Abstract
Two research studies (Lekamge & Jayathilake, 2002; Jayathilake, 1996) which focused on the Continuous Assessment (CA) mechanism of the Postgraduate Diploma in Education programme of the Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) had identified several problems such as lack of quality of the set assignments, limited comments on assignments, discrepancies among marking examiners, ill practices among student teachers and high turnround time of assignments and suggested long term and short term measures to those problems. As a result, the Faculty introduced several innovations namely course team approach, training workshops for marking examiners, Activity Based Assignment Day Schools and appointment of Centre coordinators for improving the quality of the CA mechanism. Having implemented those innovations for nearly three years, it has necessitated an exploratory research study to examine the effectiveness in improving the quality of the CA mechanism and to reveal how it could be further modified to maximize their potentials. The sample of the study included 290 student teachers representing four regional and two study centres of the OUSL, 104 marking examiners and 21 visiting academics of those centres. Exploratory interviews, questionnaires and direct observations were used as the main data collection methods of the study. They revealed that the majority of student teachers, visiting academics and marking examiners were satisfied with the new innovations and admired the positive changes taken place in setting, marking and monitoring of assignments. Finally the study recommended several improvements to those strategies which would further maximize the benefits to all stakeholders.
Highlights
The Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) is a pioneering institution to adopt Open and Distance Learning (ODL) methodologies for professional development programmes in the fields of engineering, nursing and teaching
It can be concluded that the internal staff members were aware of the positive impact of the participatory approach to the development of assignments, activity-based assignment day schools and marking schemes
Inability to apply the course team approach had led to low quality assignments and unworkable and impractical guidelines for Activity-Based Assignment Day Schools (ABADS) which had caused numerous problems to student teachers as well as visiting academics
Summary
The Open University of Sri Lanka (OUSL) is a pioneering institution to adopt Open and Distance Learning (ODL) methodologies for professional development programmes in the fields of engineering, nursing and teaching. The Postgraduate Diploma in Education (PGDE) is one of the most popular and demanding programmes offered to in-service teachers by the Faculty of Education. This programme is conducted in all three media (Sinhala, Tamil & English) at 15 regional and study centres for nearly 2500 student teachers. The total number of assignments handled annually in this programme amounts to 35000. A large number of visiting academics attached to different regional and study centres mark those assignments using the marking schemes prepared by themselves at the training workshops conducted by the central faculty
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