Author: MIDWAY COLLEGES, INC

Abstract

Found in the middle of a rice field, Midway Colleges, Inc. (MCI) was an  educational institution that continued to go through the transformation process of becoming a channel of hope for Filipino families situated in its community. Despite the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, MCI committed to their mission of uplifting the lives of the families found in their community and worked in partnership with their student and parent communities to ensure the continued delivery of quality and relevant education. And, this was made possible through various digital solutions and a culture of cooperation within the MCI organization and with the external stakeholders. With the Filipino family in mind, MCI had continued to strive to ensure that their service delivery would be future-proof through their learnings from the Globe Boost Camp - Business Continuity Planning sessions and insights gathered continuously from their stakeholders.

Growing with a Vision and Purpose

Midway Colleges, Inc. (MCI) was more than just an educational institution - it was a place of hope, growth and excellence. Established in 1988, the institution had a vision of helping uplift the lives of Filipino families through technical courses such as welding and diesel mechanics, to auto troubleshooting and driving lessons. It first stood in the city of Novaliches, under the name Midway Technical Colleges. Then, through the leadership of its president Capt. Sabino Manlicmoc and the guidance of Admiral Tomas Cloma, MCI decided to add maritime education programs, which would serve as the institution's flagship educational offering. MCI also found its greater calling in the province of Nueva Ecija where the institution eventually relocated. 

Situated in the middle of the rice field, Dr. Richard L. Oandasan  shared that MCI was inspired to expand and improve the quality of their offerings even more after it saw the situation of the community where its premises stood. Given its new location and available programs, the institution catered mostly to the sons and daughters of farmers and overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) such as seafarers. With the said demographic of its student community, MCI ensured to uphold inclusive education through offering financial assistance to its financially-challenged but deserving students.

As per Dr. Oandasan, it was worthy to be noted that MCI strived to uphold its “quality policy” throughout the years. The said policy pushed MCI to provide transformative education and ensured the delivery of excellent service quality. Thus, MCI was definitely dedicated to continuously improve the effectiveness of its quality management system and attain exceptional customer satisfaction. With this, MCI re-assessed the needs of the market in parallel to their educational service offerings. In 2017, MCI started to accept senior high school (SHS) students for the following strands: General Academic Strand (GAS), Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM), Humanities and Social Sciences Strand (HUMMS), Accountancy, Business, and Management (ABM), Pre-Baccalaureate Maritime (PBM), Home Economics, Technical Maritime Specialization and Industrial Arts. It was also in the same year where the institution decided to expand their program offerings in the college level with entrepreneurship, information systems and technical teacher education programs. On top of these programs, the institution managed to be accredited by the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) and offered opportunities for the community members to avail technical vocational courses such as the two-year Cruise Ship Hotel and Restaurant Program, among other technical courses.

Looking at how the institution’s physical building had transformed - from having a sawali facade previously, to being built with concrete and asymmetrical architecture - Dr. Oandasan proudly shared how MCI stood strong on its quality policy. He mentioned how MCI’s physical infrastructure ’s transformation resembled the institution’s unwavering desire to serve  the stakeholders of its community with excellence, for the benefit of their future.

In 2020, MCI had a total of 1,543 students enrolled (just 40% of the average number of enrollees pre-pandemic season). The goal was to ensure that every student and family was well-served as much as possible despite the challenges brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, MCI continued to create digital solutions for the purpose of working towards their vision and desire to uplift the lives of the families within its community.

Adapting with the Stakeholders’ Needs in Mind

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, MCI valued information management. The institution had an existing school information management (SIM) system in place where the registrar could input and generate the students’ information, teachers could post the grades and the students would be able to view them. However, with the sudden lockdown measures of the government due to the rising coronavirus cases, MCI was pushed to revolutionize how things were done administratively and instructionally. Being guided by their quality policy, Dr. Oandasan shared that the institution had previously laid out their long-term institutional development plan (IDP) back in 2015. The IDP included MCI’s further improvement of the SIM system and bringing classes online, to name a few. However, because of the call of the times to implement them immediately, MCI did not hesitate to dive into executing their plan of setting up the second version of the SIM and the web-based learning management system (LMS).

For the area of learning and instruction, MCI had partnered with Microsoft and availed the Microsoft 365 software subscription. This allowed the teachers to create their learning packets or modules, conduct synchronous classes online and even hold online events such as quiz bees (or better known as Tagis Dunong for MCI). The LMS was used by the teachers, students and the administrators as a channel to accomplish tasks, communicate, and organize themselves into specific virtual teams as needed. In addition, Dr. Oandasan found it important to note how MCI wanted to continue their campaign on reading for their student community. Because of their commitment to provide quality educational opportunities amidst the pandemic, MCI developed an e-library in August 2020. The e-library would be a virtual platform where the students could access e-books and other materials that would be needed for their respective courses.

Meanwhile, for the area of administration and communication, MCI had employed a text brigade system where its stakeholders would be able to receive the announcements in “one click” via a software for a text brigade system through the assistance of their information technology (IT) department. Dr. Oandasan also mentioned that to ensure that no stakeholder would be left behind in terms of receiving information, they also disseminated information via a social media application. The LMS also had a platform within it where they can also post announcements and other reminders. Dr. Oandasan emphasized how the use of the LMS to communicate and hold events provided ease in terms of documentation - not only of internal file, but most especially of survey forms from their stakeholders. He mentioned how digitally collecting feedback after events, such as the parent-teacher conferences, had been hassle-free and the data that was efficiently gathered. Moreover, such processes done in the new normal helped MCI move upward and slowly form a culture of making evidence-based decisions.

