In late March 2020, Roshan Ragel, head of the national research and education network of Sri Lanka (LEARN), received a call from a senior government official. “In light of the recently announced COVID-19 lockdown, would it be possible to convert university classes to a digital format?”
“I replied that we already had an operational platform for remote learning, and that I had actually been trying to promote it for quite a long time!” Roshan Ragel recalls smilingly.
So, while the platform was indeed operational at the start of the pandemic, some preparation was needed to introduce remote learning on the scale that had suddenly become relevant.
Following that one very hectic week of preparation, LEARN made online education available to all its more than 50 member institutions. By now, the platform is able to host up to 12,000 meetings simultaneously. The total usage time per month is currently about 300 million minutes.
Submitted by Morten Anderson
