CATBALOGAN CITY, SAMAR – Samar State University President Dr. Marilyn D. Cardoso expressed Monday, July 13 (20), her point of a silver lining, saying “This is now our reality” putting into the mainstream the flexibility of the teachers despite the remote teaching and learning.
Cardoso said this during Day 1 of the Faculty In-House Training on Moodle-Based Learning Management System.
“I am grateful that all is well and good for us despite the rising confirmed cases in the region,” Dr. Cardoso said as she asked everyone to give resounding applause to the Almighty God for a zero rate of COVID-19 cases in the SSU community.
The Call
Dr. Cardoso emphasized the changes in the way things are done in the University because of the pandemic. As she views it, the academe has gone a 180-degree turn.
With the increasing COVID-19 cases in the region, the more SSU is challenged to respond to the present demands in higher education and Dr. Cardoso enjoined the whole SSU community on this endeavor.
“The faculty members shall continue teaching and our non-teaching personnel to continue working. Let us push ourselves to be even more productive if only to help the Philippine economy,” she stated.
To continue to perform and produce – this is the call of the University President to the personnel, for in this way, ‘the new normal will just be considered a cliché’.
The Better Normal
“Let us push to make it the better normal,” she emphasized.
Better normal in SSU means students would gain in-depth learning amidst disruption and remote teaching and learning through education technology. Given that the blended scheme of the online and modular approaches is SSU’s kind of the ‘better normal’, it posed new challenges to the faculty.
Quoting Ms. Giannini, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Education, Dr. Cardoso highlighted that SSU will not just address today’s challenges, but will continue to build up resiliency in the education system because “this is now the reality.”
Migration to LMS
When SUCs were challenged to design flexible learning platforms amidst the disruption, Samar State University was driven to take action with the goal of “learning everywhere, teaching beyond borders.” COVID-19 has ushered the University towards the utilization of an effective flexible learning system complemented with established technology infrastructure and support, which is, the Moodle-based LMS.
“The Moodle-based LMS will enable both the teachers and students to explore in the teaching-learning process. Both the teachers and students will find new-found knowledge as they explore the dimensions of flexibility,” Dr. Cardoso explained.
SSU leads EVHEIFLMS Consortium’s Technology Infrastructure and Support
And in this migration, SSU chaired the Technology Infrastructure and Support Committee co-chaired by the Eastern Visayas State University (EVSU).
“In our case, since we are the Chair of the Technology Infrastructure and Support Committee, we have undertaken the lead along with the Technology Infrastructure and Support. After the diagnostics and profiling of students, faculty, and ICT resources, as well as internet connectivity, our preparation was categorized mainly into two: (1) Full Offline Preparation and (2) Online or Blended Preparation,” she stated.
The Eastern Visayas Higher Education Institutions Flexible Learning Management System Consortium (EVHEIFLMS), spearheaded by 10 HEIs in Eastern Visayas under the tutelage of CHED Commissioner Aldrin A. Darilag, was formed to address learning amidst the pandemic.
“The establishment of the consortium is an academic milestone for it has strengthened the sense of collaboration among the member SUCs,” Dr. Cardoso said.
Answering the Challenge
In hindsight, the Full Offline Preparation will embrace the strategy of establishing Academic LGU Links or Kiosks in strategic places of identified LGU wherein students can get hard copies or download learning materials prepared by the faculty.
“Students can also submit or deposit their outputs or assignments through the Link or Kiosk. For SSU, we are going to establish about 22 links,” she added.
Personnel who are already residing on the location of the link will be assigned on the Link or Kiosk to facilitate the access and use of students and faculty even from other member-SUCs.
On the other hand, the Online or Blended Learning Preparation will introduce the putting up of a learning management system that may be used in the online or offline platform.
“It was agreed by the Consortium that Moodle-based LMS will be adapted. All the member SUCs are expected to be on the process of development, try-out, revision, and improvement of the developed LMS. I am happy to inform you that SSU is now live via the Moodle-based LMS through our Graduate School,” Dr. Cardoso stated.
Work of SSU IT Experts
The IT experts of SSU were able to develop less than a month the LMS and more 3000 courses are already downloaded in the system and SSU is the first among the 10 SUC members of the consortium to have a downloadable mobile application available in Playstore and App Store.
“Let us acknowledge the work of our IT team led by the ICT Director Zaldy Jabinar, Ms. Sweet Mercy F. Pacolor, and Mr. Nathaniel Mendoza together with the trainers in each college,” Cardoso said.
Dr. Cardoso ended her talk with the statement that SSU is now prepared and ready for the 1st Semester of the School Year 2020-2021.
As maintained by the University President, SY 2020-2021 is the time to welcome new things if only to ensure that the students will greatly benefit.
To keep social distance, the steering committee of the event clustered the faculty by discipline per college. The training occurred simultaneously in four designated places: Library, CAS Faculty Room, CAS Quality Assurance Office, Convention Center, and CGS Building.
