On 6 September 2022, the University of the Philippines Open University spearheaded the first meeting of the Team involved in the Philippine Leg of the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) Global Advocacy Campaign (GAC) on Open and Flexible Distance Learning (OFDL). Dr. Melinda dela Peña Bandalaria warmly welcomed the members of the campaign and gave a chance for each of the participants to introduce themselves. Participants of the meeting are universities that responded to the call for volunteers. These include the University of Batangas, John B. Lacson Maritime University, University of Saint La Salle, Agusan del [...]

The University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) conducted the Hands-on Workshop on Developing Immersive Learning Programs for Higher Education on  01 September 2022. The resource speaker of the activity is Professor Eric Hawkinson, a visiting professor under the Faculty of Information and Communication Studies (FICS) and also a faculty of Kyoto University of Foreign Studies who specializes in teaching Learning Design and Technology. Professor Hawkinson defined immersive technology as a category of technology referring to augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality, extended reality, diminished reality, and the metaverse. He further shared that we are slowly transitioning from the print [...]

The University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) through the Faculty of Management and Development Studies (FMDS) and the Office of Gender Concerns (OGC) collaborated with the Women Sustainability Academy for this year’s Women Sustainability Forum held last August 31, 2022. The forum was attended by researchers, scholars, practitioners, and advocates for sustainability from different countries and was streamed live on UPOU websites. The forum focused on three topics namely Education for sustainable development, Gender, and Climate Change, and Future-focused Sustainability. Dr. Isabel B. Franco, the global chairperson of the Women Sustainability Academy, welcomed the participants and introduced all the [...]

This 2022, three Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) were launched with the intention of making the transition to the Diploma in Computer Science (DCS) program easier and supplying additional computer science-related skills and knowledge to the interested public: Introduction to Logic, Introduction to Information Security, and Artificial Intelligence for Quality Assurance in Education. These courses are free, online, and enrollment is open to anyone interested. More than 1,100 students took interest in short courses and enrolled in them.  For the whole month of June, Ms. Ria Mae Corda taught “Introduction to Logic” to the 445 participants enrolled in the [...]

The University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) welcomes Prof. Eric Hawkinson as a visiting professor under the Faculty of Information and Communication Studies (FICS). Prof. Hawkinson currently teaches Learning and Design Technology at Kyoto University of Foreign Studies. He is also a learning futurist who explores and designs technologies for the future of teaching and learning. His projects included augmented tourism rallies, augmented reality (AR) community art exhibitions, mixed reality escape rooms, and other experiments in immersive technology. On 01 September 2022, Prof. Hawkinson conducted a hands-on workshop with the team of Dr. Roberto B. Figueroa, Jr. about “Developing [...]

Dr. Joane V. Serrano, Dean and Professor of the Faculty of Management and Development Studies (FMDS), University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) served as a plenary speaker for the Mid-Year Convention of the Philippine Association of Teachers for Educational Foundations and United Professionals for the Development and Advancement of Teacher Education (PATEF-UPDATE) Inc. in partnership with the Philippine Normal University. The event was held on 30 July 2022 via Zoom and streamed live on Facebook. With this year’s theme of Setting Directions on Institutionalizing Flexible Learning, Dean Serrano gave a lecture regarding [...]

The University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU)-Faculty of Management and Development Studies (FMDS),  Dean and Professor, Dr. Joane V. Serrano, together with the Master of Arts in Nursing (MAN) Program Chair, Assistant Professor Ria Valerie Cabanes, served as the synchronous session content expert and course coordinators for the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB) Center for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning (CATL)’s short course on blended learning for the UPLB teaching staff held from 18 – 31 July 2022. This initiative is to prepare the UPLB teaching staff for the opening of classes this Academic Year 2022-2023. [...]

The Teacher Development Program (TDP) team, led by UP Open University Chancellor Melinda dela Peña Bandalaria (3rd from right), presented to the newly elected Mayor of Mauban, Quezon, Hon. Ninong Erwin Pastrana (5th from right), the capability program for teachers that had been implemented in the town since 2005.  The  TDP is a collaborative undertaking between the Local Government Unit of Mauban; Quezon Power (Philippines) Limited Co.; Department of Education-Quezon; UPOU Foundation Inc, and UPOU. It provides residents of Mauban scholarship grants for enrollment to graduate level degree programs and training programs offered by the UPOU. Under the program, a scholar [...]