The National Conference on Open and Distance eLearning officially commenced on 23 November 2022. This year’s theme “Reimagining Education Futures” promotes how Open and Distance eLearning can reshape the future of education. The conference aims to cover all aspects and components of ODeL.
The Opening Ceremony kicked off in high spirits with a welcoming message from the UP President Atty. Danilo L. Concepcion, who shared his thoughts on how technology should be embraced in the learning process, how to create transformative pathways for a more resilient education, and brew passion for lifelong learning. The formal declaration of the NCODeL 2022 is then led by UPOU Chancellor Dr. Melinda dela Pena Bandalaria. The Keynote address was delivered by the Chairman of the Commission on Higher Education Dr. J. Prospero E. De Vera III who shared. Around 151 participants from different UPOU offices, schools, and universities all over the Philippines joined together to officially open the NCODeL 2022.
The first special session ensued thereafter, entitled “Quality Assurance in ODeL”, UPOU Professor Emeritus Dr. Grace Javier Alfonso zeroed in on “Designing QA- based accreditation system”. She shared that there are newly-revised framework dimensions of Quality Assurance pertaining to excellence, equity, agility, sustainability, and future-readiness which sit at the heart of the Accreditation framework. She also provided an overview of the diagnostic processes, qualitative assessment, and criteria for accreditation.
UPOU Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, Dr. Primo Garcia, shared on the “Benchmarking Framework for Online, Open, Smart, and Technology-enhanced Higher Education Of the consortium which UPOU pioneered. He highlighted that benchmarking allowed the University to assess the strengths and challenges systematically and improve on the delivery and operational services.
The second special session tackles the issues on Cyber Security. Asst. Prof. Paula Esplanada-Mayol, UP Cebu Assistant Professor discussed “Digital Education: The Cyber Risks of Online Education.” She pointed out the various threats disguised as popular online learning platforms and video conference applications, and other kinds of cyber attacks that grew exponentially over the period of the pandemic when most educational institutions shifted online.
Mr. Jan Jacob Jansalin, Co-founder of Limitless Lab and Systems Analyst at UP Los Baños, followed by presenting about “Co-creating Digital Resilience.” He focused on the importance of being digitally resilient. He provided recommendations for the adoption of the NIST Cybersecurity Framework for educational institutions, and shared areas where organizations need to improve in digital resilience.
Ms. Jeniffer B. Canlas, Information Technology Officer, Cybersecurity Bureau-Digital, Certificate Division presented “Philippine National Public Key Infrastructure (PNPKI).” She explained how public key cryptography and digital signature work to secure documents, as well as the legal basis of digital signatures. The presentation underscored the key benefits of PKI as well as its financial benefits.
Dir. Raymond C. Nuñez, Chief Technical Officer/Director for Forensics and Security, Analytics, Red Rock Security, shared about the “Current State of Personal Online Security.” Director Nuñez discussed the top ways that organizations, as well as persons, get compromised. He explained the importance of securing oneself and recommended some methods to be protected in the digital space.
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