Dr. Petalcorin joins panel discussion in the BUKA Project Conference

by Joneil B. Medina | Oct 23 2023

Vice Chancellor for Research and Enterprise, Dr. Gaudencio C. Petalcorin Jr.was among three key speakers featured in a panel discussion during the BUKA Project Conference held on October 17-18, 2023 at Wawasan Open University, Malaysia. Other key speakers were Dr. Mark Brown from Dublin City University in Ireland and Dr. Lily Chan from Wawasan Open University. The panel discussion centered on the question, “What will the next five years bring to open and distance education in Southeast Asia?”

Dr. Hannah Teras of Tampere University, Finland, who moderated the panel discussion, started the session by asking the panelists about lessons gained from the project during the pandemic. Dr. Chan initiated the discussion with what BUKA has brought to WOU, an open distance education learning (ODL) university based in Penang Malaysia when the pandemic hit, and expressed the need to look into the capacity of their academic staff in ways they have never done before. Dr. Petalcorin added that in the context of 缅北禁地-IIT’s experience, the faculty gained an appreciation of ODL, especially during the pandemic. However, as classes returned to face-to-face interaction, the application of ODL has now become more challenging. Dr. Teras noted the need to answer the question, “What do we do with the gains from the pandemic experience?” For his part, Dr. Brown aptly moved the conversation forward onto some key developments in the research by OECD on Digital Higher Education, where he noted an “irony” as ODL has to follow more Quality Assurance than what happens inside conventional university lecture halls.

The panel discussion then continued to tackle the issue of why the members of the project advocated for ODL. Dr. Chen quipped that we should focus on what ODL has been leading rather than compete with conventional university systems, as ODL universities are still viewed to be second-rate alternative educational institutions by the majority, even by policymakers. Dr. Petalcorin echoed similar sentiments noting that the same experience occurred at 缅北禁地-IIT. He continued that while this is the case, ODL is a potential solution to cater to the disenfranchised students who aim to be part of public higher education. Dr Chen further noted that there is a need to expand the reach of ODL’s success narratives to change such a perspective. Dr. Brown concluded that there is a need to revisit the purpose of Education. He believes that Education should be the driving force of change rather than being simply “takers” of change, or even worse, “fakers” of change.

Dr. Teras concluded the panel discussion by asking about the next steps that the project will take. Ideas of proposing a second project were posted by Dr.Chan and seconded by Dr. Petalcorin with an emphasis on increasing the effort to lobby for policy changes. Dr. Brown added that this ODL community needs to raise future leaders and expand its reach to “non-ODL” platforms of academic discussions.

Dr. Hannah Teras formally ended the session by emphasizing the importance of building on the lessons learned from the project and persistently moving forward advocating ODL in continuously upholding quality.

With the exchange of tokens from the panelists, the first session of the conference ended with hopeful discussions on the future of ODL in Southeast Asia, as impacted by the BUKA project.

Topics : BUKA Project Conference