Online learning and distance education (OLDE) for graduate programmes in Business at a Catholic higher education institution: some prospects and issues

John Octavios S. Palina
Saint Mary's University
Bayombong, the Philippines

The growth of online learning has spurred higher educational institutions in the Philippines to offer some of their courses in a variety of modes, such as online learning, hybrid learning and blended learning. However, most of the faculties, especially in postgraduate studies, still offer their programmes using the traditional face-to-face approach.

There are already initial efforts at Saint Mary's University to institutionalize an online learning and distance education (OLDE) scheme, but as yet there are no clear policy directives on the application of technology resources in managing classroom work. As a result, those with competencies in the use of technology in classroom instruction are presented with better and wider options in terms of the technology to use and how to apply it to enhance the learning process. The practice of technology application is therefore fragmented and depends largely on the inclinations of the faculty concerned.

This paper is an initial effort to determine the thinking and preferences of the different stakeholders -- the administrators, faculty members and the students -- on the prospects for, and issues involved in, adopting online learning and distance education in the postgraduate programmes in Business (GPB) at the University. Data will be obtained through interviews, a survey, and focus group discussions; and these will be validated by documentary analysis, as using various sources of data for triangulation in the research design will produce more valid conclusions. The results will serve as a basis for arriving at policy recommendations on the implementation of OLDE in the University's GPB.