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Punsisi Somaratne

Dr Punsisi Somaratne

(she/her)

Teams and roles for Punsisi Somaratne

  • Learning Designer

    Digital Education

Overview

Role responsibilities

  • I am a Learning Designer in the Learning and Teaching Academy. My role is to support and provide guidance on learning & teaching practices, learning design practices, pedagogy and learning tools to academic and professional staff.

Key work/specialisms

  • Make recommendations on learning designs and technology enhancements.
  • Encourage digital engagement of the staff to provide a blended learning experience.
  • Promote the development of accessible content to support learning and teaching.

Research

Somaratne, P., & Majzonova, M. (2025, October). Students as designers: Shaping the Cardiff University future of digital learning together. In: Association for Learning Technology (ALT) Annual Conference, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
 
Somaratne, P., Davies, A., Hooley, F., & Davies, A. (2024, September). Developing accessible content for a Clinical Data Science course. In: British Educational Research Association (BERA) Annual Conference, Manchester, United Kingdom.
 
Hooley, F., Somaratne, P., Davies, A. and Davies. A. (2022, September). Co-creating a clinical data science curriculum to transform practice. In [2022-Lyon] Association for Health Professions Education.
 
Somaratne, P (2021, November). Identify reasons for passive behaviour of Asian students during collaborative work. In: International Research Symposium (IRS) 2021, Faculty of Education, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka.
 
Somaratne, P., & Ortega, M. G. (2019, August). Exploring the Effectiveness of a Virtual Collaborative Learning Activity. In: [2019-MADRID] Congreso Internacional de Tecnología, Ciencia y Sociedad.
 
Somaratne, P and Weerasinghe, T (2016), Exploring Student Interactions Through Classroom and Computer Supported Collaborative Learning, In: L. G. Chova, A. L. Martínez, I. C. Torres (Eds.) Proceedings of EDULEARN16 Conference, 4th-6th July 2016, Barcelona, Spain. (pp. 2194–2200). ISBN: 978-84-608-8860-4
 
Somaratne, R. M. P. N. (2015), Exploring the user experiences of collaborative online learning. In: IEEE Fifteenth International Conference on Advances in ICT for Emerging Regions (ICTer), 268-268. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/ICTER.2015.7377701

Biography

I have been an academic for nearly ten years, contributing to undergraduate and postgraduate course delivery. After my PhD in technology-enhanced learning, I changed my career and entered digital education development.

In 2018, as an E-learning Developer at the University of Buckingham, I contributed to the design of an online BSc in Operation Excellence course for Boston Scientific. Then at the University of Manchester, I was the Learning Technologist for a project that designed a PGCert course for the NHS. In 2022, I joined the Cardiff Learning and Teaching Academy as a Learning Designer.

Professional memberships

Member of Association for Learning Technology

Supervisions

My research interests are:

  • Digital Education
  • Using Virtual Worlds for Active Learning
  • Research Methods in Education
  • Influence of Culture on Active Learning
  • Game-based learning
  • Playful learning

Contact Details

Email [email protected]