Trailblazing the way in the Philippines is the University of the Immaculate Conception (UIC), one of Davao City’s premier academic institutions, which plans to embrace this revolutionary concept beginning this year.
Unlike the limited set-up and deployment in other schools, UIC is taking the next big step forward by fully integrating e-Learning concepts and applications university-wide, from the elementary and high school departments to the college level. The university’s 6,000 students, along with the faculty and non-teaching personnel, stand to directly benefit from this timely venture.
"We recognize that technology is the fastest and greatest agent for educational advancement," says UIC president Mother Assumpta David, RVM. The UIC, established in 1905, is among the 60 schools owned by the first and oldest Filipino religious congregation in the Philippines.
"At present, most of our operations are already automated," Mother Assumpta said.
In the Philippines, such achievement merits respect, especially since the academic community has been generally perceived to be conservative when it comes to testing new ground in the information technology field.
Mother Assumpta David envisions that the role of the e-Learning model will one day evolve into an educational tool that not only bridges space and time but more importantly, breaks down social and cultural barriers to further democratize access to knowledge and information. The UIC president who happens to be the immediate past Superior General of the Congregation of the Religious of the Virgin Mary (RVM) knows whereof she speaks.
Once its e-Learning program takes off, UIC’s Web infrastructure will be enhanced and evolve from a mere "brochure-ware" into one that allows interaction to pave the way for the application of e-Learning concepts and models. The university-wide e-Learning program will be the first of its kind in Mindanao and probably, the country.
"e-Learning to the academic community is what e-commerce is to the business world," says Jose Marianito Palana, CEO of Coretech Consulting, which handles the technical implementation of UIC’s ambitious project.
Coretech Consulting is an IT project management company based in Manila and is responsible for establishing, among many others, e-politika, the first political portal in the Philippines.
"e-Learning, like e-commerce, is more than online transaction. It is more than a presence on the Web. It is about designing strategies to optimize the use of available technologies. It is about integrating solutions to improve quality of life and work. It is about working with the right partners to make end-users  in this case, students  enabled, satisfied and happy," Palana says.
Rollout of UIC’s e-Learning project is expected to be completed by schoolyear 2001 at the earliest.
By then, teachers will be able to post their daily lesson plans in the system that can later be opened for viewing by co-teachers or even by students as long as the author authorizes access. They may also upload highlights of their lessons for the day, post lecture assignments and even conduct online quizzes to validate the students’ comprehension and monitor learning curves.
Topical fora can also be posted using e-Learning tools like discussion threads, e-classrooms or newsgroups/bulletin boards to cultivate active interaction and encourage analytical skills among the students.
Mother Assumpta David stresses that online lessons will complement, not replace, classroom teaching. While classroom lectures will be placed online, students will still have to attend regular classes.
Students will be able to access UIC’s e-Learning tools anytime, anywhere  from the university’s cyber library, computer laboratory or even at home as long as the PC is hooked onto the Internet. "Given an online access to learning, students can actually review and study their lessons in a very unique kind of way, and at their own pace," she said.
"We consider our faculty and students very valuable. As we grow and move forward, we want to make sure they grow with us," she added.
UIC has around 500 PCs, which can be connected to the Internet and are available for use by its faculty, staff and students. It also maintains a dedicated leased line to assure speedy and reliable Internet connection.
The school’s e-Learning program will be launched this second semester of schoolyear 2000-2001 with 425 students enrolled in the university’s B.S. Computer Science Program as users.
Initially, freshman and sophomore computer science students will be able to access online lessons in general subjects such as English and Math. Junior and senior students will also be able to access online major subjects leading to their baccalaureate degrees.
Multimedia features such as audio-graphics and video will be integrated into the system later on.
"UIC considers its level of technology a distinct edge in the education community," says Mother Assumpta David, who hopes to make the university’s present IT strides a springboard for her vision of developing online education offerings in the future.