Sri Lanka Institute of advanced Technological Education (SLIATE) is one of the leading government institutions in higher education sector in Sri Lanka which has been established by the parliament act no 29 of 1995, and coming under the purview of the Ministry of Higher Education. There are 17 Advanced Technological Institutes operated by SLIATE island wide having conducted a broad range of multi-disciplinary programs targeting at A/L qualified students in Sri Lanka. (www.sliate.ac.lk).
SLIATE a government funded Higher Education institute, with limited funding opportunities, has taken the path of participating in MOOCs to educate staff to be innovative and disruptive in the education sector. Ten SLIATE staff members registered to the MOOC. The MOOC was conducted based on a social constructivist pedagogy (Salmon, 2012). Hence the participants were allocated into groups. By requesting, the MOOC team, they made special arrangements for the SLIATE team to be in one group with other international participants. The ability to be in one group made the SLIATE team to be more comfortable. However, it was evident that some participants were time poor and will not be able to commit 4-5 hours of contribution for the MOOC. Within the first week itself it was clear that two participants were not be able to continue, as the workload did not leave any room to accommodate time for the MOOC.
The SLIATE participants who got enthusiastic about MOOCs after completing the Carpe Diem MOOC initiated a research project to investigate about the use of MOOCs for developing countries. While they continue to research they have started planning on the use of Carpe Diem process in designing their teaching and learning.