Asia eBIT @ UCSC: Implementing the paradigm shift from Teaching to Learning through e-learning framework

Asia eBIT @ UCSC: Implementing the paradigm shift from
Teaching to Learning through e-learning framework

G.N. Wikramanayake, K.P. Hewagamage, G.I. Gamage, A.R. Weerasinghe
University of Colombo School of Computing
{gnw, kph, gig, arw}@ucsc.cmb.ac.lk

Colombo. Established in the year 1870, as the
ABSTRACT Ceylon Medical College, the University of
To address the shortage of opportunities to take Colombo could claim to have been associated
computing as a career, University of Colombo with higher education for over 100 years. Students
introduced the BIT External Degree programme should feel very privileged to belong to the
in 2000. However due to the high dropout rates at University of Colombo with its long tradition of
the initial stage of the programme, only small excellence in teaching, learning, research and
number of students has been successful in contribution to the community.
completing their studies. Therefore, it was a
The University of Colombo started its computing
strong requirement to improve the quality and
activities in 1967 and today it is the most
relevance of the delivery mechanism of BIT as the advanced higher educational institution, in the
university was not involved in face to face
forefront of human resource development in
teaching.
Information and Communication Technologies
Asia eBIT is a project to address these issues and (ICT) in Sri Lanka.
to expand BIT into an International degree in Asia. In September 2002, University of Colombo
Through the paradigm shift from teaching to
School of Computing (UCSC) was established by
learning, the relevance of the programme as an
external degree has been achieved. Beside merging The Institute of Computer Technology
changes to the curriculum is gradually addressing and The Department of Computer Science both of
the dropout issue as well as has provided the the University of Colombo, as the first centre of
students an opportunity to first acquire end-user higher learning of computing in Sri Lanka.
IT skills and then move on into development skills
in ICT.
1.2 Career Opportunities in ICT
Asia eBIT e-learning framework is built on top of
a Learning Management System and provides a According to the recent work force survey [11]
wide rage of learning resources. It is a virtual the current demand for computer graduates is
learning environment that promotes 5,755. Such an increasing demand was predicted
constructivism in collaborative learning. It at Colombo way back in late 1990s.
includes interactive learning material, student
Undergraduate education in Sri Lanka is provided
manuals, learning activities and assessments. This
free of charge for a limited number. Providing
paper introduces the Asia eBIT e-learning
framework, curriculum changes that have take educational resources along with opportunities for
placed and the various learning resources that scholarships / bursaries and hostel facilities cannot
had helped the student to learn and test their be sustained for large number of students without
skills. Paper also shows how the student a steady income. Apparently the government of
performance of participated students had Sri Lanka is spending over 1,000,000 per student
increased due to this learning environment. per year to provide undergraduate education.
Thus state university setup does not allow
1.0 INTRODUCTION expansion at the required scale. A typical increase
1.1 University of Colombo in the intake for a state section university
programme is around 50 students. In late 1990s
The history of higher education in Sri Lanka is
the largest undergraduate output in ICT from a
closely linked to that of the University of

