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© Proceedings of the Ruhuna Quality Assurance Sessions 2021 (RUQAS 2021)
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21 September 2021

that need to be improved; active participation of all participants, more disciplined use of the
technology by participants, satisfaction of follow-up tasks (though this has improved in the 3rd

meeting), and time management.

Results of the quality monitoring processes suggest that though the project proceeds well, there are

several areas that need improvements. There should be more focus on the effectiveness of project
events and activities which are held through online platforms. It is necessary to identify both

advantages and disadvantages of these virtual events and adapt their structure to incorporate the
limitations of virtual events. Through more structured approaches in online events, time management

can be improved. Furthermore, the disciplined use of technology by participants should be improved

since disturbances can reduce the quality of these events and cause frustration among other
participants. Based on the comments obtained from participants’ evaluations, some suggestions can be

made such as sharing materials in advance and displaying the agenda between presentations to
improve the active participation in discussions. Since the project does not consist of work in

laboratories and the field it is fair to conclude that the impacts of the pandemic have affected mostly

workshops and meetings which do not have a great impact on the progress of the project.

References

BRITAE (2020) BRITAE.[Online]. Available at: https://www.britae.lk/about-us/ (Accessed: 30 June
2021).

Ramvilas, G., Dhyani, S., Kumar, B., Sinha, N., Raghavan, R., Selvaraj, G., Divakar, N., Anoop, V.K.,

Shalu, K., Sinha, A., Kulkarni, A., Das, S. and Molur, S. (2021) Insights on COVID-19 impacts,

challenges and opportunities for India’s biodiversity research: From complexity to building
adaptations, Biological Conservation, 255(109003) [online] Available at:

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2021.109003.

Subramanya, S.H., Lama, B. and Acharya, K.P. (2020) Impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the
scientific community, Qatar Medical Journal 2020 (1)[online] Available at:

https://doi.org/10.5339/QMJ.2020.21.

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