School initiatives for the new normal
Amid the impact of the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic to the country’s education system, Centro Escolar University (CEU) remains steadfast in its commitment to provide quality education while putting premium on the health and safety of its students, faculty, and personnel.
CEU’s Principles of Engagement
“We are very conscious of the news of the surge in Covid-19 cases in the country and in many parts of the world. Yet we look back and call to mind our responsibility as an academic institution and our heritage embodied in the philosophy, Ciencia y Virtud, that our founders set forth. Thus, the strategies that we put in place for this school year are guided by three principles: protect the safety and promote the well-being of all members of the CEU community, sustain the quality of the academic experience, and assure the active engagement of members of the CEU community with one another and with university undertakings,” says Dr. Ma. Cristina D. Padolina, CEU president and chief academic officer in her message to the school’s community.
Asynchronous teaching and learning
With the safety and health of the students as a priority as they continue with their studies, the University opened the new school year adapting the flexible learning approach where online teaching and learning are largely asynchronous with provision for on-campus laboratory or clinical classes for science courses in the latter part of the semester depending on the developments of the Covid-19 cases.
Let us address the challenges that we will confront in this school year with accurate and correct information, a positive mindset, and a resolute spirit. Excellence will be measured by each one’s determined effort to do one’s best.
Asynchronous means that the teacher facilitates learning through various online activities and tasks. The students are given a time-frame to access the instructional materials and to accomplish the assignments via the CEU Learning Engagement and Proficiency System (LEAPS), the learning management system which the University had put in place before the occurrence of the pandemic. Aside from allowing the students to study at their own convenience, time, and pace, this learning setup also addresses the concern of the students and teachers on their limited access to the Internet. They can download the materials and study them without Internet connection, and just reconnect when they need to upload the course requirements. Virtual classes are held once a week via the CEU LEAPS Virtual Classroom for course orientation, instructions on online classroom management, discussion of difficult concepts and opportunities for more direct interaction among students and teacher.
The courses are divided into modules, which are equivalent to chapters, which are in turn further divided into smaller chunks called lessons. To ensure that the students are not left to study on their own, teachers follow a daily schedule every day to answer questions posted by the students in the CEU LEAPS. Teachers are encouraged to prepare activities, which may not be graded but will enhance the learning of the students. They also ensure that the students are mentally and not just virtually present during online classes by providing feedback and showing concern for the social and emotional wellbeing of the students.
Teacher Training on Online Teaching
Teachers underwent a series of training sessions on producing complete and effective online learning modules. The training reinforced the knowledge and skills of the teachers on the management of online classes and on motivating and engaging students through positive learning reinforcements, as well as online assessment of student performance. The teachers completed their modules during the training and uploaded them in CEU LEAPS.
CEU ENGAGE
Moreover, the university has launched the CEU Engagement through the Net for Growth in the Digital AGE (ENGAGE) program. This was created to maintain a sense of community within students, faculty, and staff through a series of online activities while studying and working from home. This also intends to provide fun and enriching activities through the varied teams, which will take care of student engagement, success in online learning, digital citizenship, digital etiquette, digital wellbeing, and digital safety. The teams will not just continue to make students feel their connection with the school community but also keep them productively, responsibly, and safely engaged in the digital world.
“Let us address the challenges that we will confront in this school year with accurate and correct information, a positive mindset, and a resolute spirit. Excellence will be measured by each one’s determined effort to do one’s best. Let us promote each one’s wellbeing through kind, patient, and thoughtful social interactions,” Dr. Padolina added.
CEU Help Desk System
The University also initiated a Help Desk system for customer assistance and support. The system provides direct access to the University service units through an online query form. The form is available through this link ceu.edu.ph/help-desks. The influx of the query forms is monitored and managed by Quality Teams to ensure that all queries are addressed with accurate information and in a timely manner.
For more information about the University, particularly its initiatives and ongoings for this school year, visit the official website of the university at www.ceu.edu.ph and click CEU SY 2020-2021 on the landing page. You may also follow CEU on Facebook at www.facebook.com/theCEUofficial and on Twitter at @CEUmanila, @CEU_makati05, and @CEUMalolos.