An Innovative Strategy in Establishing Online Education in the

Philippines’ Higher-Education-Institutions (HEIs)

Antonio E. Refre, Ph.D.(AppliedSciences/Engineering, KULeuven) aerefre@gmail.com, mobile: +639202431560

ABSTRACT

The traditional delivery of education in the Philippines’ higher-education-institutions (HEIs) has some unique educational management features, which makes its blending with online delivery a difficult task to do. This paper presents an innovative strategy that will make it easy and cost-effective for the HEIs to establish Blended Learning (F2F+Online) and completely Online

Education. The innovative strategy has been implemented at the Philippine Women’s University since 2003, at the Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication (AIJC) since 2006, at the Philippine Normal University (PNU) since 2008, and at the La Consolacion College Manila (LCCM) since 2009. It is about to be implemented at the University of the Philippines Technology Management Center (UPTMC) and at the University of the East Graduate School (UE Graduate School).

The innovative strategy is primarily founded on the choice of a Learning Management System

(LMS), that can be seamlessly linked to the Information Management System (IMS), e.g. Enrollment System, that will not require a large capital investment, that is very user-friendly, and that can be easily administered even by just computer-literate individuals. The author relates in detail how he has come up in self-developing an LMS that has come to be known as AERVLES. One unique feature of the AERVLES is its capability to monitor the performance of the teachers in the education delivery of the subjects assigned to them; also, the faculty evaluation by the students can be done without going to class-to-class paper-based evaluation.

The paper gives some details of the experiences made from PWU, AIJC, PNU, and LCCM. The experiences have proven that the AERVLES is, indeed, cost-effective and very-user friendly. It has become a robust system that can take all the subjects, all the students, and all the faculty members of a large-size HEI.

KEYWORDS: Online Learning, Blended Learning, Online Education, Learning Management System, Virtual Classroom

Introduction

The advances in Internet Technologies and Web Applications have made Blended Learning

(F2F+Online) a welcome reinvention of education in the formal higher education institutions all over the world. In the Philippines, formal Blended Learning is taking off in a very slow manner.

This paper discusses in details the strategies made in putting up Blended Learning. Mention is made on the experiences at PWU, PNU, and LCCM. Part of the strategies in establishing formal Blended Learning is to make the systems and processes created user-friendly and requiring very minimal capital investment. In so doing, the quality of education is greatly enhanced; so, the learning, too. Likewise, school administrators have only to do a minor re-alignment of the school budget for putting up Blended Learning.

The Strategy in Establishing Blended Learning

The primary strategy I followed hinged on the development of an online learning platform that focuses on the creation of an affordable Learning Management System (LMS). In 2002, choices I had were to purchase a commercially-available LMS (e.g. WebCT or Blackboard), get an Open Source LMS (e.g. Moodle), and self-develop an LMS (which I can do being already an accomplished Web Applications Developer).

Many local academic institutions cannot afford to purchase the WebCT or Blackboard. The University of Santo Tomas (UST) has Blackboard with a licensing cost of around Php 1M per year. UPOU and DLSU have Moodle. They get the standard Moodle free. To configure Moodle and administer it requires them to have a regular team of PHP&MySQL professional programmers (amateurs will just mess it up). This makes Moodle also an expensive choice. What was the option left for me then? Self-develop an LMS.

Thus, I had to develop an LMS that will not require large investment in the development, operation, administration, and management. To make it readily acceptable to the users, I had to design it in a way that will make it very user-friendly and with features that will enhance learning among the users.

The Design of the Self-Developed LMS (AERVLES)

A Learning Management System (LMS) or also well-known as a Virtual Learning

Environment System (VLES) is a software system designed to facilitate teachers in the management of educational courses for their students, especially by helping teachers and learners with course administration. The system can often track the learners' progress, which can be monitored by both teachers and learners. While often thought of as primarily tools for distance education, they are most often used to supplement the face-to-face classroom. Thus, Blended Learning came to existence.

This system usually runs on servers, to serve the course to students and teachers as Web pages.

The system’s components usually include templates for content pages, discussion forums, chat (not recommended for formal academic courses), quizzes and exercises. Teachers fill in these templates and then release them for learners to use. Services generally provided include access control, provision of e-learning content, communication tools, and administration of the user groups.

The design of the AERVLES platform is patterned after that of the Yahoo!Groups platform (http://groups.yahoo.com/).

