ISRRT_COVID-19_book

Delivery of the program - continuation of academic teaching and learning activities
The fundamental difficulty was to continue teaching and learning when students and staff
were physically unable to be present in the university. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the
Department did not use the Learning Management System (LMS)/ Moodle effectively to
facilitate the teaching and learning process and it was only used for course management.
Therefore, as a preliminary step, the Department of Radiography/Radiotherapy has
established Moodle accounts for all lecturers and students and provided access to the theorybased
subjects. Several initiatives have been implemented to improve the communication
between lecturers, mentors and students, including the use of social media platforms
(Facebook, WhatsApp and Viber) to facilitate this connection.
Initially, the Department instructed lecturers to upload all learning materials to Moodle in an
asynchronous method (recorded sessions), but later on, online education was supposed to be
conducted in a synchronous method (live session) via various video conferencing platforms
as it can ensure that all students learn the same materials in the same way. However, lecturers
were asked to instantly covert their lessons to online format without providing enough
training or infrastructure. Because of this, it was initially difficult for all lecturers in the
Department to initiate their academic work and effectively utilize digital platforms.
Eventually, students and lecturers were given access to online tutorials to help them improve
their skills for using Moodle and other video conferencing platforms effectively. However, this
situation presented many additional challenges for both lecturers and students. Sri Lanka is a
middle-income country and, therefore, does not have highly developed technological
infrastructure facilities. This BSc in Radiography program has students from all over the
country and half of them were from economically depressed rural areas. Therefore, most of
the students lacked reliable and stable in-house internet connections and adequate
technology to participate in online education. Further, the high expenses of internet services
were a top challenge encountered during online education. The Sri Lankan Government made
many efforts to reduce the cost of online education for both teachers and students. As a part
of this effort, the Government was able to come to an agreement with all internet providers
to provide free access to university web services through the Lanka Education and Research
Network (LEARN) 8 . This created the opportunity for all the university lecturers and students
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