Dr. Melinda dela Peña Bandalaria, Chancellor of the UP Open University (UPOU) and current President of the Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU), represented the Philippines to the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) Stakeholder's Meeting on 06 April 2017 at Seoul, Republic of Korea. Dr. Bandalaria was among the 17 overseas participants from 16 institutions in 10 countries. At the meeting, she presented the Asian MOOCs, a portal that integrates the MOOCs offerings in the Asia Pacific, especially those offered by AAOU member institutions. Asian MOOCs was launched in October 2016, during AAOU's 30th Annual Conference in [...]

On 17 April 2017, UP Open University (UPOU) opened two massive open online courses (MOOCs)--ODeL 101: Introduction to ODeL, and Quality Assurance in ODeL -- as part of the Open and Distance eLearning (ODeL) Certification Programs under the MODeL Certification Series. The offering of MOOCs is done in keeping with the University's role to promote open distance learning (ODL) and to democratize access to quality higher education in the country, as designated by RA 10650. UPOU, with the support of the Commission on Higher Education, aims to empower higher education practitioners through the MODeL Certification Series, which lends to the [...]

UP Open University (UPOU) Professor and Former Dean of the UPOU Faculty of Education, Dr. Patricia Arinto, served as a keynote panelist at the Open Education Global Conference 2017 in Cape Town, South Africa on 08-10 March 2017. Prof. Arinto's presentation entitled "OER and OEP towards Equitable and Quality Education for All" shared the findings of the Research on Open Educational Resources for Development (ROER4D) in the Global South Project about the dynamics of open educational resources (OER) and open educational practices (OEP). According to Prof. Arinto, "For OER to contribute to achieving equitable and quality education for all, it [...]

Prof. Sheila Bonito, Assoc. Prof Joane Serrano, Asst. Prof Rita Ramos, Asst. Prof Charisse Reyes and University Researcher Carmelita Orias attended the Open Education (OE) Global Conference 2017 held at Cape Town Convention Center, Cape Town, South Africa last 8-10 March 2017. The group presented the results of their research entitled, "Impact of Open Educational Resources (OER) on Cost and Quality of Course Materials in Post Graduate Distance Education Courses in the Philippines". The objectives of the study were to:measure the cost of developing OER-based course materials; evaluate the impact of OER use on the quality of learning materials in [...]

The world celebrated 27-31 March 2017 as the Open Education Week. Sharing in this celebration, UP Open University (UPOU) conducted a free webinar on Open Educational Practices (OEP) on 27 March 2017 at the Audio-visual Room of UPOU in Los Baños, Laguna, and webstreamed live via networks.upou.edu.ph. The activity was jointly organized by the UPOU Office of Academic Support and Instructional Services (OASIS) and the UPOU Multimedia Center. Dr. Sheila Bonito, Director of OASIS, opened the event and explained that Open Education Week was organized by the Open Education Consortium to raise awareness about free and open educational opportunities for [...]

As public service has always been a part of the university's mission, the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) will host another blood donation activity this year. This will be held on 6 April 2017, starting 9:00 AM, at the UPOU Oblation Hall, UPOU Headquarters, Los Baños, Laguna. Initiated in 2012, the blood donation is now the fourth time that the university will be undertaking this activity. With the hope of helping the community on its ever increasing blood requirement, the Faculty of Information and Communication Studies (FICS) spearheads this project in partnership with the Office of the Vice-Chancellor [...]

As President of the Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU), Dr. Melinda dela Peña Bandalaria, Chancellor of the UP Open University (UPOU) was invited to participate in the 1st Asia-Pacific MAssive Open Online Course (MOOC) Stakeholders Summit (2016) on 2-3 March 2017 at the Windsor Suites Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand. Three areas were tackled in the discussions in the Summit, namely, sustainability model including policy level, platform level, institution/subject/program level; sharable case studies and best-practices of MOOC educational models; and possible area for cooperation among Asia-Pacific regions and European countries. Chancellor Bandalaria shared about sustainability model in the platform/portal level. [...]