirements is a challenging task. A major national initiative in Sri Lanka, the National Online Distance Education Service (NODES) is discussed in this context

Effectiveness of technology to support work based learning: the stakeholders' perspective

Higher education provision typically requires learners to physically attend sessions on campus. The economic climate has changed significantly over the past few years in the UK and globally. Inevitably changes to student funding and the increased competitive nature of the job market have impacted on university teaching. The use of work based learning (WBL) is an alternative flexible form of learning that attempts to tackle these issues. It enables students to learn whilst they work, addressing the funding issues, and enhancing their employability through the acquisition of higher professional qualifications. Often such WBL programmes are designed, delivered and supported from the view of the student and academic staff with little consideration of other stakeholders such as employers, workplace mentors and professional bodies and the input they can bring to enrich the learning and teaching provision. This paper presents the findings from a survey conducted among stakeholders from all four pillars of WBL, namely the learner, the academic environment, the workplace and the external context. Online questionnaires and interviews were carried out with students, tutors, program leaders, employers and professional bodies from four postgraduate programmes at the university. The results show that while there is a reluctance to embrace technology among some academic staff, students are generally positive about using the technology. The survey also demonstrates that there is a lack of creativity and imagination in the use of technology, where often platforms such as virtual learning environments are used simply as repositories for presentation slides, handouts, etc. The results of the study conclude or rather remind all involving parties to pay more emphasis on quality of online programme delivery by embracing technology and use it in novel and imaginative ways to provide a learning and teaching provision fit for the twenty-first century

Diversity of underutilized vegetables and fruit in Sri Lanka: Prioritization for collection, conservation, genetic improvement, and promotion

Despite their crucial role in combating hunger, malnutrition, and poverty, many plant species cultivated as fruits, vegetables, roots, and tuber crops remain neglected and underutilized worldwide, and Sri Lanka is no exception. Integrating these crops into farming systems has the potential to create nutrient-dense, climate-resilient, and sustainable agricultural practices. The study titled "Diversity of underutilized vegetables and fruit in Sri Lanka: prioritization for collection, conservation, genetic improvement, and promotion" highlights the significance of underutilized vegetables and fruits in Sri Lanka's agricultural biodiversity. These often-overlooked crops possess unique nutritional and agronomic traits that could benefit both farmers and consumers. However, they have been overshadowed by more commonly cultivated species and varieties. To safeguard the genetic diversity and potential contributions of these underutilized crops to food security and nutrition, the study emphasizes the need for prioritizing their collection and conservation. Preserving their genetic resources enables researchers and farmers to access a broader range of traits, enhancing resilience to environmental challenges. Additionally, the research underscores the importance of genetic improvement efforts to boost the productivity and adaptability of underutilized vegetables and fruits. Breeding programs focused on priority species can lead to the development of new cultivars with desirable traits, such as increased yield, disease resistance, and improved nutritional content. Moreover, promoting underutilized crops is essential to raise awareness among consumers, retailers, and policymakers about their nutritional benefits and economic potential. By creating market demand and integrating these crops into agricultural systems, their sustainable cultivation and utilization become more viable. In summary, recognizing and prioritizing the diversity of underutilized vegetables and fruits in Sri Lanka is crucial. Through strategic collection, conservation, genetic improvement, and promotion efforts, these crops can significantly contribute to enhancing food security, preserving biodiversity, and supporting sustainable agricultural practices in the country

Effectiveness of Technology to Support Online Work Based Learning: Can Sri Lanka Adopt it?

This paper discusses the outcomes of research conducted in two distinctive cultural contexts, to assess the effectiveness of delivery of higher education using nontraditional methods from the perspective of stakeholders. Higher education provision traditionally requires learners to physically attend sessions on campus. The global economic climate has shifted significantly over the past few years. Changes to student funding and the increased competitive nature of the job market have impacted on University teaching. The use of online education is an alternative and more flexible form of learning that attempts to tackle these issues. Challenges and opportunities in the initiatives of delivery of part-time online learning programmes to those who are at work in Sri Lanka and effectiveness of online learning for work based learning in the UK have shown almost similar teaching, learning and assessment contexts for all stakeholders. It enables students to learn whilst they work, therefore tackling the funding issues, and also enhance their employability through gaining higher educational and professional qualifications. Work based learning has increasingly become an area of interest for the higher education sector in the UK, North America and Australia, but is not so popular in other parts of the world including Sri Lanka. It can support the personal and professional development of students who are already in work. The focus of the learning and development tends to be on the student’s workplace activities. The paper finally presents recommendations to adapt work based learning in Sri Lankan higher education sector

