“Flexible learning will continue in school year 2021 and thereafter.” These were the words of Commission on Higher Education (CHED) chair Prospero de Vera III, as the commission goes full throttle on adapting flexible learning policies to keep the education sector pandemic-proof.
While CHED speaks for colleges and universities across the country, the Department of Education (DepEd) is also making sure that basic and secondary education is properly equipped to adjust to this new learning environment. This is the aim of the Learning Continuity Plan (LCP), which is currently in effect for School Year 2020-2021: to “ensure the health, safety, and well-being of learners, teachers, and personnel in the time of COVID-19, while finding ways for education to continue amidst the crisis for the upcoming school year.”
Currently, 28.4 million Filipino students are affected by the pandemic in various ways. With their education and growth at stake, REX Education shares the stance of CHED and DepEd to continue bolstering learning and improving current systems in place as the country continues to live with the restrictions set by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Schoology as the Learning Management System (LMS) of choice in local and global segments
REX Education has long been on the forefront of innovation in education, even before Covid-19 disrupted classes in March 2020. The company has been an advocate of integrating learning management systems (LMS) like Schoology into the classroom setup, to make learning more seamless and more effective for both teachers and students. Schoology is a comprehensive teaching and learning platform that empowers teachers to create engaging content, design lessons, and assess student understanding.
Understanding the pain points experienced by school stakeholders in this new normal of learning, Rex Education harnesses the capabilities of Schoology to empower teachers to facilitate learning effectively, to make learning more fun and personal to students, and to equip parents to become capable partners in their children’s education, whether they are inside or outside the classroom. Schoology connects hundreds of apps and Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI) tools like Kahoot, Zoom, Mentimeter, Youtube, Google Drive, OneDrive among others so that teachers can have the flexibility to tailor fit the content to their students’ needs.
Empowering teachers and parents as partners in learning
Schoology aims to make our teacher’s tasks easier, more streamlined, and more effective for their students as they navigate through the demands of online teaching in the new normal. Through its various capabilities, the LMS lets teachers personalize learning for every learner through intervention or enhancement content.
“Schoology serves as a virtual learning community where the teachers can design differentiated learning pathways that center on student’s choice and voice. Indeed, it has helped our institution to cope with the ever-changing demands of the world,” said Ariel Reginald Rivera, SHS coordinator for the Colegio San Agustin Makati.
In the traditional educational setup, teachers mostly only interact with the students, and vice versa. In the new normal setup, the parents are now included in the learning delivery, directly collaborating with the teachers to bridge the physical gaps in the classroom setup.
According to Ma. Natividad Tabinas, high school academic coordinator at St. Scholastica’s College Tacloban, parents have been very vocal about how Schoology was able to make the task of being a bridge of learning at home easier for them.
“Parents told us that it was a good decision for the school to adapt Schoology so students can attend both synchronous and asynchronous classes. They are particularly appreciative of the fact that they also have their own accounts so they can monitor their child’s progress as well as conference with the subject teachers when needed,” said Tabinas.
REX Education believes that Schoology is a powerful technological tool to help empower champions of educations make learning in the new normal more efficient and more effective for Filipino Whole Learners.