[University of Santo Tomas] Mastering EdTech Transitions Together: Ensuring Flexibility and Agility Amidst Educational Needs & Technologies

Good afternoon, everyone. It's also my first time next to Mike to be on this big stage, but I hope I'd be able to share our story, and discuss how we can collectively master the challenges and opportunities presented by the rapid evolution of educational technology. So, I'm Joy. I have been introduced already. Thank you for that, Kelly. And I've been fortunate to witness firsthand the transformative impact of EdTech on education, especially at the University of Santa Thomas.

So as mentioned earlier, I'm a registered nurse, and I was initially appointed just the coordinator of how we can champion EdTech technologies in teaching and learning in nursing. But later on, I I I fell in love with EdTech and stayed with EdTech for the longest time now. So the Educational Technology Center sorry. Let me just sorry. Go back to that slide.

K? So I'm here with you today to share some strategies that our leaders and visionaries have ingrained in us to ensure flexibility and agility in university teaching and learning as we navigate the ever changing landscape of technology and student needs. And with that, the Educational Technology Center is the university support unit in advancing the exemplary integration of current and emerging digital technologies in a flexible learning environment. And our vision is to, to lead, to support, and to advocate innovative and meaningful ways of engagement, for technology rich learning environments amidst the emerging and changing digital technologies. So just a brief historical background. The university is already four hundred thirteen years old, and it has been timeless in adapting to the changes of the society and the needs of technology, especially in the recent decades when we have gone through several digital transitions to adapt to the changing technology landscape.

And if you will see here, we started the center just a developer of print media and later on transitioned to analog, and we've, moved towards digital technologies. So development, broadcasting, and ICT based teacher training started sometime around nineteen ninety six, and, the initiators of, EdTech as a digital learning solution would happen around nineteen ninety nine to two thousand and one. And finally, in two thousand and two, we started the massive wide e learning adoption, with an enterprise LMS at that time. So for the next two decades, we have run the educational technology center by making it available to all teachers, but it's by their choice to adapt to whatever available technologies we have at that time. But challenges arise because, first, we don't have the technology for personal use of the of the learning management system.

Next, the Internet was still a challenge at that time. So we at the center have made all resources available for the teachers so that, hopefully, they can choose LMS. K? But in two thousand sixteen, we there are needs. There are changing needs of, the teachers and as well as developments in technology, and that's why we had to integrate productivity tools and some cloud based tools to our teaching and learning. And so with that, in two thousand eighteen, we have rebranded our, initially, elearning access program to the university's cloud campus.

And the university's cloud campus is our main pro program or project that involves not only a learning management system, but everything inside that will make it work and make it helpful to engage not only teachers, but also students in teaching and learning. So we have added in our roster additional productivity tools, cloud based tools, web conferencing tools, and I have to highlight there is an s to that because we don't limit it limit it to one, k, and even exam management tools, especially during the pandemic. And in two thousand eighteen as well, the leadership of the vice director of, academic affairs has mandated that the blended learning program be adopted by the general education courses. So initially, there was a disruption in the way they teach because initially, again, as I mentioned earlier, we were just there, to voluntarily integrate technologies in our teaching and learning. But when they were mandated to use it in two thousand and eighteen, there was quite, a challenge.

They didn't want it. But then we pushed for training. We pushed for hand holding the teachers on how to do this. As the center who would lead the integration of technology in teaching and learning, we didn't stop encouraging others to work on and make sure that it would help them. So when the pandemic came in twenty twenty, classes were suspended in March nine.

And March seven, we were ready to say and tell the academic affairs, office that we are ready to move everyone online. So we were expecting to move everyone online as soon as March sixteen when the initial suspensions were lifted were expectedly lifted. But it, it took a while before it was lifted. But as soon as the government allowed that we resume teaching and learning, we were able to bring in everyone to online learning. And so with that, we had to look for more ways on how we can adapt to the changing needs of our stakeholders.

