THE FACULTY of Arts and Letters (AB) will designate weeks for full onsite and online learning starting next academic year, an adjustment that will align with the setup of other academic units.
Artlets faculty secretary Asst. Prof. Louie Benedict Ignacio said two 1.5-hour classes would be allotted for each subject per week, based on a memorandum from the Office of the Vice Rector for Academic Affairs. The pairings for the course delivery will be Monday-Wednesday, Tuesday-Thursday and Friday-Saturday.
“When onsite, the two meetings in a week are onsite. When online, the two meetings in a week are online,” Ignacio told The Flame.
This will change the weekly schedule AB follows, where courses are delivered in a two-hour onsite and one-hour online format.
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“[T]he idea is for all academic units to have the same pairing, same schedule, so that regardless of where the faculty is teaching, all the schedules are the same. Consequently, if that’s the setup for GE (general education), the professional courses would have to follow,” Ignacio said.
According to Ignacio, professional courses, starting next academic year, will no longer follow a 2-hour onsite and 1-hour online weekly format to maximize classroom use.
“Because if GE is 1.5 hours twice a week and professional courses remain two hours onsite and one hour online, the classroom will not be maximized. So everything, all courses should follow 1.5 hours twice a week,” the faculty secretary said.
70:30 class setup maintained
To maintain the 70% onsite and 30% online ratio for course hours, Ignacio said the faculty would designate five of the 18 weeks of the term for online delivery.
The specific online weeks within the term include the weeks during the Bar exams, which UST hosts. The weeks set after the preliminary exams and during the seniors’ colloquium likewise fall under the implementation of the enhanced virtual mode.
“So we only need five weeks online to subscribe, still, [to] the 70:30. [T]here are still online classes on specific weeks, and everyone will be online on those weeks. But all the other weeks [are] 1.5 hours onsite twice a week,” Ignacio said.
“So that’s 15 hours out of the 54 hours. Because the entire term, that’s 54 hours,” he added.
The faculty has been using the ratio since UST announced a permanent hybrid learning modality in 2024.
READ: (UPDATED) Hybrid learning to be a permanent set-up in UST, says academic affairs chief
According to a previous interview of The Flame with Vice-Rector for Academic Affairs Prof. Cheryl Peralta, the plan aligns with the University’s initiative to boost technology use and promote energy efficiency. F
