The Centre for Media and Information Literacy (CMIL) and the Commonwealth Media Educational Centre for Asia (CEMCA) partnered to offer a two-day online training programme on VIRTUAL LABS aimed at Sri Lankan teachers.

The key purpose of this training session was to create awareness among Sri Lankan teachers of the importance and use of virtual labs in their teaching and learning activities. Notably, 400 people attended the training sessions, including professors, instructors, teacher trainers, and administrators in the field of education. The training took place on November 22nd and 23rd, 2022.

Virtual Labs (VL) is simulation-based learning and experimentation platform of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), India.  The VL provides remote access to labs in various science and engineering disciplines at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

In Sri Lankan context, access to the physical laboratory facility is extremely expensive and not often accessible to teachers and students in remote settings. In some context, physical laboratories remain unused because of a lack of adequate resources. Therefore, VL offers a superior substitute by enabling students to interact with interactive simulators and conduct experiments remotely.  The important feature of VL is that it provides access to additional online resources, video lectures, animated demonstrations, and tools for self-evaluation. 

Following CMIL’s extensive social media promotion and internal outreach of the Educational Directors attached to the Ministry of Education in Sri Lanka, 922 individuals applied for the VL training, of which approximately 68% are women teachers. Link to the participants who registered is provided later in this report. The 922 applicants included teachers who taught biological sciences (240), Chemistry (288) and physics (232) and from other subjects.

The inaugural session on 22 November 2022 commenced with the opening address by Dr. B. Shadrach, Director, CEMCA. 

Addressing the virtual audience, he stated that the virtual lab initiative was not the sole work of one partner; rather, it had the active support of close to 12 Indian partners in its conception and design.  The VL can be highly beneficial for students and teachers from various disciplines such as biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, and ICT education. The VL helps simulation based remote-virtual learning and enhances the ability of the teachers and the students in remote experimentation.

Speaking further, Dr. Shadrach said, “CEMCA is delighted to bring the experience of virtual Labs to Sri Lanka for the benefit of a larger community of teachers. We want this entire webinar to enthuse the Government of Sri Lanka, educational partners, students and teaching community towards ICT-enabled education.

“CEMCA will always be willing to provide support for the Sri Lankan government to replicate the same VL, perhaps in local languages such as Sinhala and Tamil. This is only the beginning, but we are looking forward to working with Sri Lankan partners in bringing the benefit of the VL to the teachers from the far corners.”

Subsequently, Dr. Madhura M. Wehalla, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Education – Sri Lanka, delivered a short speech representing the Ministry.

Dr. Wehalla said “Big thanks to Dr. Shadrach and his team at CEMCA.  I have been working with CEMCA for some time, and I know that the CEMCA staff members are doing a versatile job in supporting the education system and promoting media-based education”. She further noted that “I also want to thank the Directors of the Education Ministry in Sri Lanka for their continuous support. Both the Directors at the Ministry and the teachers from various parts of Sri Lanka are doing their best to support students despite the pandemic and economic crisis. Undoubtedly, the Pandemic has created opportunities for alternative and ICT-enabled forms of education.

Concluding her speech, she added that “I am sure this training will help our teachers to enhance their knowledge of simulation-based teaching and learning. Both teachers and teacher trainers can incorporate the VL in their educational activities”.

Meanwhile, she introduced her successor Ms. Hashini Thalagala, Director Foreign Affairs at the Ministry of Education, as the Sri Lankan Focal point of the CEMCA toward the end of her speech.

Responding to the speech delivered by Dr. Wehalla, Dr. Shadrach said, “We have quite a large number of teachers attending VL training, and it shows the need for technology-driven education. My submission to everyone is to communicate through Ms. Hashini so that we can assist every Sri Lankan teacher in every way possible. We aim to positively respond to the educational and skills development need of Sri Lanka.

Mr. Sanees, Program Manager, VALUE Virtual Labs, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, conducted the virtual training. He provided an overview of virtual labs through his presentation and videos. He demonstrated a variety of experiments in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Computer Science. These included labs for problem-solving in computer science, parallel LCR circuits in physics, tangent galvanometers in physics, blood grouping experiments in biotechnology, spectrophotometers in chemistry, determination of the viscosity of organic solvents in chemistry, and problem-solving experiments in physics. At the end of the first day’s live session, the resource person shared a set of assignments with the group to enable participants to explore and practice doing experiments in virtual labs.

Mr. Sanees continued day two of the virtual training. Starting the session, he spent 10 minutes recapitulating the first day’s session.  On the second day, he conducted several practical exercises starting from the inorganic chemistry virtual lab. He explained about Acid based titration. He guided the participants to follow the procurers and simulation mechanisms too. He eventually conducted a blood grouping experiment using VL. With the support of visual materials and visual guidance, he explained the ways to conduct various other experiments. While the participants enjoyed this process, they had an opportunity to practice by themselves too. Later, Mr. Sanees conducted two more practical experiments in physical and computer science. With regard to physical science, he explained the Thevenin theorem. He helped participants experiment with DC circuit simulation. Concluding the training, he explained the broad area of virtual labs. A feedback form is circulated among the participants. Successfully, the majority of the participants indicated that the VL training was extremely useful and a timely initiative.