UP Open University (UPOU) Chancellor Melinda dela Pena Bandalaria, together with Asst. Prof. Myra Almodiel and Ms. Cien Angela Baurile, visited Benguet State University – Open University (BSUOU) on 12-13 April 2018 as part of the Cascading Best Practices program of UPOU.During the visit, Chancellor Bandalaria facilitated a focus group discussion with the professors of BSUOU to monitor their progress as well as the challenges they encountered in the activities proposed by UPOU during the exploratory meeting. This second visit aimed to capacitate the people involved in the distance education programs of BSUOU by formulating more concrete plans and activities, and by sharing UPOU’s best practices.The first meeting with BSUOU was held on 18-19 September 2017 wherein three areas of collaboration were identified: 1) technical assistance for the learning management system of BSUOU; 2) course material development; and 3) research. Moreover, UPOU also invited BSU to participate in the 5th National Conference on Open Distance e-Learning (22-23 November 2017) and to enrol in the free online certification courses on Open Distance e-Learning offered as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). These courses can be accessed through UPOU’s platform for MOOCs – the Massive Open and Distance eLearning (MODeL).Another Higher Education Institute (HEI) involved in this program is the Ifugao State University (IFSU) which is also scheduled to be visited for the follow-up meeting.Cascading Best Practices Program is one component of UPOU’s project on Institutional Innovation. This project aims to strengthen UPOU’s programs and manpower. This development is expected to eventually help the university in capacitating other HEIs and enabling them to offer their programs from technology-enhanced to fully-online mode of instruction. (CABaurile)