Proceedings of the 25th National IT Conference, Colombo, Sri Lanka 68

state university was 50. Thus increasing by are constantly updated to meet the industry
numbers in 50s will not assist in meeting the local requirements. Major syllabi revision takes place
and global needs. every 3 years.
In addition to the syllabi, model question papers, a
1.3 BIT @ UCSC list of recommended textbooks are provided to the
Taking into consideration the expansion students. Main source of interaction with the
limitations of the state sector universities and the students is through the Web. All announcements
job opportunities that exist for ICT graduates in and most correspondence are done through this
Sri Lanka & overseas, the UCSC (formerly medium.
Institute of Computer Technology) took the Students meet university authorities only at
initiative to launch the External Degree (BIT) registration, examination and awards ceremony.
programme leading to the award of Degree of Thus the learning takes place remotely similar to
Bachelor of Information Technology (External) – Open University Distance Education model.
BIT way back in 2000 [1]. It is the first-ever
UCSC also gives further support to BIT students
External Degree in IT in Sri Lanka and the
by the regular TV programme telecast over
University of Colombo awards the degree.
TVLanka which is broadcasted in the Middle East
University system provides higher education as well. Recommended text books (most Low cost
opportunities to less than 15% of the successful Indian editions) have been made available in
students at the GCE A/L examination. BIT is open many public libraries throughout the country in
for all students who are successful at GCE A/L response to student requests.
and also for others who have obtained alternate
Rest of the paper is organised as follows. Section
educational qualifications irrespective of them
2 presents the changes that had taken placed in the
being registered for any other educational learning and delivery mechanisms along with an
programme. Thus BIT is designed to produce identification of existing Learning Management
qualified ICT professionals in addition to the Systems (LMS). Section 3 introduces the
traditional University output. More importantly initiatives taken by UCSC to introduce the
BIT has enabled those who could not enter the paradigm shift through the BIT degree programme.
university to read for a degree in ICT due to Section 4 introduces the Asia eBIT project and
severe competition to enrol for state university elaborates on the e-learning framework used to
degrees. Finally BIT gives an opportunity to those achieve the paradigm shift. Section 5 briefly
non-graduates already working in ICT to obtain a highlights some of the society changes and
barriers in Sri Lankan context in succeeding in the
formal qualification in ICT.
paradigm shift. Finally, the conclusion emphasises
BIT is a three year academic programme that on the impact is taking place in education as a
awards a Diploma in IT on successful completion result of the paradigm shift from Teaching to
of course examinations of the first year; a Higher Learning.
Diploma in IT on successful completion of course
examinations of the second year and finally the 2.0 CHANGES TAKEN PLACE
degree. This process has allowed students to
Availability of vast amount of information on the
commence employment after completion of one web has provided access to all types of learning
year academic work. Such students would proceed material. The teacher’s lecture notes are no longer
with their studies while at the industry or move on the primary focus of a learning process, and the
to other disciplines. teacher’s role and the student’s learning process is
changing [14].
As BIT is an external degree the students will not
attend the institution for the learning process.
Thus, UCSC provides a well-defined detailed 2.1 Paradigm Shift
syllabus that would help to lay a solid foundation Paradigm shifts in today’s world have identified
on which, a student can build his career in ICT. the Machine / Industrial era being replaced by
Due to rapid advances in ICT all UCSC syllabi Technology / Information era. Similarly

