ISRRT_COVID-19_book

all the educational institutes, including universities in the country, on 12 th March 2020 8 and
ceased all academic activities. As a result, all 15 state universities and around 40 state and
non-state tertiary education institutions were closed across the country 8 , posing numerous
challenges to the higher education sector of Sri Lanka. Continuation of the academic activities
was the major challenge encountered by almost all the universities. Apart from that, the
admission of the new students to the universities and graduations were also disrupted.
However, after a while, the Government of Sri Lanka has introduced a concept known as
‘working from home’, which enabled all academic staff at universities to continue their
academic activities from their home. During this time, most Sri Lankan universities began their
educational activities with the support of digital platforms and online tools such as massive
open online courses (MOOCs), Moodle-based learning management systems, and various
types of video communication software (e.g. Zoom and Google classroom) 8 .
The demanding nature of radiography application in patient diagnosis, management, and
monitoring provides a significant place for radiography education in medicine and healthcare.
The Department of Radiography/Radiotherapy at the Faculty of Allied Health Sciences,
University Peradeniya, is the only institution in Sri Lanka that offers a BSc (Hons) in
Radiography program under the Ministry of Higher Education. This Radiography program
provides students with a wide range of teaching and learning activities, including lectures,
laboratory and practical classes, small group discussions and clinical sessions in a traditional
learning environment. Unfortunately, as previously stated, the COVID-19 pandemic poses
significant challenges to this traditional face-to-face radiography education setup,
necessitating the conduct of all teaching and learning activities via digital platforms in the
sense of online education. Introducing online education as an alternative to the traditional
educational setup is considered to be a significant structural transformation in the higher
education system. At the same time, online education is a novel experience for the majority
of academics at the universities of Sri Lanka. Thus, there have been many obstacles for
academics, supporting staff members and students in the university community who lacked
the latest technology and expertise. Despite the fact that there were numerous challenges in
online education, the Department of Radiography/Radiotherapy, Faculty of Allied Health
Sciences, has made countless efforts to implement and continue the online education system.
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