Distance Education in the Philippines

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. For those who don’t know, UP Open University is one of the online universities in the Philippines.

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!

A few weeks after my mom submitted by application form for UPOU, I received an e-mail coming from the Office of the University Registrar. I was nervous upon opening the e-mail. The e-mail contains information about Distance Education Readiness Test, which I need to take as part of the requirements for admission to the University of the Philippines, Open University.

The said test was scheduled last March 1, 2008. I took the test at the NCPAG Building of the UP Diliman Campus. The test was quick. I thought it would last for hours as it was indicated on the e-mail that the test would be from 9:00 am to 12:00 nn.

So, what is the Distance Education Readiness Test?

The Distance Education Readiness Test will help you determine your readiness for learning at a distance and learning with new information and communication technologies. The test is divided into six parts and is answerable by Always, Sometimes, and Never while other parts are answerable by Yes or No.

Please don’t confuse yourself with the Distance Education Readiness Test and Undergraduate Assessment Test because the both test are different from each other.

If you would be taking the Distance Education Readiness Test, you don’t need to prepare at all. Just be at the venue on time and you would be good. Don’t forget to bring your pen or pencil of course. As I said, the test is divided in six parts. You don’t have to worry because your can answer the test in less than an hour. I assure you that. In fact, if you are good and smart enough, you could find an exact copy of the Distance Education Readiness Test on the Internet.

If you got questions about the Distance Education Readiness Test of if you’re considering applying for UPOU, don’t hesitate to comment. Good Luck!

Before I was admitted to the University of the Philippines, Open University, I also considered numerous schools for my college education. Here are they:

• University of the Philippines (Diliman and Manila Campus) – Applying for UP is the in thing in our school. Majority of my batch mates applied for UP so I joined the bandwagon too event though my plans on studying in UP isn’t that clear. I applied for Organizational Communication, European Languages, Philippine Arts and Linguistics. In the end, I didn’t make it to both campuses.
• De La Salle – College of St. Benilde – I have a friend who is a graduate of DLS-CSB so I know that it is a great school for Multimedia Arts. DLS-CSB and Mapua are the only schools, which I know that offer Multimedia Arts. I applied for Multimedia Arts, Photography and Digital Filmmaking. Fortunately, I passed the college admission test.
• Manila Central University – Manila Central University is a few steps away from our home literally. In fact a lot of my relatives are graduates of MCU. My cousin, Patricia currently studies there and she’s taking up Dentistry. I didn’t apply there at all but I still considered taking up Biology at MCU.
• MAPUA – I didn’t apply at MAPUA at all but I considered it too for I really want to take up Multimedia Arts during those times. Apparently the Multimedia Arts program of MAPUA is offered in their Makati campus, which is far away from our home in Caloocan.
• University of the East – I considered UE for there were a couple of times that I want to take up Accountancy since I loved my Accounting subject during my senior year. But I didn’t apply there.
• Asian Institute for Distance Education – I heard that Toni Gonzaga is a graduate of Asian Institute for Distance Education. I took of AIDE as my back-up school if in case I won’t make it to UPOU. If ever I would be studying at AIDE, I would take up AB English.
• Polytechnic University of the Philippines, Open University – This is also one of my back-up schools if in case I won’t make it to UPOU. I would be taking Broadcast Communication if ever I studied here.

The list is quite lengthy, right? That’s a total of 7 schools!

Last August 2007, I took the UP College Admission Test or more popularly known as UPCAT. I applied for the Diliman and Manila campus. But unfortunately, I didn’t make it to both campuses. I also applied for De La Salle – College of St. Benilde and fortunately, I passed the entrance examination.

But my mom doesn’t want to enroll me to DLS-CSB for a couple of reasons, which I won’t disclose by now.

My mom being a graduate of UP, Open University thought of applying me on the undergraduate program of the UPOU. We were both skeptical at first for normally those who study at UPOU are celebrities or professionals who doesn’t have the time to be physically present in school. Another thing is that distance education is quite new and foreign for some people. We checked the website of the UPOU and was managed to apply for the Associate in Arts program in time for the first semester of academic year 2008-2009.

I applied for UPOU just for the heck of applying for at the back of my mind I might end up studying at DLS-CSB. I downloaded the application form at the UPOU website and filled it up. My mom was the one who submitted my application form at the UP Manila Learning Center of the UPOU. During that time, I still haven’t received my fourth quarter report card because it was still February. What we did is to ask from my principal a certification that states that I belong to the graduating batch of our school.

Since, I took that UPCAT last August 2007 and I did make good on that admission test, I was exempted to take the Undergraduate Assessment Test (also known as UgAT), which is a requirement for admission to UPOU. Good thing, I won’t waste numerous hours in answering that test.

Another requirement for admission to UPOU is to take the Distance Education Readiness Test, which I would expound on my post.

NOTE: UPOU – University of the Philippines, Open University
DLS-CSB – De La Salle – College of St. Benilde

Hello everyone and welcome to my newest blog called DistanceEducationBlog.com which will focus on my life as a distance education student.

I’m still on the process on setting up this blog site. I will post updates as soon as I’m done customizing my WordPress installation.

Thank you very much for visiting my blog! See you in a few days.