Professional Activity

Planning, designing, delivering and evaluating ‘Begin Programming: Build your first mobile game’ the UoR’s first Massive Open Online Course (roughly containing the concepts covered in 8 first year credits). This is an ideal opportunity to promote the University brand and outreach. First offered in October 2013, then in February 2014 and two more offerings scheduled for October 2014 and February 2015 (Case Study 1).

Planning, creating course materials and QA of the course on FutureLearn platform
I was the lead facilitator of the MOOC. I managed a small team of (seven) student mentors. I also actively supported peer-learning by facilitating the formation of a learning community around the MOOC.
I created a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) that became a lively and growing repository of online help.
I used my Blog to create step by step guides (eg. How to unzip file). Mature, leisure learners needed this added help as many of these participants needed ‘a hand to hold’.
Learners from over 107 territories participated in the course, thus a very diverse classroom representing a cohort of global population. Supportive of participants with: little understanding of English, disabilities (hard of hearing, colour blind), from developing countries with lack of bandwidth
Presented research outcomes on OER14 conference.
I used Learning analytics to identify difficult concepts for learners and improve course

Areas of Activity (A1, A2, A3, A4, A5), Core Knowledge (K1, K2, K3, K4, K5, K6) and Professional Values (V1, V2, V3, V4)

2014 - Member of the School of Systems Engineering project board setup to drive the School’s ambitious initiative for using Online courses (in preparation for UoR expansion to Malaysia and China) for both undergraduate in person and distance education. In this role I do research that would inform us in our decisions on designing, planning, quality, technical feasibility of the project. For example, I am liaising with British Council to explore the possibility of conducting examinations overseas through their test centres while adhering to the Equity Act 2010 and looking into various online learning platforms (including instructure Canvas, Blackboard, Moodle and FutureLearn) to see how best offer our courses.

Areas of Activity (A1, A4), Core Knowledge (K2, K3, K4, K5, K6) and Professional Values (V2, V4)

2014 - eLearning design support for Robot MOOC Project. In this role I support the School’s Robot MOOC technical and academic team in designing the course and planning activities that would provide a meaningful learning experience to a wider audience. I use my experience with offering ‘Begin Programming’ MOOC and being a learner in many MOOCs to support the design of this very exciting course that is in line with the recently published “Robotics and Autonomous Systems (RAS) UK Strategy” in increasing awareness of Robotics among the public. I have also designed promotional materials, surveys, and social media promotion (in advance to Open Days) for the Robotics and other Engineering courses offered by UoR. I initiated a survey of students expressing interest on our Engineering courses to gather demographic details so that we could get a better picture of student cohorts interested in Engineering to actively promote more female participation. I also report to the School Project Board on the progress of Robot MOOC Project.

Areas of Activity (A1, A4), Core Knowledge (K2, K3, K4, K5, K6) and Professional Values (V2, V4)

2014 - eLearning design support for Big Flip Project (in preparation for UoR expansion to Malaysia and China). In this role I co-ordinate three teams who are introducing Flipped classroom teaching for first year courses in the School. The three courses that will be flipped are Software Engineering, Maths and Programming. I support them in material preparation, planning activities and assessment for their courses while also adhering to the quality standards. I also report to the School Project board on the progress of the Big Flip Project. I am continuing discussion with Director of Teaching and Learning in the School to get the courses accredited. In line with this activity, I am leading a systematic literature review on Flipping classroom that will inform us of best practices and caveats to be aware of in flipping classrooms.

Areas of Activity (A1, A4, A5), Core Knowledge (K1, K2, K3, K4, K5, K6) and Professional Values (V2, V3,V4)

Planning and developing a Java SPOC – Small Private Online Course (together with Dr. Lundqvist) where I have contributed to design and planning of this 20 credit module that will be offered in Autumn as a free-mium course (course materials will be free to access but assessment and support will have to be paid for). This can be considered a continuation of the Begin Programming MOOC but delivering Java course that is worth 20 credits that would increase access to high quality education for anyone willing to learn Java. I am investigating the support provided by various learning platforms (Blackboard, Instructure Canvas, and Moodle) and how various features those can be effectively used to enhance the learning experience of learners in this online course. I also review materials (slides and videos) prepared by Dr. Lundqvist (lead educator) and create the content for textual materials (articles) and assessment (quiz questions) for the course. I am continuing discussion with Director of Teaching and Learning in the School to get the course accredited.

Areas of Activity (A1, A4), Core Knowledge (K1, K2, K3, K4, K5, K6) and Professional Values (V2, V4)

I have been a Teaching Assistant (TA) for SE1PR11 - Programming module for first year students (2008/9 – 2009/10). In this role I supported students learning in the lab practicals by clarifying difficult concepts that they did not understand in the lectures, debugging programmes, and helping students to understand logical flow of programmes. I have also marked formative (lab work sheets assessment) and summative assessment (project work checking the programmes actually do what it is supposed to do) for this module. I provided immediate feedback to students on their lab sheets giving them indicators on where they could improve the programmes. By observing students doing their programming practicals I evaluate the effectiveness of teaching and it also gives me an opportunity to provide them hands-on support.

Some students are shy to ask for help, while some international students struggle with language. I have worked with learners with various disabilities (blind, hard of hearing, dyslexic) in my role as a TA and I take time to explain, show how it is done, and asking prompting questions leading them to solution.