The application development software I used is PHP (http://php.net/) with database MySQL (http://www.mysql.com/). These are all Open Source software (no license fee; free-to-use!). The scripts are embedded in HTML documents.

All the scripts and databases are hosted in a server provided by a Webhosting Provider in the United States. The initial two (2) years service costs $166.80 from Bluehost.com. With this, the purchase of a server is done away with (Bluehost provides unlimited server space!). Also, there will be no need of technical personnel to maintain and operate the server (Bluehost provides highly professional technical support through extra-fast Live Chat).

To make the AERVLES more robust, I added a system for administering the registration and assigning of teachers and students to the subjects being conducted online. This system can be easily linked to the enrollment system (e.g. IMS) normally developed by the MIS group of an educational institution. In addition, I have developed a system for monitoring the conduct of the online courses by the Dean or by an Academic Supervisor. All these systems are integrated in the AERVLES.

Training

The next part of the Strategy is the training of the teachers in conducting online courses. The training is not focused on the use of the technology but more on the online pedagogy. Practically every teacher is familiar in using emails (this trains the teacher already on how to use the computer and the Internet). The teachers have long been drilled already in their face-to-face (F2F) classroom teaching. Online pedagogy includes the F2F teaching strategies. One innovation I have introduced in the training of teachers is the use of e-book format for the production of the course materials. I have been using the software DeskTopAuthor. You may visit the website: http://www.desktopauthor.com/ to see all the possible things you can do with it. Also, visit DrRefre’s e-Book Writing Tutorial: http://www.teachlearn-online.net/ebookwriting/ to learn how to write an e-book using Desktopauthor.

The students do not need anymore the training. As they proceed and be immersed in their online learning inside the Virtual Classrooms, they simply get on-stream easily and naturally. Besides, the Manual on how to use the AERVLES is freely available and downloadable from the Virtual Classroom.

The LMS of La Consolation College Manila (LCCM) using the

AERVLES Virtual Classrooms

The AERVLES is a single piece of software, accessed via standard Web browsers, which provides an integrated online learning environment. It is depicted in the Figure 1 on LCCM Online Education. The Virtual Classroom features are shown in Figures 2, 3, and 4.

Its framework is based on an integrated model where most of the learning takes place via collaborative online activities and content is largely determined by the learners, either individually or as a group. Learning is very much student-centered and highly collaborative.

It can be used to support flexible and distance learning. It includes the following functions.

The LCCM Online Education: http://www.lccm.edu.ph/online.php

Figure 1: The Main Page Figure 2: The Student Login

Figure 3: The Student Classes

Figure 4:The Student Virtual Classroom

1. Controlled access. This means controlled, secure, access to the curriculum that has been

mapped to elements which can be separately assessed and recorded. It allows the organization of

students into virtual classes, with individual, secure log-ins. Content is organized in elements or

modules and mapped to learning outcomes of programs, linked to the units of which they form a

part. Students should have their own individual, customized workspaces.

2. Student Tracking. Tracking student activity and achievement against these elements using

simple processes should make it possible for tutors to define and set up a course with

accompanying materials and activities to direct, guide and monitor learner progress. The

AERVLES allows recording of certain basic information about students, irrespective of the

learning context, including registration details, course details, course prerequisites, qualification

aims, study time and tracking information. It offers comprehensive tracking and recording

facilities. For example, it automatically records individual students' log-in time and dates, length

of time online, what content has been read and how often, assessments completed, with dates and

times of these activities. Ideally, the username and passwords used to control access to the

AERVLES is the same as those used for other systems within the institution, to allow a 'single

log-in'. It should not be necessary for a user to log in several times to access different systems.

3. Resources and materials. The AERVLES supports online learning, including access to

learning resources, assessment and guidance. The learning resources may be self-developed or

professionally authored and purchased materials. The AERVLES is able to support a variety of

content formats, not only hypertext markup language (HTML). It can easily transfer content

between VLEs either because institutions (or consortia) have different VLEs or because it is

necessary to change VLE (in light of circumstances such as the supplier going out of business).

The AERVLES provides a simple method of uploading content into the environment, so that it

is then available for the creation of learning programs and pathways. Methods of doing this will

vary from simple drag-and-drop to more complex uploading processes, including batch

uploading of files and courses. Once uploaded, contents’ elements have to be assembled into

programs of learning, which will mean devising pathways through the content, creating

hierarchical structures, building links, etc. Again, the way this is implemented should make it

easy for non-technical staff to use. From the student point of view, the AERVLES offers simple

navigation tools through the content, and they should be able to access their own course details

and performance information.

