Regis University distance-learning execs visit Ateneo

Tom Kennedy

Four administrators from Regis University, a Jesuit university and a partner-institution of the Ateneo Graduate School of Business, exchanged ideas with the Ateneo community on distance learning during the expanded President’s Council meeting on May 15, 2006 at the Science Education Complex, Loyola Heights campus.

The Regis delegation was led by Thomas Kennedy, chief executive officer of New Ventures of Regis University, a provider of accelerated adult education programs. Joining him on a four-day visit to the Ateneo were Ellen Waterman, director of Distance Learning; Mauren Hencmann, instructional designer at the Distance Learning School for Professional Studies; and Margie Hartmann, associate director of New Ventures.

Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, SJ (center), with (from left to right) AGSB IT Manager Charlie A. Jorge, Assistant Dean Alberto L. Buenviaje, Maureen Hencmann, Margie Hartman, Ellen Waterman, and Tom Kennedy.

Kennedy introduced the Online Consortium of Independent Colleges and Universities (OCICU) to the body. The consortium was started one and a half years ago and now has 60 member-schools. It aims to allow member schools to “participate and to help one another without the need for geographic proximity,” he said. He added that the Ateneo can be “a major provider of online courses” in the consortium, which now has about 500 courses available to its members.

In her presentation, Waterman talked about the Regis Distance Learning Program which she said is a response to the current “renaissance in teaching and learning.” In this program, all courses are 100 percent online, do not require geographic proximity, and target the adult student population.

During the dialogue, the Ateneo shared its distance-learning experiences through the presentations of Alberto Buenviaje, assistant dean of the Graduate School of Business; Dr. Mercedes Rodrigo, director for e-learning at the Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism (ACFJ); and Dr. Violet Valdez, executive director of the ACFJ.

Fr. Bienvenido Nebres, SJ (center), with (from left to right) Ateneo Professional Schools Registrar Cesar Mansibang, Marjorie Hartman, Alberto Buenviaje, Ellen Waterman, Maureen Hencmann, Tom Kennedy, Mercedes Rodrigo, and School of Science and Engineering Dean Fabian Dayrit.

Buenviaje said that the AGSB’s online MBA program uses the “blended mode,” meaning partly online and partly on-campus. He added that more AGSB faculty members are being trained to use the online methodology using WebCT and that the school continually evaluates student readiness for and faculty performance in online education.

“We must compare ourselves with global standards in online methodology … and find more areas of cooperation with Regis,” Buenviaje concluded. The AGSB forged a partnership with Regis University in September 1997 to offer the accelerated Ateneo-Regis MBA Program. The partnership agreement was renewed in January 2005.

For her part, Valdez said that ACFJ courses may be taken “purely online” or on a “hybrid” mode. Last year, the center started diploma courses in online and radio journalism. The ACFJ has trained 522 news media professionals from 17 Asian countries since its inception in 2000.

Ateneo De Manila University President Bienvenido F. Nebres, SJ, thanked the Regis officials and said that the university is contemplating the formation of a consortium of the five Jesuit schools in the Philippines (because of their “good connectivity”) as a first step in the direction of the Regis model of distance learning. He suggested the development of a common curriculum in computer science among these schools, as well as of courses suited to the needs of the eight million Filipino overseas workers, in keeping with Ateneo’s mission of reaching out to marginalized groups.

“We intend to continue this dialogue with Regis University because we can see that a lot of what we can do in our educational mission will have to be done online,” Father Nebres concluded.