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While many of the engineers have set personal goals of completing Master's degrees, there have been two key challenges in the way. The demands of work schedules balanced with quality family time and the geographic distance of universities from the workplace and home have made it difficult for technical employees in Intel Philippines to pursue post-graduate programs. The site of industry operations is located 3-4 hours from the top universities. Working hours are typically from 8am to 5pm. Regular commute time is another 3-4 hours round-trip. Thus, for an engineer to pursue higher education, and additional 8 hours of time wach day spent commuting and in the classrom was unrealistic.
The Intel Technology Philippines, Inc., training organization approached the College of Engineering of the University of the Philippines (UP) at Diliman, the country's premier state university, to embark on a partnership to provide post graduate degree programs through asynchronous learning.
Asynchronous Learning
Intel proposed to UP a solution that would move beyond traditional Distance Learning (synchronous classroom lectures) by offering a more flexible, learner-friendly approach - namely asynchronous learning. In this model, students would have access to classroom lectures and an information board at all times, via self-paced learning modules within the UP intranet.
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Industry Collaboration
Intel invited other semiconductor companies in the country to join its initiative for asynchronous learning with UP college of Engineering. Texas Instruments (TI) and Philips Semiconductor Industries facing similar business challenge took up this opportunity to partner with Intel to provide accessible, relevant higher education to the engineering community.
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UP College of Engineering's Response
The UP College of Engineering was eager to expand technical graduate programs outside the confines of their campus, so they welcomed the asynchronous learning proposal. A proposal was developed and agreements were made to develop courses towards a Master's degree through asynchronous learning beginning June 2005. Thus, the endeavor to establish the Distributed Graduate Instruction (DIGRI) of UP College of Engineering began.
The first time venture for UP College of Engineering posed additional challenges. While agreeing to the approach, they also wanted to ensure that the quality of education they offered would be of equal standard as that of the face to face instruction.
Learning Methodology Development
The successful implementation of the asynchronous model was contingent on effective methodology. After benchmarking with other universities, two models were selected: the "video based" and the "adjunct mode" of delivery. The adjunct mode is the combination of internet technologies to deliver text-based and interactive discussions between students and instructors. UP's University Virtual Learning Environment (UVLe) was used to provide the needed infrastructure.
High level requirements identified for a DL program were:
Program Management
Faculty Support
Student Support
Content Management System
Hardware Infrastructure
Infrastructure Readiness
Asynchronous DL is a paradigm shift from the conventional DL which the UP College of Engineering was familiar with. For a comprehensive orientation of the dynamics of the new model, Intel provided a benchmarking opportunity with Arizona State University (ASU) and the University of Phoenix (UoP). From UP, the Associate Dean of the College of Engineering, the head of Electronics and Electrical Engineering Department and a Professor from the Mining, Metallurgical and Materials Engineering Department were engaged to participate in the benchmarking process. They joined Intel in face-to-face meetings with ASU and UoP to learn and share methods and discuss applying asynchronous DL at UP.
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UP College of Engineering acknowledged the capabilities and successes of ASU and UoP in providing higher education opportunities to hundreds of students across the US through asynchronous DL. As a result of this benchmarking, UP was able to simulate the asynchronous DL with modified methodologies suited to their technical capability and the learning dynamics of their students.
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Intel, TI Philippines, and Philips provided the funding to establish the initial infrastructure to enable UP College of Engineering to deliver asynchronous learning using:
Class Videos - downloadable from UP Intranet and uploadable to company servers
Lecture notes and assignments using UVLe
Class participation through discussion boards
Examinations - on UP campus and/or off-campus with company proctors assigned by UP
DVD-ROM versions of the DL class videos available, depending on the users' demand
UP College of Engineering provided a dedicated room for classes that would be recorded for use for distance learners. They also offered the UVLe for content management.
Several aspects of online delivery pose challenges in teaching engineering classes. Using cross-platform training deliveries in deploying remote off campus learning will answer the limitations of using only the web browser as a tool that delivers training. Students may learn from many different methods and media. The methodology can be adapted to any DL class being taught within the requirements of the design.
Faculty Development
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Preparing the instructors for the complexities of virtual classrooms was another challenge for the team. Intel facilitates faculty training for 15 UP College of Engineering professors on "Repurposing Instructor-led Materials to Online Materials" and "Facilitating Online Classes". This prepared the professors to transition and be more comfortable with the new learning methodology.
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Intel provided templates that would serve as guides to the professors to prepare their online materials. To increase the professors' understanding to the asynchronous learning experience, they participated in a simulation of online learning.
Student Support
Preparing employees for the new methodology was a major focus of the team. On overview of DL was provided to interested employees. A simple evaluation was administered to increase awareness of individual learning styles and determine if asynchronous learning would be an appropriate match. Tips on how to become successful distance learners were also given.
Intel, TI Philippines, and Philips will have company education assistance programs which cover tuition fees for the employees who were admitted to the UP College of Engineering programs.
June 2005 Program Launch
Masters in Engineering Microelectronics and Masters of Science in Material Science are the two post graduate programs which were the first two programs identified by Intel, TI Philippines, and Philips. A total of fifty-two (52) students from the three companies were admitted to the asynchronous learning program for 2005-2006 school-year, starting with the first term in June 2005.
A student orientation was held simultaneously for the three companies. Two courses from Microelectronics and the four from Materials Science make up the six courses offered in the first semester.
The UP College of Engineering DIGRI program is expected to generate more post graduate professionals with increased technical competency from the country's workforce. From fifty-two students representing the three companies for the launch, the UP program is expected to generate increasing numbers of students and participating companies in the semiconductor and electronics industry in the Philippines in the future.
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UP DIGRI TEAM |
| Program Manager |
Ms. Maria Cristina Saquilayan, Intel
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| Members from Intel |
Mr. Joselito Tulao
Ms. Teresa Benitez
Mr. Luis de Luna
Mr. Randy Jensen, PhD
Mr. Tomas Hall
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| Members from TI Phils. |
Ms. Judith Leano
Mr. Gerardo Angeles
Mr. Jo Antonio Pacuan
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| Members from Philips |
Ms. Grace Galabin
Mr. Vladimir Lacson
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| Members from UP |
Ms. Eligia Clemente
Dr. Manuel Ramos
Mr. Richard Hizon
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| DIGRI Champion in UP |
Dr. Norbert Que |
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