The impact of COVID-19 made higher education institutions shift abruptly to online learning. The shift brought to the forefront the advantages and drawbacks of conducting courses online. As the government moves towards implementing hybrid and in-person courses for graduate students post-pandemic, it is crucial to determine whether or not delivering courses online has been helpful to the learning community before reverting to face-to-face instruction. This study describes a private university in the Philippines' efforts to evaluate the impact of its online graduate student orientation course. Students, non-academic personnel, faculty, and administrators (n = 32) participated in an Empowerment Evaluation (Fetterman, 1994) following these steps: (1) defining the mission of the program, (2) taking stock of the activities, and (3) planning the next orientation course. The researcher conducted focus group discussions with each group of stakeholders. The participants came up with a mission statement for the orientation program, which became the basis for rating the program activities in terms of importance and quality of implementation. They noted that although the online orientation course was well-organized and provided valuable information to students, the engagement of graduate students in the synchronous sessions and asynchronous activities needed improvement. Stakeholders identified goals, strategies, and milestones for the next orientation course based on their assessment of the activities. The process allowed them to collaborate and participate in decision-making for the course. The study presents recommendations for the course’s improvement and discusses implications for student engagement.

Authors:
Izel Marie Guatno, De La Salle University, Philippines

About the Presenter(s)
Ms Izel Marie Guatno is a School Administrator at De La Salle University in Philippines

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