inTAUn is a diverse innovation team of Tarlac Agricultural University (TAU) that came up with the project Syllabus Implementing Monitoring System (SIMS). The team’s objective was to improve the monitoring of curriculum implementation. The team gathered information through a series of surveys from the administration, faculty and students, and interviews which they processed throughout the workshop. Insights from data gathered and observation include lack of resources, concerns in attendance, and, insufficiency of syllabi. To address these issues, the team came up with solution ideas such as guidelines or policies for monitoring syllabi design and implementation, web or mobile online system for syllabi monitoring, virtual blended learning to catch-up on delayed syllabus implementation, reschedule the classes, and, class observation. After looking into the generated ideas guided by the prioritization criteria, the team pursued the SIMS which features include syllabi upload, lessons per week are listed per course, easy-to-use web interface, and report generation. SIMS aims to ensure that 75% of the courses implemented are with a 100% completion of the syllabi, 80% of the courses have a student rating not lower than 4 and reduce student complaints in half.

Insights

The team shared their gathered information and insights during the workshop. The team described the common issues that they have encountered in curriculum implementation. They discussed what makes their curriculum implementation ineffective their insights are as follows:

  1. Not all faculty gives syllabi to students
  2. Comments by Academic Officials on syllabi improvement is not being integrated
  3. Course content is not completely covered
  4. Punctuality/absence of faculty due to other functions
  5. Misalignment of syllabi to PRC requirements
  6. Expertise of monitor is a mismatch to the one being evaluated
  7. Inadequate forms for monitoring
  8. Physical monitoring is done unsatisfactorily

All of the insights gathered were clustered into the following themes:

  1. Lack of Resources
  2. Concerns in Attendance
  3. Insufficiency of Syllabi

Innovation Project

inTAUn came up with SIMS or Syllabus Implementation Monitoring System which has the following features:

  1. Web-based monitoring system easily accessible when online
  2. Easy to use interface
  3. Automatic notifications for users
  4. Syllabi uploaded in the system
  5. Confidentiality of monitor is ensured
  6. Limited access for viewing of student feedback i.e., feedback viewable to faculty handling the subject, the Innovation Manager (IM) and the Vice President for Administrative Affairs (VPAA)
  7. Student access would be available to student portal
  8. Lessons per week are listed per course and students can easily view the update the faculty indicated
  9. When a student clicks the lesson with the wrong status, the student will be directed to feedback
  10. Report generation is only viewable to IM and VPAA

Easy generation of following data:

  1. Percentage of delayed delivery of lessons per faculty, per course, per college, overall
  2. Percentage of incomplete implementation of courses overall, per college, per faculty
  3. Percentage of undelivered lessons per faculty, per course, per college, overall
  4. of complaints received per faculty, per course, per college, overall

Project Success Measures

Through the Syllabus Monitoring System, the College Deans will be able to strategically monitor the complete syllabi implementation, provide timely feedback to the faculty, and effectively respond to student issues and concerns. Thus, the success measures of the project are as follows:

  1. 75% of the courses implemented with 100% completion of the syllabi
  2. 80% of courses with student rating of not lower than 4 in the evaluation of teaching effectiveness
  3. 50% reduction of student complaints on the quality of instruction