Even as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc across the world, life still needs to go on despite the quarantine. Like many businesses, the education sector also found ways in adapting to the digitized new normal while at the same time adapting to the needs of both the students and personnel.
At De La Salle Medical and Health Sciences Institute, although the transition to digital was not without its share of challenges, it was still manageable for the most part. According to Vice Chancellor for Academics Dr. Juanito “Johnny” Cabanias, one of the first things the educational institution did was to introduce a “Strategic Management Framework in response to COVID-19.”
“My line has always been: ‘learning knows no boundaries and learning must continue.’ What we are doing right now is anchored on that particular rationale,” he said, “There is no perfect system and I think everybody would agree that there is also no perfect strategy right now. Everyone has to be informed that despite the pandemic, learning must continue. So from there, we introduced the Home-Based Alternative Learning Modalities (HBALMs) framework.”
Dr. Cabanias said this framework, which is divided into two parts, primarily focuses on providing students “adequate instructional delivery” during these trying times. The first part focuses on technology initiated and mediated platforms while the rest deals with mailing non-electronic material such as handouts, modules and other learning materials to students.
In addition to this, the institute also addressed the severe connection problems experienced by select students by providing iPads along with free pocket wi-fis. This way, no student should be left behind as fully online classes open this August.
But since there is no such thing as a one size fits all plan, the individual deans and academe heads had to modify the plans in accordance with individual needs.
“I called all the deans of the academics and presented to them the framework. From there, I asked them to come up with their own creative learning and action plans. So for example, the colleges focus on instructional delivery,” Dr. Cabanias explained.
“Since lectures and laboratory sessions are really difficult to do now because face-to-face interaction is no longer allowed, we produced videos on how laboratory sessions are done during the months of June and July. Our Center for Innovative Education and Technology Integration helped the colleges to come up with videos and other learning materials.”
As for non-teaching services such as registration, library services and guidance counselling, the departments created infographics and videos to help students and parents understand how to use their services. E-guide services such as e-connect ensures that the guidance and counselling department are always accessible.
“We constantly communicate with our students through different platforms,” Cabanias noted.
Just the same, no matter how well students are prepared for their classes under the new normal, they will still have a difficult time learning if their professors and teachers are not prepared and well-equipped for the job.
“That’s one of the challenges,” he shared, “so June and July were spent on online trainings and webinars for our faculty members.”
Center of research, innovation and inspiration
Despite all these measures in place, Dr. Cabanias stated that they were expecting a low census of students this school year. To his and other department heads’ surprise, almost all of their students enrolled for the term. Moreover, they also noticed an increase of incoming medical students for the coming term. They were expecting about 200 incoming medical students, but as of this writing, the total number of incoming medical students is already at 310.
“I realized that in this kind of situation, our advantage as a medical and health sciences institution is that more people would like to enter into the field of medical and health sciences because of the pandemic,” he said. “They are more inspired now to enter into this kind of profession because they see how we value our health professionals, how they help the people of the country—that inspires them to enrol.”
For Dr. Cabanias, there is indeed a “light at the end of the tunnel,” as they will be able to train better doctors, health professionals, and researchers that could serve the community under the new normal. He also stated that this is an opportune time to improve all aspects of DLSHMI’s work, from education to hospital care to research.
“We have our own research center here, and we have our own DOH-accredited COVID-19 testing center, established in partnership with the Provincial Government of Cavite. Our researchers are venturing into writing more papers relative to COVID-19. Even our students are encouraged to do their thesis focused on COVID-19 and other related topics.”
Plans for the future
While in the middle of the pandemic, it is currently impossible to fathom when it will end. Despite this, DLSHMI hopes to employ blended learning by the next term, which will start in January 2021 and will continue to do so even after the pandemic is over.
“We would still continue with the HBALMs framework, but we will identify courses that can be fully conducted online,” Dr. Cabanias explained. In addition to shifting the classrooms online, the institute will also continue their information campaigns and e-guide services even after the pandemic subsides.
They will also be looking into providing students with vaccines in addition to the current vaccination protocol once face to face classes resume. This vaccine will be partially subsidized by the institute and will help keep the campus safe from infections.
This pandemic has made us all realize that there is no perfect system, perfect strategy, perfect process, perfect plan for this kind of extraordinary situation, but we do believe there is a right and proper way of handling this situation. We are optimistic but realistic at the same time. We need to positively respond to the issue, learning must continue and students deserve to acquire the necessary knowledge given the available opportunities and platforms,” Cabanias concluded.