IIHS successfully overcomes the teaching hurdle with a realistic Digital Learning System during the global pandemic
View(s):Sri Lanka’s pioneer healthcare education provider, International Institute of Health Science (IIHS) has proven to be a role model for Sri Lanka’s education industry by successfullyfacing the challenges of COVID-19 with an effective Distance Learning System.
Being a responsible educational institute in Health Science, IIHS has implemented a remarkable Learner Management System (LMS) in order to overcome the obstacle of reaching out to students during the pandemic. Dr. Kithsiri Edirisinghe (MBBS, MSc, MD (Medical Administration), who is the Founder/ CEO/ Director Academics, Strategy and International Affairs – at IIHS briefly speaks on that.
How did the COVID-19, a global pandemic affectthe education sector?
As we all know, COVID-19 locked us within our houses and it restricted our lives due to the inability to moveout for day-to-day activities.
Such social isolation affects people in many ways, mainly the students who were preparing for their higher educational hurdles. Being a leading health educator, IIHS also faced a major challenge in continuing lectures and examinations, since we had an immeasurable responsibility to complete our academic year on a high note. So we decided to expand our existing Learner Management System (LMS) to defeat this unexpected challenge.
How did IIHS manage to
reach students without a
barrier during COVID-19 ?
I feel it was one of the positive outcomes of COVID 19. This pandemic made people realise that they could utilise the technology at their fingertips with ease to achieve their tasks. Especially the education sector of Sri Lanka took off in a major way by migrating to Digital Learning or Distance Learning fromTraditional Learning during this lockdown period. As staff and students of IIHS were already using the LMS prior to the pandemic we felt that we could incorporate our previous guidelines for the delivery of education during the pandemic.
IIHS believes that delivering skilled professionals with multiple knowledge segments is essential for this era and I am proud to say that we always utilise compact learning methods inspired by international learning practices. With that mindset, as an educator we use a professional LMS platform which has been awarded at the Commonwealth Digital Health Awards in 2016, 2017 and 2018 continuously for its proven and qualified learning features.
This system ensures the accessibility to education for students and provides access to all the required learner materials.
Prior to the breakout of the pandemic, IIHS provided access to study content for all nurses completing the Bachelors program in Nursing. Back in 2017, as an initiative to improve accessible, affordable education IIHS provided tabs to the nurses enabling access to the LMS from home or their workplace which led to an increase in the levels of satisfaction and improved IT literacy skills among the nursing students whilst giving them the option of not having to travel long distances for education. Currently approximately 1500 state sector nurses utilize tablet devices to access the LMS, thereby adhering to the contemporary modes of learning whilst staying upto date with the latest evidence in health care.
How successful it is to defeat the pandemic through a Learner Management System (LMS)?
Using LMS for education can be considered as ‘a baton changeover’ to the student. This system allows the teacher or lecturer to be ‘a moderator’ and not ‘a controller’.
LMS creates a student centric environment for learners where students can expand their knowledge on their own accord. It grants a stress free space for students to accessstudy materials and prepare for the online class in the safety and comfort of their home.
This platform has been set to international standards to ensure that students maintain autonomy while achieving the desired outcomes.
Since Health education is more
related to practical learning, How
did IIHS overcomes the challenge of conducting practical sessions ?
That was the biggest challenge we had.But luckily we managed to offer practical presentations for students, with the involvements of our experts. Not only that, on aweekly basis we host Clinical sessions which are moderated by a student and has proven to be very effective among our students. Furthermore, within two weeks of the nationwide lockdown, we organised webinars for students and have managed to complete six (06)webinars thus far with the participations of professionals in the field. Another exciting fact is that our students were able to hold an online Avurudu festival called ‘E Avurudu’, which helped them to rejuvenate their friendship.
Do you think you have successfully overcome the situation?
Yes, of course. I would say that this was the most practical season for us to utilize our existing LMS since most of the day – to- day work were digitalized. We believe that we have achieved great progress using a distance learning method and our students have had the maximum benefit. We should emphasise on the fact that we are still able to manage approximately 2000 students via the system with the majority being Sri Lankan students.
I am glad to say that we have a young and energetic 7 member technical team comprising of our past graduates who timelessly dedicated themselves for the betterment of this system and have managed to keep track of the progress. Nevertheless, we have identified some areas that we should improve on so that the technology would more convenient for students in the future.
Our technical team has maintained a good rapport with students and parents, and thus based on their opinions, has been able to recognize some features which need to be incorporated. We will consider them in a timely manner and have plans to execute them at the earliest.