A case study of the effectiveness of the delivery of work based learning from the perspective of stakeholders in Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences at Northumbria University

Work-Based Learning (WBL) has increasingly become an area of interest for the higher education sector. It can be defined as an approach to education where learning towards accredited qualifications is relevant to and draws on the student’s workplace role and situation. This education can take place via a range of delivery methods. For this study, this definition has been further narrowed down to concentrate on WBL that is delivered by the university to those in the workplace and results in accredited higher education qualifications, where the learning contract is rooted in the discipline and draws on the student’s workplace role and situation. Northumbria University is considered one of the leaders in WBL delivery in the UK. All the faculties in the university deliver WBL programmes across a number of different disciplines. These programmes encompass a wide range of delivery formats including face-to-face, correspondence distance and online delivery. The aim of this research study is to contribute to the research in this area by conducting an in depth study of the effectiveness of the delivery of WBL from the perspective of a range of stakeholders including students, programme leaders, tutors, university support services, employers and representatives of professional bodies. There is a wealth of literature that concentrates on the learner and education provider and occasionally the employer but little that has attempted to directly investigate the wider stakeholder environment in which WBL takes place and how this contributes to the effectiveness of the WBL experience. To gain the deep insights needed for such a study, the research approach adopted a case study methodology which included mixed method research techniques for data capture and analysis combining both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The study examined the perspective of stakeholders drawn from five WBL programmes across the disciplines of Engineering, Computing, and Information Sciences delivered by the Faculty of Engineering and Environment at Northumbria University. These programmes primarily use online learning delivery format with some blended learning components and comprise four postgraduate programmes and one undergraduate programme. An online survey was administered among all the students whilst in depth interviews were conducted among all the stakeholders including students. The case study explored the students’ demographic characteristics, experience of WBL and characteristics of their learning experience. Data from the other stakeholders was analysed to both cross validate the students’ feedback and to learn about their own contribution to the effectiveness of the WBL process. The analysis was performed in relation to the three main factors identified to be most influential: quality, access and support. The original contribution to knowledge and the significance of this study can be seen in three different areas. Firstly, eight main themes and three subthemes have emerged from the data analysis of this case study. These themes and sub themes were consolidated through triangulation of the qualitative and quantitative outcomes. They illustrate the key drivers and factors underpinning the effectiveness of WBL in the selected case study and have been used to classify the main strengths and issues of WBL that have emerged from the data and develop a set of recommendations to address the main key issues. For example, ‘Accreditation of Prior Learning’ and ‘Tailoring of Learning Contracts’ emerged as key attractions for students to embark on WBL programmes. The need for the use of technology in learning was highlighted by students to support the distance delivery of content, communications and assessments, whilst academics came out with the issues and challenges which prevented them from being able to use technology effectively. Thus one of the key recommendations arising from this study is the need to provide assistance and support to academics to engage with technology in learning to support WBL. ‘Student isolation’ was found to be an issue in some disciplines where mentor and peer support cannot be facilitated and thus developing approaches that reduce student isolation is another key recommendation. One final example is that a majority of students prefer ‘blended learning’ where distance online learning is combined with some face to face components compared to purely distance online learning. This is a challenge particularly where students are dispersed over a large geographical area. Secondly this research study has considered the range of key stakeholder groups: student, employer, academic and professional body, and their contribution to the effectiveness of WBL programmes. This consideration has highlighted the specific impact they have on the effectiveness of WBL. For example employers’ support was found to be particularly useful for the development of learning contracts and for onsite mentoring support during the lifetime of the students’ studies. Professional bodies contribute through the process of accreditation of WBL programmes/qualifications for students’ professional registration. In this study this proved to be a key motivational factor for the students to embark on WBL. A four pillar model has been constructed to illustrate consideration of the range of stakeholders and this has been applied to two existing WBL frameworks to show how such consideration might be applied in practice. In the first example, the researcher has taken an existing approach to online WBL course design, development and delivery practice and adapted it to include consideration of the range of stakeholders at appropriate times in the process to strengthen the WBL experience. In a second example, the researcher has taken an existing WBL maturity toolkit and shown how it could be adapted to include consideration and input from the full range of stakeholders on the readiness to engage in WBL. The study provides key recommendations to each of the stakeholders separately which should enhance the effectiveness of the WBL provision. The final contribution to knowledge that emerges from this work is focused on each of the embedded units within the case study. Each of these embedded units represents a separate WBL programme and an analysis was performed to highlight the key strengths of each of these programmes and their main deficiencies. For example, the MSc Professional Engineering programme uses 100% tailoring of workplace projects in student learning contracts which benefit the employers. The academics’ role is primarily centered on guiding those students to document the learning outcomes from those workplace projects against their individualised programme learning outcomes. In order to support them better, students felt that academics should upload online content for the more generic topics such as research methodologies which could be new to them and quite challenging to understand. In contrast, the MSc Information and Library Management programme takes a more generic approach to its learning content and has minimal tailoring. The students and employers benefit from application of this learning content to their own environment through assignments and the final MSc project. One approach to further tailor the programme to the needs of the organisation and employee would be to offer more focused module options. This analysis of the individual programmes has helped pinpoint areas for further development. This study has conducted an in depth case study of the effectiveness of the delivery of WBL across three discipline areas at one university. This has not only provided a number of key findings from the case itself but it has also demonstrated the benefits of considering the wider stakeholder contexts in such a study. It also provides exemplars of how others can build on this work to embed these wider stakeholder contexts in WBL toolkits and associated practices to provide enhanced provision

