A luxury at first, and then the only hope; the first 100 days of e-learning in a LIS education institute

Abstract

The following reflection briefly describes the unpredicted drive of online LIS education during the COVID-19 lockdown at the National Institute of Library and Information Sciences (NILIS), University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. It is a unique story in an unconventional educational setting supported by a handful of institutional academic staff and a band of visiting lecturers from various institutions. University of Colombo (UOC) is a high ranked government funded University in Sri Lanka which consists of nine faculties, seven institutes and seven centers on its academic profile. Unlike other faculties and institutions within the UOC system, NILIS does not have a uniform supply of learners through regular channels since it does not offer undergraduate courses. However, NILIS provides Advanced Certificate to Diploma/Higher Diploma (professional) and Postgraduate Diploma to MPhil/PhD (postgraduate) education in Library and Information Science, Teacher Librarianship and Information Management. ...