The QAD conducted a series of awareness session for Business, IT and ELC students in order to inform them of the importance of QA and in order to prepare them for the upcoming OAAA audit 2020. These awareness sessions were conducted on September and October.
The awareness sessions oriented the students on OAAA audit, policies related to students, the quality audit in 2013 outcomes, the actions taken following the audit, the importance of QA to students and the college. Several other issues related to QA were also discussed.
This awareness session was conducted by QA officers Dr. Abdulsalam Al-Manthari and Ms. Basma Al-Alawi.
Dean of the College, Dr. Hamdan Al-Manthari graced the sessions and emphasized the importance of student engagement and being aware of QA and the OAAA Audit. Students actively interacted with the College Dean and with QAD officers during the sessions. Mentimeter was used to get feedback from students and it showed that 90% of students benefited from the sessions and believe that future awareness sessions should be conducted.
QAD will continue conducting awareness sessions for all College students and staff in order to increase their awareness of QA and increase their preparedness for the OAAA audit.
Mr Rashid Al-Hinai, ADAFA, conducted the 360 Degree Staff Appraisal System Workshop on Wednesday, 9 October 2019 at the VIP room. He discussed the importance of the 360 Degree Staff Appraisal System and its benefits. For better understanding, the attendees watched a video clip on the topic.
Dr Hamdan Al-Manthari, College Dean, Ms Nawal Al-Sawafi, ADSA, Mr Nasser Al-Shammakhi, Engineering Department Head, Mr Abdulah Al-Shukeili, ETC Head, Mr Omar Al-Balushi, Business Studies Department Head, Ms Heba Al-Qureshi, QAD Head and Dr Sultan Al Ghafri, ELC HoS, Dr Maryam Al-Ghafri, ELC HoS attended the workshop.
Ms Heba Qureshi and Ms Laly Antoney presented the Academic Staff Appraisal, Technical Appraisal and Classroom Observation Forms The attendees were divided into five tables.
The following were the team facilitators and their corresponding members:
|
Table No |
Team Facilitator |
Team Members |
|
1 |
Dr Maryam Al-Ghafri |
Ms Fatma Al-Yahyai |
|
Ms Sabha Al-Manthari |
||
|
Ms Basma Al-Alawi |
||
|
2 |
Ms Nawal Al-Sawafi |
Ms Saada Al-Shukri |
|
Ms Zainab Al-Mandhari |
||
|
Ms Fatma Al-Ghafri |
||
|
Ms Moza Al-Balushi |
||
|
3 |
Dr Sultan Al-Ghafri |
Dr Pugalarasu Rajan |
|
Dr Abdulsalam Al-Manthari |
||
|
Dr Mohsen Amiri |
||
|
4 |
Mr Abdullah Al-Shukeily |
Mr Nasser Al-Shammakhi |
|
Mr Said Al-Manthari |
||
|
Mr Sreenivas Naik |
||
|
5 |
Mr William Ancheta |
Mr Omar Al-Balushi |
|
Dr Abdulrahamn Al-Ismaili |
Each table was asked to assign an appraiser, an appraisee and a presenter who would explain their work. As they rate based on the criteria, they could write comments on what they have observed and later present it during the discussion part.
Due to time constraints, only the academic appraisal form was done and an open forum followed. One of the major concerns was the staff evaluation by peers as raised by Mr Abdullah Al-Shukeily and Dr Maryam Al-Ghafri.
Dr Hamdan explained that restrictions like closed circle for peers would be done but only later on, when the picture becomes clear. It would be level wise for ELC and section wise for D/C. Mr Abdullah was requested to come up with a software and explain how to do it.
Ms Nawal asked about student evaluation. Ms Laly explained that student semestral feedback would be kept and the average score would be taken.
Other concerns were about Mr Nasser’s query on how a newly joined staff would rate senior staff. On the other hand, Mr Omar asked about how to know a person’s interest.
It was agreed that additional feedback would be emailed and the deadline for submission was the next day, Thursday, 10 October 2019.
Survey about the workshop was taken by Dr Abdulsalam through Mentimeter. The survey results show that the workshop helped the participants in understanding the importance of the implementation of the 360 Degree Staff Appraisal System.
Recently, Oracle Corporation, in collaboration with Higher College of Technology, organised the Oracle Academy Faculty Day on Thursday, 21 November 2019, rom 8 am to 3 pm in the MPH Building. The purpose of the event was to update the Oracle Academy Programme’s new features, its free academic new courses, Oracle Academy cloud free tier, technical topics like cloud computing, and other updates.