4. Communications. This includes communication between the learner, the tutor and other

learning support specialists. There are three basic methods of communication within the

AERVLES: email, bulletin boards and asynchronous discussion rooms. These facilities are

likely to be heavily used to support the students and can be used for portfolio and assessment

purposes.

5. Links. This means links to other administrative systems, both in-house and externally. The

AERVLES integrates easily with core administrative/management systems which are IMS

standards-compliant. Its data should be seamlessly shared with the MIS system.

6. Customization. The AERVLES is customizable. It allows the look and feel of the user

interface to be customized, so that it can easily be redesigned to appear in the college colors,

display the college logo, etc.

Added systems into the AERVLES are the Academic Supervisor (features are shown in Figures 5, 6, and 7) and the Administrator (features are shown in Figures 8. 9, and 10).

The Acdemic Supervisor features are shown in the following figures:

Figure 5: The Academic Supervisor

The Academic Supervisor is equivalent to the Coordinator of a group of teachers. The Academic Supervisor facility empowers the Coordinator to monitor the virtual classrooms of the teachers being coordinated. The virtual classrooms can only be viewed.

In this manner, the Coordinator will be able to determine how the teachers he/she is coordinating are conducting their online courses.

Figure 6: The List of Subjects Handled

Figure 7: View of one Faculty Class

The Administrator features are shown in the following figures:

Figure 8: The Putting Up of Courses

The Administrator Virtual Room takes care of the administrative functions that are similar to the Registrar functions. Courses/Subjects are put up in here. The teachers are assigned to these subjects; i.e they are given loads. Similarly, the students are assigned to the subjects they are enrolled in.

All the virtual classrooms can be monitored for purposes of checking on how the teachers are conducting their online courses.

Figure 9: Loading of Faculty

Figure 10: Loading of Students

CONCLUSION

Delivery of formal courses in a blended mode (F2F+Online) is not yet widespread in the schools in the Philippines. The author has developed a strategy that will not involve a very costly process in establishing blended learning. The AERVLES (an LMS developed by the author) is very user-friendly to both the faculty and the students. Furthermore, it empowers the Deans or Academic Supervisors to monitor all the teachers’ classroom instructions and the students’ learning activities. In an only F2F classroom instructions, it is practically impossible for the Deans to do so. The acquisition cost of the AERVLES is very much affordable. The administration and management costs are similarly very much affordable. Visit http://www.teachlearn-online.net/aersow/) to verify these claims.

The continuing use of this AERVLES in the Online Education of the Philippine Women’s University since 2003 (see APPENDIX I), of the Philippine Normal University since 2007 (see APPENDIX II), and of the La Consolacion College Manila since 2009 has demonstrated its cost-effectiveness and user-friendliness.

WEBLIOGRAPHY

1. Desktopauthor: http://desktopauthor.com/

2. DrRefre’s School on the Web. http://www.teachlearn-online.net/aersow/

3. DrRefre’s Books Portal. http://www.teachlearn-online.net/aerbooks/

4. DrRefre’s Tutorial in e-Book Writing. http://www.teachlearn-online.net/ebookwriting/

5. DrRefre’s Seminar-Workshop in Online Teaching and Learning. http://www.teachlearn-

online.net/olteach/

6. LCCM-Online. http://www.lccm.edu.ph/online.php

7. MySQL: http://www.mysql.com/

8. PHP: http://www.php.net/

9. PNU-Online. http://www.pnu-online.net/

10. PWU-Online. http://www.pwu-online.net/

11. Yahoo!Groups: (http://groups.yahoo.com/).

APPENDIX I

The PWU Distance Education: http://www.pwu-online.net/

Figure 11: The Student Login

Figure 12: The Student Classes

Figure 13: The Student Virtual Classroom

The features of the Virtual Classroom:

1. Bulletin Board for announcement

2. Course Contents for posting course materials.

3. Posted Files for posting assignments and works

4. Web References for posting websites that can be used as references

5. Class Discussion for collaborative learning through asynchronous discussion

6. Class Members for list of the members

7. Grade Check for seeing grades

8. Online Users to see who are also currently online

APPENDIX II

The PNU Online Education: http://www.pnu-onlne.net/

Figure 14: The Main Page Figure 15: The Student Login

Figure 16: The Student Classes

Figure 17: The Student Virtual Classroom