production process has moved from Products to process than on copying note as in a traditional
Knowledge, Workplace has moved from Physical class.
to Virtual and its focus has changed from Worker
Teachers should ensure that knowledge and skills
to Customer [10].
are presented to students in a way that they could
In terms of education we should create learn through participation. Teachers need to
Knowledge that is accessible virtually with the consider how these learning experiences could be
focus on the student. Virtual access is achieved encouraging to students who are performing such
through Internet / Intranets. Techniques such as e- mental exercises.
mail, web notices, discussion forums and video
Thus students, who used to learn facts and skills
conferencing allow a student to access
by absorbing the content presented by teachers
information without visiting the physical location
and media resources, could move towards creating
of delivery. A typical interactive e-learning
personal knowledge by acting on content provided
system will have these characteristics and thus
by teachers, media resources, and personal
facilitating the paradigm shift.
experiences. The focus should be on acquiring
higher order skills like problem solving and
2.2 Classroom Level critical thinking.
Use of technology at classroom level was not 2.5 Curriculum Characteristics
possible until the teachers delivery mechanisms
In order to change the teacher’s and student’s role
were aided with technology. Some universities,
the curriculum also needs to be revised.
institutes and even schools now have installed
Traditional curriculum would focus on
computers and multi-media projectors in some or
fragmented knowledge and disciplinary separation.
all of their class rooms so that teachers could
However now we should focus on
deliver the content with the aid of technology. For
multidisciplinary themes as future generation will
instance lecturers of University of Colombo
need the ability to move through several different
School of Computing can to carry their USB drive
jobs. Thus establishment of basic literacy and
to deliver their lecture as multi-media facility is
focusing heavily on job specific skills is pointless,
available in each classroom or login to the e-
as one has to change jobs or manage many jobs by
learning system. However an education centre
themselves. Therefore it is important to emphasise
with restricted facilities would have to be satisfied
on thinking skills, knowledge integration and
with a specific location like a meeting room to use
application. Depth of understanding will be
their multi-media material. It is similar to how
required than breath of knowledge [4].
laboratory classes are conducted. Thus in such
centres not all teachers and students will be able 2.6 Assessments
to benefit from technology. However this is the
With changes to the learning process the
first step towards using technology for teaching.
assessment methods should also change. Instead
of measuring a student on factual knowledge and
2.3 Teacher’s Role discrete skills, assessments should focus on
application of knowledge. This will allow testing
In the modern global learning environment
of problem solving skills of a student. Students
teacher’s role shifts from "dispenser of
should also be given tasks to demonstrate
information" to "facilitator of learning" as he has
understanding and creativity.
only to guide the active students who are involved
in using the e-learning material. Some of the early Current LMS are focusing on automated
changes that were taking place in teaching and assessment methodologies. Thus most
learning were discussed in [14]. assessments are Multiple Choice Questions
(MCQ) or key word filling. Thus most
assessments are knowledge assessments than
2.4 Student’s Role problem solving. However some courses like
Some classrooms are equipped with computer Mathematics finds it easy to incorporate problem
access to all students. In such cases students solving in their assessments.
interactively participate in the learning process.
The student can focus totally on the learning
2.7 E-LEARNING


Hosting of a website to provide easy access to also the learning content. This content was in
course related information over the Internet can be electronic format (PowerPoint and Word) where
seen as the origin of the current e-learning others were able to directly use them through the
systems. It evolved through content that was web site http://www.bit.lk. Thus teachers of
provided on the web in the form of lecture notes external institutes were able to deliver the content
and other learning material such as lab exercises. to the expected levels of UCSC. Also students
This reduced the need for long classroom sessions who were motivated to learn on their own were
to deliver knowledge and also offered the students able to do so by following this material.
the flexibility to learn at their own pace. Now we
Surprisingly the success rate of students following
could see several learning methods being used as
both approaches was the same. However, high
part of online teaching over the Internet [9].
drop of rates of the external degree programme
In e-learning systems students are able to was a major concern for UCSC as we would see
communicate with their teachers through email later in this section.
and discussion groups. In this situation students
do not get immediate response from their teachers
and some times may also not get what they want
3.1 e-Learning @ UCSC
within the required time. However some systems In the year 2003, e-learning was introduced to the
offer online discussions among students, teachers Year one BIT students through a Learning
and other participants via chats, Management System (LMS) called
videoconferencing and groupware. Here students “Theducation”. This was possible through
are able to get immediate response to their assistance given by Sida (Swedish International
questions despite not being physically present. Development Agency). LMS assists the students
in learning through self-evaluating quizzes,
Online assessment is a key component of an e-
learning system and it is used to evaluate student’s collaborative learning using group assignments
etc.
learning progress. Quizzes in the form of MCQ
are part of this and it has the capability not only to UCSC did not stop at this point. We went towards
give feed back for the student responses but also improving the syllabi by identifying overall
to monitor student’s learning progress and objective(s) and detail objectives and then relating
achievement levels. them to brief and detailed topics along with the
expected time to be spent. For self learners as
Various information in the form of course
well as for those teachers who delivered the
overview, contents, objectives, notes, slides,
courses the recommended text books with page
exercises, workbooks, references, worked
numbers for each topic was provided. Even the
examples, model and past papers with solutions,
links to external resources, student prepared books were classified as main and supplementary
so that the students could decide on what to refer.
material and their solutions are provided to the
learners through these websites. Special As a learning tool for each subject students are
interactive sessions with multimedia are also part provided with past papers and model answers. In
of these systems. addition to that, the students are given the
Commercial systems such as WebCT [13] and opportunity assess their learning skills by
answering MCQ questions and short answers,
Blackboard [2] dominated the early days of e-
which are automatically marked by the LMS.
learning. However with the emergence of several
Students are also given an opportunity to answer
open source solutions e-learning user community
take home assignments and submit their solutions
have increased rapidly. Moodle [7], OLAT [8],
electronically. Once they submit their assignment
dotLRN [6], claroline [3] are among the popular
the students are grouped and their solutions are
open source LMS.
shared allowing them to learner from their
colleagues.
3.0 BIT APPROACH
This approach although is a good for learning
When the University of Colombo commenced the approach has not been used effectively by the
external degree in IT, the technology enabled students as a learning tool. Majority of students
UCSC to reach their external students and are not ready to take these quizzes and
external institutes teaching them. The UCSC assignments until the time of the semester
provided not only the syllabi and guidelines but examination. Thus they are not ready to tryout the

