Exploratory Studies
The first step thereafter was for a needs analysis by project members from UG and TUD to become familiar with the primary education system in Cambodia, how it operates and the constraints on realising future progress.
- UC subsequently prepared an overview of some features of this system, as part of a comparison with the three other partner countries.
Assessing Local Teachers’ Needs Drs. Sandra Hummel and Rudolf Egger visited primary schools to meet the teachers and see the classroom environment, as well as speaking with teacher trainers and trainee teachers in Cambodia and Sri Lanka. Based on the insights gained, they prepared a needs analysis regarding what the CONTESSA program should focus on.
Dr. Köhler and Mr. Jalilov discuss with Travis and others about the proposed needs.
Assessing Equipment Needs Dr. Thomas Köhler and Messrs. Andreas Dürrschmidt, Christian Müller and Orkhan Jalilov from TUD conducted an on-site evaluation of the facilities available at the two universities here and how these could be upgraded to meet the demands for e-learning teaching. technical equipment from the project and created CONTESSA learning centers and smart classrooms
Establishment of the CONTESSA E-Learning Centre 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)
In UC, this is located in Room 502, next door to the College of Education office and on the same floor as the College of Science and Technology.
For teaching, this provides a convenient way for small groups of students to be taught in a blended learning environment: as well as for recording and/or net-casting lectures. 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 to small groups or over the internet.
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.