Establishment of the CONTESSA E-Learning Centre Based on the recommendations of TUD’s consultants, UC’s existing facilities related to e-learning received a great boost through the EU-funded purchase of In order to facilitate blended learning and the development of on-line classes, part of the EU-backed Erasmus+ package was the setting up of an E-Learning Centre in each of the partner universities in Cambodia and Sri Lanka. This was based on the recommendations of a team from TUD after site-visits to review the needs, with the various items being purchased after the appropriate tendering procedures.

• Dedicated 40 Mb internet connection for three years.
• Video Conference System: Logitech Rally and Ultra-HD Conference Cam System with Automatic Camera Control
• Camera plus accessories: Sony Alpha A7M3Body
• Projector: Sony VPL-CH370 5000 Lumen WUXGA 3LCD
• Motorised screen: Meki Magna (96''*96")
• Desktop computers: 20 Dell OptiPlex 3280 AIO, 8Gb RAM
• Laptop computers: two Lenovo ThinkPad X1 C7 Core i7-10510U 16Gb
• Printer: Epson L6190 Color Inkjet
• Microsoft Windows 10 Pro 64bit (life-time license)
• Kaspersky Internet Security (one year license)

For teaching, this provides a convenient way for small groups of students to be taught in a blended learning environment. For research, the fast internet connection allows for the easy downloading of large mp4s and other such files for review and distribution; as well as for the presentation of the resulting findings.

Thus, in theory, the groundwork was laid for testing of the overall concept and the means for its implementation … but then COVID-19 reared its ugly head.