Educating, grooming, and nurturing holistic graduates who can actively contribute towards a chosen discipline in the context of academia or profession has always been a top priority for SLTC, Sri Lanka’s first Research Based Nonstate University. SLTC is also one of the first universities to adopt a student-centric, problem-based learning process since its inception and research and innovation are the defining factors of the institution’s ethos. Today the fruits of its labour are visible in the many achievements, innovations, and global research projects that the SLTC community has contributed to.
As a further step towards promoting this culture, SLTC launches TEAL: Technology Enabled Active Learning, an initiative toward building a student-centric active learning environment with the aid of technology. As a preliminary step, SLTC has begun the redesigning of their learning spaces with state-of-the-art equipment to facilitate collaborative teaching and learning. Using an outcome-based approach with continuous evaluation of the effectiveness of the teaching-learning process and adapting the state-of-the-art Learning Management platform, SIMS to disseminate the programme content are some other mechanisms that the institute has adopted in the process. The initial phase of TEAL will be focussed on developing several identified domains of education that include developing Active Learning & Strategy, Analytical Thinking & Innovation, Complex Problem Solving, Creativity, Originality & Initiative, Emotional Intelligence, Critical Thinking & Analysis, Technology Design & Programming, Reasoning, Problem Solving & Ideation, System Analysis & Evaluation.
Recently the Hon. Prime Minister, Mr. Dinesh Gunawardena and HE Gopal Baglay, the High Commissioner of India to Sri Lanka, and Dr. Suren Raghavan, Hon. State Minister of Higher Education visited the university, during which the newly designed facilities dedicated for TEAL were observed by the delegation. In commemoration of the event, a plaque was unveiled, and the institute was commended by the delegation for its contribution to the Sri Lankan Higher Education Sector. The delegation was also introduced to Green Ignitions, an initiative by a group of Electronics Engineering undergraduates from SLTC who set out to produce alternative energy solutions in response to the current energy crisis and consequently produced biodiesel that is already being used to power a few of the university’s vehicles. The delegation also met with the participants of NASA’s Great Lunar Expedition Mission (GLEE). The research and innovation ventures currently carried out by SLTC span across diverse disciplines and have produced results evident of the success of the learning approach promoted under TEAL.
