SSU and Flexible Learning System in the Next Normal

By Alona Medalia C. Gabejan

It has been a tradition in Samar State University to conduct an annual in-house seminar-workshop to equip its faculty members with the current pedagogical trends and innovations. In every academic year, prior to the onset of first semester, the university prepares its mighty mentors by providing them lectures and trainings directed by content experts, skilled academicians, and curriculum scholars. This year, in consonance with the new normal educational setting and for a warranted implementation of each curriculum, the university has again held its Faculty Development Training which highlights the Flexible Learning System (FLS) that is employed in higher education institutions (HEIs).

Corollary to this, in one of its prominent lectures and trainings on the implementation of FLS, an expert in the field, Dr. Carlo Magno, a Professor at De La Salle University and a Founder of the Center for Learning and Assessment Development – Asia, has been invited to talk on “New Trends on Flexible Learning Delivery: Knowing the Standards”. Being one of the HEIs which implements FLS on its second year and amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the session serves as an opportunity to SSU to recollect last year’s administration of FLS and to address the bane and the boon that have been determined upon the year-end evaluation.

Best Practices in Flexible Learning Modality

          Quoting Wall (2016), Dr. Magno reminded SSU that Flexible Learning environment is adapted when the school uses its resources such as staff, space, resources, and time to best support personalization of learning. The following, he said, are the best practices that an institution should exercise in the conduct of FLS:

          Online Teaching:

• Faculty members are provided with training on using LMS.
• Faculty members are provided with technical support.
• Technological, Pedagogical, Content Knowledge competencies are made clear as expectations.
• Continuous coaching and mentoring, job-embedded learning, and discussion-based are conducted.
• Assessing teacher performance based on the quality of the learning resources created and delivery of instruction are mandated.

Instructional Module:

• There is an orientation on written guidelines for the delivery of the module.
• Reminders on the protocols on collecting evidence of student learning are given.
• There is brainstorming on strategies to monitor student progress.
• There is also an orientation for parents/guardians/tutors on how to facilitate the module.

From here, it can be gleaned that SSU has actually been practicing these essentials in FLS. It might have not been perfectly done due to unprecedented and uncontrollable circumstances, but the University is always and still open for recommendations and developments to better its own context of FLS implementation in this ‘next normal’ educational setup.

Standards on Flexible Learning Delivery

          How do we know that the flexible learning delivery will make students learn? How do we ensure that students will progress towards the learning targets? With these questions in (my) mind, Dr. Magno explicated that if the teaching and learning are delivered in a flexible mode, so is assessment. Queries like these can be addressed by gathering pieces of evidence of students’ performance through assessment, he said. He even expounded the nature of assessment for Flexible Learning (FL) by sharing the following requisites:

• Use assessment to make students want to learn;
• Use assessment results to improve instruction;
• Use assessment to support students achieve the learning targets (learning competencies/objectives/outcomes);

New aspects of assessment for FL:

• Make quality assessment accessible at various modes of instructional delivery; and
• Use assessment to continuously improve the delivery of flexible learning.

Dr. Magno has, indeed, an enthusiastic heart toward FLS. Ending his talk, he heightened the session as he encouraged his listeners with these fundamentals while being confronted with a pedagogically challenged academic context:

1. Education needs to continue!
2. Make teaching and learning possible without compromising quality.
3. Preparation needs to be done and decisions before the opening of classes.
4. Guidelines need to be communicated.
5. Ensure students are learning.

True enough, SSU has already started with a springboard of its own FLS and is continuously making connections with its learners to cater what are yet to be provided. This is because, FLS, as Dr. Magno kept on emphasizing, needs to be well-integrated in the curriculum. “We need to create champions in our institution who will be experts in the implementation of Flexible Learning,” he reiterated. Hence, SSU, then and now, armored with its being resilient and transformative, is always ready to embrace change and is receptive of innovations in gearing up for the next normal.