Co-authored by: Dr. Redentor S. Palencia
Armed with its University mantra (We innovate. We build. We serve.), Samar State University (SSU) expresses its full support to the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), chaired by Dr. J. Prospero E. De Vera III, in the implementation of flexible learning in higher education. SSU commits to “learning continuity” amid the disruptions.
To ensure that business continues in SSU, it established its Crises Management Framework or the Resilience Business Continuity Strategic Plan duly approved by SSU-Board of Regents (BOR) through BOR Referendum No. 37, series of 2020. The said continuity plan has nine goals namely, Goal 1: Make Safety, Health and Well-Being of SSU Personnel, Students, and Other Stakeholders as Top Priority, Goal 2: Revisit/Reengineer/Reinvent/ SSU Curricular Offerings. Recalibration of PLOs, CLOs, ILOs and Ensure That No SSU Student Is Left Behind, Goal 3: Implement Inclusive Flexible Learning Management System, Goal 4: Empower Families and Communities for Home-Based/ Community-Based Learning, Goal 5: Inculcate Resilience, Innovation, And Service Among SSU Leaders, Faculty, Staff, And Students, Goal 6: Retrofit/ Reinvent the Physical Infrastructure of The University, Goal 7: Revisit the Financial Management Program of The University and Introduce the Needed Paradigm Shifts, Goal 8: Strengthen R&DE Programs/ Projects/ Activities to Be More Responsive to Present and Future Crises, and Goal 9: Build Borderless Opportunities Amid the Pandemic which are all geared to a functional flexible learning management system.
Adding to the immediate action to ensure undisrupted processes and services and to be more responsive to the diverse learning needs of the students, SSU conducted a profiling or mapping of students for Flexible Learning Management. The University also established a Moodle-Based Learning Management System for students with capacity and full internet connectivity. And for those students with no or poor connectivity, a modular instruction was implemented through the installation of Academic Links/Kiosks/Hubs at the different barangays in Catbalogan City and at the different municipalities in the Province of Samar.
Currently, there are twenty-six (26) SSU-LGU Academic Links/Kiosks/Hubs with perfected Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) and are managed by a faculty-coordinator who ensures that all students are accounted and are given complete sets of learning packets. These Links/Kiosks/Hubs have a complete set of desktop computer containing library e-sources and e-copies of learning packets, laptops for student loaning, and thumbs drives (32 GB) for all students.
Further, SSU led the preparation of the flexible learning roadmaps─ the Full Offline Preparation and the Online/Blended Preparation─ being an active member of the Eastern Visayas Higher Education Institution Flexible Learning Management System Consortium (EVHEIs-FLMSC) and the Chair of the Technology Infrastructure and Support (TIS) Committee which is FRIENDLY─ Flexible, Resilient, and Inclusive Education in the New Normal Context Directed thru shared Leadership in the Year 2020 and Beyond.
With these limitless opportunities and the provisions from CHED to SSU including the more than 22M SMART University initiatives and the recently downloaded amount of more than 12M for the Enhancement of SSU-Learning Management System, SSU strongly commits to work alongside CHED in pursuit of a shared goal, an inclusive and accessible higher education.
SSU believes in the power of Flexible Learning. Through it, our tertiary education can take off from the method of pedagogy to heutagogy, from prescribed to self-determined learning because students are given the freedom to acquire knowledge, skills, and attitude based on their learning needs and styles. Flexible learning, evidently, allows students to maximize their higher education learning experience as they get to choose their space and pace in the learning process with the use of any available digital media.
And cognizant of the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic and maybe clueless of whatever lies ahead, SSU will thrive to live and rise above any crises and will continue innovating, building, and serving through flexible learning.