The upcoming 7th National Conference on Open and Distance eLearning (NCODeL) is ready to trailblaze new research and best practices on distance education. With its plenary sessions, the participants are bound to engage in more learning activities that would expand their knowledge of open and distance eLearning. With the theme “Reimagining Education Futures”, the said activity will comprise three plenary sessions with Dr. Ethel Agnes Pascua-Valenzuela, Dr. Maria Cynthia Rose Banzon Bautista, and Mr. Borhene Chakroun as speakers.
For the second plenary session, Dr. Maria Cynthia Rose Banzon Bautista will tackle the “Roadmapping for Transitioning to Flexible Modes of Education”. Dr. Bautista obtained her BA degree from the University of the Philippines in Diliman (magna cum laude) and her MS and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Armed with her expertise in the field of Sociology, she also has a long list of experience by leading “multi-disciplinary, inter-institutional and international research teams” focusing on an array of social and political-economic concerns. Also, Dr. Bautista is currently serving as the Vice President for Academic Affairs of the UP System and is a current member of the Board of Trustees of the Philippine Institute of Development Students.
During her prolific career, she also became a long-time Executive Director of the University Center for Integrative and Development Studies, which is dubbed as the UP System’s policy research unit. She also served as the Dean of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy before her secondment to the Commission on Higher Education as Commissioner from March 2012 to September 2016. Her academic tenure also includes serving on the Advisory Board, Management Board, Board of Trustees, Executive Board, or Executive Committees of several institutions such as the National University of Singapore’s Asian Research Institute, the Human Development Network, the Asian Scholarship Foundation, the ASEAN Quality Assurance (AQAN) and the UNESCO Regional Committee for the Recognition of Higher Education Qualifications in Asia and the Pacific. It should also be emphasized that she received a number of outstanding accolades, including the National Research Council of the Philippines’ Achievement Award for the Social Sciences; the UP Alumni Association’s Professional Achievement Award; the Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS); the National Academy of Science and Technology’s (NAST) Outstanding Young Scientist Award and the NAST Outstanding Publication Award.
Dr. Bautista is set to impart her impeccable knowledge on flexible learning modes on NCODeL 2022 which will be held on 23-25 November 2022. For more information on the conference, visit ncodel.org.
Written by Nikhaela Valenciano
Edited by Myra C. Almodiel and Anna Cañas-Llamas
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