Written by: Aliah Nicole C. Brillante
Having conducted the latter part of the second term and the special term of Academic Year 2019-2020, the Faculty of Engineering assures more confidence and readiness for the upcoming opening of classes on August 13, 2020.
Part of the preparations being made by the faculty members of the different departments are intensive trainings and extensive workshops on lecture and laboratory delivery. Alongside this, adjustments on group-based activities, and student participation and assessments are also being observed.
“Ngayong special term, marami kaming ginawang adjustments so kung ikukumpara mo yung conduct ng online classes between special term tsaka second term, malaki ang pagkakaiba [During the special term, we made a lot of adjustments, so if you would compare the conduct of online classes between the special term and the second term, there’s a notable difference],” Engr. Nelson Pasamonte, Mechanical Engineering department chair, said.
“Ang masasabi ko lang more confident ang mga faculty ngayon sa delivery ng online classes [I can say that the faculty is more confident on its delivery of online classes],” he further added.
Yet, Pasamonte also mentioned that a lot of adjustments are still needed to be made, especially if online classes spillover to the second term.
Engr. Angelo Dela Cruz, Electronics Engineering (ECE) department chair, said the challenging part about online classes is addressing student assessment.
“Last second term, we simply relied on student’s moral values and assumed that the results of the assessments reflect the learning of the students,” he stated.
As for the new academic year, Dela Cruz told that the ECE department will be “focusing on giving open-ended assessments/exams to increase the level of integrity and use specially designed rubrics to assess the outputs of the students.”
In addition to the aforementioned difficulty, according to Pasamonte, laboratory classes are the department’s main dilemma since it requires a hands-on approach. Yet, he also mentioned that they are recording teaching demonstrations and opening discussion boards for questions on the experiments and skill-based activities.
Aside from providing academic advices, the faculty is also open for discussions on other concerns, such as the mental well-being of its students.
“We aim to help alleviate, even a little, the mental stress to students caused by this pandemic. Hence, humanized, humorized, and help prevent mental health issues (3H-approach),” Dela Cruz stated.
Contrary to the expected decline of the number of enrollees due to the pandemic, the faculty asserts that majority of the students are going to continue with the online learning. This is based on the surveys deployed by the different departments prior to the enrollment.
The upcoming first term will be a blended asynchronous and synchronous teaching and learning approach. Synchronous meetings will be recorded so students who missed the actual lecture due to interconnectivity problems or other difficulties will be able to watch it at a later time.
As for the concerns of some students’ lack of internet connection, it can be noted that the University of Santo Tomas provided data plans with free pocket WiFi to students who signed up for the “Connectivity Assistance Program.”
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