The Information Technology Unit
The Information Technology Unit of Faculty of Medical Sciences University of Sri Jayawardenepura, a state of the art computer centre is located on the ground floor of the Resource Centre building. It was established in 2007 with the objective of providing skills in information technology and facilitating computer aided self learning and was funded by a World Bank grant awarded to the Faculty under the Quality Enhancement Fund of IRQUE (Improving Relevance and Quality of Undergraduate Education).
At the beginning IT unit comprised of one laboratory which was equipped with forty five computers . This has expanded now to two laboratories which contain eighty computers with unlimited internet access. Started with two staff members, today the IT unit has expanded to six which include a IT lecturer , technical staff and support staff .
Prof. Surangi Yasawardene was the first coordinator of the IT unit followed by Prof. Renu Wickremasinghe. The current coordinator is Dr. K.H.B.P. Fernandopulle.
The IT Unit provides opportunity for the students from the Faculty of Medical Sciences and the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences for IT based learning and is open on weekdays from 8.30 am – 6.00 pm.
The two laboratories contain programmes which include audio-visual aids to learning and 3D animations of basic medical and para-medical concepts. In addition the lab maintains a data-bank of Power Point presentations of lectures, tutorial questions and practice questions that can be accessed by students & staff.
The lab can also be used to carry out literature searches, prepare presentations and for any other educational activity.
IT unit also conducts workshops for students, academic and non academic staff and outsiders regarding SPSS, LMS, data base etc. Academic staff frequently use it for teaching in the various modules. Apart from regular undergraduate teaching the IT lab is available for conducting workshops and other training programmes conducted by the academic staff.
Other than that IT unit also maintains the LMS (Learning Management System) which is a robust platform that holds course content, materials and administration in one user-friendly online system. It allows teachers to easily manage classes and track their students’ progress, highlighting areas of strength and weakness for ongoing performance improvement. LMS creates an environment where students can interact with content, collaborate with other learners and communicate with their teacher outside the classroom. In addition feedbacks of each module are submitted by students at the end of each module. These feedbacks are analyzed and a summary is sent to the chairpersons and conveners of each module. Chairpersons and conveners of respective modules can also access this data and analyze it.
Staff members and students can obtain a User Name and a Password from the LMS Administrators of the faculty. The IT lab has a security system which enable editing writes to the users who are granted the ability to upload material to the LMS. It also has a tracking system by which records are maintained of the LMS usage.