Mr. Benhur Ong is the Chancellor of De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde. In his role, Mr. Ong helps to ensure students are able to graduate on time, pass their board or licensure examinations, find gainful employment and ensure faculty members are well trained and equipped with the right tools to do their jobs.
In 2016, the college decided to make the move towards using a learning management system (LMS), D2L Brightspace, which they introduced within their institution as “BigSky.”
“One of the reasons we implemented a large scale LMS is that we wanted to integrate all of our course content into one place,” said Mr. Ong, adding that before that, each school had its own repository, which made it difficult to inventory all learning modules.
“It served us in good stead because when the pandemic struck in 2019, we were one of the handful of schools who had experience using an LMS,” he said. “We were tapped by the Commissioner in Higher Education to help other institutions set up their LMSs and also teach the concept of these things to the other schools.”
The Challenges of Learning Continuity and Alignment With CHED
Requirements
Learning continuity across a student’s journey at Benilde is a top priority of the college.
“One of our biggest concerns right now is really ensuring the continuity of the lessons learned by our students and making sure that our program outcomes link to the lessons, as well as ensuring that the exams reflect the competencies that are required,” said Mr. Ong.
On top of this, the school is constantly striving to meet industry needs and those set out by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED).
“It’s a tough balancing act because of course we have to comply with the minimum. But at the same time, when we work with industry, they want a lot of things built into those programs as well,” he explained.
“There are some faculty members, especially the people from industry, who find a challenge in that area because they’re not used to the pedagogical requirements of the programs. What we do is we get them tools that can help them develop and a support system so that they can develop their own materials,” said Mr. Ong.
Incorporating Inclusivity Across the Campus
The Deaf Community
Benilde supports inclusivity on its campus through a variety of programming.
“The motto of the school is to reach for the last, the least and the lost, and we do that through our inclusivity programs,” said Mr. Ong.
The Deaf community was the first sector of society that the college decided to help, over 35 years ago. They are one of a few schools in the Philippines to offer a bachelor’s degree for students who are deaf.
The program aims to not only teach the students, but their families as well so they can have a positive home environment in which they can thrive.
The college also supports these students upon entry to ensure their skill sets are up to par for when they start the program.
Center for Inclusive Education
The college also has a Center for Inclusive Education, which helps students with special learning needs.
“Once you get into our college programs, we make sure that we have the necessary technology, we have the necessary support, we have the necessary trained personnel to help you so that we can actually make sure that you graduate,” said Mr. Ong.
Generational Shifts in Learning
“With inclusivity, you’re not just talking about students with special learning needs,” said Mr. Ong. “Even the current group of Gen Alpha or Gen Z, sometimes have issues with interacting with their faculty when they’re in a class setting.”
One of the ways the college is able to appeal to these diverse learning needs is through offering chats for students who prefer to be online—something the college has noticed.
“They’re less talkative when they’re face-to-face, but online there’s a lot of chatter. They are very chatty and we welcome that,” he said. “It’s now being used as another platform or channel that you can communicate with your faculty.”
How Brightspace Supports Inclusivity
One of the biggest benefits supporting inclusivity for learners is having lessons online, allowing them to be accessible whenever students want to review work. This allows students—including those with special needs—to be able to review content as many times as they need.
Some faculty members will also prepare practices test for students to run before the actual test. Others who teach deaf students will pre-record videos featuring sign language so if a student can’t keep up, they can review them later on.
“There’s a lot of things that the D2L system has provided to us so that students can learn at their own pace,” said Mr. Ong. “The important thing is that learning is not only happening in the classroom but also at their homes where they can keep on reviewing their lessons.”
Looking to the Future With Brightspace
Benilde is also using Brightspace to create new programs. “D2L helped us set up Course Merchant, which we are now going to use as a platform for our distance learning programs,” said Mr. Ong. “We’re excited about that.”
Brightspace helped us drive continuous learning and align with industry standards. With D2L’s support, we became one of the first universities in the Philippines to adopt a full-scale LMS, and we truly value this ongoing partnership.Benhur Ong Chancellor , De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, Philippines
He’s also looking forward to the future of Brightspace and using D2L Lumi to enhance everyday workflows with AI in meaningful ways.
“I can’t wait to go back and talk to my team and discuss how we can integrate that into our current LMS,” he said, adding, “So far the support team and the support from D2L from the Singapore office has been great.”
To learn more about Benilde and their journey with Brightspace, check out their full customer story.
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