Specialist Options

  • Distance Learning/ blended learning
  • OERs
  • MOOCs
  • Supporting and tutoring learners
  • Accessibility

Distance Learning/ blended learning

I have a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Reading (Appendix 2 – PhD Certificate) and my thesis was on “ICT for distance education in Sri Lanka: a case study of two universities”. My thesis was examined by Prof. Steve Wheeler from Plymouth University. Thus I am a specialist in distance learning and blended learning. Currently I am working as an Instructional Designer for the College of Estate Management a distance learning provider. I have published in peer-reviewed journals in topics relevant to this area please see the publication list here Appendix 22 - Publication List.

Reflection

When writing my PhD thesis proposal on elearning for distance education, in 2007, I never imagined that I would be a known researcher in the learning technologies field in distance education. With my background and experience in developing world I have an advantage of being able to relate to the real world situation when looking for solutions that work well in different contexts. I have presented my work at the Unisa Cambridge International Conference on Distance Education in 2013 and my presentation was fully sponsored by the Commonwealth of Learning. Please see publication list for details Appendix 22 - Publication List.

OERs

Open Educational Resource movement is a topic close to my heart. I have been a committee member of the OER15 conference organizing committee working with ALT and OER community. My specific role was on the committee’s abstract subcommittee in dealing with abstract submissions, reviews, evaluations and selection of papers to be presented at the conference. This gave me the opportunity to get to know leading academics in the OER discipline such as Prof. Martin Weller. I am a member of the peer-review committee for the special issue focusing on “Advancing research on open education” for the Journal of Computing in Higher Education to be published autumn 2016. I also have publications relating to OERs – please see my publications list here Appendix 22 - Publication List.

Reflection

When I create content that I can share (not restricted by contracts), I try to make them accessible via the web. My YouTube videos on Java installation have become popular according to the ratings and viewings. I take pride in being able to convey knowledge to the world by becoming an OER creator.

MOOCs

I have been involved with MOOCs as a learner, educator, content creator, facilitator and researcher. I have taken part in so many MOOCs on various platforms including Canvas, Coursera, ALISON, edX, FutureLearn and courses offered without a platform such as the “H817 Open” offered by the Open University and “ocTEL2014” offered by the ALT. I have been a content creator, educator and the lead facilitator of the “Begin Programming: Build your first mobile game” course on the FutureLearn platform for five iterations with over 120,000 registrants. I have also contributed to the MOOC literature with my publications – please see my publications list here Appendix 22 - Publication List.

Reflection

Since my first work in 2012 the systematic review on MOOC literature, I have published many articles on MOOCs. It is very satisfying to be an educator in a MOOC. But when you are a researcher looking at MOOCs and being able to draw conclusions and offer best practices to others it is even more satisfying. My recent collaborative paper on MOOC design patterns, “Design patterns for promoting peer interaction in discussion forums in MOOCs”, allowed me to draw from my MOOC experience, compare it with my collaborators and then draw conclusions. This reflective exercise was very rewarding and satisfying.

Supporting and tutoring learners

I am recognized as a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (Appendix 1 – Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy) for my teaching experience. I have been the lead facilitator for the “Begin Programming: Build your first mobile game” MOOC offered by the University of Reading on the FutureLearn platform. It was a great learning experience because at the University you support and tutor learners who have achieved higher grades to enter the university and have worked in a specific discipline. In the MOOC we had young learners as young as 10 years old (who did the course with their parents) and elderly learners over the age of 85 years. We also had professional programmers; at the same time we had people who never have installed a program on their computers. This was a very wide spectrum of learners to provide support to. I managed a small team of undergraduate and postgraduate students in supporting the course. I worked as the lead facilitator for five consecutive runs of the course (October 2013, February 2014, October 2014, February 2015 and June 2015). I learnt much more about supporting learners by facilitating this course than I had learnt in many years of university teaching.

I learnt to create simpler resources to support learners for example my Blog post on Nested Loops was highly appreciated by learners in the course.

Reflection

Programming is a subject that many shy away from due to the notorious difficulty of the subject that they perceive. However, I started programming after my advanced level without owning a computer. So I believe with the right support people can at least try it out to see whether they like it. It is important to acknowledge the difficulties they are facing as otherwise they feel ‘I am stupid that is why I can’t do it’. At the same time, using examples or simple ways of presenting content so that it is made easier to understand is of utmost importance. I have designed materials for the Begin Programming MOOC and I have seen many learners who have never had installed a program on their computers going through the course. Some learners (especially the elderly learners) need hand holding but with support they learn the concepts and starts to enjoy programming. It gives me lot of pleasure to be able to open the doors to the wonderful world of programming to our learners.

Accessibility

I became interested in accessibility when I started to facilitate the “Begin Programming: build your first mobile game” course as we had learners with various abilities. People hard of hearing, colour blind users had difficulties in accessing some of our content as the initial version of our course did not have accessibility built into it. Since joining the UCEM, I am leading an initiative to make our materials more accessible. We have looked into Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0) and hope to achieve level A with our newly produced content. I have also looked at the Open University accessibility guidelines as the Open University is a pioneer in accessible education in the UK. In terms of identifying where we are at the UCEM, I have conducted an informal audit of our materials to check the level of accessibility and the report was presented to the management at the previous academic heads meeting. My presentation to the staff on accessibility is attached here as an evidence of my work in this area (Appendix 23 – Accessibility talk). I have also written a series of blog posts regarding accessibility which can be found here:

Reflection

Despite being interested in accessibility matters I did not get the chance to be involved with it until I moved on to my new job as an instructional designer. As the College of Estate Management became University College of Estate Management there was a sudden need to update the look and feel of material templates to be in line with the new branding. I thought of this as an opportunity to implement accessibility into our material templates. I volunteered to take the responsibility to look into accessibility and I was lucky to be supported by another colleague at work who was also interested in accessibility. Once I started reading into accessibility my view started to change. I started participating in MOOCs on accessibility and I started enjoying my learning. This made me blog about my thoughts on accessibility. It is in a way sad that in the UK we are not as digitally inclusive as we can be unlike the US and Canada. However, the EU is taking digital accessibility seriously and if the UK stays in the EU perhaps we will get more inclusive. Never the less I am happy to say our efforts to implement accessible templates for our materials in UCEM are becoming a reality.