Distance Education in the Philippines

1. Our Moodle Course Site Loads Slow (most of the time) – I think the number of students accessing our Moodle Course Site contributed to the slow loading of the website. I am on a DSL connection and other websites load fast on my computer but not our Moodle Course Site. I think it is with the web host of UPOU, too.
2. Some Teachers Aren’t Updating Our Course Sites – Out of the 4 subjects that I’m taking up this semester, only two subjects have an updated and active course site. I know that some of my teachers are busy attending to some other errands. But, aren’t they suppose to update their course sites and fill them up with resources from which the students can benefit from? In fact, one of my teacher asked us to submit assignment via e-mail instead of utilizing the “Assignment” function of the Moodle which I think would be a WIN-WIN solution. In Moodle, the teacher can download ALL the submitted assignments in one click (in a zip file) while using e-mail will require the teacher to read individual e-mail and download attachments individually.
3. UPOU site/s are/is sometimes down – During the height of the Typhoon Frank, our Moodle Course Site was inaccessible up until this morning. I was actually in the mood to interact with my online classmates. I was about to submit some assignments too. However, the Moodle Course Site was down.
4. I got celebrity classmates – JC De Vera and Aldred Gatchalian are my classmates in some subjects. JC De Vera posted a couple of times already but I haven’t seen Aldred Gatchalian post. I just saw Aldred Gatchalian’s name on the class list. I wonder if Sharon Cuneta is currently enrolled.
5. Tech Support is prompt in replying to support questions – I must commend the tech support for responding promptly on my support questions. I got problems with signing up for a UPOU before and they helped me get one.
6. Everyone is an e-mail away – If you want to talk to your Faculty-in-Charge, your program chair, your LC Coordinator or even the registrar, you could do with e-mail. You don’t need to travel to get to their offices because they’re just an e-mail away. Just don’t expect them to respond within minutes. They usually reply after 24 hours.

That’s my observations so far.

Since all the undergraduate students of University of the Philippines, Open University are required to have eight units of Physical Education courses, one should cross-register himself or herself on another college/university. In this guide, I will be listing the steps on how one should cross-register himself or herself at UP Diliman for a PE class. I assume that you are an Associate in Arts student or a Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia Studies student.

1. Go to the UPOU website and download the “Permit to Cross Register” form under the forms section of the site. Fill-up the necessary information. One PE course is equivalent to two (2) units.
2. After filling up the “Permit to Cross Register”, visit your Learning Center and submit the permit to them for the dean and registrar to affix their signatures. Wait for one to two weeks before picking up your “Permit to Cross Register”. When you have picked up the “Permit to Cross Register”, be sure that the dean and the registrar of UP Open University have affixed their signatures.
3. Go to the new Office of the University Registrar Building of UP Diliman. Upon arriving at the building, go to the second floor and enter the office of the University Registrar. Give your “Permit to Cross Register” to the secretary. Wait for a few minutes for the Registrar to affix her signature.
4. Proceed to the Admission and Registration Section located on the first floor. Get a number near the entrance for the Admission Section. While waiting for your number to be called, get two copies of the Student Directory near the windows and fill them up.
5. When called at the Admission Window, present your PCR (Permit to Cross Register) and the two copies of your Student Directory. Get a seat again and wait for your name to be called.
6. When your name is called, go back to the window again for your Form 5A. This is the time that you will pre-enlist your PE subject. If you have a friend / relative who is knowledgeable about the location of buildings in UP Diliman, it would be best to ask them to accompany you. If not, then you could always ask the students or the UP IKOT or UP TOKI jeepney drivers.
7. Go to the College of Human Kinetics, Gymnasium to check on the available PE subjects. You could choose any PE subject (except those with prerequisite) that suits your schedule. However, if you are a first year student PE I would be best. If you have chosen your PE subject, copy the details posted on the blackboard to your Form 5A.
8. Submit your Form 5A to the student assistant for validation (still at the CHK Gym). Wait for your Form 5A.
9. When you have your Form 5A validated, proceed to the Office of Admissions Bldg again and ask for a Form 5 from where you get your number in step 4. Fill-up the Form 5 properly. After that, proceed to ARS-Admission and submit your Form 5A and Form 5. Wait for your name to be called.
10. When you receive your Form 5, get a number again for the Assessment window. Wait for your number to be called. When you’re called, present your Form 5, inform them that you’re a cross-registrant from UPOU, and present your UPOU Form 5 so that your miscellaneous fee could be waived. Wait for your name to be called.
11. When you are called, check if you need to pay something. Payments are done at the 3rd floor of the OUR Bldg. If none, then you’re all done!