And with that, we have looked for more things that can address those needs and gaps. And in twenty twenty four, I'm I'm happy to announce that we are already one hundred percent on Canvas. And and that included not only the teachers, that included not only our, elements, but that includes all the infrastructures that are needed to make sure that everyone will everything will work for the technology adoption. K? And with the speed of technological changes happening, we at the university had to ensure resilience not only in tool adoption, but also of the people working for the university and its stakeholders. So let me tell you how we have done it so far.

So if you would notice, in two thousand seven two up until two thousand seventeen, we were focused only on making everyone access the LMS. But we have ensured and made available all the resources for the Cloud Campus so that everyone will be digitally resilient. So the success of our edtech decisions hinges on effective collaboration among all stakeholders. So we have involved not only the teachers, the administrators, the students, k, and technology experts by creating opportunities to identify the needs. So we did the survey.

We had to to ask whatever it is that they still need given that we already are using an LMS for the past twenty years and evaluate some solutions that we have provided them and slowly implement the change. So this helped us. We we did a caravan. We talked to everyone. This helped us in trust building and fostering a shared understanding of the goals.

So dialogue with those who will be directly affected, that includes the administrators, the teachers, and the students, has, helped us gather, address concerns, gather their feedback, and ensure that everyone is aligned with the direction of EdTech initiatives. So by involving multiple perspectives, we have come up with informed decisions, identify potential challenges early on, and increase the likelihood of our successful implementation. So just a timeline of the activities. We started LMS evaluation in March twenty twenty two, and this involved several tools and technologies that are offered to us. So we also did a desk analysis of all the available features that are being presented in the websites of these LMS.

Then we prepared the meetings with our providers and, logistics set up meeting with providers and sandbox preparation so that we can try and our stakeholders can try, which among all these elements available are good for use. And we have involved around six hundred forty students, two hundred academic staff, and some technology spell specialists in the process. It was not only our office who did the decision on jumping into a new tool or technology. So next is to adapt and contextualize. So adapting and contextualizing the things that we are working on and doing at the university has back is backed by our culture that has been established by our visionary leaders back in the nineteen nineties, and the need to ensure that the edX strategies would meet the changing student needs, emerging technologies, and evolving pedagogical approaches, and this centralized approach to adapt the Edex solutions to our university's context.

That's why even if you would ask the instructor team, they were only able to reach up until our champions. But it would be our center who would share all of what we have learned to the rest of the university. So by the way, we are catering to at least two thousand faculty members and forty six thousand students annually. So with this, this has ensured an institutional wide adoption through standardized training curriculum for contextualized, pedagogy driven, and technology rich learning environment. And this made us the leader in massive white e learning adoption in the Philippines, which started in two thousand and two.

And the university's learning environment, including the, e learning tools that are made available for everyone when I say everyone, but whenever we adapt to a certain technology, we make sure that it's available for everyone. But we need to contextualize our learning support so that transitions are manageable, and it would be our team who would make it fit to whatever they would need for the adoption. And next is to make sure that processes and procedures are easy to adopt and easy to learn as much as possible. So, to ensure a smooth smooth transition to Canvas as one of our newest edtech solutions, it's essential to have a streamlined process in place for procurement, implementation, and ongoing support. So this will help minimize disruptions and ensure that resources are used effectively.

So we had to seek feedback from our stakeholders and identify areas for optimization. So we're happy that, Canvas also has the priority prioritization meetings so that we can raise our needs and concerns to them. So this was initially our timeline. Given that we have stayed for the last m LMS for twenty years, then we were have to share that Next slide, please. Okay.

So from the five year transition plan, which we have worked to run from the negotiations back in twenty twenty two, we have reduced the adoption time to just one one year and a half. And that half year was just about the preparation for the first term of our adoption. We already have, we're already, have at least eighty five percent of adoption. There were of of the twenty seven academic units, we only have two, higher education units, and two high schools who did not initially adopt. But in a term's time, in one term's time, one of the colleges already jumped into Canvas.

