She has been serving in the education sector at different levels since 2000 and joined The Maldives National University in 2014. Shimna is a AUSAID scholar, and completed Masters of Higher Education at Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia in 2013, and a Bachelor of Arts degree at La Trobe University, Australia in 2005. Her specialized areas include; English Language. English Literature, Teaching and Learning in Higher education, Change Management and Educational Leadership and Comparative and International Education. At present she is pursuing her PhD in the area of English Language Teaching and Blended Learning. Her research interests include, outcome-based pedagogy, critical reflection, instructional design and blended/online learning. She has presented research papers in international conferences held in Indonesia, Shanghai and the Maldives. Her most recent research was based on identifying factors influencing student achievement in a Blended Learning Context. She also holds a Diploma in Teaching Secondary specializing in Teaching Mathematics and Chemistry. During her time at Aminiya School (from 2000-2011) as a teacher and Leading teacher, she headed the Chemistry Department and the English Department.

Niuma Mohamed is a passionate teacher, learner and a strong advocate who promotes e-learning and the use of digital technologies in teaching and learning. She has completed her Ph.D in Education at Aldersgate University, Philippines, and currently working as a lecturer at the Centre for Educational Technology and Excellence (CETE) in The Maldives National University.  She has been actively engaged in research and publications in the field of e-learning and instructional design. She made several publications including the journals indexed by Ei Compendex and Scopus. Her current research projects involve using video pedagogy in teaching learning in higher education and investigating factors affecting student engagement in online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in the public universities of the Maldives.  She is also actively involved in reviewing for international academic journals. She believes that the purposeful use of technology allows to close the achievement gaps and ensures academic success for every student. Being an educator and a researcher, nothing inspires her more than the following quote.

“If they don’t learn the way you teach, teach the way they learn”.

Aminath Zifna is currently an Instructional Designer/ Lecturer at The Centre for Educational Technology (CETE) and Excellence, The Maldives National University. Her work includes designing subjects to be delivered in blended learning courses, designing development and delivery of training workshops and leading the training unit of CETE in providing training and support to enhance technology enable learning in MNU.

Her novel research work focused on promoting self-regulation among the e- learners and student support. Her research interest includes academic student support in e learning and development of academic learning skills in e learning. She presented her research in various academic conferences which were held in Maldives, Japan, Indonesia and India.

She has started her journey as an educator after completion of Diploma of Secondary Teaching in 2005. She also holds a Bachelors degree in Secondary Teaching specializing in Accounting and Economics. After being awarded a Master of Education in 2013, she is currently pursuing her PHD in University of Sains Malaysia focusing on providing student support in an e-learning environment.

 

Ibrahim Adam is currently a lecturer at the Centre for Educational Technology and Excellence, The Maldives National University. He received his Master of Multimedia (E-learning technologies) (2018) from Multimedia University, Malaysia and Bachelor of Information Technology (2012) from The Maldives National University, Maldives. For the past four years, he has been involved in providing quality education to the citizens of highly dispersed islands of Maldives through blended learning. He has been actively involved in designing, facilitating, monitoring and delivering courses in blended mode. In addition, he is an advocate for technology enabled learning and consistently look forward new ways of integrating technology to improve teaching and learning through research, by maintaining quality. Moreover, he is highly engaged in training, supporting and promoting quality e-learning at MNU. 

Main research interest of Ibrahim is on the pedagogical use of new technology and tools – especially the use of Web 2.0 tools through active learning strategies to meet 21st century learner’s needs.

 

Fathimath Mumthaz – She is an instructional designer by profession and Lecturer at Centre for Educational Technology and Excellence of the Maldives National University (MNU). She has got Master of Instructional Design and Technology from Open University Malaysia. She began her professional career as a Middle School General Science and Mathematics Teacher and accomplish more than twenty five years in the education field.

Ms. Mumthaz has been serving MNU in the e-Learning department since 2007. She has maintained a good reputation as a lecturer, facilitator, content developer, instructional designer for e-Learning programs at MNU. Furthermore, she has been the Head of e-Learning Department (2014-2016) and training e-facilitators at MNU through short intensive workshops. She also trains e-Learning students of MNU to guide them to become e-Learners. Currently, Ms. Mumthaz is a PhD student researching on mobile learning and instructional strategies in Maldives. Moreover, she is one of the team members of the AMED Project (Advancing higher education in Maldives through e-Learning development) going on at MNU.