learning opportunities provided through the LMS. • No link with continuous assessment and final
Thus the LMS had not been used as a learning semester examination. Students are not
tool. UCSC has made the use of LMS as a motivated when they do not find a good value
mandatory component of the course. As use of the from activities in the LMS.
LMS is possible even after the examination most
students who have done the exam well makes an • Negative impression: Not enough support for
attempt to fulfil the LMS requirement. student’s learning process.

Submission of assignments and doing the quizzes • No alignment with respect to syllabus,
are possible without any supervision. Hence a learning resources and assessment: this is a
quite a number of students take a short cut of kind of serious issue which was not
getting their quizzes and assignments answered by considered when e-Learning System was first
others. Thus they are not using the LMS as a introduced.
learning tool. From student point of view although
LMS is useful for learning is not yet practical due 3.2 BIT Intake & Output
to access limitations, access cost and time to be
spent in front of a computer. Most students are not BIT is open to all students who fulfil the entry
yet used to learning by sitting in front of a criteria without any intake limitations. Figure 1
computer as such facilities are not available for illustrates the degree path and the milestones that
them in general. can be achieved by BIT degree program. Thus
during the six completed years, 15,924 students
have enrolled for this programme. Among them
3.1.1 Evaluation of Theducation 9,892 (62%) have sat all semester 1 examination
The following could be seen as positive papers and 6,208 (39%) have sat all year 1
observations from the introduction of the original examinations. Since the 4th batch to be successful
e-learning framework. in year 1 all BIT students have to be successful in
their LMS assessments as well. Including those
Positive Observations who were successful prior to the introduction of
• Acceptable Framework to promote an LMS in total only 3,538 (22%) from among those
external degree program (where there is no who sat all the year 1 examination papers has also
face to face contact) attempted the LMS assessments. Thus 78% of 1st
year students have dropout of the programme
• Student satisfaction about details in the without making an attempt to take all the relevant
syllabus of course modules examination components. However from among
• Promote the students participation with those who sat all examinations, 2,237 (63%) have
assignment modules been successful at the BIT year 1 programme.

• Introduction of collaborative learning model
3.2.1 BIT Year 2
• From a Web Site to LMS where students
Not all BIT first year students could proceed to
found lot of learning resources
year 2. They have to pass at least 6 out of the 8
Negative Observation courses offered during the 1st year. Out of the
15,924 registered for year 1, only 2,927 (18%)
• Collaborative model was not successful.
were able to proceed to year 2. Among them
Students were supposed to discuss their
1,752 (60%) have sat all year 2 examinations.
individual submissions of assignment with
Year 2 also has LMS assessments and only 1,266
their assigned group and identify the best
(43%) sat the exams and the LMS. However from
answer for the given assignment. However
among those who sat all examinations, 889 (70%)
students rarely discuss and collaboration
have been successful after fulfilling the
didn’t happen.
requirements for both year 1 and 2.
• Poor learning content. Learning content are
power points slides of teachers. Students can 3.2.2 BIT Year 3
hardly learn these things. There was a module
for mathematics learning but it was not inline Again only those who pass at least 6 out of 8
with relevant mathematics for computing courses offered during the 1st year could proceed
course syllabus. to year 3. From the 2,927 second years students

