ICT team
Prof. S. A. Norbert – Deputy Coordinator ICT Skills
Dr. S.P. Premarathne/Prof. S.A. Norbert: Arts
Ms. P. Jasingha/Mr. Jude Nonis: Education
Ms. Shanthi Gamage: Law
Dr. M.P.P. Dharmadasa/ Mr. Ramesh Rajasuriya: Management & Finance
Prof. Hemantha Senanayake/ Dr. Indika Karunathilake: Medicine
Prof.D.P. Dissanayake: Science
Mr. Rajesh Hettiarachchi: Sri Palee
ICT activities
All six faculties and the Sripalee campus of the University of Colombo were benefitted from the UDG project. Wi Fi internet connections were provided to all faculties and various types of IT equipment were also provided depending on the needs of each faculty.
Students enjoy the wi-fi access outside class rooms
New software packages were procured and courses were upgraded using those software packages in some faculties. Establishing Web-based Teaching and Learning (ICT) Systems in the faculties of Arts, Management & Finance, and Law was completed and students are expected to get used to the new system gradually. Use of the web-based materials is being promoted by the respective faculties. Web based teaching is to be continued under IDAS grant of the HETC project in Arts Faculty. Certificate programme on ICT and advanced courses on GIS and SPSS were also introduced after procurement of respective software in the Faculty of arts. Students at the Faculty of Education are also benefited as they do their studies at the Faculty of Arts in the first two years. Certificate Course in Financial Mathematics and Modelling was introduced for students in Faculty of Science after the procurement of Math Lab software. Procurement of Gaussian software helped Chemistry undergraduates, postgraduates and academic staff to conduct molecular modelling experiments. Since the activities were spreaded throughout the project period, it may be too early to see a significant improvement.
Physical facilities developed In order to improve the ICT skills of the undergraduates in different faculties varied according to the needs of the faculties.
The Advanced Certificate Course in GIS, SPSS and Computer Applications conducted under UDG Grant, was conducted at the laboratory equipped with HETC funds at the Faculty of Arts. These three courses were conducted twice for the undergraduate students of the Faculty of Arts, University of Colombo free of charge in 2013-14. Future certificate programs will be conducted for a fee to sustain the program in the years to come.
The certificate courses introduced to the Faculty of Arts were developed through a consultancy with UDG support. These are online courses with some class room components. Students with some basic knowledge in ICT are able to follow these courses on their own.
The screen shots of “On-line” Materials for the Certificate course on “Multimedia and Web development”
The screen shots of “on-line” Materials for the Certificate course on “GIS”
In addition, web-based teaching was also promoted in the faculty and this in turn promoted students to acquire ICT skills to be able to access these online materials. Instructional designing of self-learning materials for students also was supported through a consultancy through the UDG project. To support the faculty LMS a computer server was provided to the Faculty of Arts through the UDG project. This practice is going to be promoted and expanded under HETC IDAS grants.
Web-based Teaching and Learning (ICT) Systems developed in faculties of Arts, Management & Finance, and Law
- DMG 1101 Introduction to Demography– Faculty of Arts
- MOS 1300 Management Process and Practice – Faculty of Management & Finance
- GYG 4292 Geography of Tourism & Recreation– Faculty of Arts
- ECN 3132 Mathematical Economics– Faculty of Arts (will be completed shortly)
- Retail Marketing– Faculty of Management & Finance(course content will be changed)
Screen shots of the on-line materials developed for the Faculty of Management & Finance
A major renovation of ICT laboratory was done to accommodate 50 students in the Faculty of Law and networking of the ICT laboratory also was done through the UDG project. This will promote usage of computer facilities by the students. The certificate courses and advanced courses in ICT are to be offered to the students of the Faculty of Law too, however it will be introduced after the end of the UDG grant due to delays encountered. In the Faculty of Management & Finance civil work of ICT laboratory was completed to expand the laboratory to accommodate 100 students at a time and 20 computers were provided through the UDG project.
“Virtual Learning Centre” (VLC) or the “Computer Assisted Laboratory” of the Faculty of Medicine was strengthened by providing 63 computers and completing civil work to improve the arrangement and networking of the laboratory. Although improving the networking of the VLC was planned to be completed through the UDG project, the Faculty of Medicine was successful to find funds for this purpose from a different source. Since the VLC is also accommodating Language laboratory of the faculty, which was started under IRQUE project, this improvement to the laboratory will enhance facilities for development of ICT skills as well as Language skills of the students.
“Virtual Learning Centre” at the Faculty of Medicine was used to conduct the “Development of on-line material for web-based teaching” workshop under UDG to the staff members
Software packages of SPSS, MathLab and Gaussian were procured for the Faculty of Science through the UDG project. These are being used by undergraduate students as well as postgraduate students. In addition, these are also used by the academic staff for research purposes. The course units where Gaussian software is being used are CH 2003 – Practical Chemistry, CH 3075- Practical Chemistry, CH 3090 – Practical Computational Chemistry and CH 4008 -Research project. MathLab is being used in MS 1002 – Linear programming, MS 1004 – Computing in finance, FM 1002 – Mathematical methods for finance I, FM 2001 – Computational financial mathematics I, FM 2004 – Mathematical methods for finance II, FM 3004 – Numerical methods for finance, AM 1001 – Differential equations, AM 4002 – Quantitative methods, AM 4003 – Actuarial mathematics, AM 4007 – Research project, AM 4011 – Research project, PH 1020 – Physics laboratory (I), PH 2021 – Electronics and computing laboratory (II), PH 3010 – Microcontrollers and embedded systems design, PH 3020 – Computational physics laboratory, PH 3032 – Embedded systems laboratory and PH 4031 – Engineering physics laboratory. SPSS software is being used in IS 1001 – Basic statistics in business, IS 1005 – Statistical computing, IS 3002 – Statistic in practice, IS 4002 – Advanced statistical modelling, ST 3006 – Regression analysis, ST 3072 – Applied regression analysis and ST 4002 – Generalized linear models. A computer server was also provided to the Faculty of Science to support the LMS and to initiate web based teaching and learning. The Certificate program on SPSS was conducted and it was offered to undergraduate students free of charge. Certificates of participation was awarded to those students who successfully participate with 100% attendance.
Research papers published using Gaussian software (Computational and Theoretical Chemistry, Volume 1032, 15 March 2014, Pages 50–55, Computational and Theoretical Chemistry, Volume 1028, 15 January 2014, Pages 60–64)
In the Sripalee campus a new ICT laboratory called “Virtual Learning Canter” was newly established under the UDG project. This laboratory was equipped with 25 computers, chairs and tables for the computes and a laptop computer. Networking of the computers was also supported through the UDG project. A server was provided to support the LMS of the campus. This laboratory is now being used for undergraduate teaching purposes. With the new laboratory the time allocated for practical classes was increased. This laboratory is also used for other subject such as radio production, audio editing, video editing etc. Providing online facilities is being promoted in the campus now. These facilities are to be further improved through HETC-IDAS grant to the campus. SPSS software was also provided to the SriPalee campus to improve statistical and analytical skills of the students. LMS is being installed to provide distant learning facilities. Server is being used for uploading lesson materials.
Two rounds of UCTIT examination was held for all seven faculties/campus. In the first round total of 1826 students registered to face this examination, however only 1157 sat for the test. 618 students were successful in part 1 and received a pass mark.