Browsing by Author "Solangaarachchi, D.I.K."

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Ability to use computer software among new medical entrants to the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya
(Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Solangaarachchi, D.I.K.; Kumara, A.A.K.B.; Hettige, S.; Ediriweera, E.P.D.S.
BACKGROUND: Computer software is essential to enhance academic life of students. OBJECTIVES: To describe the level of confidence and ability on using computer software among new entrants to Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya METHODS: Moodle based self-administered questionnaire was given to new entrants in 2015 and 2016 and their perception on the level of confidence, ability and usage were recorded. RESULTS: The results are described according to the 2015 (n=159) and 2016 (n=147) batches respectively. Proportion of males were 27% and 35%. Proportions who could install software in each batch was 20% (n=32 and 29) and could not were 15.7% (n=25) and 27.2% (n=40). Those who could and could not install a printer were 10.1% (n=16)/ 16.3% (n=24) and 30.8% (n=49)/ 34% (n=50) respectively. Proportions who could and could not install a pen drive were 28.9% (n=46)/ 40.1% (n=59) and 15.7% (n=25)/ 17% (n=25) respectively. Nine percent (n=14) and 13.6% (n=20) had used, 63.5% (n=101) and 50.3% (n=74)) were aware but had not used and 27.7% (n=44)) and 36.1% (n=53) were not aware of open source software. CONCLUSIONS: A majority of students had no awareness on software installation and pen drive scanning and have not used open source software at the point of entry to the Medical Faculty.
The Digital lab: a computer lab to replace microscopic slides by virtual slides
(Research Symposium 2010 - Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, 2010) Hettige, S.; Solangaarachchi, D.I.K.; Thilakawansa, H.K.D.D.; Pathmeswaran, A.
Introduction Traditional medical curriculum includes many laboratory classes where students learn to recognize microscopic structures and pathological changes by looking at prepared slides using light microscopes. The periodic preparation of identical sets of slides is not an easy task.The use of virtual microscopic slides as a cost effective solution to the use of traditional microscopes at lab classes in the Faculty of Medicine is described. Materials and Methods The digital lab is equipped with 65 PCs and a server. Server is run on Linux platform while the PCs have both Windows Vista and Ubuntu platform access. Moodle learning management system is used to deliver lessons that contain virtual slides prepared by the teaching staff. Open source virtual network computing software is used to mirror the teachers computer screen to students desktop when required. The microscopic simulation of zooming is done by mapping area in the virtual slides in HTML pages to the correct slides that is available in another HTML page using tag. This is done by using Amaya Web Editor. The traditional lab class teaching method is enhanced by adding Java scripts, audio clips, and video clips to the teaching materials. Results Discussion The teachers can upload the lesson to the server and make assignments via the LAN. The students are given access to the virtual material any time. The problem of vanishing slides near the exams will be also solved. We did not incur any expenses on software as we have used open source software and Windows OS through Microsoft Academic Alliance.
Experience and confidence with commonly used computer related tasks: survey results of new medical entrants to the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya
(Sri Lanka Medical Association, 2017) Solangaarachchi, D.I.K.; Gunathilaka, H.K.T.S.; Hettige, S.; Ediriweera, D.S.
INTRODUCTION & OBJECTIVES: In today’s world, skills related to usage of computers play an important role in the academic life of students. A survey was conducted with the objective of comparing the level of experience and confidence on a selected set of commonly used computer related tasks between male and female new entrant medical students to the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya. METHODS: Data was collected from 155 first year students in 2017 using a Moodle based selfadministered questionnaire. Chi square test was used in calculating statistical significance. RESULTS: Male students represented 43% of those surveyed. Previous experience with performing tasks related to day-to-day computer usage were all reported at a statistically significant (p<0.01) higher rate among males compared to females: installing software (91% vs 48%), installing a printer (54.5% vs 26%), taking printouts (71% vs 55%), scanning documents (30% vs 13.5%), scanning a pen drive (94% vs 73%) and writing a CD/DVD (73% vs 47%). With regard to those with reported high level of confidence in performing these tasks, males were again ahead of females: installing software (50% vs 12%), installing a printer (27% vs 2%), taking printouts (35% vs 21%), scanning documents (15% vs 3%), scanning a pen drive (51.5% vs 22.5%) and writing a CD/DVD (44% vs 12%). Except for taking printouts and scanning documents, all other tasks showed a statiscally significant difference between the sexes. CONCLUSION: Past experience and level of confidence in frequently required computer based tasks are significantly lower among female new entrant medical students compared to their male colleagues.
Three decades of CMJ - an analysis using PubMed
(Sri Lanka Medical Association, 2003) Mendis, K.; Weerabaddana, C.; Solangaarachchi, D.I.K.; Wanniarachchi, C.H.
