http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/4754 2026-05-13T21:16:50Z 2026-05-13T21:16:50Z Liyanage, D.P.P.G. Kumara, H.I.G.C. Renuka, I.P. Pannilage, U. http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/4799 2022-01-05T06:26:27Z 2021-09-21T00:00:00Z

A Retrospect on the Curriculum Development Process of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Ruhuna Liyanage, D.P.P.G.; Kumara, H.I.G.C.; Renuka, I.P.; Pannilage, U. This paper describes the process of the curriculum revision process for 13 degree programmes offered by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Science of the University of Ruhuna. Firstly, it justifies the background and rationale for embarking on an inclusive approach to revise the existing curricula. The challenging factors identified during the curriculum development process were analysed to come up with a comprehensive mechanism for a qualitative transformation in higher education in Humanities and Social Sciences. Secondly, it discusses the steps taken and strategies applied from the beginning to the final output in order to ensure that the expected objectives are achieved.

2021-09-21T00:00:00Z Bulugahapitiya, Vajira P. http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/4796 2022-01-05T06:20:35Z 2021-09-21T00:00:00Z

Quality Assurance in Open and Distance Learning (ODL) System and Quality Framework for ODL of University of Ruhuna Bulugahapitiya, Vajira P. Open and Distance Learning (ODL) concept focuses on providing opportunities in education that is free from barriers of time, age, place and offering flexible learning opportunities at affordable cost. Quality assurance in ODL is designed with the aim of improving and proving the quality of institutional methods, maintaining accountability, improving the effectiveness and the efficacy of all the activities. These include the learners’ satisfaction, developing academic programmes, producing learning materials, services and support to the learners, and the standards of the outcome. University of Ruhuna has contributed to expand access to higher education and to acquire other competencies via providing the opportunities to follow external degrees and extension courses through the ODL system. Due to various disturbing factors, there has been a huge gap in maintaining standards in terms of service delivery, learners’ satisfaction, student learning, teaching, gaining public confidence, demonstrating good practices, the credibility of awards, and the employability of graduates in the ODL system of Distance and Continuing Education Unit (DCEU) of the university during the past period. With the establishment of Quality Assurance mechanism through the Centre of Quality Assurance (CQA) of the university and the Internal Quality Assurance Cell (IQAC) of the DCEU, implementing quality measures, quality enhancement and monitoring mechanism with respect to the academic, examinations and administrative functions are in the process of developing. This paper presents the quality assurance processes that have been already developed and implemented, suggestions for further enhancements, and then the internalized monitoring procedures suggested on achieving the expected standards.

2021-09-21T00:00:00Z Arachchige, J.J.G. http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/4794 2022-01-05T06:14:30Z 2021-09-21T00:00:00Z

Establishment of an Integrated Service Quality Index for University Libraries in Sri Lanka Arachchige, J.J.G. Measuring service quality has gained an immense interest in service organizations with no exception for academic libraries. Due to its complexity in definitions and variability of dimensions, the measuring of service quality in university libraries has become much more complicated. Although there are many powerful service quality measuring tools such as LibQUAL, SERVQUAL, SERVPERF, debates, and criticisms over existing service quality measuring tools argue that they are still unable to fully address the important dimensions of service quality because their approaches are one-sided: service provider focus or customer focus. For a fact, existing tools have ignored the contribution of resources capability dimension to the service quality. In this scenario, the benchmarking strategies to measure the quality becomes questionable in developing country environments. Many arguments show that the library service quality measure should follow a multidimensional procedure rather than the measuring of customer satisfaction. Especially the quality measures should be incorporated with the strategic utilization of resources and capabilities. This paper seeks the possibility of measuring the integrated service quality in university libraries through a multidimensional approach associated with both resource-capability measures and the perceived service quality by librarians (service providers) as well as service users. This conceptualization also leads to the proposed Integrated Service Quality Index for university libraries of Sri Lanka. The proposed conceptual model contains five key variables viz. competitive capabilities, dynamic capabilities, agility capabilities, provider-perceived quality, and user-perceived quality which are measured through five different questionnaires. The model was empirically tested with a sample of 2247 users and 91 library professionals randomly selected from eight state universities. Findings suggest that the library service quality measures should consider the resource capabilities in addition to perceived quality service users. Library professionals and decision-makers of the university can utilize this model and index to measure and increase the service quality level of the library. The quality measuring items were based on psychometric procedures. There can be a possible impact of localization.

2021-09-21T00:00:00Z Wijekoon, W.M.C.J. http://ir.lib.ruh.ac.lk/handle/iruor/4792 2022-01-05T06:04:26Z 2021-09-21T00:00:00Z

A Web-based Centralized System to Manage Student Feedback and Peer Evaluation at the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ruhuna Wijekoon, W.M.C.J. Student feedback and peer evaluations are integral parts of the tertiary education systems. The response of the teacher to student feedback and peer evaluations depends on the teacher’s perceptions and professionalism. Despite the personal biases, effective internalization of the feedback-response cycle is necessary to improve the teaching and learning process of academic institutions. Conventionally, paper-based questionnaires are used to obtain student feedback on teaching, courses and peer evaluation. Recent developments in Information and Communication Technology provide many avenues to carry out these questionnaire-based surveys through online services. Teachers prefer to use such services over paper-based questionnaires because of their intuitive interfaces, easy sharing and result analysis tools. Since individual teachers have full control over the student feedback data in most of the online tools, it is difficult to verify whether the teacher has responded to the feedback adequately. A centrally administered student feedback and peer evaluation system could collect responses and convey them to the management for further actions such as guiding and advising the teachers or improving the courses. Aforementioned tasks can be accomplished easily using tailor-made MIS or LMS and development of such systems could be costly and time consuming. This paper proposes an online system using Google forms as an interim solution to centrally handle the student feedback and peer evaluations at the faculty level. Since the proposed services are currently free to use, the faculties can easily adopt them if a local system is not in place. The feedback collected by the system will be processed by the IQAC of the Faculty of Agriculture using the functions of Google sheets. A custom-made summary of the feedback will be shared securely with the respective teacher and the head of the department (HOD) for further actions. This proposal was approved by the Faculty Board and yet to be implemented and validated.

2021-09-21T00:00:00Z