WHEN the pandemic came, different schools around Davao City had to find a way to make learning and teaching remotely easier. Both teachers and students found it difficult to adjust to the new learning system. After all, the pandemic didn’t give us much time to prepare for anything. But the resourcefulness and the technology that these colleges and universities use have proven that indeed remote learning and teaching can be done.
Here are the initiatives of some of the greatest colleges and universities in the city.
1. Ateneo de Davao University (AdDU)
Enrolment at AdDU is also made more convenient, whether for grade school, junior and senior high school, college, and their adult and continuing education. On their Facebook page, they have provided the individuals links that lead to the details and steps to enroll.
AdDU has the Ateneo Virtual Learning Community which “seeks to preserve its culture as a community that learns together and evolves as one.” With this, they have been actively using Moodle and Google Classroom to have a more convenient teacher-and-student interaction. This way, even though distant, the learning and teaching is still made possible.
“Learners can interact directly with learning content found in multiple virtual formats (e.g. audio-visual, auditory, and other e-learning materials). Students can sequence, direct, and navigate their own learning pace. Teachers are there to facilitate, evaluate and mentor the process, but ultimately, the online format is more learner-centric,” as said on their official website.
2. University of Mindanao (UM)
UM is one of the universities in the city with the most population and the most number of graduates annually. It might have been a challenge for the management to make learning online for such a huge population. However, years of experience by their administration and the faculty members have proven that UM can stride with the times together with the newer universities and colleges in the city.
While they also make use of a centralized and systematic learning tool for their teachers and students, UM also makes it a point to conduct additional online learning seminars. On their Facebook page, UM promotes and holds lecture series on “Utilizing Data-Driven Decisions” with international speaker-guests. They also hold immersion webinars for senior high school teachers. In the same way, have fun activities online such as freshmen orientation and student-vlogger auditions.
3. Davao Doctors College (DDC)
Transactions are made more convenient for DDC students because of the availability of online payments and online enrollment. With the active social media page, students are also made aware of school updates and announcements. Aside from these online admin initiatives, DDC also gives their students a share of fun amid the remote online learning.
They initiated activities such as the Virtual Love-Day celebration held last February 14, 2021. Here, an online raffle was done with the winners taking home cash prizes and DDC merchandise. This was not only for the students as the school employees also had their own category in the Virtual Love-Day celebration contests and raffle promos.
Aside from this, DDC also offers teleconsultation with the school physician or dentist. Links and consultation schedules are provided on their Facebook page for the students who would need medical assistance.
Indeed learning remotely shouldn’t take away the fun despite not being able to do it face to face.