Please take note that this is based from my experience. Also, take note that you could only cross-register on the specified dates by the university. Enjoy your UP life!

Riding the LRT, one can see several ads on the train with Spanish text on it. Apparently, these ads are from Instituto Cervantes de Manila. Quoting their website:

Instituto Cervantes is a worldwide non-profit organization created by the Spanish government in 1991. It is the largest organization in the world dedicated to the teaching of the Spanish language and increasing knowledge of culture in Latin-American Countries. At present, Instituto Cervantes has 65 centres in 20 different countries.

I’ve been wanting to learn Spanish for quite some time now. My mom even thought of enrolling me on some short courses offered by the UP College of Arts and Letter, Department of European Languages. In fact, my first choice college course when I applied in UP is European Languages. Then, we thought of enrolling to Instituto Cervantes de Manila.

I was surprised to know that Instituto Cervantes de Manila joins the distance education bandwagon along with some state universities. Instituto Cervantes de Manila takes the learning of Spanish online through their Aula Virtual de Espanol (AVE).

The Instituto Cervantes´ Spanish Virtual Classroom is an Internet-based educational infrastructure set up to provide Spanish courses. These can be completed in different ways: attendance, semi-attendance and distance.

I’m still thinking if I would be taking the regular classes or the online classes. It is just great to see that different institution here in the Philippines are now offering distance and open learning.

For more information about Instituto Cervantes de Manila, you can visit their English website. You could also visit their office at 855 T.M. Kalaw St. 1000 Ermita, Manila, Philippines or call them up at 526-1482/85.

Last Saturday, May 31, 2008 was the day we are asked to pick-up our course materials in our respective learning centers. As for me, I picked up my course materials at the UP Manila Learning Center. I did not expect that those modules would be very bulky to think that I enrolled in four courses. My mom came with me, as she will have a talk during the general orientation about her experiences as a UPOU student.

Everyone in the learning center is in a hurry since the general orientation would start in a few minutes. The general orientation was held at the College of Public Health Auditorium still in UP Manila. A problem with the LCD and laptop that will be used in the said orientation caused everything to be delayed. After a few minutes (or an hour) of trying to solve the technical problem, they all gave up and proceeded with the program without those things.

Dean Fe Mendoza of the Faculty of Management and Developmental Studies is with Professor Juvy to facilitate the said orientation. The programs offered in UPOU together with the different academic policies were discussed during the said orientation. Questions coming from the new students were also entertained. On the other hand, my mom had a talk about her experiences as a UPOU student. She also shared a couple of tips on how to be a successful UPOU Student. You can view the video below. Just pardon my shaky hands and my crazy camera. Nevertheless, I think everything is viewable.

The general orientation ended at around 11 in the morning.

At 1:00 pm, I attended an orientation about MOODLE and the UPOU webmail at the Lara Hall of UP Manila. Moodle serves as our virtual classroom. It works just like a traditional classroom but the difference is everything is done online. Prof. Juvy facilitated the said orientation where she thought us on how to create our own UPOU e-mail address and how to enter our course site (or virtual classroom). The orientation ended at around 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

After the orientation, our enrollment keys were distributed. An enrollment key is required in entering a certain course site for the first time.

I wasn’t able to attend the 1st UPOU Grand Sunduan 2008 at UPOU Headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna because there’s no way for me to get there. The car is not available that day so I just stayed at home. I don’t have any news on what happened on the said event. Anyway, I would be picking up my course materials on May 31, 2008. I think I would be attending a MOODLE Seminar that day also. Moodle is the web application that UPOU uses in their online course sites which I would also be using once the semester starts.

On the other hand, I called up the UP Diliman Learning Center to follow up my permit to cross register. Apparently, my permit to cross register hasn’t arrived the UP Diliman Learning Center. It is still on it’s way, I think. I hope that PhilPost would be more efficient in delivering documents. I just hope to receive my permit to cross register before the deadline of enrollment in UP Diliman.

My cousin, Michel would be accompanying me to UP Diliman to cross register by the time I receive my permit to cross register.

I’m excited!

Grand Sunduan
Schedule of Activities (23 May)

UPDATE: I contacted the UP Diliman Learning Center thru e-mail, but to no avail. I guess, I won’t be able to cross-enroll this semester. So sad.

