The Research and Course Project Committee of the Information Technology Department organised a webinar in collaboration with Malwarebytes Middle East. The webinar was delivered under the title “Protect your Servers and Endpoints from Cyberattacks, Viruses, Adware and Ransomware with Malwarebytes”. It was held on 27 October 2020 at 4 pm and was delivered by two invited speakers from Malwarebytes: Mr Basheer Khalid and Mohammad Qatatsha.
The speakers started their presentation with statistics reflecting the capability of Malwarebytes tools in detecting malicious events and described the difference between anti-malware and regular anti-virus tools. Moreover, they demonstrated the unique features that differentiate their tools from others; which can be considered as a starting point for new scientific research in the intrusion detection and prevention field. Among the available features, the speakers demonstrated how malware infections can be tracked and cleaned using the linkage engine. Additionally, they described the multi-vector protection mechanism, which is employed by their tools. The speakers also highlighted the differences between the endpoint protection tools and endpoint detection and response and described why and where to deploy each. The webinar lasted about 45 minutes and attended by ten staff members from the Information Technology and Engineering departments.
The Staff Development Committee of the Engineering Department organised a programme on “E-learning Online Assessment" on 18 October 2020 from 11 to 12.30 am by Dr V. Illankumaran, HoS (Electrical and Electronics). He gave a general introduction to E-learning online assessment and its framework. His presentation mainly focused on preparing the quizzes, question banks and various types of questions such as multiple choice, blank fill, simple calculations, essays, etc. This workshop will be useful in future to conduct online quizzes, midterm tests, final examinations and assessments through E-learning and Moodle. He also explained sample quizzes through E-learning and their benefits, challenges, and framework. The speaker finally concluded the presentation with an E-learning online assessment. A total of 52 staff members participated in the programme and greatly benefited from it.
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 Professional Development and E-Learning Committees of English Language Centre, UTAS, Ibri, organised an online workshop on Tuesday, 20 October 2020 on 'Use of Class Notebook and Moodle for Effective Online Teaching' which was conducted by Ms Lubna Zia. Ms Zia is a CELTA qualified English Language teacher with more than 15 years of experience of English language teaching in diverse teaching contexts. The workshop started with a brief introduction of MS Teams’ Class Notebook for online teaching. Lubna demonstrated how to use some of the following key features of Class Notebook: creating the content, distribution of the pages, reviewing students work and giving real-time and delayed feedback, locking the page, etc. The presentation was appreciated by the ELC lecturers for its practical approach toward finding solutions to the problems faced by them while they are teaching online via MS Teams..
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.
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.
To provide knowledge and information concerning the use of technology in various IT areas, IT Webinars for External Society were organised by the Information Technology Department of the University of Technology and Applied Sciences, Ibri from 19 to 29 September 2020. The idea was initiated and monitored by Ms Nasim Al Balushi, Coordinator for Networking and Information Security Programs at UTAS Ibri. The webinars were delivered by the faculty members of the Information Technology Department.
The sessions covered contemporary and relevant topics such as Cybersecurity Essentials, Fundamental Principles of Information Security, Ethical Hacking, Online Learning and Critical Factors, Data Science, and IoT.
The first webinar in the series was ‘Cyber Security Essentials’ by Mr Geogen George, Lecturer, Information Technology, on 19 September 2020. Mr Geogen initially made the audience aware of the basics of cybersecurity and terminologies used in the field. He then introduced the audience to basic digital wrongdoings/attacks and their predominance in our day to day lives while people leave their digital footprints when they transact online. He also cleared the myth created around these wrongdoers being portrayed as specialists or geniuses. He emphasised the growing security awareness in the public at large to learn the basics needed to fight cybercrimes. This workshop helped many to build up an understanding of cybercrime, security standards, advances, and strategies used to guard organisations as well as individuals. The seminar helped participants to better identify whether to seek a section level systems administration or security proficient job as a career option.
Ms Wardah Al Majrafi, Lecturer, Math, delivered a webinar on 20 September 2020 on ‘Online Education and Critical Factors’. Ms Wardah discussed critical factors that affect online teaching and the need for effective use of technology for the same. She further discussed the roles of instructors and students in the active teaching-learning process. She highlighted the essential characteristics to be possessed by each role player in making the whole process more productive.
conducting exams on MoodleMs Nasim Al Balushi, Coordinator for Networking and Information Security Programs at UTAS Ibri delivered the next webinar on 21 September 2020 on the Internet of Things (IoT). The session was delivered in Arabic. She explained to the audience what IoT means and the reasons for its emergence and becoming the major technology in industrial revolution 4.0. She supported her explanation with example applications on how IoT works. She explained various components of typical IoT networks and discussed various projects students can take up related to IoT technology. She further discussed the various advantages and disadvantages of IoT. She concluded the session with a comment on how she sees a future of IoT in Oman.
