Teaching Technology
From UCSC Wiki
Our core business is education. Educational technology has developed greatly from the times when we as a country learnt from the colonial masters. We have however not really kept pace with these developments but largely continue the same practices which were practiced by those that went before us in Sri Lanka. The Staff Development Centre of the University of Colombo has done alot to try to put this right, but very few institutions have shown corporate committment to adopting international best practice.
At UCSC we have the relative flexibility to implement these new practices and failure to do so would tantamount to academic laziness! This space is for us to share our experiences and reading on this important topic.
IT Knowledge and Skill of Undergraduates in Higher Education Institutes
[Full Report[1]]
Towers of Learning
TOL is a Worldbank publication co-authored by an alumni of the UoC, Dr. Harsha Athurupane. The executive summary is available in English, Sinhala and Tamil. Below is a summary of the Chapters of the full publication (available at UCSC in hard copy).
Chapter 1: The Higher Education Sector in Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka's future in the global knowledge economy of the 21st century depends critically on the country's intellectual and human capital. The ability of people to think and act creatively, work industriously and productively, and innovate and adapt available technologies to strengthen economic activities is cardinally important in the modern world.
Chapter 2: Access to, and Coverage of, Higher Education
There are two ways to look at enrollment in the higher education sector: the first one is a comparison with the relevant age group, the second a comparison with the pool of secondary education graduates. In both cases, international comparisons allow a useful perspective. The overall gross enrollment rate (GER) in higher education of about 21 percent of the relevant age group puts Sri Lanka ahead of the South Asia Region.
Chapter 3: Enhancing Higher Education Quality
The quality of higher education is perceived to be unsatisfactory in the public discourse and the media. International experience suggests that all rapidly increasing systems of higher education do lose their initial level of quality, which they tend to recover once the system stabilizes. It is likely that Sri Lanka is exactly at this juncture, characteristic of the transition stage which the country is currently experimenting.
Chapter 4: Governance of the Higher Education System
Sri Lanka has recently produced several important policy documents that should influence the future direction of the higher education sector:
- Increasing access by enabling more choices in courses and modes of learning for all prospective students;
- Enhancing quality and upgrade standards with emphasis on employability and to cope with national developmental needs and global competitiveness;
- Fostering a culture of scholarship and research; and
- Ensuring accountability, sound performance and financial sustainability.
Chapter 5: The Economic and Social Relevance of Higher Education
In terms of demographic profile, Sri Lanka is still a relatively young country with over 43 percent of the population below 25 years. In overall terms, the current phase of changes indicates that Sri Lanka’s demographic environment is conducive to rapid economic development, subject to the condition that necessary socio-economic policies are in place to realize maximum benefit.
Chapter 6: Planning and Financing Higher Education-Scenarios and Trade-offs
The development of the higher education sector, across all its dimensions of access and coverage, quality, governance and relevance, will require substantial resources as the country spends a substantially smaller portion of its national wealth on education than its comparators, regardless of their level of development.
Chapter 7: Higher Education Developing-Accelerating Progress
The higher education system has served Sri Lanka well in some areas, and performed badly in others. The development of the higher education sector will be of immense benefit and value to Sri Lanka.
Constructive Alignment
A term coined by John Biggs, Constructive Alignment brings together two ideas from constructivist theory and teaching learning practice.
The first of these terms refers to a social theory of learning called constructivism which basically states that contrary to prior popular belief that knowledge is some abstract thing 'out there' to be learned, in reality it is created or constructed by individuals in a give socio-cultural context. As such, unless what is taught is personalized or 'customized' by the learner, no real learning can be said to have taken place. This view of knowledge and learning forces the teacher to concentrate more on creating an environment condusive to 'experiencing' learning through teaching-learning activities (TLA's) rather than mere knowledge communication through spoken or written words.
The second term refers to the way in which such a constructivist theory of knowledge and learning can be most effectively put into practice in the way we plan, deliver content and assess achievement. Fundamentally it states that just good planning of objectives, effective delivery strategies and content, and a variety of assessment techniques alone would not guarantee success. Rather, it is the alignment of the objectives/outcomes with a variety TLA's (to cater to different learning styles) and what is then assessed will ensure that effective learning occurs.
Opinion
Article by Dr. Nalin Ranasinghe
External Links
What is Constructive Alignment?
Workshop on CA, LTA, and Collaborative Learning
Workshop on Constructive Alignment and Teaching & Learning Activities (TLA)
This workshop is conducted to improve the learning environment for UCSC students.
The intended outcome of workshop activities:
After activities of workshop activities, the participants should be able to:
- define what constructive alignment is in relation to own courses
- demonstrate how constructive alignment can be implemented in own courses in regards to syllabi and student manual
- demonstrate how to implement constructive alignment as regards to teaching and learning activities (TLA)
- to evaluate and suggest improvements in regards to constructive alignment
- to implement activities in own courses to enhance collaborative learning
- evaluate and propose improvements in the process of creating course content, from syllabi to design of activities and creating content
To whom: UCSC Academic Staff of UCSC
Pre-workshop Activity:
It is vital for the outcome of workshop and other activities that participating members will do following preparation work.
1. Go through part 1 of Theory and Practice of Online Learning, Andersson & Elloumi (soft copies are distributed) Media:TPOL_book.pdf 2. Read selected parts from Multimedia for Learning, Alessi & Trollip Media:CA1.pdf 3. Read the article Aligning teaching and assessing to course objectives by Biggs Media:AlessiPart.pdf 4. Review the materials available from eBIT project site (especially materials available from November 2005, http://lms.ucsc.cmb.ac.lk/ebit and the discussion on the syllabi in jan-feb 2006 http://lms.ucsc.cmb.ac.lk/ebit/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=56 ).
5. List pros and cons of e-learning and constructive alignment in regards to your courses
6. Article on definitions of and differences between collaborative and cooperative learning, by Dr Ted Panitz: http://home.capecod.net/~tpanitz/tedsarticles/coopdefinition.htm
7. List suggestions of collaborative activities for your course
Successful Academic Writing Workshop http://www.ucsc.cmb.ac.lk/wiki/images/c/cc/Workshop_on_Successful_Academic_Writing_Notice_.pdf
