The University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) is one of the chosen institutions by the  International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) for its 2021 Institutional Prize of Excellence awards. The said award recognizes deserving institutions for very significant achievements or contributions to the international community of open, flexible and distance education. The award relates particularly to leadership and innovation that contribute to the continuing enhancement of open, flexible and distance education across cultural and linguistic barriers. The evaluation was carried out by an independent international jury who are active contributors in the field of open and distance [...]

The University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU)  has been elected  as part of the International Council for Distance Education (ICDE) Board for the period of 2022 - 2025.  Of the 11 nominations received by the ICDE Nomination Committee, UPOU is one of the three newly elected board members representing institutional membership for the said period. UPOU will take office effective 01 January 2022. The announcement of the result of the election was made during the closing session of the ICDE Virtual Global Conference held on 25 to 29 October 2021.  Along with this is the announcement of the 2021 [...]

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 [...]