1. Summary of the meeting:
The Staff Development Committee organised a webinar on Microsoft Teams features. Dr Monther demonstrated some of the new Microsoft Teams features that help lecturers to control classes, manage meetings, and protect students’ privacy. He further demonstrated the following features:
a. How to spotlight an attendee
b. Pinning a student
c. Eliminate any background sound during the meeting
d. Changing the background to a custom design
e. Activate the caption during the meeting to show the students the text of the lecture
f. Transfer meetings from one device to another
g. How to split a class into groups and switch between groups using breakout rooms
h. How to benefit from the tools provided in the chat box such as format message, paste code in any language, add a question and see the student answer
i. How to add an application into MS Teams, such as Insight which generates a report about student participation during all meetings, their attendance, and activities in the class for a selected period. In addition, code application to write code in any language can be added, as well as forms to prepare quizzes for students.
j. Control status on MS Teams to receive messages and call at a specific time.
k. Channel management: create, delete, hide and unhide channels
2. Feedback
The workshop duration was about two hours and was attended by 69 staff members from UTAS Ibri. They expressed their appreciation on this webinar and that they came to know more about MS Teams. Many of them have requested for more such webinars.
3. Screen Shot of the meeting
The Business Studies Department organised an online session on “Enhancing Well-being and Mental Health in the Workplace” on Sunday, 20th of December 2020, from 7:30 to 8:30 PM through MS Teams. The session was delivered by MsBalqees Al Hassani, the president of Knowledge Oman and head of Well-being Department at Al Sahwa Schools. The main aim of thesession was to empower UTAS-Ibri staff with new insights andtechniques to make positive changes and enhance their well-being and mental health. The speaker focused the definition and benefits of well-being, ways to improve well-being in higher education institutes and the current practices at Knowledge Oman and Al Sahwa Schools. At the end of the session, the participants asked the speaker some questions for further clarification. Then, the coordinator of the Staff Development Committee, Mr Mohammed Al-Sakiti, thanked the speaker for accepting the invitation to deliver the session.
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.
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.
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.
The Staff Development Committee of the Information Technology Department organised a webinar on Mobile Application Development using Android Studio on 23 November 2020 from 12 noon onward. The webinar was organised to make students and staff members aware of the android studio mobile app development, challenges, and opportunities available in the domain. The webinar was delivered by Dr Iyad Abu Doush from the computing department in the American University of Kuwait. The presenter explained the main parts of developing mobile application and demonstrated that using android studio. He also explained the main benefits of using Kelton language as it is similar to Java syntax. At the end, the presenter shared with the audience the link to download the code file and his book if they wish to explore more. The workshop session lasted for about two hours and was attended by 20 staff members from University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Ibri, and other colleges. Most of the attendees expressed their satisfaction with the arrangements and outcomes of the workshop.
Information Technology Department of University of Technology & Applied Science-Ibri participated in the Higher Education & Industry Symposium, University of Technology & Applied Science -Nizwa, 15-16 Dec 2020. The program started with a welcome address by Dr.Salim al-Shaikh, Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs and Scientific Research.
The symposium included about 28 sessions for different themes, which are: Aligning curricula with the industry needs, Quality standards in preparing higher education graduates, Promoting entrepreneurial culture in HEIs Internship and On-Job –Training Programs and Community Participations.
IT department participated in two papers. Nasim Al Balushi (Lecturer) presented her paper about “Learning Methodologies to Keep Pace with Oman Vision 2040 and Covid 19Pandemic”.The abstract of her paper is in the history of development economics, education has been thought of as a key factor in is the basis of development. Extensive research has shown the importance of effective learning methodologies to achieve the outcomes of the course and assess the students based on the outcomes. Each academic institution in Oman needs to qualify the students to achieve the goals of Oman Vision 2040, which indicates that Learning, Education, Scientific Research, and National Talents represent the top national priorities for the Sultanate of Oman. Furthermore, it is required to use new learning methodologies due to the Covid 19 pandemic as most of the academic institutions towards online learning. For graduates to contribute to a knowledge-based local economy, they should improve their ability to “think well”. This concept is explained differently in various parts of the globe, but the basic idea is that graduates should be able to tolerate increasing levels of ambiguity, be creative and intuitive, and be able to use their cognitive knowledge and skills when faced with problem-solving tasks. The Dearing Report which deals with higher education in general in the UK indicates some skills that students must have including “cognitive skills, such as an understanding of methodologies or ability in critical analysis” .Bloom Taxonomy can be an effective tool to change the way of learning and learning. Recently, considerable literature has grown up around the theme of Bloom’s Taxonomy.