1,299 (44%) have been eligible to proceed to year misunderstandings while achieving constructive
3. Final year project has been the main barrier for alignment in the curriculum of BIT programme.
the 3rd years. Only 546 (42%) have so far
submitted the final project report and 485 (37%)
have sat exams as well. However from among
4.1 E-Learning Framework
those who sat all examinations, 394 (81%) have To retain the large enrolled group of students with
obtained the degree after fulfilling the the BIT programme the need to improve the
requirements of all three years. It is interesting to quality and relevance of the BIT degree popped
note that 38% of those graduates are females as up. Since BIT is an external degree with the
opposed to 23% in the internal degree programme. university not offering face to face teaching and
The internal degree programme taking direct direct monitoring of the participation of the
intake from year 1 have a success rate of 84% learning process a different approach to that used
while the previous internal specialised degree for the internal students were required. The need
programme commencing who’s intake commence for a local controlled e-Learning framework and a
in year 3 after filtering students based on first two project to fund this initiative came up as a result.
years performance had a success rate of 97%. Asia eBIT is a direct result of this initiative and
while addressing these issues it is also helping to
expand BIT into an International degree in Asia.
4.0 ASIA eBIT PROJECT
In reality, e-learning framework implements the
e-BIT is a project to enhance the delivery of BIT
teaching to learning collaborative learning model.
degree program using e-Learning and e-Testing
It consists of several components and services.
framework. It has been carried out as an
Student enrolment, authentication, portal,
international collaboration between Stockholm
curriculum, interactive multimedia content, course
University, Sweden and Delf University in the
validation, activity management, messaging,
Netherland. The Swedish International
email, forum, chat, assessments, marking,
organization is the main sponsor of this project. In
grading, reporting, tracking, quality assurance,
this section, we will discuss how we have
user preferences, archiving, etc. are among them
improved the BIT program using e-BIT project.
[15].

Our e-learning framework is a virtual learning
Based on the experience of e-Learning facilities
environment to promote constructivism in
for BIT during the period 2003-2006, we
collaborative learning. It includes interactive
understood that it is very important to do a
learning material, student manuals, learning
curriculum revision of BIT program in order to
activities and assessments. In the VLE
make it suitable to deliver using online mode.
(http://lms.bit.lk) .each course consists of e-
This curriculum revision is required to revise both
learning lessons which provide interactive
the learning content and assessment methodology.
learning content, online and offline activities,
Hence, overall structure of the program was
online quizzes for self evaluation and
revised considering main output of the BIT
assignments, and discussion forums. Figure 2
program as well as syllabuses of all courses to be
shows the starting interface for the virtual learning
delivered/Tested using online e-Leanring
environment of BIT. Marks for the assignments
framework.
are automatically calculated by the system and
To address a weakness of the original framework, considered for the final results. Discussion forums
it was required to develop the curriculum by improve the collaboration among the students, as
structuring whole study programme level by level forums allow students to engage in general
as well as the structure of each course in the discussions as well as the discussions on
programme. A syllabus template was used for online/offline learning activities Figure 3 shows
each course to list learning activities based on the the interface of online/offline discussions based
learning outcome and content map in the course. activity forum. Curriculum development and
The most interesting observation we came cross in provision of course page etc should happen first to
this project is that e-learning course development support a virtual collaborative learning
influences the recursive enhancement in the environment.
course syllabuses as it helps to identify teacher’s
(Subject Matter Experts) errors and