Dr Huda Salim Al Shukaily, Head IT department of Higher College of Technology, welcomed everyone and gave a welcome address to the participants, followed by Ms Bushra Al Zayyat, a note from Oracle Oman’s country leader, Ms Jane Richardson, Senior Director Oracle Academy, EMEA, who is responsible of the management and development of the Oracle Academy Programme in the Europe Middle East and Africa. She discussed the IT jobs which increased from 2013 to 2018, IT job growth in the techology sector was 40 percent, outside of tech, IT job growth jumped 65 percent. IT jobs, both in an out of the tech sector, pay substantially more than non-IT jobs, with a salary premium of $20,000 or more. She also added that Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and its affiliates.
Mr William McCabe, Senior Director, Member Education and Curriculum Development for Oracle, who is responsible for training and curriculum development, discussed the new features of Oracle, which is going to launch in early 2020. The features include Oracle autonomous database, Oracle cloud infrastructure and Oracle Institutional membership in Oman. He added that the Oracle Academy Institutional members will get free cloud database with its infrastructure and they can access the Oracle autonomous database, Oracle Application Express (APEX), Java, Node.js, Python and many other programming languages. Free Trial Credits of $300 USD in Cloud Credits for a full year of educators and the students to try over 20 cloud services for infrastructure, databases, application development, analytics, integration, content and experience, management, and security.
The IT Department lecturers Mr Junath Naseer Ahamed and Mr Rajasekar attended this event.
Ibri College of Technology, under the patronage of Director General Said Suliman Humaid Al Qari (Directorate General for Social Development in Al Dhahira Governate) and Dr Khalaf Salim Abdullah Al Ishaqi (Wali of Ibri), celebrated the 49th National Day of Oman on 25 November 2019.
The Engineering Department, through the Engineering Society and the Engineering Student Club (ESC), organised a Classic/Vintage Car Show, with the support and permission of the Head of the Engineering Department, Mr Nasser Al Shammakhi, and the college administration, to join in the celebration as a way of honouring His Majesty, Sultan Qaboos.
Mrs Lizette Ivy C. Pascual of the Engineering Society and ESC Incumbent President, Mr Omair Abdullah Khalifa Al Riyami, organised the participation of eight vintage cars that were paraded and shown to everyone in front of the Engineering Department Building during the ceremony. The car models and years, and the names of the car owners are as follows:
In addition to the Classic Car Show, some refreshments were prepared by ESC female members, namely Amira Atiyaq Khalfan Al Wahshi, Jawaher Khamis Al Alawi, Asma Ali Abdullah Al Sudiri, and Rima Humaid Al Shuhoumi, in the Engineering Lobby.
On the occasion to celebrate Oman Mathematics Day - V, the Mathematics section of the Information Technology Department, along with the Academic Support Services Committee, organised “Math Talent Hunt” for the students. The purpose of the competition was to test the general IQ of the students in Mathematics and to allow students to develop themselves by applying their knowledge ,and to make them professionally competent to improve their aptitude skills.
The competition was designed through an online quiz using E-learning with 20 questions to be completed in 50 minutes. Fifty-six students registered themselves and actively participated in this event from all the academic departments and centres.
The department appreciates the efforts of Math staff members who encouraged the students and conducted the event successfully. The department appreciates the students of iTech Club for their efforts in designing the competition poster and organising the event.
Finally, the Quality Assurance Department collected the feedback of the competition from the participants. The feedback score is 3.59 out of 5.
The department congratulates the winners and all the active participants of the competition. The winners of the competition are as follows:
The First position was secured by Omer Humaid Rashid of Diploma Year-1 student from the Engineering Department.
The Second position was secured by Mashal Saif Said Al Yaqoobi of Diploma Year-1 student from the Engineering Department.
The Third position was achieved by Al Maha Said Salim Al Mamari, a student from the Foundation Programme, Level 2.
A one-day workshop on Lap and Wave Winding Practice was organised by the Engineering Society and the Electrical and Electronics Section of the Engineering Department for Electrical Engineering students, offered to all levels, to enhance their skills in this field. The Workshop was held on 8 October 2019, 12 to 2 pm, in the Electrical Machines Lab (B009), Engineering Department Building.
Dr Kumaravel Govindharasu, Electrical Power Engineering lecturer, delivered the lecture and conducted the training to nine Electrical Engineering students who registered. He was assisted by Electrical Section Technician, Mr Shankar Balasubramani.
