About me..

I gained my CMALT in 2016 and renewed it in 2019 submitting an updated portfolio. Since there has been many changes, I thought it would be best to start a fresh. You can view my original contextual statement.

Job Title

I work as a Learning Technology Researcher at the University College of Estate Management (UCEM) and I also chair the Online Learning Research Centre at UCEM.

Qualifications

• PhD Computer Science - University of Reading

• MBA in IT - University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

• BSc (Hons) Engineering (Computer Science and Engineering) - University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka

• Fellowship of Higher Education Academy (FHEA) PR078175

• Certified Member of the Association of Learning Technology (CMALT)

Career History

I started my career as a software engineer with Millennium Information Technologies, now acquired by the London Stock Exchange Group, in Malabe Sri Lanka. I was the team lead for design and development for all new functionality and upgrades to the call rating system of version 2 of the Millennium IT’s billing system (this was used by Sri Lanka’s largest mobile operator to manage a customer base of over 3 million, processing more than 400million transactions a month). I completed my master's degree part-time while working at MillenniumIT.

I was interested in higher education and I joined the University of Moratuwa (UoM) as a Lecturer with the hope of applying for scholarships. I taught large classes each with 100+ students and coordinated the Computer Science and Engineering Department's Advanced Professional Development Workshop Series. In the short time period I was with UoM, I initiated and administered the first online selection test, on the University's Moodle platform, for the Department of Computer Science and Engineering's sought-after MBA programme where many applications are received for each place available in the programme.

I joined the University of Reading as the holder of the prestigious University of Reading Overseas Postgraduate Research Studentship in September 2008. My research project looked at Information and Communication Technologies for Distance Education in Sri Lanka. While I was a PhD student at the University of Reading, I also worked as a part-time Teaching Assistant for several modules run by the School of Systems Engineering. I worked as a lab assistant and evaluator (both formative and summative assessments) for the 1st Year Programming module. In this role, I worked in a team supporting beginners to find their feet in programming (C and C++). I completed the PhD within the minimum allowed time of 3 years (Feb 2010- Jan 2011 Maternity Leave) and due to the circumstance under which I achieved this I was nominated and featured in the University of Reading "Women in Research" exhibition - 2012.

'Begin Programming' offers a simple working Android Mobile Game framework and lets the beginner to use simple programming constructs (introduced to them each week) to customize their game. This innovative approach to learning has been a success, attracting all age groups: school pupils to the elderly (who have inspired their grandchildren to take up programming!). I have also been the lead facilitator for the #FLMobiGame. I was also involved in the Begin Robotics open online course offered by the School, which was offered for the first time in June 2015 on the FutureLearn platform. I also taught and supervised PhD students and undergraduate project students.

I then joined the College of Estate Management, now University College of Estate Management (UCEM), in September 2015 as an Instructional Designer. UCEM has been a distance education provider for over a century and by the time I joined it was providing all courses fully online. UCEM process of creating learning materials is different from other higher educational institutes. The UCEM's process of creating educational materials follows a strict process similar to the Open University.

In my role as an instructional designer I created engaging eLearning content for online distance education using a variety of content creation software (Camtaisa, Articulate Storyline, iSpring etc) . I have also volunteered to cover VLE Admin role where I supported UCEM staff and students with their VLE related issues as 1st line support during the department restructure gaining valuable insights to all forms of VLE administration including user roles, enrollments, setting up courses, etc. I was the founding chair of the Online Learning Research Centre at UCEM. Our research into web accessibility have improved UCEM's practice in creating digital materials. I was elected to the Academic Board, UCEM’s highest academic authority and guardian of the academic quality and standards of the Institution (similar to Senate).

I moved to a new role as a Learning Technology Researcher within the Online Education Department in December 2017. I am now a member of the Learning Technology Innovation team within the Online Education Department. The focus of the Learning Technology Innovation team is to understand requirements, research new Learning Technologies, pilot their use where appropriate and if suitable implement and add them to the toolset at UCEM. This team was setup after an internal restructure within the Online Education Department with the aspiration of becoming the leading vocational online university.