OBJECTIVE: The Ceylon Medical Journal (CMJ) is the only Sri Lankan medical journal that is indexed in MEDLJNE, the largest electronic bibliographic medical database. Publications in the CMJ from 1965 March to 2001 December were analyzed using the PubMed interface of MEDLINE. METHOD: Using PubMed we download the CMJ bibliography in MEDLINE format. Important tagged fields were written to a MS-Access database using a Visual Basic program. The analysis was done using Access-SQL and PubMed queries. RESULTS: There were 1472 citations by 1373 authors. The top 10 authors contributed 15.6% and the top 25, 30.1% of the articles. Lamabadusuriya SP(32), Uragoda CG(31), de Silva HJ(28), de Silva DG(23) and Lucas GN(22) were the top contributors. 944 authors had only one and 176 had two articles. Publications types were: 84.9% 'journal articles', 12.8% letters, 5.2% reviews and 5.1% historical articles. Randomized controlled trials were 0.7%, meta-analysis 0.1%. Articles were classified using 2 to 44 keywords (average 11.4, mode 9) from the MeSH vocabulary. Articles published that were classified under'broad disease categories were: Neoplasm ,174(11.82%), Cardiovascular 159(10.8%), Nervous system 157(10.67%), Endocrine, nutritional and metabolic 157(10.67%), Digestive system 151(10.26%), Musculoskeletal, skin and connective tissue 131(8.9%), Respiratory 113(7.68%). DISCUSSION: For the majority of the 1373 authors, publishing in the CMJ was a onetime affair whilst the top 50 authors contributed for nearly half (46.4%). A by-product of this research is an offline CMJ database system with menu driven search facilities, which will be a useful tool for researchers.
Use of Library and Internet Facilities for Seeking Information among Medical Students at Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya
(Faculty of Computing and Technology, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Solangaarachchi, D.I.K.; Marasinghe, M.P.L.R.; Abeygunasekera, C.M.; Hewage, S.N.; Thulani, U.B.
Information plays a vital role in education. Students are always seeking information as an aid for their studies. With the development of the internet, which is proving to be an incomparable information resource for learning and research, students are more inclined to use it for finding information. For medical students, many of the tools that support medical education and transmit health research are now available online. There are e-books, e-journals, subject-specific databases, academic and professional websites with numerous educational resources. Therefore, the internet is considered as a rich information resource that can support medical education worldwide. The study was conducted with the objective of assessing the frequency and purposes of using the faculty library and internet facilities by medical students of Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya. A survey was carried out from May to June 2016 on MBBS students at Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya. Students who are in their second to fifth academic years were included in the study while first year students were excluded as they were considered to be still in a period of adjustment to the system. Data collection was done using a self-administered questionnaire distributed among the students that visited the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) centre and medical library of the faculty. Two hundred forty six (85%) students responded to the questionnaire. This consisted of 27% (n=67), 20% (n=48), 30% (n=75) and 23% (n=56) from year 2 to 5 respectively. According to the responses provided in the survey, information required by medical students are mainly sought by library material (70.3%), the internet (59.3%), using personal text books (54.9%) and discussions with colleagues (37.4%). Only 13.9% of the students stated that they visited the library at least once a day, while 33.9% goes there several times a week. Those that visit the library once a week or less, but more than once a month represented 30.2% of the responders. A considerable proportion (22%) visits the library less than once a month (or never goes there). The main resources accessed in the library by students were: textbooks (92.7%), past papers (36.2%) and journals (4.9%). When it comes to frequency of internet usage 82.8% of the medical students stated that they accessed it several times per day. While 11.9% accessed internet only once a day and 5.3% accessed internet less frequently than that. Devices used by the responders for accessing the internet included smartphones (55.7%), tablets (32.9%), laptops (32.9%) and desktops (13.0%). When it comes to data access method for connecting to the internet, mobile data (75.8%) and Wi-Fi (73.2%) were most prominently featured, whereas dongle connections (20.3%) and wired connections (3.7%) were less popular. The most frequent reasons noted for accessing the internet were: for finding information related to studies (53.3%), for emailing (30.1%) and using social media such as Facebook (37.0%). Based on the responses of the sampled students, the faculty internet facilities (Wi-Fi or wired) were used by 80.9%. The times of the day for logging on to the faculty internet for most students were ‘12 noon-2 pm’ period (47.5%) and ‘after 4 pm’ period (22.8%). When inquired about problems faced while finding information via the internet: 55.3% noted connection being too slow as an issue, while 34.6% found the inability to access faculty network E-resources outside of the faculty as a hindrance. The other issues expressed were: not having enough time (16.7%), lack of ICT knowledge (6.9%), inadequate information searching skills (6.9%) and not having a device to connect to the internet (2.4%). The results show that even though less than 50% of the sampled students are regular (at least several times a week) visitors to the library, over 70% seek information related to their studies from library material. In contrast, while nearly 95% of the students were daily internet users, only around 60% used it as a source of information. Only about 53% utilised the internet for their academic requirements. The efforts of the university in providing internet facilities appears to have been worthwhile, with over 80% stating that they are consumers of the faculty Wi-Fi and/or wired internet connections. Yet, mobile data connections were the most frequently noted method of obtaining web access. This is reflected by the finding that smartphones and tablets were the most frequently used devices when accessing the web compared to laptops and desktops. The finding of the study that; more than one fifth of the students rarely visit the library could probably mean that they rely on personal text books in their studies. In addition it could also be a reflection of the influence of ICT in academic activities of students. These findings could be explained by the ever increasing influence of ICT in education as well as day-to-day life. Especially, availability of Wi-Fi within the faculty, affordability of mobile internet connections and, handheld devices like smartphones and tablets becoming versatile while also becoming accessible for most people has clearly made an impact in this regard. Recent upgrades to the faculty internet facilities may alleviate the complaint of slowness in connection. Expanding the Wi-Fi network to student hostels and the North Colombo Teaching Hospital at Ragama would help in addressing unavailability of faculty network E-resources outside of the faculty. Even though library based information seeking is still prominently featured, findings of the study show a possible shift towards the internet becoming the main source for information among medical students. The faculty medical library and ICT centre have to be sensitive when it comes to student information source preferences. By working together and adapting to the changing landscape, these two departments of the faculty could play an ever increasing role in improving students’ use of educational resources online.