Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there is a major shift in terms of Education. This year’s cover page represents the new mode of Learning. The IAU Login page symbolizes the inclusion of technology in modern education. Hence, the LMS was formed. Welcoming the Aerospacer’s Digital Era.
EDITORIAL
Since Covid-19 infection spread quickly in the Philippines, school grounds remain shut and face-to-face classes were suspended. Students without proper learning devices, and educators who need proper training and enhancement in terms of technology poses difficulties for the Philippines as virtual learning were one of the options to continue the classes. Educators upload, deliver and discuss their lessons via online and with that, there are difficulties and troubles that need to be addressed. Changing the traditional classroom interaction to online based learning in a virtual classroom is a lot different experience for the students.
Online distance learning set up at home doesn’t have valuable campus resources considering that those are the things that can be enriching and educational for the students.
For that reason, it causes limited interaction with the instructors, acquaintance, and classmates that limits the role of learning. For that reason, It causes limited interaction between the instructors and the students; and that limits the role of learning. Most of the students are not privileged enough to have a strong internet connection that online classes require. It results to failure of catching up in their classes, quizzes, and examinations. Not every student can afford to buy a new laptop or PC with specs that can smoothly run for a proper online learning experience.
Time management is one of the pros of online classes;
however, managing time at home isn’t for everybody. Constantly guiding yourself from every workload, materials, video lectures, assignments, assessments, examinations and so forth is a lot of work. In any case, doing those at home likewise infer that there are family interruptions. School grounds are intended to be there because it is an area where students can concentrate in learning and there are less interruptions unlike at home. Students can acquire more basic cognitive process in an easy and traditional classroom situation where there will be immediate association with cohorts and instructors. According to Adedoyin and Soykan (2020) “Covid-19 pandemic and online learning: the challenges and opportunities” online education must acquire enough and effective plans of guidelines with a few accessible hypotheses and models, but the sudden change of schools to virtual learning becomes questionable and sketchy on the grounds that there’s a shortfall on the process of proper planning because of the pandemic.
However, for the students who have the advantage and admittance to a pleasant technology, strong internet connection, and tranquil home can gain proficiency in online learning which is a great option for them to have another way of learning effectively. In spite of the fact that, it doesn’t change the situation that the vast majority of the students are not adapting up well during virtual learning.
The Covid-19 pandemic has influenced the conventional learning framework and schools had to direct classes online which infers those institutions were not prepared enough to conduct online teaching-learning process. Therefore, students were compelled to learn at home which isn’t the standard situation and they had to adapt promptly on the given circumstances which is affecting the students’ opportunity to learn in an instructive environment. This issue should be heard on the grounds that students should have the right environment to acquire knowledge and wisdom and they should have sufficient social communications particularly in a learning environment thus students can comprehend the principles of discipline to construct a civilized society since they are the future fate of the following ages.
“Time management is one of the pros of online classes; however, managing time at home isn’t for everybody.”by ERYAH TANGOAN
Indiana Aerospace University held its first ever Joint University Virtual Graduation and Completion Ceremonies at IAU Aerospacers Hall last October 24, 2020, it started at 2:30 and ended at 4:30 in the afternoon with its live telecast at IAU Facebook page.
Sec. Delfin N. Lorenzana, Inter Agency Taskforce (IATF) Chairperson, and the Secretary of National Defense of the Republic of the Philippines was the honorary commencement speaker of the said activity.
The event was spearheaded by Dr. Jovenal B. Toring, IAU Founder and Madame Cecilia Toring, Chairman of the Board of Trustees in cooperation with the Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Harold E. Toring, the Dean of Colleges, Dr. Nonita P. Legaspi, Technical Director and SAO, Ms. Maria Luz G. Cahayagan.
The commencement and completion exercise were hosted by Dr. Mark C. Panugaling with the utmost support and cooperation of the board of directors, administrators, faculty members and staff, virtual and technical team, Aerospacers, graduating batch Irrevocable and batch Petagma, and completers of Class 2020.
The Department of Aerospace Engineering at Indiana Aerospace University successfully coordinated a virtual talk entitled “PH TO SPACE: ASCENT2INSPIRE” with Philippine Space Agency, conducted on December 11, 2020, around 2 in the afternoon. It was profoundly upheld by Mr. Harold Toring, the Chief Executive Officer of IAU, who additionally conveyed the welcome address during the virtual meeting. Dr.Joel Joseph Marciano Jr., Director General of the Philippines Space Agency, gave an overview of “A nation bridged, uplifted and empowered through space, Value creation in space through data, industry, and people”; he mentioned that computers are now vanishing into space which is now on satellites. Also, he gave a lecture about “Build, Build, Build in Space,” which is about Philippine Satellites as a vital component of the national infrastructure. He believes that engineers are taking the best on what’s on earth. Different talks were likewise given and worked with by reputable speakers like Engr. Adrian C. Salces, Ph.D., Core Team Member, Birds-2 Cubesat Project (Maya-1 Cubesat), who gave a talk about The BIRDS Program, a cross-line interdisciplinary instructive CubeSat project for non-spacefaring nations to create or progress native space programs which were facilitated by Kyutech in Japan. He expressed that his BIRDS-2 experience gave him a sample of worldwide and multicultural space exercises. Engr. Edgar Paolo Violan, Engineer, Diwata-2 Microsattelite Team, gave an outline of satellite advancement in Japan. Additionally, he clarified the fundamental highlights that you could discover in a satellite and shared how he had the
option to investigate taking pictures worldwide through a satellite. He expressed that satellite exploration is testing yet satisfying, and he’s constantly astonished by the satellite pictures taken. Dr.Marciano ended the event by addressing that the components of Philippine satellites may come from other countries, but the important thing is that the Philippines put them together with intellectual properties, and the final product is the one that has the most value. The event was a way for the organizers to present various aspects and concepts of Philippine Space endeavors and provide diverse graduate studies to pursue a career with opportunities in the space industry. They offered an outlook on the inside works of the Philippine Space Agency.
COVID 19 caused the cancellation of face-to-face classes last March 2020. Thus, schools in the country migrated to a flexible learning setup. Indiana Aerospace University administrators commenced the adoption of Brightspace as an LMS (Learning Management System) last June 2020 to continue education amidst the pandemic. It is named ALTIMETER (Alternative Instructional Method Electronic Resource). Altimeter was first introduced in summer online distance learning 2020; the name itself is inspired by the actual altimeter, a flight instrument. It is an online platform that is a cloudbased learning management system designed for IAU to conduct virtual classes which are flexible to synchronous and asynchronous learning.
Photo and Caption by Christine Mae Evin
With the new mode of learning, we are down to wondering if we really use our time wisely to learn or simply log in to our portals for the sake of attendance and do other things for no one else is seeing us. This mode of learning gave us more freedom, in a sense where no one will ever be in control of whatever we do in our respective homes, which boils down to the fact that our learning will be our personal responsibility.
