Browsing by Author "Rupasinghe, Thilini P."

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Development of a model to enhance students’ engagement in asynchronous online lectures
(Faculty of Graduate Studies - University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2021) Rupasinghe, Thilini P.
A key challenge faced by Sri Lankan educators in recent years is the emergency and unplanned shift to online teaching from traditional face-to-face teaching, as a consequence unexpected Covid -19 outbreak. This was totally a new experience for Sri Lankan university students as well as for academics and was a huge challenge to the whole community owing to several issues such as lack of internet access, lack of available devices, lack of experience and financial and social issues. Despite these challenges, educators moved forward with online teaching by conducting lectures in real-time synchronous mode (via zoom / Teams platforms) and asynchronous mode (recorded lectures). And out of these two, the asynchronous mode was more popular among students due to facts such as any time accessibility to materials which reduced the cost as students could access them when data rates are lower, ability to repeat the lectures and go through them over and over and flexibility. However, a key disadvantage of asynchronous mode is the lack of student engagement and lack of active learning, which are principle components of lifelong and meaningful undergraduate education. This paper discusses the development and the implementation of the following model to overcome this issue and make the asynchronous learning process more active with enhanced student- lecturer interaction. In this model, major theory components were introduced to students using short lectures videos (< 20 mins) developed through the concept of micro-learning, followed by a worksheet related to the theoretical component covered in the video. Students were given 2 days to complete this and upload it to the LMS. Further, the forum question feature available in the Moodle platform was successfully utilized to create a dynamic environment by enhancing students’ engagement and participation. Deliberately developed questions covering common misconceptions were posted as forum questions and the students were given marks for answering these questions. And, the lecturer was also actively involved in the process by providing feedback to their answers. After the submission of the worksheet, the lecturer conducted a real-time online session called “Virtual office hour”, which was designed to answer questions of students. Key feature of this session was, students were asked to come up with questions they have related to theory component, worksheet and the forum questions. This solely was a student driven session and was structured to be different from a typical tutorial session by putting the students in the driving seat of learning, thus making it more active learning. Participation in this virtual session was entirely voluntarily and if students have unclear theory parts, they were encouraged to join and get them clarified. Finally, students were given a challenge question which requires higher order thinking, which allowed the instructor to gain an insight into the level of students’ understanding. Further, students’ perception on this model was investigated using a questionnaire and according to data, a higher degree of student satisfaction was observed. Moreover, the proposed model helps to increase students’ trust in the teacher’s care of their learning, which is crucial in the current online teaching paradigm.
Model for Integration of Technology in Authentic Education-An interpretation of a literature Review
(Faculty of Computing and Technology (FCT), University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2021) Manjaree, Bhagya; Liyanage, Laalitha S.I.; Rupasinghe, Thilini P.; Tillekaratne, Aashani; de Silva, K.M.N.
This literature review is conducted to identify, appraise and synthesize empirical evidence of a filtered list of recent literature regarding methods in which technology could be integrated to facilitate authentic learning pedagogy. A protocol was developed to carry out a search for screening[1]. iDiscover search engine of University of Cambridge library was used for selection and filtering of the articles for their appropriateness. Critical appraisal was performed and data was extracted to map, conceptualize and synthesize the proposed tripod model for integration of technology in authentic education. This model depicts the findings in three zones namely, foundational layer, operational layer and the stage which is the platform for authentic education. Understanding the landscape of the tripod model for integration of technology in authentic education could be quite decisive in selecting the best-fit technological tool. This article argues about how technological interventions could enhance the outcomes of authentic education and the need of an appropriate pedagogical strategy to align such interventions to the elements of authentic education.
Parents' and Students’ Perceptions of the Education System of Sri Lanka
(SLTC Research University, 2022) Manjaree HS, Bhagya; Tillekaratne, Aashani; Rupasinghe, Thilini P.; Liyanage, Laalitha S.I.
Twenty-first-century skills such as critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity, are widely accepted as skills in high demand within modern working environments. National school curricula reforms in Sri Lanka attempt to propose pedagogies that disseminate content and design assessments to promote twentyfirst- century skills. However, whether all stakeholders of the national school education agree to include such skills should be investigated before changes to curricula, policies and practices are implemented. The purpose of this study is to survey the perceptions of the main stakeholders of the national education system in Sri Lanka. The perceptions of parents, and students were investigated in this study. Seventeen (17) participants including nine (09) parents; three (03) school students, and five (05) vocational/degree level students) representing different social and educational backgrounds participated in the study. A standardized, semi-structured, open-ended questionnaire was conducted through virtual meeting mode. The 'Naturalized' transcription method was adopted in this study. Open coding of data revealed that more than 80% of the participants exhibited awareness of global 'good' practices and believed in the vital need for a change of policy and/or practice within the existing system. In addition, the participants expressed the need to improve students' emotional and attitudinal aspects within school setups. Interestingly some highlighted the need to consider external and control factors affecting policy/practice changes in education.