by Joniel Medina & J-Roel Semilla
In response to the present need for continuing education in this time of pandemic, the College of Education together with the Integrated Developmental School (IDS) and Integrated Rural Development Academy (IRDA) conducted a webinar series on Innovative and Flexible Teaching and Learning or InFleX every Tuesday at 10-12 noon from June 9 – July 14, 2020.
InFleX is a remote teaching and learning modality, which can be synchronous or asynchronous in terms of its delivery. It is anchored on the REACH (Relevant, Engaging, Achievable, Clear, and Holistic) framework. This approach ensures that outcomes, content, and resources provided by each faculty are relevant to the students through engaging, achievable, and authentic learning experiences coupled with clear direction, assessment purpose as well as holistic and inclusive course design. According to the College Dean, Dr. Amelia T. Buan, REACH as a framework may serve as a bridge that connects students to school and to their teachers even if they are learning from home.
InFlex enables the college to capture the 3 categories of its students based on their access to technology and the internet (wide or full access, limited and entirely offline) for an inclusive and flexible learning. For wide or full access to the internet, courses are delivered through the MOLE (MSU-IIT Online Learning Environment), an e-learning platform of the Institute. On the other hand, students with limited or no access to online technology will make use of learning packets which are being prepared by their teachers and will be sent to them through couriers. The learning packets may also be used by students with full internet connectivity at home.
The InFlex webinar series consists of 6 meaningful and well-sequenced sessions that provide basic and comprehensive contents and workshops to its participants. The list of topics and their respective resource persons during the said sessions are the following:
1.Considering Psycho-social perspectives of Learners by Dr. Imelu Mordeno
2.Preparing OBE syllabus in InFlex Modality by Dr. Manuel Barquilla and Mr. J-Roel Semilla
3.Fostering Student Engagement & Learning Guide Development by Dr. Roxan Cosolacion and Dr. Amelia Buan
4.Connecting Institute Goals to the Learning Course Outcomes with Learning Guide by Dr. Ruben Abucayon and Dr. Lowell Lucero
5.Introduction to Learning Management System; Developing Online Assessment and Setting-up the MOLE Gradebook by Ms. Nenen Borinaga; Dr. Lowell Lucero
6.Showcasing of Outputs Asst. Prof. Vanessa Zabala, Asst. Prof. Neal Alfie Y. Lasta, Mr. Leo Santillana, Mr. Joniel Medina and Mr. J-roel Semilla
For each session, the participants are tasked to submit corresponding output/s to ensure that the intended outcomes of the webinar series are achieved. Also, to guide the participants in developing their course syllabus and teaching-learning materials and check on the quality of their outputs, a checklist was provided by the CED Quality Assurance team. Hence, the following steps in assessing the outputs were established as shown in the figure below.
It is hoped that through this training, the CED will be able to deliver quality instruction this coming first semester which will open in September 2020. Despite the new challenges, the College is determined to continually work as a team in the pursuit of quality, equity and flexibility in education.