4.2 Curriculum Development initial stage was one of the mistakes corrected in
this revision. Prior to producing people who could
Curriculum development is the starting point and
produce and deliver ICT solutions, it was required
is an important component for the success of an e-
to produce people who could use and apply ICT.
learning system. Although the original BIT
For that a career path focusing towards the
programme already had a well defined syllabi
Computer Driving Licence was required as a
with exit points at end of year 1 and 2, as shown starting point for the BIT programme. To achieve
in the Figure 1, significant student populations
a strong foundation courses offered for Semester 1
dropped out of the programme at the early stage.
was redesigned. Beside an incremental three year
By analyzing various observations, we identified curriculum review process was put into place. We
the curriculum development had not been properly are planning to give a special certificates for
addressed when the e-Learning framework was students who complete all Semester 1 courses.
introduced. We made following two conclusions
Aligning the syllabus, learning resources and
on the effectiveness and they are main cases for
assessments was a critical requirement.
eBIT Project.
Application of constructive alignment was
• Foundation (Curriculum Development) was adopted to address this requirement. Course
not strong and there was a failure in content too was introduced in stages and
constructive alignment. assessments too focussed on sections than the
course. Emphasis was made to increase the
• Development of Virtual Learning similarity and relationship between formative and
Environment to implement collaborative summative assessments. Thus take home
learning model through constructivism and assignments of the previous system was replaced
learning activities. with learning activities. Figure 7 shows a sample
It was necessary to go beyond a conventional online quiz which are given as assignments to
syllabuses in a distance learning program. It was students.
necessary to provide different learning resources
in a structure similar to syllabus of the course.
4.3 Interactive Content
This was achieved by developing a course website
within the LMS. The course webpage for During the 2003 revision interactive material was
“Information Systems and Technology” course is developed for some courses using java applets.
shown in the Figure 4. Students were able to However, due to heavy use of internet bandwidth
download several offline reading materials like by this content this attempt was not successful.
“Student Manuals” for different sections in the Thus the 2006 revision developed the interactive
syllabus as well as online interactive e-Learning material using flash objects and found it to be
lessons. more effective.
In collaborative learning constructivism is Beside interactive content learning activities were
achieved through open overall discussions; introduced for each course (figure 7). Students
discussions on subject matter with respect to could access their knowledge not only through
sections within the course syllabus and publicising practice quizzes but also through interesting
individual artefacts for discussions and ratings. learning activities as shown in Figure 8.
Figure 5 describes such a real discussion occurred
through student interaction in the BIT website. In
collaborative learning, learning activities allow to 4.4 Learning Material
provide online interactive feedback to motivate
Uniformity of material was achieved through use
students and offline change of attitude in the of templates. Initial learning material was in the
learning process.
form of PowerPoint slides. These slides were
Every three years UCSC review their curricula to useful for some, but most found that they couldn’t
ensure that their courses meet the current needs. learn using them as information was in point form
Hence the recent syllabi gave us the opportunity (figure 4). During the 2006 revision the slides
address the above issues and incorporate were expanded and student manuals were created.
interactive material and learning activities. This helped the learner to focus on learning based
on the manual thus less dependency on the text
Although mathematics is important to learn
books. Writing student manuals is very time
computing forcing the students to learn it at the

