When LMS transformation means rush preparation

Nothing in this world is permanent except one thing—change. But change does not happen overnight.

This “was” my perspective about change, until this semester started.

There were no classes every Wednesday. There were less hours for each subject.

As most of the students rejoiced on the idea of having no Wednesday classes (I myself celebrated at first, too), I beg to disagree with the suddenness of this change without the right amount of preparation.

Before the regular classes began, there were already news circulating in the Lasallian community on De La Salle Lipa being transformed into a Digital Campus. One step of which requires the Learning Management System (LMS) wherein educational materials such as lectures, quizzes, and homeworks can be given through an online platform–in DLSL’s case, Canvas. With LMS, an hour was deducted from the regular number of hours of lecture classes, which is to be compensated by non-contact classes online with Canvas, through the use of gadgets like smartphones and laptops.

School serves as the educational institution where students learn things and as the place in which they are molded for their future.

Thus, on a traditional idea, school works such as quizzes, seatworks and the like should be done inside the school. However, with the implementation of LMS, these things would become readily available online and would be done at home during Wednesday.

While it is good to adapt this new system as we are living in a world where technology thrives, not all students have gadgets which can run certain programs that are needed for their academics. Given this situation, the school should have allotted enough time for students to prepare, specifically with the financial requirements of purchasing these devices, not to mention the tuition increase that has already occurred this semester.

It is not just the students who suffer from this abrupt decision as professors also needed to adjust their method of teaching with the need of the LMS. In response to this, college faculty were trained during the College Faculty General Assembly wherein the features including the how-tos were demonstrated by the LMS champions, or members of the school faculty who have advanced knowledge in the use of the new system. But of course, as what I have mentioned on my introduction, change does not always happen instantly. This is because the necessity of the professors to learn the system requires time for them to be able to adapt and to influence their students on how to deal with LMS.

I heard some of my professors having a hard time familiarizing themselves with the new scheme of teaching. There were some who regret the hours which should be compensated during Wednesday. Honestly, it was not a loss to the professors but rather a loss for the students because the lost physical contact hours means that a lot of learnings inside the classroom were sacrificed.

To address this issue, some professors ask for a makeup class, which I think is the best solution for now. But would this mean that professors would have to schedule special classes throughout the whole semester? A lot of things are still unclear. What is clear right now is the fact that these things would not happen if not for the rush in implementation of LMS.

In addition to this, since TTh schedules do not include the activity periods which were originally for the activities of the students, student organizations are now in need to compete on Wednesday with LMS. It is a great challenge for them as to how they would gather their members to participate in activities which they exerted efforts to make possible. Taking into consideration the past years when activity period was there, student orgs were in difficult time to gather all members despite the fact that students are already in school. How much more now that during Wednesday, students are not in school?

The very sad thing about this LMS is that it is being already implemented but up to now, there is no certain direction as to where the students and faculty would go. Everyone is holding onto nothing but promises that these changes will drive the students into a better future with the incorporation of technology with studies.

With LMS, it is true that the knowledge of the generations today on technology is an edge to build a different kind of foundation to learn and become successful.

Change is normal. Change is inevitable. It is permanent in this world and all we have to do is to adapt. However, we do not have to rush things because the only key to successfully adjust is through thorough preparation—which the DLSL failed to deliver.