In 2011, the UP Open University (UPOU) embarked on the production of a community television program that aims to highlight science and technology issues and showcase the research and technologies produced by research and development (R&D) institutions based in the university town of Los Banos in Laguna, Philippines. The UPOU offers mostly graduate programs through open and distance e-learning...

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When in 2010 the UP Open University (UPOU) embarked on being an open and distance e-learning (ODeL) institution, support systems were put in place to enable a networked and technology-based learning environment. ODeL initiatives of the university had and continues to be supported by UPOU’s two main staff offices—the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs (OVCAA) and the Office of the Vice...

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Course design in distance education (DE) has been evolving in   the last 15 years as a result of the increasing availability of new information and communication technologies. Traditional DE consisted of print-based materials developed by course teams consisting of subject matter experts, instructional designers, editors, multimedia designers and editors, and library support staff, among others (Calder, 2005;...

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I joined the UP Open University as a faculty member in 2001, six years after the university was established and six years since I left the teaching profession. Joining UPOU was my return to the academe. After graduating from college, I immediately taught undergraduate courses at another constituent unit of the University of the Philippines (UP). After a three-year teaching stint, I worked in research and development ...

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Distance education (DE) has recently been popularized because of the advances in information and communication technologies. The latest version of the web, which further enhances Internet-based interactivity, revolutionizes DE and creates the possibilities for the development of online learning. Several universities around the globe, including the UP Open University (UPOU), took advantage of such...

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The mediated nature of open and distance e-learning (ODeL) makes it an institutional/organizational performance or accomplishment which means that there are agents other than the teacher participating in the teaching and learning process. Extant studies on the organizational dimension of open and distance learning (ODL) focused either on the economic or the governance/administration issues rather than on...

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As early as 2001, we boldly declared “UPOU goes online.”  The move proved to be a game changer as it did not mean simply  switching  the  course  delivery  system of  the   UPOpen University (UPOU); it meant redefining and realigning critical functions of the university that affected the way we did things and the way we viewed ourselves as an academic institution. What then is UPOU and who are we?

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We now live in the digital age. The explosion of knowledge and scholarly resources in the Internet and recent advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) have spurred educators to develop new methodologies for teaching and learning. These innovations have been labeled as “distance education,” “open learning,” “e-learning,” “flexible learning,” “online learning,” and “blended learning.” These...

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