consuming. Thus recording lecturer’s voice and A public library is a knowledge centre [12]. To
streaming is used as an alternative. provide services through technology it should not
only allow members to view available books, but
should also allow viewing of content pages and
4.5 Collaborative Learning abstracts. In the case of research papers the
Virtual Learning Environment to promote facility to download papers, journals and thesis is
constructivism in collaborative learning is another provided. User must also have a facility to interact
area of focus. Discussions, virtual facilitation, with the librarian, suggest procurements, interact
guidance, student feedback and progress are some with publishers, receive alters on outstanding
of the features of this virtual learning books, late fees and collection of books reserved.
environment.
The effectiveness of the implementation of the 5.2 Infrastructure Facilities
paradigm shift could be seen from the current
Educators confront with the issue of equity when
Semester 1 LMS results (figure 5). In 2005/06, out
they consider introducing technology to learn. To
of the 2,833 students 1,928 (68%) sat for all
develop a country and provide everybody equal
semester 1 LMS assessments and only 623 (32%)
facilities is impossible with the existing free
of them completed it successfully. However in the
education system and the policy implementation
current 2006/07 batch, out of the 1,840 students
processors. Trying to solve the equity problem
1,059 (58%) sat for all Semester 1 LMS
and introduce technology at classroom level will
assessments and 998 (94%) had been successful.
result in the country going backward compared to
This improvement in the success rate is due to the
others as well as encourage brain drain as people
implementation of the paradigm shift.
are always looking for better learning
opportunities and living standards.
5.0 SOCIETY CHANGES Every student must have computer access to
5.1 Society successfully implement above ideas. Thus student
to computer ration must increase. It is
Using computers for public services is gradually recommended that all education institutions must
wide spreading. Although these benefits are have computers with a minimum ratio of 1:5 with
currently enjoyed by a small fraction of the those teaching computing with a minimum ratio
population the availability will encourage others of 1:3. All teachers must be provided with
to join and enjoy the benefits of technology. unlimited computer access so that they could
For example, some banks have moved towards prepare their educational material.
providing most of their services through the web. Learning computing has now been introduced at
This includes managing their accounts, placing schools as well. Having originated targeting at
standing orders and settlement of bills. This advanced level students it has now reached the
allows the customer to make a virtual visit to his ordinary level students as well. However our
bank at anytime he wish and obtain the required school IT curriculum should move towards
service. Other services such as withdrawing cash, matching those used in the western countries to
depositing cheques etc. can be done through the encourage more to take up IT as a career path.
teller machines which are also accessible at
anytime. Fortunately through School Net Internet access
has reached schools. Also through Nanasala’s it is
Wireless local area networks allow users to access reaching the villages as well. Not only that the
shared information without looking for a place to service providers too offering Internet facilities to
plug in their laptops. This technology is being most cities.
made available in some public places and
organisations as well as not spreading beyond the
major cities. Educational centres such as 5.3 Language Barrier
Universities and Libraries should have such Most Sri Lankan learner’s first language is not
facilities, as future generation will be carrying English. Hence some find it difficult grasp the
mobile equipment to access facilities. Information concepts through reading. Hence there is a need
users now carry their laptops, PDA, smart phones, for supplementary material in native languages.
CDs, thumb drives with them for fast and precise This could be supported through Unicode.
access to their day to day material.

