The University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) Faculty of Information and Communication Studies (FICS), in partnership with the UPOU Alumni Foundation, Inc. (UPOUAFI), held the FICS Masterclass: A Lecture Series from Thought Leaders on 3 July 2020.
The lecture, titled, “Appreciating the Numbers in Communication Research: Statistical Methods in Social Science,” was the second installment in the series of lectures led by Thought Leader Dr. Nancy E. Añez-Tandang. FICS Dean, Dr. Alexander G. Flor, served as the moderator for the session while UPOU Professor Emeritus, Dr. Felix Librero, also participated in the thought-sharing.
The part two of this lecture was a continuation of the discussion of the proper application of statistical techniques to be able to interpret the outputs generated, given the data collected by the researchers. Viewers were also given the opportunity to voice out their comments and questions by the end of the lecture where the Thought Leader, along with Dr. Flor and Dr. Librero, read the questions out loud and answered as much as they could.
“You can easily fall in love with Statistics,” Dean Flor stated during their thought-sharing. Some participants even commented on how the Thought Leader made the lesson easily understandable. The lecture ended with some key reminders from Dr. Tandang: “Use Statistics wisely. Do not abuse the figures. It’s our responsibility to convert it to reliable and accurate information so we can get accurate insights.”
The lecture was live-streamed through the UPOU Networks, Facebook Live, and Youtube Live platforms. This was attended by a total of 756 live unique viewers: 322 peak live viewers on Facebook, 83 peak live viewers on Youtube, and 351 peak live viewers on UPOU Networks. Participants came from different institutions across the country and even from abroad. This was the first Masterclass to be conducted solely through live-streaming, to encourage continuous knowledge sharing and to adapt to the disruptions in education brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Masterclass is a series of lectures where Thought Leaders share their expertise in Communication and discuss the practical uses of these topics in the participants’ contexts. Introduced in 2017, the Masterclass is one of the public service initiatives organized by FICS.
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Written by Maine Basan
Edited by Joane V. Serrano