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Dr. Melinda dela Peña Bandalaria, Chancellor of the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU), has been awarded the Individual Prize for the International Council for Distance Education (​​ICDE) Prize of Excellence for 2021 during  the ICDE Virtual Global Conference Week 2021 held on 25 - 29 October 2021. Chancellor Bandalaria was recognized for her outstanding contribution in the field of open and distance education and learning.  Besides being Chancellor of UPOU, Dr. Bandalaria holds a post as Member of the Executive Committee of the Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU), appointed as ICDE’s Ambassador for Open Educational Resources (OER), [...]

University of the Philippines (UP) Professor Emeritus and University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) former Chancellor, Grace Javier Alfonso, won the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) Prize for Lifelong Learning 2021. This was announced at the recently concluded ICDE Virtual Global Conference Week 2021 held on 25 - 29 October 2021. Dr. Alfonso received the award in recognition for her “lifelong contribution to the field of open, flexible and distance learning.”  She has long been involved in open and distance elearning.  She took her first administrative duty at UPOU as the Dean of the School for [...]

Joerian Gauten, UPOU Diploma in Computer Science Student “Never compare your definition of success to someone else’s definition; it varies in every person's mindset,” advised Joerian E. Gauten to his fellow students at the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) where he is currently taking the Diploma in Computer Science graduate program.  Joerian along with his teammates in UP SysTeam--namely, Rex Ronter Ruiz, Jian Asiado, and Patricia Marie Garcia--made headlines this year as they were  declared as one of the three winners in the Google Developer Student Clubs 2021 Solution Challenge on 26 August 2021. UP SysTeam [...]

The third and final day of the 4th International Conference on Open and Distance e-Learning (ICODeL) opened with Special Session 3: Special Session on Gender Considerations in e-Learning. This session was moderated by Dr. Joane V. Serrano, Director of the UPOU Office of Gender Concerns (OGC) and Office of Public Affairs (OPA). Dr. Joane V. Serrano moderates Special Session 3: Special Session on Gender Considerations in e-Learning. For this session, a total of six gender-related studies were presented. Through these presentations, participants gained further insights on how to ensure gender mainstreaming and address gender-related issues in their respective [...]

Torrun Gjelsvik, Secretary General of the International Council for Distance Education (ICDE), presented the challenges and future directions of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in online education during the third Plenary Session of the International Conference on Open and Distance eLearning (ICODeL) held last 14 October 2021.  Secretary Torrun-Gjelsvik discussing the developments and challenges on Artificial Intelligence in Open, Distance, and Online Education in ICODeL Plenary Session 3. Citing several initiatives by ICDE members, Secretary-General Gjelsvik elaborated the potentials of AI technology in solving fundamental challenges within education, innovating pedagogies, personalizing learning and enabling scalability, promoting student autonomy and knowledge [...]

Dean Bagarinao is one of the 25 Senior Fellows awarded by DILG Secretary Eduardo M. Año, Chairman of the PPSC Board of Trustees authorized through PPSC Operations Manual Rule IV, L Sections 1-2 and PPSC Academic Board Resolution 2021-05. Senior Fellows are recognized specialists who may be invited to participate actively in program creation, relationship building, and other development initiatives at the PPSC level in their areas of competence. Dean Ricardo T. Bagarinao is currently on his second term as Dean of UPOU’s Faculty of Education. He was also named as the World Research Festival’s Outstanding Filipino Research Leader in 2012 [...]

The 4th International Conference on Open and Distance eLearning (ICODeL 2021), held on 13-15 October 2021, included a Plenary Session devoted to “Using New Technologies for Inclusive Education.”  The event was graced by Prof. Don Passey as one of the Plenary Speakers.  Prof. Passey is a Professor in Lancaster University, United Kingdom, and Chair of the Technical Committee on Education at the International Federation for Information Processing. The session was moderated by Asst. Prof. Ana Katrina Marcial from the UPOU Faculty of Education and the Director of the UPOU Office of Academic Support and Instructional Services (OASIS).  Prof. Don [...]

On the first day of the International Conference on Open and Distance e-Learning (ICODeL) on 13 October 2021, the first Plenary Session on Quality Assurance for e-Learning Institutions was presented by Dr. Mansoor Al Awar, Chancellor of Hamdan Bin Mohammed’s Smart University. The session was moderated by Dr. Consuelo Habito, Program Chair of the Diploma/Master of Environment and Natural Resources Management (D/MENRM) from the Faculty of Management and Development Studies, University  Philippine Open University (UPOU). Dr. Mansoor Al Awar introduced in his session their university’s establishment as a Smart University. He emphasized the university’s value in innovation to enable their [...]