There is a need for the implementation of Blooms' Taxonomy to keep pace with Oman Vision 2040 in the field of education. Recently most academic institutions use online learning due to Covid 19, there is a need for an effective mechanism to ensure the understanding of the students for the materials as the online teaching method is a new strategy for some institutions. Data for this study were collected using different approaches of Blooms' Taxonomy. It is hoped that this research will contribute to a deeper understanding of the Oman vision 2020 relating to the improvement of education and the way to assess the students due to the new way of teaching because of Covid 19. The reader should bear in mind that the study is based on the analysis of Bloom's Taxonomy. My personal experience of learning has prompted this research.
Dr.Amal(Head of IT) and Ms.Moza(Head of ARD) presented a paper titled “A Framework to Support the Delivery and Assessment of Practical-Based Concepts On Online Learning”. The abstract of the presented paper is due to the current situation with the spread of Covid 19 virus, teaching and learning have been directed towards online-based approach. The available platforms for online teaching and learning like E-learning, MS Teams and Google Classroom are supporting the delivery and assessment of theory-based courses. However, when practical-based courses are involved, the delivery and assessment of such courses are challenging tasks. The delivery of the practical skills/concepts requires the availability of the tool and the supervision of the educator during implementation. To assess the acquired practical knowledge by learners, an activity-based assessment can be used. In such assessment method, the learners’ progress needs to be observed and tracked to determine the time required to complete the activity and the correctness level of the attempted activity. As the available online platforms for teaching and learning are lacking these features, there is a need for a mechanism to adapt the available platforms to handle the delivery and assessment of practical skills. Therefore, this paper proposes a framework to integrate tools for online practices to facilitate the delivery of practical-based concepts. The proposed framework will also utilize the generated data during the online learning process to understand the learners’ behavior and knowledge level.
To enhance lung capacity, the Health and Safety Committee organised a breathing exercise workshop for women on Wednesday, 16 December 2020 in the VIP Room.
Dr Sharmila V, lecturer, Engineering Department, who has conducted many wellness workshops in the past, was the resource person of this workshop. Ms Subha Bharathi, lecturer, Engineering Department, assisted as volunteer.
During this programme, complete breathing procedures, breath-holding tests, lung cleansing exercises, and relaxing breath exercises were demonstrated.
The following exercises were explained with demonstrations:
- “Pull” Breath Exercise
Benefits:
- Favourable effect on the respiratory and digestive system.
- Drains excess phlegm from the lungs.
- Oxygenates the blood, increasing the vitality of all the organs and tissues.
- Strengthens and tones the abdominal region.
- Calms the mind.
- Energises the entire body and mind.
- “Pump” Breath Exercises
Benefits:
- Sinus problems are cured.
- Dust and other particles in the nose and sinuses are removed.
- Body becomes energised.
- Supply of blood to brain increases.
- “Alternative Nostril” Breath Exercises
Benefits:
- Infuses the body with oxygen.
- Clears and releases toxins.
- Reduces stress and anxiety.
- Calms and rejuvenates the nervous system.
- Helps to balance hormones.
- Supports clear and balanced respiratory channels.
The programme was planned for 30 minutes but due to keen interest and participation, it was extended to one hour. All participants practiced the above-mentioned exercises and appreciated the demonstration given by trainer.
The Research and Consultancy Committee of the Engineering Department organised a workshop on ‘’Arduino and Raspberry Pi Virtual Simulation Using AutoDesk TinkerCAD and Fritzing’’ on 3 and 10 December 2020 from 2 to 4 pm. Mr Aaron James S, Lecturer, EE section, Engineering Department, conducted the workshop programme. A total of twelve students who successfully carried out the workshop tasks and generated working outputs, were awarded a certificate of participation.
The two-day workshop covered the following topics:
- Introduction about Autodesk TinkerCAD and FRITZING
- Exploring Components in AutoDesk TinkerCAD and FRITZING
- Arduino and Raspberry Pi Basic Programming Concepts
- Virtual Simulation and Results
The Staff Development Committee of the Engineering Department organised a programme on Fostering Self-regulated Learning in Higher Education on 9 December 2020 from 11 am to 12 noon. Dr K. Elangovan, HoS (Mechanical and Industrial Engineering), delivered the presentation for the benefit of the staff members. He gave general introduction to Self-regulated Learning (SRL) and the techniques required for higher education. His presentation was mainly focused on self-learning and explain the Metacognitive Strategy Components. He also briefed the role of teacher in teaching SRL techniques to the students. The speaker finally concluded the presentation by highlighting the teacher’s role in motivating SRL strategies among students.
