ELC (283)

The COVID-19 has changed life everywhere in the world; we are not the same world as we were before it. It has shocked the mankind in general and took by surprise the teachers in particular; we, the teachers, are wondering how to make our remote teaching practically interactive and interesting; we are wondering how to empower ourselves and our learners with the existing online tools. André Hedlund addressed this issue in “Online Tools and Science of Learning” organized by SPD Committee, English Language Centre, University of Technology and Applied Sciences,  Ibri. 

The guest speaker is a Chevening Alumnus, MSc in Psychology of Education from the University of Bristol, and an Edify Bilingual Program Mentor for SPOT Educação. He is also a representative of BRAZ-TESOL's Mind, Brain, and Education Special Interest Group (MBE SIG) and a guest lecturer in postgraduate courses on Multilingualism, Global Education, and Neuroscience. His blog (edcrocks.com) has been accessed more than 40 thousand times by people from more than 160 countries. He uses Instagram (@edcrocks) to host monthly lives about how neuroscience and psychology can be applied in the classroom and interviews teachers from all over the world.The speaker revisited the concept of innovation.He talked about addressing the digital gap, and discussed how we can integrate user-friendly online tools with six easy-to-implement practices recommended by the Science of Learning (SoL). Towards the end of the workshop, DrAbdusalam, the head of Center, and Mr Faisal Shamali thanked André Hedlundfor sharing his experiences.

According to the UTAS H&S Protocol, the English Language Center (UTAS-Ibri) organized an orientation session for the foundation year students on Thursday, December 17th 2020, in order to raise the students' awareness to mitigate Covid-19 during sitting for Semester one LEE (2020/2021). The session was decided after a series of Health and Safety meetings with the Dean of UTAS-Ibri, Dr. Hamdan Al Manthari, Dean Assistants and the representatives of departments, centers and respective committees. And then, the foundation year students were invited to attend the awareness session on MS Teams. The invitation and Health and Safety Guidelines were sent by email to the university staff and students, and published on the university social media accounts.

The online meeting was attended by the Dean, Dean Assistants, the representatives of departments, centers and committees and seventy-four students who represented the foundation year students. The meeting was an awareness session on the significance of adhering to the health and safety protocols and guidelines while existing on the university campus for the final exams. Then, a community discussion started, in which the students frankly expressed their suggestions and inquiries. The Head of ELC, Dr. Abdul Salam Al Manthari, and the Head of Section, Dr. Sultan Al Ghafri, received and discussed all the students' suggestions, and replied to all their inquiries. At the end of the meeting, the students were encouraged to email any further questions to the HoC and HoS.

In the ELC H&S Committee pursuit to raise awareness among the ELC staff and as per instructed, a H&S awareness session was held on Tuesday, December 15th 2020. The committee requested permission from the  HoC, Dr. Abdul Salam Al Manthari, to conduct the session. The permission was granted and the committee initiated arrangements for the online session. The committee coordinated with the HoSs and other committees in order to avoid any meeting conflict. After that, Mr. Sulaiman prepared the PowerPoint presentation and feedback questionnaire following the acknowledged norms of writing and referencing. He also scheduled the meeting on MS Teams platform.

On the respective day, Mr. Sulaiman started his presentation on time. The presentation reflected the purpose of the awareness session, displaying the Covid-19 safety measures at the ELC and raising awareness among the ELC staff in order to raise their readiness for the upcoming final exams of semester one (2020/2021). At the end of the session, Mr. Sulaiman sent the link of the feedback questionnaire in the meeting chat box. 

With reference to the results of the feedback questionnaire, Mr. Sulaiman delivered a very clear presentation in terms of presentation overview and concepts. All the respondents to the questionnaire appreciated his attitude and interaction with the audience. They also indicated their ability to smoothly congest the concepts presented. Finally, Mr. Sulaiman was awarded a certificate of appreciation for his valuable contribution as a presenter and an active H&S Committee member.

The English Language Centre and the Business Studies Department recently organised training on creating research material that abides with the regulations for online research, avoiding plagiarism and ensuring information consulted is appropriately referenced. The course was delivered by Mr Andries Oberholzer, a lecturer from the ELC, UTAS Ibri. 

The online session took place on Thursday, 5 November 2020 and was attended by a number of students as well as lecturers from the Business Studies Department. Due to the need to elaborate further on the training provided, it was decided that future demonstrations would be made available to students as pre-recorded video. The topics to be covered are: 

• Paraphrasing content taken from online sources or books so that the message of the original writer is maintained, but is rewritten in the student’s own words;
• Exercises in paraphrasing, based on the Level 4 Project and Presentation course, were covered to explain to students how to take text and rephrase it using a number of methods, such as using synonyms; changing from the first to the third person; changing from direct to reported speech; and changing the word order in sentences.

