MANILA, Philippines — As the country continues to grapple with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) on Tuesday launched an online application that contains higher education course materials in various formats as well as other digital assets for teaching, learning, and research use.
During the online launching of the PHL CHED Connect application (phlconnect.ched.gov.ph), Chairman Prospero De Vera III said the initiative is “timely” especially with the ongoing pandemic which limits, and even prohibits in some areas, face-to-face learning.
“[It is] very timely during the transition to the new normal as it contains higher education course materials in text, media, and other digital assets that are useful for teaching, learning, and research purposes,” De Vera said.
“I have always asserted over the past months that learning must continue, quarantine or no quarantine. It is everybody’s responsibility to ensure that learning must continue to all possible flexible purposes during and after this pandemic,” he added.
A look at the online application shows that there are available educational materials in various fields such as engineering, information technology, business, fine arts, architecture, humanities, maritime, general education, mathematics, mass communication, service trades, medicine, criminal justice, religion, agriculture, forestry, and natural and social sciences, among others.
Screenshot from PHL CHED Connect’s website
Education resources available on the application are in text, audio, and video formats.
De Vera said that several universities such as the University of the Philippines – Open University, Diliman, Los Banos, and Baguio; STI College, University of the Cordilleras; Pangasinan State University; Emilio Aguinaldo College; Ateneo de Davao University; and Mapua University, among others, have also contributed their existing resources.
“We are doing this so that our faculty members and students will have 24/7 access to educational materials and can find their [needed] information instantly on virtually any topic and can access in various devices,” De Vera said.
“It is our goal in the commission to ensure continuous and accessible learning and to have enhanced opportunities for self-learning wherever the students are to support learner-centered, self-directed, peer-to-peer and social learning approaches as part of the transition to the new normal,” he added.