As the pandemic pushed learning into online modalities, the IPC had already begun engaging in the eTURO project which necessitated a series of webinars and an online training course as its initial outputs. These activities allowed IPC to invest in the right facilities and develop basic protocols in implementing online activities. As the demand to ‘bring events online’ increased, IPC was engaged by different organizations to translate and implement various learning opportunities (lectures, conferences, workshops, and training programs) into online activities for selected and public audiences. With each event implemented, the IPC eLearning organizing teams gained insights and lessons on the conduct of online learning modalities, thereby enriching the IPC experience of capacity building for various stakeholder sectors.
This panel will feature lessons learned on the strengths and weaknesses of different online learning designs and platforms (webinars, conventions, workshops, online meetings and webinar platforms), challenges and opportunities faced by organizers and learners, and areas of development that can further expand the opportunities for online learning.
Thursday Habit: The Experience of Webinars in Health Information Dissemination in Region 4A, Philippines
John Paolo Dalupang, MSc
Polytechnic University of the Philippines Manila
Institute of Philippine Culture
Ateneo de Manila University
John Abletis, MA
Institute of Philippine Culture
Ateneo de Manila University
Dennis B. Batangan, MD, MSc (Heid)
Institute of Philippine Culture
Ateneo de Manila University
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The 4A Series is a project of the CHD4A in partnership with IPC that aims to offer a variety of health-related e-learning activities to complement on-site capacity-building activities for government health workers in the CaLaBaRZon Region. Due to the challenges posed by the pandemic, training activities became fully online and the program became a major tool of the agency not just to update its personnel but also to disseminate legitimate health information to the public. As of December 2021, the program has offered 57 webinars, 3 online-training programs, and 1 research conference. The public and online character of the program has also made the webinars accessible to audiences outside Region 4A, obtaining a national audienceship for it. Through time, the program has gained regular viewers who also served as partners not just in disseminating webinar information and announcements but also in eliciting participation and regulating behavior inside the webinar room. This presentation will share insights on the 1) perceived effectiveness of webinars in health information dissemination based on webinar statistics, post-test scores, qualitative evaluation responses, and interviews, 2) identified limitations of webinar formats in adult learning and information delivery especially because of the digital divide, and the 3) emergence of a community of learning among attendees who come from different institutions and geographic locations but mostly encounter each other during the webinars.
UHC LeHNS eLearning Program: Sharing of Implementation Issues and Observations in the Province of Pangasinan
Jose Francisco A. Santiago
Institute of Philippine Culture
Ateneo de Manila University
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Dennis B. Batangan, MD, MSc (Heid)
Institute of Philippine Culture
Ateneo de Manila University
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Jaztine A. Calderon
Institute of Philippine Culture
Ateneo de Manila University
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Patria Luwalhati D. Garcia
Institute of Philippine Culture
Ateneo de Manila University
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IPC Project 359 or the Local Government Unit-mandated eHealth Networking Services for Universal Health Care (UHC LeHNS) project conducted an eLearning Program with the Province of Pangasinan, in partnership with the Pangasinan Provincial Health Office (PHO), DOH, and DOST-PCHRD. This program adapted the training agenda of the PHO to a fully-remote set-up, utilizing online courses offered to health workers as well as existing lectures of the IPC. This program was established within the context of the UHC LeHNS project, which is primarily dedicated to implementing UHC across the entire province. In addition to these, the program was also conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, introducing an additional obstacle that the program had to work around. The relatively low turnout of the program led to a careful assessment of the effects of all of these factors on the eLearning Program and the best practices that were established. Specifically, the following themes will be discussed: (1) leveraging and consolidating existing partnerships, (2) personnel development in the context of UHC, (3) returning the social aspect of learning in eLearning, and (4) conducting training with health workers during the pandemic. In the end, its run proved to be a unique experience that will have helpful implications for other similar learning programs moving forward.
Drawing Insights on Participant Experiences from Evaluation of IPC Webinar Series on Engaging Communities and Networks Webinar Series
Marianne Galvez
Polytechnic University of the Philippines Manila
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Agham Navarro
Ateneo de Manila University
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John Paolo Dalupang, MSc
Polytechnic University of the Philippines Manila
Institute of Philippine Culture
Ateneo de Manila University
This presentation is based on the outputs of participants in the IPC Internship for Social Science Students. One of the internship tasks is the content analysis of the webinar chat logs and evaluation responses for select webinars from the 2020 IPC WECaN Series. On one hand, the analysis of the live chat logs showed the key ideas being expressed by webinar participants including concerns about the webinar (connection issues, audio, and video quality, etc), greetings to each other, and the occasional spam messages. On the other hand, the responses to the open-ended evaluation questions showed the participants’ main concerns about the conduct of the webinars and their suggestions for future topics and areas of improvement in the sessions. Insights on the conduct of webinars based on these findings will be then shared by the researchers.