And now, as I mentioned earlier, we're already at one hundred percent implementation starting August in twenty twenty four. K? Next would be our talents and our resources. So we have to give value to our talents and resources because they give life to the center. So EdTech is not just about the technology, but it's about our people. So the university, through the center, has invested on our professional development.

That's why as I shared earlier, I'm a nurse, but I fell in love with EdTech because of all the opportunities that are made available for us, k, so that we can nurture our team of experts on content, on pedagogy, and technology, and ensure that they have all the credentials, skills, and knowledge needed to be called specialists, and later on effectively use and integrate technology and assist all stakeholders in the process. So meet our team. But this is our team. Most of them are here with me today, and the middle table. K.

And we make sure also that the training materials, facilities, and personnel support of the USC technologies educational technology center are available to assist not only our team but also everyone in the university. So we have made available our, on-site help desk. We also have our online help desk, powered by Zoom, and we also have our ticketing help desk. So you can have all the tools and resources available to have answers to your needs and to your questions as a stakeholder. So we also made available workshops, mentoring, team activities, credential stacking, data and analytics.

And included in that are recognitions for our team for the work that they are doing. Because it's not easy to be at EdTech. We are teaching and at the same time, mentoring everyone to jump and use into new technologies. So this has ensured the sustainability of our initiatives even if our people has also to change in the course of time. Because given that while we have forty seven e learning specialists, their deans can always change them as they want.

K? Like, for example, right now, of forty seven from the past year, only thirteen has been renewed as a coordinator, as an e learning specialist for this year. So we had to train again everyone. And so the program has to be sustained and the program has to be available every time. So we adopt and make sure that we continue improving. Given that we also subscribe to some quality assurance tools and indicators.

K? So we have to regularly reassess the effectiveness of our, initiatives to identify areas for improvement and measure impact through our canvas analytics. So we also encourage a culture of experimentation and innovation by supporting pilot projects and providing opportunities for our team to explore new technology so that we don't just stop with whatever is available for us. K? And so we were able to scale up and sustain our activities. So, as our edtech assist the initiatives have proven successful in the past. Technology access provision for the past two decades, k, for the past year and a half.

Now you can see from, from two thousand, from usually two thousand faculties trained every year, forty four to forty six thousand enrolled students at one specific time, and deploying three thousand courses, we already have increased that. K. Sorry. Can we move back a slide, please? K. We have only in already increased our courses in a year and a half's time from six thousand to eight thousand courses.

So every term, it is increasing, and you would find here as well the tools and technologies that we use inside Canvas. Although right now, we are still working on a lot of assignments, discussion topics, recordings, you will find there that it has decreased in number all because right now, we are mostly fully face to face. And so we only needed the recordings just in case we are on enriched virtual mode of ex instruction. Well, all because of the suspensions that we have experienced in the past few months, because of the heat, because of the typhoon, etcetera. So everyone is ready to work on and make sure that everyone moves towards the use utilization of technology for making sure that learning and, teaching and learning will still continue.

And while we started as a lone ranger, k, in the past, and we have a decentralized expression of our interest in the use of technology. In two thousand and eighteen, we have already ensured that even our campuses, USC Santa Rosa and USC General Santos, will also be using the same technologies as we have in the university, but also make sure that even our sister schools will be affected by our excitement to work on and use the digital technology. So even our campuses and even our sister schools, we're trying to prove future proof everyone already by helping them out with whatever they are using. K? So all of them are now on Canvas. And so in conclusion, mastery edtech transition requires collaboration, flexibility, effective processes.

We value our talent and continuous improvement and a focus on, scalability and sustainability by ensuring a culture of innovation. By working together, we can ensure that edtech is used to enhance teaching and learning, improve student outcomes, and prepare our teachers and students for the future. And with that, we try to continue to build a culture of innovation, and we are always excited for the next big thing. Okay? So here are my takeaways for this talk. Thank you, Canvas Con, for this opportunity to speak with everyone.