The Davao Colleges and Universities Network’s Internationalization and Linkages Committee (DACUN-ILC), as part of its continued celebration of the 54th founding anniversary of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) organized, in partnership with the Ateneo de Davao University, an International Learning Session on the “Digital Learning Pedagogies in the ASEAN Region: Conversations on the Highs and Lows of Online Education” among DACUN-ILC members and their partners in higher education from all over the ASEAN. The learning session was held via Zoom teleconference on the 17th of September 2021, with at least 120 participants from all over the region.
The DACUN Internationalization and Linkages Committee, for the most part, was inspired by what the current ASEAN Chairman from Brunei Darussalam said in his chairmanship address last November 2021. His Majesty Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah said that the goals of the ASEAN were: “First, caring for our people and each other’s well-being; Second, preparing for future opportunities and challenges; Third, prospering together as a unified region.” And we thought that to be very meaningful considering the challenges we face in light of the global pandemic. Hence the 2021 ASEAN theme: “We Care, We Prepare, We Prosper.”
His Majesty expressed his hopes for unified and accelerated efforts towards recovery from the global pandemic. The ASEAN thereby insists that “to this end, the support and contributions of [its] dialogue partners are important.” It is within this very spirit of dialogue and international partnership that the DACUN-ILC, through the Ateneo de Davao University, hosts this international learning session.
The ILS became as intended, a space for dialogue wherein the DACUN-ILC member higher education institutions invite their partner academics from all over the ASEAN in a virtual roundtable discussion regarding the brave new world of online education. It is an exploration and a sharing of digital learning pedagogies among ASEAN neighbors in academic learning.
The conversation explored the challenges of this digital migration as well as its feats of innovation and successes. Higher education is at the forefront of a transformed world. Even the QS World University Rankings acknowledges that “[h]igher education will play a crucial role in supporting the continued economic integration of ASEAN.” Measures of performance in these rankings, for instance, have strengthened throughout the years, across a wide range of indicators such as “teaching, learning, research, enterprise, and innovation” among ASEAN HEIs. Hence, the celebrated reputation of ASEAN academic integration that enhanced the region’s competitiveness in quality assurance.
The ILS took all these things into consideration in this discussion as it featured the voices of those directly on the ground, the lecturers, professors, and administrators whose very own experience of delivering online education in their respective HEIs set them as—to borrow the words of our ASEAN chair—our primary dialogue partners. How has ASEAN’s trajectory shifted, if at all, given the changing dynamics in learning? What digital learning pedagogies are ASEAN HEIs interested in and which ones do they employ as the world tackles online education?
Ultimately, the panel of discussants was able to tackle the following points for conversation:
1. How did your HEI align its pursuit of online education to its institutional Mission, Vision, and Strategic Goals? This will help us have an overview of your respective institutional identities as we bridge the discussion towards digital pedagogies in online education.
2. During this pandemic, higher education institutions had to put up digital scaffolding to support their online education mandates. What would you say are the mechanisms your university/college put in place and was keen to prioritize in order to prepare your school for these changes?
3. Name one specific challenge that your institution sought to overcome and/or continue to address in its online education journey.
a) Was the response in pursuit of change and transformed practices that resulted in innovations in teaching and delivery?
b) Or was the response a sort of working around the problem? Did it focus more on the resources available in order to enhance existing mechanisms of learning and teaching?
4. Aside from the academic aspirations of your HEI during this crucial time in education, what other dimensions of higher education is your school set on boosting? (e.g. research, community engagement, holistic formation, administrative development, etc.)
It was recognized that the ILS was very specific given its limited view of the overall experience of the ASEAN. After all, there was only one representative per country, and the partners from Laos, Cambodia, and East Timor were not able to attend. However, the answers were nevertheless extremely resonant as much as they were wide-reaching.
The panel discussed the technicalities of our new normal, the micro-experiences and struggles experienced by individuals—teachers and students alike. But the discussants were able to further problematize and expand on these issues. That while higher education institutions have all these technological and emotional adjustments to confront, there is also the bigger picture that insists on the re-examination of higher education and its relevance. Along this line, the ILS was able to consider this new realm of access given remote learning, at the same time the genesis of blended learning.
Additionally, on one end, there is this all-encompassing concern of the pandemic, and on the other end, there are these specificities of politics and the sociopolitical landscape that vary from country to country, like the conflict in Myanmar that was brought to the table; wherein the assembly was reminded that perhaps higher learning is relevant because of the hope it fosters and continues to provide the modern world.