New Pedagogical Models Facilitated by Technology

This paper discusses the outcome of research conducted to assess the effectiveness of Work-Based Learning (WBL) from the perspective of stakeholders. WBL has increasingly become an area of interest for the higher education (HE) sector. It can support the personal and professional development of students who are already in work. The focus of the learning and development tends to be on the student’s workplace activities. Previous research has mainly considered only two stakeholder contexts, namely the learner and the academic institution. The significance of the study stems from extending the stakeholder contexts to include the employer and the professional body. The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of delivery of WBL from the perspective of a range of stakeholders including students, programme leaders (PLs), tutors, university support services, employers and representatives of professional bodies. Case study research methodology was adapted with mixed method research techniques for data capture and analysis using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The study examined five (5) WBL programmes at Northumbria University in the UK. The three most influential factors in the effectiveness of WBL were found to be: quality, access and support. The contribution to new knowledge in WBL research is through a “Four-Pillar model” which has been developed to reflect the stakeholder contexts. Consideration of this model helps ensure WBL programmes cater for the current demands from the labour market. The findings of this study include factors which facilitate and/or obstruct the effective implementation of WBL programmes whilst identifying feasible strategies to overcome those challenges and share them with all stakeholders of WBL. Recommendations are made on resolving the identified issues and to extend and improve the effectiveness of WBL. Finally this paper looks at how these results could apply to encourage WBL uptake in a third world developing country like Sri Lanka where you are starting from a zero base. Sri Lanka is yet to embark on WBL formally although online distance learning is more of a reality

From traditional to technology-based tertiary education in Sri Lanka : perceptions of online learning stakeholders of National Online Distance Education Service (NODES) in Sri Lanka

According to the statistics of the University Grants Commission of Sri Lanka, every year about 125,000 G.C.E. (A/L) qualified students fall into the category of ?denied higher education opportunity? due to the fact that the conventional university system does not have the capacity to accommodate all who are qualified. Online learning has been viewed as a strategy to increase access to higher and continuing education accordingly. The government of Sri Lanka signed an agreement in 2003 with the Asian Development Bank and launched the Distance Education Modernisation Project (DEMP) to modernise the traditional distance education system in the country. As a result, a state-of-the- art network called the National Online Distance Education Service (NODES) has been established by the DEMP in order to facilitate the delivery of online post secondary level programmes developed by the universities and other private and public sector post-secondary educational institutions. The aim of the study was to find out the perceptions of stakeholders on effectiveness of online learning programmes of NODES in Sri Lanka