The said digital solutions were made possible because of MCI’s institutional subscription to an internet service provider. However, Dr. Oandasan stressed how Globe’s wifi modems, which they had availed to compliment their regular internet service subscription, were able to ensure that the synchronous classes ran smoothly and continuously. MCI had ten Globe wifi modems available for the use of the teachers in the event their regular internet service encountered any issues. For the first two months of the academic year 2020-2021, MCI encountered at least five incidents of intermittent internet connection. Dr. Oandasan expressed how relieved they were having Globe's wifi modems during those unexpected moments.

What was worthy to note as well was how reliable Globe’s mobile services  were, especially in MCI’s information dissemination. All top and middle management employees of MCI had company phones with the said plan. The subscription made it easier for the department heads to disseminate information to MCI’s organization, and especially to the student and parent communities. Without the said subscription, MCI’s flow of information internal to the organization and to its external stakeholders would not be as efficient.

The Fruits of Cooperation and Innovation

Because of MCI’s experiences in implementing and continuously improving their digital solutions to ensure the institution would be able to provide quality services to its stakeholders, Dr. Oandasan noted that it had definitely made them a learning educational institution. He also focused on the following gains from the said digital solutions:

• Operational efficiency
• Processes used to be manually done, such as data gathering or surveying. Because of the software they had subscribed to, processes were digitized and the institution was able to immediately retrieve information needed for various day-to-day and research activities.

• Increased productivity
• Both the employees and the students were able to do more tasks in a shorter amount of time given the digital solutions employed. For the employees, there was more organization and proper monitoring of files and task checklists which was done through the software. Meanwhile, for the students, their existing technological interest played to their advantage as they were more motivated to accomplish work required of them given the set up of the classes during the pandemic.

• Data posterity
• Given the manual documentation and filing in the past, there were important documents which went missing or were destroyed. Because of the LMS and system implemented on digitally documenting and organizing files in the cloud-based storage, there was a greater sense of security that the information and important documents held by MCI would be kept safe and in-place.

• Evidence-based decision making
• Given the convenience of recording analytics, feedback, and other ideas from their stakeholders, Dr. Oandasan mentioned how the use of the web-based platforms for delivering their services and conducting events had definitely helped in gathering usable data for the continuous improvement of the institution’s offerings and ways of doing things. They were able to learn how to be more strategic in terms of planning for solutions, having had a more solid anchor for their decisions - which was the data directly gathered from their stakeholders, instead of hearsay or isolated incidents.

Moreover, Dr. Oandasan had proudly shared that their faculty had improved in their technological and pedagogical competence as educators in the new normal. He mentioned that the institution had seasoned teachers, who had first pushed back on transitioning from the traditional way of teaching (i.e. face-to-face, board and chalk/marker) to the online set up using the LMS. The experience had also challenged the faculty, in general, to master the content of their subject matter assigned and enhance their instructional strategies. And, lastly, it fostered a culture of dynamism, teamwork and cooperation to the more organized system of how things were done. For Dr.  Oandasan, it was worthy to note that, more than the improvement in the technical skills brought about by the transition from the traditional classrooms to the virtual, the shift in the attitudes and behavior of the whole school community - including the parents’ - had enabled MCI to continue implementing the needed digital solutions for the benefit of its stakeholders.

Future-proofing Service Delivery

Prior to joining the Globe Boost Camp, Dr. Oandasan admitted that the concept of business continuity planning (BCP) was an alien one for MCI. As an institution, it was not really given much priority. They just went on with their day-to-day tasks, and addressed concerns as it arose. However, after going through the camp, the representatives of MCI realized its relevance and how much value they should have placed on BCP. 

Because of the Globe Boost Camp, MCI was motivated to continue to live by their quality policy. They found the sessions helpful in improving how they think - wherein they should not only face the challenges as it arises, but anticipate eventualities and contextualize its systems around those possibilities. They developed proactivity and responsiveness as one institution, which resulted in their latest IDP initiatives:

• Phase 1: Transition from traditional to virtual classes
• This phase had successfully been implemented in August 2020, and was originally part of their IDP. MCI had subscribed to an LMS provider, and used the LMS for the delivery of MCI’s educational programs for the academic year 2020-2021.

• Phase 2: Preparing to deliver blended learning
• As the government’s quarantine policies loosens up, MCI would be implementing blended learning for their student community. This would mean fifty percent of their student population would be having their classes on campus at a certain period, while fifty percent would be having their virtual classes as scheduled. The schedule of implementation of this phase would still be determined for 2021. For this phase, MCI’s LMS and e-library would still be needed. However, MCI was considering upgrading their current internet infrastructure in-campus given the presence of the students, if ever it would push through.

• Phase 3: Enhanced residential learning
• Having sensed that studying from home would be a huge part of the new normal, MCI geared up for designing how its educational programs would be fully delivered while the students take them in the comfort of their homes. This also meant how they would be curating  the curriculum, synchronous classes and learning materials that would be still as effective and engaging for their current and future students for the academic year 2021-2022.

As per Dr. Oandasan, while they lined up the phases already as part of their BCP, MCI learned that the BCP should be an active plan where the institution should continue to explore, research, and be open to opportunities to innovate to make the plan as responsive as possible for the benefit of its stakeholders. It was also mentioned that MCI’s chief executive officer, Mr. Sabino Czar Cloma Manglicmot II, had mandated the digitalization of all processes of MCI beginning the academic year 2021-2022. With this, and the newfound value for doing BCP, the different departments of MCI were required to create their own in contribution to the achievement of their IDP phases. MCI was keen on truly keeping true to their mission of ensuring its contribution to the upliftment of the lives of the families within its community through quality education and excellence in service delivery. 

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