After this, the next phase is to demonstrate to students how proper referencing is done in MS Word, using its built-in functionality. The Harvard referencing style is used, and students are shown step by step how to insert a reference based on the type of source (online article, journal, book, and so on). The inserted citation is then automatically converted to a bibliography list. To date, five recordings have been made and are ready to be made available to students.

Overall, training of this type is vital so that we can move away from a manual system of compiling information and rely on technology to assist and perform mundane tasks for us. This reduces human errors and allows work done by students to conform with international standards.

The Students’ Activities Committee has successfully conducted three Writing Workshops, covering general academic writing principals, email writing and paragraph structures for three different levels of Foundation Program. The aim of the workshops was to prepare students for the Progress Test exams. 

For each workshop, more than 70 students participated. The following distinguished teachers contributed in the workshops.

• Level 1: Dr Mohsen (Thursday 19 Nov at 20:00 p.m)
• Level 2: Ms Marriet and Dr Mohsen (18 Nov at 20:00 p.m)
• Level 4: Ms Sandra (Thursday 19 Nov at 18:00 p.m) 

The committee would like to appreciate Ms Samah  Alghafri ( Head of English Society/ Tutor) and Ms Maryam Humaid Algharibi (Designer, Tutor of English Society) for their outstanding efforts in teaching students in the Peer Tutoring Program. 

The Professional Development and E-Learning Committees of English Language Center, UTAS, Ibri, organized an online workshop on Thursday 22 October 2020 on “Online Error Correction Techniques” which was conducted by Ms. Somiai El Naggar (Egypt). Ms. El Naggar is an English Teacher Assistant at Canadian International College COE & Founder of Be a Bee Company for teacher training and English Courses. RELO Mentor Trainer, TESOL and IELTS Holders from London Teacher Training College. The online workshop started with a brief introduction of some error correction techniques, differences between errors and mistakes, some issues learners might face with, interesting and motivating questions in the chat box, etc.  Somiai practically showed to the audience the different techniques that teachers should follow in order to give feedback like taking advantage of body language, gestures, hints, etc. She added to that, the various technological tools that can be adopted to deliver online feedback The session was appreciated by international participants from Egypt, Nepal, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Oman, Iran, USA, etc. Towards the end of the online workshop, Dr Abdusalam, the Head of Centre, and Mr Faisal Shamali thanked Somiai for sharing her experiences.

The English Language Centre Professional Development and E-Learning committees of UTAS, Ibri, arranged a webinar (an online workshop) on Thursday, 15 October 2020 on “Promoting Self-Directed, Collaborative and Reflective Learning on Electronic Platforms” by Professor Ismat Zarin (Bangladesh). She is an assistant professor at University of Asia Pacific, Dhaka, Bangladesh. She was a recipient of ‘Inspiring Green Educator Award’ at the 2nd Climate Week NYC, UN General Assembly, 2018. In the online workshop, she unveiled the possibilities of promoting collaborative, reflective learning through e-portfolio projects in teaching online. The workshop was initiated with a brief introduction to the theoretical background of the workshop based on recent research. Professor Zarin shared a hands-on comprehensive participatory discussion on planning, execution and successful assessment of e-portfolio projects in online classrooms using Microsoft Teams and enhanced self-directed learning through reflection and collaboration. Towards the end of the online workshop, Dr Abdusalam, the Head of Centre, and Mr Faisal Shamali thanked Ismat Zarin for sharing her experiences.

Educators with the right skills are an asset to the organisation they work for. Training at regular intervals expands the base of their knowledge and instils confidence in them and helps them become productive and efficient.

The E-Learning and Professional Development committees at UTAS-Ibri, took the initiative to conduct a training session on using MS Teams for the English Language Centre staff on 13 October 2020. Dr Abed Ali Mohammed from the Department of Business Studies was invited to conduct an online training session titled “Microsoft Teams as an Interactive Tool for Online Teaching.”

As Microsoft Teams is an official platform for teaching, teachers need to become conversant with the various functions to enhance online teaching and learning quality.

Dr Abed focused on disabling incoming videos, conducting live polls during classes, channel Management and its usage in MS Teams, creating assignments, and grading, creating and conducting quizzes. He also shared his top five tips for course teachers to make online classes interactive and productive. 

The quick tips he shared were like a ready reckoner for the teachers. The live demonstration was very fruitful, and the takeaways were customised and rich.

The English Language Centre extended its heartfelt thanks to Dr Abed for sharing an interesting and informative presentation.

Dr Abdulsalam Makhtoum Ali Al Manthari praised the efforts exerted, and Dr Abed was awarded with a certificate of appreciation.