The workshop speaker specifically addressed some of the practical difficulties and issues associated with these windings when being installed in machines. In addition, he presented the maintenance and repair procedures of machines that have problems associated with the windings. A winding practice setup was personally designed by Dr Kumaravel, which he demonstrated to the students for them to replicate.
At the end of the workshop session, the students gained ideas and earned some useful information regarding Lap and Wave Winding Practices as well as learning some technical terms such as full pitch, short pitch, commutation, etc.
All students who attended and took part in the workshop received a certificate of participation.
The Innovation and Entrepreneurship (IEU), represented by two students, Majdi Al-Azri and Reem Al-Kalbania, participated in an innovation competition from 20 to 21 November 2019 in Muscat. It was organised by the Royal Army of Oman for encouraging students to create innovative ideas that could support the Armed Forces in Oman. On the first day, there was an exhibition for all students participating in the competition. They exhibited their innovative projects to the visitors. On the second day, the Commander of Royal Army of oman, Major General Matar bin Salim bin Rashid AL-Bulushi, visited IbriCT corner to see the project being developed by Majdi and Reem, which is a “Smart Helmet”. He got satisfied with the functions of the “Smart Helmet” and how it can facilitate the work of soliders. At the end, there was an appreciation ceremony in which our team got the fourth place in the competition.
The Ministry of Manpower conducted an appreciation ceremony to appreciate three student companies who won local and regional prizes in 2019. IbriCT represented by the head of IEU, Mr Mohammed Al-Sakiti, and Elixir Soil team, was appreciated in the ceremony by His Excellency Sheikh Abullah bin Nasser Al-Bakri, the Minister of Manpower. This appreciation goes back to the participation of Elixier Soil team in the 6th Cairo International Exhibition of Innovation. The team won the second place within the international participations category. At the end of the ceremony, IbriCT team took a group picture with His Excellency the Minister of Manpower.
The Information Technology Department organised a “One Hour Contest” on 19 November 2019. On this day, the department witnessed a competitive environment in the laboratories with many students participating in this competition. The objective of the competition was to identify potential students for the “Oman Skills Competition-2020”. This competition is designed only for Diploma Year-1 students. The Information Technology Department intends to provide comprehensive training to the students who performed well in this competition.
The competition started at 12.05 pm with an inaugural speech by Mr William (HoS-IT). Mr William addressed the importance and objective of this competition. iTech Club students discussed briefly the competition.
Three parallel contests were proposed at the same time and were conducted successfully:
- Network Cabling contest
- Database Design contest
- Web Design contest
The Network Cabling contest is designed to test the knowledge and skills of students in preparing Ethernet cables used in real network environments.
The Database Design contest is designed to test the implementation skills of logical and physical schema for a given scenario.
The Web Design contest is designed to test the skills of students in designing a simple web page. Given a scenario, the participant must design a web page using HTML tags.
A total of 32 Diploma Year-1 students were registered for this competition.
The committee appreciate Ms Roselle, Mr Junath and Mr Somesh for providing their ideas, preparing scenarios, and offering their time and expertise completing this competition. The committee appreciates Mr Isabelo, Mr Rajasekaran and Ms Iman Al Jassasi for their involvement as facilitators in this competition.
The committee appreciates the efforts of IT Staff members who encouraged our students and were present during the competition.
This competition is organized by iTech Club students and IT staff members. The committee appreciate the iTech Club students for their efforts in designing the competition poster, making announcements, and organising the event.
The Quality Assurance Department provided the competition feedback. The competition received a feedback score 4.3 out of 5 from the participants.
The department congratulates the following winners:
Database Design:
First Place : Amina Al Farsi and Shatha Al Mamari
Second Place: Mitha Juma Al Kaabi and Safa Salim Al Abri
Web Design:
First Place : Sara
Second Place: Sumaya
The Industrial Link Committee of the Engineering Department organised an industrial visit for students to the Saud Bahwan Toyota Service Centre.
On 20 November 2019, students, a lecturer from the Mechanical and Industrial Engineering section along with Zaid Al Badi from the O.J.T department visited the site.
Mr Venkat, the service manager, welcomed the staff and students, introduced the car-servicing plant, and gave a brief introduction about service activities.
Mr Mohammed Al Marshoudi, the service supervisor, briefed the attendees on basic service activities such as oil and filter replacement, rebuilding of auto components such as suspension systems, brake components, etc. He then gave practical advice on car servicing equipment, including the engine analyser, how to find faults and how to troubleshoot those faults.
During the session, the students interacted with the engineers very effectively. All the students expressed their thanks to the officials for the opportunity given. This visit was highly useful for the students.
