The roundtable was held online 8th March 2021, 15.00-17.30 (GMT+7).

18 organizations from Thailand & Bhutan were represented. A total of 31 participants took active part in discussions on the desired features of the TEAL2.O platform and shared their ideas and expectations about delivering Science, Engineering and Technology education online.

Among the external organizations represented were:

  • Universities
  • Colleges
  • Asian Disaster Preparedness Center
  • Two private companies
  • A hospital

The agenda included:

  • Project Introduction
  • Introduction to TEAL2.0 Platform
  • Open discussion – Online teaching and learning platform in Digital Era
  • The way forward

The following feedback was received from stakeholders:

Synchronous vs Asynchronous

  • Platform should be able to deal with learners in different time zones. For example, it should
    provide an easy procedure to make a class appointment and send alert to students before
    the class begins. In addition, a tracking system that can check student attendance should be
    available.
  • The learning platform should be available for live streaming and archiving video streams
    that can be accessed and downloaded at any time. This is in order to enable flexible learning and to cope with a poor connectivity that many students are struggling with.
  • Synchronous learning allows the teachers to receive live feedback from the students while
    asynchronous learning allows disadvantaged students and working people to enhance their
    knowledge through any courses offered by online learning.
  • There should be assessment tools for both synchronous and asynchronous courses.

Outcome-based – Learning outcomes linkage

  • Effective quality assurance should focus on learning outcomes. Therefore, the platform should promote the adoption of Outcome Based Education by offering users to be able to create their class contents, materials, activities, and assignments, in order to meet the expected learning outcome of their courses and programs.

Adaptive – Content & Assignment, for slow learners

  • The platform should provide adaptive course contents. For example, there
    should be the special contents or assignments for fast learners while the special Question and Answer sessions should be organized for slow learners. Moreover, additional resources and tools to track learner progress are needed.

Virtual Laboratories

  • Virtual Laboratories can make the platform more interesting and different to the
    existing learning platforms.
  • Virtual laboratory software should be available online in order to avoid the need of installation on the learner side. Additionally, it could make use of AR and VR technology.

Technician (System service support) embedded in the platform

  • Technician support should be available for the online courses in order to help the
    learners that may experience problems in using the platform.

Others

  • Course content in different languages should be available for non-English speaking students.