We have implemented Zoom as our webinar platform long before the world went crazy for Zoom. The automatic captioning provided by Zoom is about 73% accurate in a small experiment I conducted at UCEM. Even with this level of accuracy, 95% of our international students found the automatically generated transcripts/captions useful. We have implemented Turnitin for assignment submission and Turnitin Feedback Studio for online marking. In Autumn 2017 semester, 8723 assignments have been submitted to the system and marked online. A student survey suggested satisfaction levels of over 77.8% and 73.9% of tutors preferred online marking to marking on paper and entering marks in grade books. I am also leading accessibility work at UCEM. I have created an accessibility awareness CPD course for UCEM. This course offers a suite of open badges to the learner as milestone badges and on completion. For my work on accessibility, I won the UCEM Star Award 2021 in the Passion category.

We also use learning analytics to understand learner behaviour to make our materials more engaging. I have used R programming language, Excel VBA macro scripts, and PowerBI to automate routine data analysis and presentation tasks performed at UCEM improving efficiencies. I have also been part of the Learning Technology team at UCEM that won the ALT Learning Technology Team of the Year 3rd place in 2021.

I have also been an external examiner for the OU Netherlands, University of Bedford, and the Open University examining PhD and EdD theses. I am also a CMALT assessor.

My Interests and Values

I strongly value 'can do' attitude, fairness, and empathy. Whenever there is a new learning technology project, there can be resistance from many stakeholders. However, by listening to their concerns and addressing those, we are more likely to be able to achieve the aims of the project while also keeping stakeholders engaged. When there is a problem and I am looking for a solution, I like to approach it with a 'can do' attitude. For example, recently I automated the manual data analysis and graph creation process that has happened at UCEM for a while. I was able to break the problem into small chunks and attack them in parts. Firstly, I wrote Excel macros to create the required graphs. Then I approached the problem of creating files with only the necessary details from a data dump. For this, I used R programming language. Then I wrote another Excel macro to loop through files in a folder to create graphs. By breaking down the problem and approaching it with 'can do' attitude, it was possible for me to fully automate a process that initially seemed an impossible task. Fairness is really important to me. It could be because I have twin children who always remind me that "it is not fair!" or it could be because I have seen unfairness due to skin colour, gender, etc from a different perspective.

I have a passion for accessibility and I champion accessibility at UCEM. This passion was triggered by a learner in the Begin Programming MOOC who could not see the red ball on green background - the billiard-like game we used to teach programming. No matter how much technology improves to support inclusivity, unless the users are aware of accessibility needs, it is unlikely that the content created will be accessible. I believe in the transformation awareness can bring and I champion accessibility awareness at UCEM. I am also exploring the possibility of offering the accessibility awareness course I have created for UCEM as an open course.

Why Senior CMALT?

• My CMALT portfolio was originally submitted in 2016 and I have updated it in 2019. It is a long time since achieving my CMALT and I feel I have grown and developed significantly during this time and senior membership would more accurately reflect where I am now

• ALT membership opens opportunities for growth and professional development via a plethora of resources made available to its members. Therefore I wanted to renew my membership but felt it would be more appropriate to not just renew my existing membership but take the next step to aim higher.

• I don't always take the time to update my portfolio of work and reflect on what I have achieved or what more could I have done. It is good to take this opportunity when I am required to renew my membership to look back and learn the lessons that I could then use to improve my practice.

• As my portfolio will be available online, I hope to take this opportunity to share my practice with ALT members and others working in the learning technology area.

• My organisation did not have anyone with CMALT when I applied for CMALT accreditation in 2016. Taking inspiration from me, there are others who have gained CMALT accreditation. I was able to offer my support to my colleagues who are in the process of gaining accreditation. Similarly, at present, we haven't got any Senior CMALT holders at UCEM. I want to lead the way, inspiring and helping others to take the next step in their careers too.

I want to convey from my portfolio that it is not the use of newest, flashy learning technology that matters but understanding the interplay between learning technology, pedagogy and context in which these are used. I hope I will be able to convincingly show that in my practice I have considered all factors.