1) BIT (2000), “Student Handbook”.
www.bit.lk/information/handbook/handbook-
5.4 Bridging the Gap 2000.pdf
The education system has been producing 2) Blackboard. www.blackboard.com
graduates without any exposure to computers. 3) Classroom online (claroline):
When these graduates take teaching assignments www.claroline.net
they are not equipped to use technology for 4) Grabe, Mark and Grabe, Cindy (2004),
education. Technology and educational reforms “Integrating Technology for Meaningful
has to be done taking these into consideration. Learning”, (4th Ed.), Houghton Mifflin
Few good moves we have seen include staff Company.
training and promotion of end-user ICT skills. 5) International Computer Driving Licence
www.icdlap.com
International Computer Driving Licence (ICDL)
6) .LRN: Learn, Research, Network. dotlrn.org
[5] is a competency standard for end-user ICT
7) Moodle: moodle.org
skills. ICDL attempts to raise the general level of
8) Online Learning And Training (OLAT):
competency in IT. This will in turn improve
www.olat.org
productivity at work and reduce IT support cost,
9) Salter G. and Hansen S. (1999), “Modelling
enabling employers to invest more efficiently in
New Skills for Online Teaching”,
IT. It also ensures that best practice and quality
Australasian Society for Computers in
issues are understood and implemented, and
Learning in Tertiary Education Conference,
establishes a tangible benchmark for computer
Brisbane. www.ascilite.org.au
user skills. Increasing popularity of obtaining
10) Schwandt, David & Marquardt, Michael
ICDL qualification is a move towards helping the
(2000), “Organisational Learning: From
citizens of Sri Lanka. The recent BIT degree
World-Class Theories to Global Best
curriculum revision took appropriate actions to
Practices”. London: St. Luis Press.
bridge the gap that exists between the new intake
11) Sri Lanka ICT Association -SLICTA (2007),
and year 1. Thus Semester 1 is design to match an
“Rising Demand: The increasing demand for
advanced version of ICDL.
IT workers spells a challenging opportunity
for the IT industry”. National IT Workforce
6.0 CONCLUSIONS Survey 2007.
www.icta.lk/Insidepages/downloadDocs/ICT
In the modern society paradigm shift in learning
WorkforcSurvey2007.pdf
and knowledge management is quite apparent.
12) Waydande H.S. (2004), “User’s Perspective
Through the Asia eBIT project the UCSC has
Towards Digital Libraries: A practical
taken timely measures to adopt these changes at
approach of Central Library”, IIT Bombay,
UCSC.
Intl. Conf. on Digital Libraries, Vol. 2, pp.
An e-learning framework is essential to 1081-84.
implement the paradigm shift. Like learning is a 13) WebCT: www.webct.com
life long process this paradigm shift and the 14) Wikramanayake G.N. (2003), “e-Learning:
experiences gathered through the shift is itself a Changes in Teaching and Learning Styles”,
learning process. We believe that wide variety of Proc. CSSL. Proceedings of 22nd Nat. IT
educational services will emerge due to these Conf., Computer Society of Sri Lanka, pp.
changes. 118-124.
15) Wilson, Scott, Kerry Blinco, and Daniel
Rehak (2004), “An e-Learning framework: a
7.0 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS summary: DEST (Australia), JISC-CETIS
We acknowledge the support given by the (UK), and Industry Canada”.
members of the BIT academic panel and the staff www.jisc.ac.uk/uploaded_documents/Altilab0
of the e-learning centre of UCSC. Contributions 4-ELF.pdf
made by the Asia eBIT counterparts in Sweden
and Netherlands are acknowledged.
Appendix A
8.0 REFERENCES
BIT – Course Structure
th
Proceedings of the 25 National IT Conference, Colombo, Sri Lanka 76

Degree Path
MSc, MPhil, PhD @ UCSC

BIT

GPA >= 2.0 & Pass Individual Project

Y Semester 6 Examinations and Assignments
E 2 Compulsory (GPV >= 1.25) & 2 Optional Courses (GPV >= 1)
A
R Semester 5 Examinations and Assignments
3 2 Compulsory (GPV >= 1.25) & 2 Optional Courses (GPV >= 1)

GPA >= 1.5

Y Semester 4 Examinations and Assignments GPA >= 2.0 Higher
E 2 Compulsory (GPV >= 1.25) & 2 Optional Courses (GPV >= 1) & DIT Diploma in
A Information
R Semester 3 Examinations and Assignments Technology
2 2 Compulsory (GPV >= 1.25) & 2 Optional Courses (GPV >= 1) (HDIT)
Pass Assignments
GPA >= 1.5

Y Semester 2 Examinations and Assignments GPA >= 2.0
E 4 Compulsory Courses (Min GPV 1.25)
Diploma in
A
R Semester 1 Examinations and Assignments Information
Pass Technology
1 4 Compulsory Courses (Min GPV 1.25)
Assignments (DIT)
Commence Studies

BIT Registration

Successful

Selection Test Equivalent
Qualifications
(e.g. 6-12
Submit Application months course
GCE A/L
on IT or any
Three Passes other discipline)
+ Qualification for
O/L Maths - C Entrance
Figure 1: BIT Degree Path

Figure 2: The Starting Page of the Virtual Learning Environment

Figure 3: Different Discussions in LMS


Figure 4: This is what students see when they enter the course

Figure 5: Collaborative student activity in the LMS


Figure 6: Online Quiz given in the LMS for each sections in the syllabus

Figure 7: Interactive Online Learning Lesson


Figure 8: Interactive online learning Activity given within e-Learning lessons


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