The kickoff meeting of the TEAL 2.O project, received under the Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education Programme, was held from 4th to 6th March, 2020 at Oak Ray Regency, Kandy. This event was organized and hosted by University of Peradeniya and was successfully held with the participation of representatives from 12 partner universities. The project TEAL 2.O spanning for three years focuses on “Improving the access to science and technology higher education in resource-poor institutions through an open platform for technology enabled active learning environment”. As such, a modular and open technology enabled active learning platform will be collaboratively developed, and relevant teaching and learning content will be designed to suit the needs of variety of users.
The purpose of this meeting was to reach a consensus on how the development of the platform will be carried out. In this regard, the coordinator of the project, the team from University of Peradeniya presented an overview of the project, task allocations per work package and the tentative work plan, etc., and accordingly, important decisions were made on planning of the development activities, task allocation among partners and organizing the next stakeholder buy in roundtable workshops. Dr. Gergana Dimitrova from the European Center for Quality delivered online presentations on financial management of the project, procurement procedures and dissemination. All the partner universities presented on their expected contribution to the TEAL 2.O project and raised concerns regarding several aspects of the project
Dr. Nanda Gunawardena, Director of International Affairs and Research Division of SLTC, Dr. Dushantha Nalin Jayakody, Head of School of Postgraduate studies, Dr. Dhammika Elkaduwe, Consultant, School of IT & Computing, Mr. Charith Jayanetti, Dr. Nuwan Vithanage and Dr. Eranji Jayaweera took part in the meeting representing the STLC. They actively participated in the discussions held regarding the development of the platform, technical aspects and task allocations etc. Dr. Sanjeewa Maithripala from Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Peradeniya, who is also the Consultant for Research and Academic Affairs Division of the SLTC, played a significant role from convening to holding of the kickoff meeting.