The 20th Annual SLAIHEE conference on Higher Education was held on 26th July 2024 at Informatics Institute of Technology (IIT) School of Computing, Colombo 03. The theme of the conference this year was “Giving students a voice: evidence to have facilitated student voice generation through teaching” and it was organized by SLAIHEE and supported by IIT. The inauguration commenced with Professor Sunethra Perera, Immediate Past President, SLAIHEE giving the opening remarks. It was followed by Dr Iroja Caldera, President, SLAIHEE, welcoming the participants who were from several state and private sector universities. Following this welcome note, she invited the Guest of Honour, Mr Mohan Fernando, CEO of IIT and Professor Suki Ekaratne to launch the Academy for Learning & Teaching Effectiveness Facilitation (ALTEF) at IIT. Following the inauguration, Mr Mohan Fernando was invited to address the audience. Thereafter, Professor Suki Ekaratne, founder president of SLAIHEE and the founding Director of ALTEF delivered the keynote address on “Giving students a voice: evidence to have facilitated student voice generation through teaching”. Following the keynote address, Prof Suki Ekaratne introduced the Dr Shrinika Weerakoon Memorial Award for the Best Paper in Changing Higher Education Student Skills. Then the 2023 award recipients; Ms. Shalini Kaduwela and Ms. Abarnah Kirupananda received the awards from the Guest of Honor. The inauguration concluded with a vote of thanks delivered by Dr Jinendra Dissanayake, President-Elect, SLAIHEE. Eight peer reviewed papers were presented this year leading to lively discussions during the Q&A sessions. The papers focused on how teaching practices were improved by Sri Lankan university academics. in order to develop voicing skills in their students. The Conference was followed by the AGM of SLAIHEE.
This year the conference also included a post-lunch workshop facilitated by Prof Suki Ekaratne, titled “How can we get students to ‘understand well’ what we teach them”. It was attended by over 90 participants. The workshop included group work and discussion which drew an enthusiastic response from participants.
Download 2024 Conference Keynote Speech by Prof. Suki Ekaratne