Page 111 - Reimagining Higher Education : Case Studies On Designing For Inclusion, Equity, And Access In The Buka Project

A. K. T. Marcial et al. · Sustainable Institution Building for Open Learning (SIBOL) Initiative

- University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU), Philippines

Completion of the training program was based on the submission and

presentation of the group/team assignments, and at the end of the training, 16 out

of the 23 participating institutions met this requirement. Unfortunately, out of the
16, only five pushed through with the institutional consultations in Module 7.

Strengths of the training programme

Aside from the activity logs and attendance in the synchronous sessions,
end-of-module surveys provided a glimpse of the participants’ views of the

training experience. Based on the survey responses, three aspects appeared to have

worked well for the participants:

1. The module resources, particularly the video presentations and the core

readings or case studies;
2. The synchronous sessions; and

3. The group assignments.

The participants said that the core readings and case studies were useful
because these materials presented them with curated institutional policies,

guidelines, and practices on the blended, open, and online learning subsystems

that helped in their analysis of their own institutional context. The participants
also realised the advantage of making learning materials available at the VLE

throughout the training, so they could study them more closely at their most

convenient time. Some appreciated the video lectures for highlighting key points to
help them understand the topics better.

The synchronous sessions were seen as an e ective space to share practices
and discuss issues concerning the di erent blended, online, and open learning

subsystems with academics from other institutions. As one participant noted, the
faculty and faculty administrators of Philippine HEIs tend:

109