I submitted my Permit to Cross Register at the UP Diliman Learning Center last week. I just forgot what day it was. My permit to cross register needs to be signed by some officials whom are based in Los Baños, the headquarters of the UP Open University. Last week, the learning coordinator told me that my permit would be available for pick-up today, Thursday. I e-mailed her but I wasn’t able to get any reply. I’m just afraid that I won’t be able to enroll at UP Diliman for my PE and NSTP classes.

I don’t want to be a 100% bum this semester that’s why I want to take my PE and NSTP classes this semester.

Anyway, on the 23rd of May, I would be going to the UP Headquarters in Los Baños, Laguna to attend the 1st UPOU Grand Sunduan. I’m excited about it!

For the first semester of the academic year 2008-2009, my subjects are Communication Skills, Computer Education 1, Kasanayan sa Komunikasyon I, and Foundations of Natural Science I. I know that my subjects aren’t the best but I think they are fine. I know taking up Communication Skills and Kasanayan sa Komunikasyon I is some sort of suicide as both are opposites. I don’t know but that’s what my mom suggested. The other subjects offered this semester are mostly for higher year levels. I’m only a freshman, you know! Social, Economic and Political Thought is offered this semester and I really want to take that subject but my mom disagreed. I think that by taking that subject I will be more socially conscious.

Anyway, Physical Education courses and NSTP are not offered in UPOU but at least 8 units of PE and 6 units of NSTP are required for graduation. Because of this, I need to cross-register to other UP campus. I just downloaded the Permit to Cross-Register a while ago. My mom and I would be going to the UP Diliman Learning Center to submit the permit and have it signed by the authorities. I’m planning to take up Basic Badminton on the College of Human Kinetics but I don’t know if I can enroll for the first semester. I hope my permit to cross-register would be approved. If in case my permit to cross-register got approved then I’ll be a non-degree student of UP Diliman.

I am also planning to enroll myself on a Spanish class.

Good luck to me!

I finally enrolled myself at UPOU last Tuesday after few weeks of waiting for the mailman to deliver my admission pack. The admission pack contains all the necessary information about UPOU and the enrollment process.

My mom and I went to the UP Manila Learning Center to enroll. The enrollment process was very quick. My mom paid for tuition fee by credit card as to avoid hassle of going to Philippine National Bank to deposit and going back again to the UP Manila Learning Center. I only filled up the Certificate of Registration then the Learning Center Coordinator assessed the fees that I would be paying and then the credit card of my mom was swiped. TADA! I’m enrolled! I’m a UP student already!

My subjects for the first semester are Foundations of Natural Science I, Computer Education 1, Communication Skills and Kasanayan sa Komunikasyon I. Apparently, I need to cross-enroll to other UP Campus for my PE class and NSTP. I still need to talk to my learning center coordinator for information regarding the cross-enroll thing.

Cross posted from my personal blog.

If you’re an avid reader of my blog, you have probably read my entry called, “Pause to Pose ” wherein I narrated my UPCAT 2008 experience. And probably, you’ve seen me blog about the UPCAT 2008 Results, right? Plus, you’ve probably heard / read somewhere that I didn’t qualify to any of my preferred UP Campus.

I thought that University of the Philippines has closed its doors to me.

Luckily, not!

I’m now an approved student of the University of the Philippines, Open University! I just need to wait for my admission package, enroll, pick-up my course materials and I’ll be fine!

My mom got her MPH (Master of Public Health) at UPOU (University of the Philippines, Open University). On the other hand, she took her pre-med course (BS Psychology) at UP Baguio. If I’m not mistaken, I’m the third person from our family to study in UP. First is my mom (who’s ID number starts at 1978), and then came my oldest cousin, who is graduating in the coming days.

I’ll be taking up Associate in Arts (and then would proceed to Bachelor of Arts in Multimedia Studies) at the UPOU this coming academic year. By the way, I’m under the UP Manila Learning Center. I would want to transfer to the UP Diliman Learning Center but the UP Manila LC is much accessible for me.

I’m excited.

Really, excited.

I’ve been looking forward to the results of this since the day that I took the Distance Education Readiness Test (which I took on the same building and room where I took the UPCAT). I was exempted to take the Undergraduate Assesment Test (UgAT) since I have taken the UPCAT 2008 already. They did honor my UPG (University Predicted Grade), which is not bad at all. In fact, I’ve been exchanging e-mails with the OUR (Office of the University Registrar) to follow-up my application. Good thing, they are prompt in replying to e-mails.

The results for the Associate in Arts Program can be found here.

UPMAN

2008-81483

ADRIAN JERIC

GARCIA

PEÑA

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Here are some photos from my trip to the University of the Philippines, Open University in Los Baños, Laguna.

Now, I can say it out loud!