Abstract:
: This study investigated the perception of the visiting academics on
contact sessions in an Open and Distance Learning (ODL) system.
Questionnaires and interviews were used to collect information from the
twenty-five visiting academics who are conducting contact sessions in
Sinhala medium of the Post Graduate Diploma in Education Programme
(PGDE) during the academic year 2010/2011. Findings indicated that all
academics were aware of how to conduct contact sessions in an ODL system.
The orientation workshops on contact sessions have helped visiting
academics to update their knowledge on how to conduct contact sessions in
an interactive manner in an ODL system. Further the visiting academics
expect the department to organize a series of workshops to orient them to
conduct contact sessions by using new technology to enhance their abilities
in this regard. All visiting academics were satisfied with the information
provided by the department on how to conduct contact sessions. But
majority of the visiting academics were dissatisfied with the student prior
preparation when attending the contact sessions. Some external academics
were not satisfied with the facilities provided in the centres, such as library
facilities, multimedia to enhance their teaching and learning process.
Majority of the visiting academics have stated that the number of contact
sessions for each subject should be increased. In order to improve the quality
of contact sessions in line with ODL approach the number of suggestions
were made by the external academics to incorporate in the PGDE
programme.