Ms Fatma Al Mandhari, Lecturer, Information Technology, delivered the next seminar on the ‘Fundamental principles of Information Security’ on 22 September 2020. The webinar discussed the importance of successfully implementing Information Security in any system. It mainly focussed on how to keep sensitive information as safe as possible from unauthorised access. Moreover, two categories of Information Security principles, core and supplementary, were explored in the webinar. The core principles such as integrity and availability are very important to keep security in the system by enabling advanced security tools such as firewall and antivirus programs. Further, supplementary principles such as authentication which is one of the most crucial steps to verify user’s identity before accessing the system, followed by authorisation where the distribution of the access rights is done, were also discussed.
The webinar on Introduction to Ethical Hacking was delivered by Dr Qais Saif Qassim, Lecturer, IT on 23 September 2020. Dr Qais started with an introduction to ethical hacking, what is it and what it is not. He discussed different phases in the process of ethical hacking viz. Information Gathering, Scanning, Vulnerability Assessment, Exploitation, Post Exploitation, and Reporting. He further demonstrated all the phases one by one along with various tools available to carry out activities in that phase with the help of his findings using screenshots. He touched upon almost all tools that are readily available and popular among practitioners. Dr Qais also cautioned participants about what they should not do and informed them about the Sultanate of Oman’s cybercrime laws. All-in-all it was a comprehensive introductory workshop for everyone.
conducting exams on Moodle
The last in the series, ‘IT Webinar on Data Science’ was conducted on 29 September 2020. The webinar was delivered by Mr Mangesh Wanjari, Lecturer, Information Technology. The main goal of the webinar was to make participants aware of the Data Science field and a complete data science project life cycle. It was targeted to the students and faculty members who wish to learn about data science for research or as a career option. Mr Mangesh explained the different phases of a data science project with a hands-on demonstration of data acquisition, data access, data pre-processing and wrangling, feature extraction, training the machine learning model, testing the model for its accuracy, and visualisation of the results.
All the webinars were conducted using Microsoft Teams. It attracted more than 60 participants from students as well as the teaching community. Feedback was collected from participants at the end of each webinar. Most of the participants showed their satisfaction with what they learnt from webinars and arrangements in the conduction of webinars.
The English Language Centre Professional Development and E-Learning Committees of UTAS, Ibri, arranged a webinar on Thursday, 8 October 2020 on “A Foreign Language Practical Use as the Main Source of Motivation”. The presenter of the workshop was Natalia Pavliuk, an Associate Professor at National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine. She is also a professional translator and interpreter, and the president of the Ukrainian Association of Translators and Interpreters. She teaches English for professional purposes (students of economics, IT, humanities, international relations) and translation at university level. In the webinar, she shared her teaching experiences of making learners enthusiastic about studying a foreign language, which is of high importance for their success. One of the best ways to achieve this is to involve them in the process of teaching, considering their professional and personal interests. She also showed that when learners feel responsible for themselves and each other, they will have a right to choose the material to study and share it with their groupmates. Natalia also discussed multifarious strategies employed by her to keep her learners involved in the process of teaching. Towards the end of the workshop, Dr Abdusalam, the Head of Centre, and Mr Faisal Shamali thanked Natalia Pavliuk for sharing her experiences.
COVID-19 has changed the whole world. It has also affected the academic arenas of schools, colleges and universities. The teachers have faced a new challenge of teaching online. They are upgrading themselves day by day. The ELC of UTAS arranged a workshop on “Teaching online: Fresh ideas to start the new academic year”. Isabella Keilani, the presenter, is a language coach and communication skills expert based in Graz, Austria. She is highly passionate about teaching online and has a great interest in this area.
In the workshop, she shared her engaging and memorable learning experiences about teaching online. She also discussed strategies about how to keep the learners motivated. Her brain-friendly, inclusive tasks and activities made her workshop all the more interesting.
At the end of the workshop, Dr Abdusalam, the head of Center, and Mr Faisal Shamali thanked Isabella Keilani for sharing her experiences.
One of the challenges faced by teachers all over the world during the pandemic is how to effectively replicate classroom teaching, online. Traditionally, writing is best taught in classrooms. The pandemic, however, has forced teachers to make use of online alternatives. Technology has made teaching online easier and faster, irrespective of the student’s location and time.
Effective teaching starts with an effective teacher. A teacher has to conform to the changes in the environment to deliver quality education to students. On 16 September 2020, lecturers of the University of Technology and Applied Sciences – Ibri (UTAS-Ibri) attended a teaching demo of Mr Dennis Primne Corbita on Retooling on Teaching Writing Online. The presentation explained the use of mobile apps and online technology in teaching grammar and writing. Although many were not able to attend, most indicated that they enjoyed the demo class.