Areas of Activity (A2, A3 A4), Core Knowledge (K1, K2, K3, K4, K5) and Professional Values (V1, V2)

I planned, designed and delivered the Communications component of the SE2SM11 - Systems Design and Project Management, 2^nd year, 20 credit module (2013/14) and both Communications and Project Management components (2014/15). The course was taken by 99 students and 109 students in the two offerings. I designed and delivered the lectures on Report Writing and Presentations. After creating new materials and session plans I got them peer reviewed by Dr. Faustina Hwang. I introduced new activities that the students could do in the lecture that would help them to understand the content better. For example, in marking student academic papers for SE3SL11 – Social, Legal and Ethical Aspects in Engineering I noticed that students did not score full marks for correct referencing. So in report writing session instead of just introducing the referencing I introduced an activity where a journal article was given to them together with the School referencing style guide asking them to write the reference for it. The students found it a useful activity (face-to-face feedback) because it made them engage with a real life problem. I also used lot of videos to illustrate presentation skills. I introduced an activity where I played a video produced by the University of Bedfordshire Professional and Academic Development (available on YouTube) and asked the student to spot mistakes and good practices in the presentation. This was a lively and practical activity. The skills acquired in communications and presentations is a skill for life that will help throughout their professional life.

Areas of Activity (A1, A2, A3 A4, A5), Core Knowledge (K1, K2, K3, K4, K5, K6) and Professional Values (V1, V3, V4)

I have planned, designed, delivered and assessed two classes over 100 students at University of Moratuwa on Data Structures, a module coming under the Data Structures and Algorithms course for 2^nd year undergraduates. For this course I was the convener. I set the exam questions, assignments and marked all course work providing feedback.

The lectures at University of Moratuwa were very traditional and teacher centred with large classes. When I started teaching, I tried to use more participatory method to encourage student engagement which at the time was a novel practice there. Initially students resisted the approach as they were rather happy or were used to take a passive listener role in the lecture. But later on in the class they appreciated the effort and started engaging with the lecture more. For example in a lecture when I taught depth first traversal in a tree, I created a simple animation that showed how the decisions were made and what nodes were selected over others. I first presented the problem in the lecture to the class where I asked pairs of students to work on it. Later I played the animation which provided the solution to the problem giving reasons. After the lecture a large group of students came up to me and thanked me for the lecture congratulating me for attempting something ‘different’ in the class. Since then the University of Moratuwa has come a long way and today most of the new lecturers practice more student centred learning.

Areas of Activity (A1, A2, A3 A4, A5), Core Knowledge (K1, K2, K3, K4, K5, K6) and Professional Values (V1, V3)

I am dedicated to continuous professional development and dissemination of the new knowledge we are creating through our research.

Presenting work in prestigious conferences (EU MOOC summit - Switzerland, OER14 - Newcastle, Unisa Cambridge International Conference - CapeTown, and International Australasian Conference on Enabling Access to Higher Education - Adelaide). My presentation at Unisa Cambridge International Conference on Open, Distance and eLearning was fully sponsored by the Commonwealth of Learning.
I delivered the keynote at the University of South Africa Innovation in Teaching and Learning event – Pretoria, South Africa - March 2014.
I am an active member of the FutureLearn Academic Network (FLAN) sharing practice, researching on MOOCs and other online learning patterns and collaborating with FutureLearn partner institutes around the world.
I am also an active member of Evaluation of Learners' Experiences of e-learning Special Interest Group (ELESIG), an international community of researchers and practitioners from higher and further education involved in exploring the use of technology and student experiences. I’ve also received an ELESIG small grant to fund a literature study on “Experience of international students in negotiating technology for learning” leading to a publication in EDULEARN13 conference.
I am also in the organizing committee of OER15 conference that will be held in Cardiff. In this role I am responsible for the paper submission, reviews, and publications.

Areas of Activity (A5), Core Knowledge (K1, K2, K3, K4, K5, K6) and Professional Values (V3, V4)

I am now a known researcher in the MOOC space with my influential paper "MOOC: A systematic study of the published literature 2008-2012" (also translated to Chinese) and my work on online education in developing countries. My PhD looked at using technology to enhance distance education in Sri Lanka and much of the findings are true to a range of developing countries. In my research I looked at the implementation of the Distance Education Modernization Project in Sri Lanka (funded by the Asian Development Bank), the quality aspect of the course offerings and the practicalities (equality of access to equipment and access to different groups) of offering technology mediated distance education in Sri Lanka. The design and development of distance learning materials, provision of student support services, methods of assessment and the readiness of traditional academics and universities to start distance education were some other important factors that I looked at in my research. The results of this work and recommendations for governments in developing countries are published in journal papers including UNESCO journal International Review of Education.

My paper on "Impact and Reach of MOOCs: a developing countries’ perspective" published in eLearningPapers is considered one of the first scholarly work that discussed the new disruptive innovation of MOOCs and their implications for developing countries. This has now been selected and published in the eLearning Papers “best of the year” special edition.

Areas of Activity (A1, A4, A5), Core Knowledge (K2, K3, K4, K5, K6) and Professional Values (V1, V2, V3, V4)