International Postgraduate Research Conference (IPRC)

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    Open Educational Resources (OER) and Social Media (SM) for Academic Information Seeking at Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya
    (International Postgraduate Research Conference 2019, Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2019) Hettige, S.; Wickramaarachchi, G.K.; Dasanayaka, I.P.E.U.; Ediriweera, E.P.D.S.
    Use of Open Educational Resources (OER) and Social media (SM) for academic information seeking is a common practice among modern undergraduates. There are limited data in Sri Lanka on OER and SM use as educational tools. This study aimed to evaluate the use of OER and SM for academic purposes among the medical students at Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya. We undertook a cross sectional study at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Kelaniya. Stratified sampling with proportional allocation was used to select students from each batch and 287 students were recruited from 1st to 5th year. Informed written consent was obtained and a self-administered questionnaire was given. The questionnaire consisted of questions on OER and SM use in academic activities along with the frequency of usage. 257completed questionnaires were analyzed. Of 257 (89.6%) respondents, 185 (72.0%) were females. The OER and SM use in education were 92.5% (95%CI: 89.3% - 95.8%) and 89.0% (95%CI: 85.2% - 92.6%) respectively. Both findings were not significantly different by gender or between academic years. The reasons for using OER in education included: the availability of information at any time (38.1%), easiness to search (33.9%), availability of detailed information (17.3%) and updated information (7.2%). Wiki sites (89.0%) were the most popular OER followed by Slide Share (37.2%) and e-journals (20.3%). 3.8% participated in medical forums. 53.4% believed information in wikis are reliable. Facebook (79.8%) was the commonest SM platform followed by YouTube (60.3%) and Google+ (50.2%). 79.0% used SM to follow the medical related web sites. 76.3% used SM to join education groups. 41.2% used SM in academic discussions and sharing information with group of foreign students. 35.8% could not find academic information via SM due to the information overload. 31.1% mentioned that the SM disturbed concentration on their academic works. 12.5% did not trust the contents in SM. Students also searched the web to find the information. 58.9% trusted the information without considering the source and only 36.4% specifically searched the information in educational and government related sites. Majority of students have used OER and SM for academic purposes. Wiki sites and Facebook were the most popular OER site and SM platform among students. Majority students trusted the information found on web search without considering the credibility of sources. E-journals are not popular among students. The majority had followed the medical related web sites and joined educational groups via SM. Disturbances to academic works and difficulty in finding accurate information were major concerns in using SM. This study highlights the importance of improving information literacy among the medical students
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    The Role of Social Media with Regard to ‘Time- Space Compression: With Special Reference to the Ethnic Conflict in Sri Lanka
    (19th Conference on Postgraduate Research, International Postgraduate Research Conference 2018, Faculty of Graduate Studies,University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2018) Latheef, F.S.
    Ethnic conflict is one of the biggest problems in the modern era. Since the World War II the history has showed us how media can be directly involved in ethnic conflicts. Sudan, Rwanda, Yugoslavia, UK-Northern Ireland, Spain, Chechnya, Turkey and Sri Lanka are current examples of these conflicts. The ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka showed a new dimension of conflicts that crippled the whole nation for a long time. In Sri Lanka, an un-armed conflict between major communities has caused mass human rights violations and loss of human lives and; strained the economy and damaged the environment. In this study, basically the following points will be examined: 1) what are the connections between ethnic conflict and the media; 2) how do Sri Lankan Social media framed the ethnic conflict; 3) what role do the Social media can play to prevent/resolve ethnic conflicts. The study also includes comparison of fundamental approaches of peace journalism, war journalism and reconciliation towards the Ethnic conflict. Although most of the examples brought by the literature review that shows what role the social media played in ethnic conflicts are negative. According to Preliminary data, in today’s conflicts media have a pivotal role to play, as an arena and as an actor in the political system. Influence of the media is closely related to the conflict dimensions pertaining to the communication of attitudes and perceptions that influence legitimacy and credibility in any political system. Social media operates on virtual world and given that it is not easy to control their usage due to its anonymity; we can only deal with the root causes. The root causes of ethnic hatred are historical injustices, lack of media objectivity in coverage, politics based on ethnic blocks, and economic injustices that exclude members of certain ethnic groups (KHRC REPORT, 2008). Some control policies can also be employed at secondary level to achieve some control, especially those that come at times of crisis. For example, closing up of all accounts (Such as Facebook accounts) disseminating ethnic hatred through the web hosts can safe a great deal. Social media violence can intensify and translate to physical war in future if not controlled. It can also be used to fuel already erupted violence and this can result to prolonged violence if not checked. Also from time to time, social media has created new dynamics in relation to ethnic conflict is Sri Lanka. Therefore, the author of this paper attempts to identify those dynamics. In the study will be conclude that the Social media can play a major effective, positive role to prevent or reconcile ethnic conflicts and to contribute to the post conflict resolution, reconciliation and peace building