A sequel webinar to National Service in the New Normal, Reimagining Community Engagement: A Webinar on NSTP Community Engagement Projects,was hosted by the NSTP Diliman Office last December 7, 2020 via Zoom and YouTube livestream. Featuring five resource speakers from public service and community development sectors, the free webinar aimed to provide participants with valuable training and insights essential for planning and implementing community engagement projects considering the restrictions posed by the pandemic. NSTP Diliman Director Dr. Jonalou Labor formally opened the event welcoming more than 1,000 NSTP implementers and students representing 180 higher education institutions (HEIs) in the country. Dr. Labor shared that UP Diliman, consistent with UP’s mandate to become a public service university, has provided knowledge products and instructional materials for NSTP Common Module and Component Courses Topics. He pointed out that these materials may be accessed through the NSTP Diliman YouTube Channel. He also encouraged the attendees to visit the NSTP Diliman website to access the Serbisyong Tatak UP radio episodes, also a source of reliable information on NSTP content. He reiterated that UP, as a national university, would continue to extend all the help that it could to NSTP implementing units around the country to provide the best NSTP program possible. After his opening remarks, Dr. Labor introduced Ms. Francelline Jimenez, a development worker and the Project Manager of Increasing the Resilience towards Natural Hazards (INCREASE) Project for CARE Philippines. In her talk about the Fundamentals of Remote and Blended Community Engagement, she defined remote and blended community engagement. She emphasized that with our current situation, using digital platforms in doing community engagement is inevitable and it is critical to know the purpose of our project and the context of the community we are engaging with in order to decide on the best type of platform to use. Mr. John Cedric Pineda, Program Manager for Community Engagement and Life Skills for Teach for the Philippines, the second speaker, discussed the Characteristics of Effective Remote and Blended Community Engagement. He enumerated three main factors that affect the success of remote and community engagement: accessibility, inclusivity, and relevance. At the end, he highlighted […]
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The NSTP Diliman Office launched a series of Online Writeshops from July to September 2020 in order to equip its implementers for the transition to a remote mode of course delivery. The Office has been consistently conducting course improvement and redesigning activities for the past years through several trainings and writeshops, only this time, the writeshops participants – NSTP instructors and coordinators from different implementing units – had to migrate to and explore different means of remote and online collaboration platforms. The NSTP Online Writeshops aimed to finalize the OBEdized Common Module Topics Syllabi, to craft OBEdized Component Courses Syllabi, and to devise recalibrated versions of the OBEdized Common Module and Component Courses Syllabi for Remote Learning. The online writeshops were conducted through group-led regular online meeting sessions, by continuous meetings and presentation of outputs, and with real-time document collaborations through Google Workspace. Dr. Rosella Torrecampo, NSTP Diliman Office’s resource person and consultant for its curriculum development activities, guided the groups in their writing and revision process. The Phase 1 of the Online Writeshops which ran from July 27-August 24, 2020 was focused on the NSTP Common Module Topics. This module lays the foundation for NSTP Diliman courses as these are the set of topics discussed in all NSTP classes before students carry out community engagement projects in CWTS or LTS, or undergo military training in ROTC. In order to ensure that participants are on the same page when it comes to course redesigning, the Office organized an initial output Zoom presentation and consultation session with Dr. Torrecampo. This meeting held last August 6, 2020 served as an avenue for participants to learn how other groups were working on their course redesigning. Dr. Torrecampo also shared specific comments for each group presentation as well as general considerations for all groups as she opened the floor for consultation. Moreover, the resource person delivered a short lecture on the difference of Assessment and Evaluation as this was an apparent concern across the different groups. After three weeks of collaborative effort, all eight Common Module Topic Syllabi were presented and approved on August 24, 2020. The approval was done during the online writeshops’ plenary meeting […]