West Visayas State University (WVSU), through its representatives, participated in the Seventh General Meeting – GM7 of the CALOHEA (Measuring and Comparing Achievements of Learning Outcomes in Higher Education in Asia) last Dec. 13 to 15, 2023, in Porto, Portugal.
Dr. Lynette Alcala of the College of Medicine (COM) and Dr. Hilda Montaño of the College of Education (COE) represented WVSU, one of the 31 Higher Education Institutions across eight ASEAN countries, and five European states engaged in the CALOHEA Project. Dr. Alcala is with the Medicine Subject Area Group while Dr. Montaño is with the Teacher Education Subject Area Group.
The Project measures Competences and Learning Outcomes in Higher Education in Asia, a Project of the Erasmus+ Programme. It is coordinated by the University of Groningen in the Netherlands with the ASEAN University Network (AUN) partner agency. It operates through three Subject Area Groups: Civil Engineering, Medicine, and Teacher Education.
“The initiatives of the University to conduct a system-wide Workload-Based Curriculum Planning and Development as well as the inclusion of authentic assessment and student workload in the Learning Continuity Plan (LCP) and Teacher Integration Program are tangible outcomes of the CALOHEA project,” said Dr. Montaño, former Dean of the COE.
Welcoming the participants on the first day were Dr. Robert Wagenaar of the University of Groningen who is also the Director of the International Tuning Academy, Dr. Choltis Dhirathiti of the ASEAN University Network, and Mervin Bakker of the University of Groningen.
The 3-day event had the participants discussing the following: On Day One, the “Creation and use of Regional Subject-Specific Qualifications and Assessment Reference Frameworks to permit greater comparability of institutional degree programme profiles”, and “Implementation of authentic assessment of internationally comparable learning outcomes in degree programmes.”
On Day Two, the participants discussed “Implementation of authentic assessment of internationally comparable learning outcomes in degree programmes”, and “Instalment of the culture of student workload measurement as an integral part of curriculum design”.
And finally on Day Three, discussions were by country-specific groups were they focused on the “Guidelines for bridging South East Asian Student Workload with other contexts” and “Dissemination and impact in country-specific groups”.
Dr. Alcala and Dr. Montaño returned to Iloilo City on December 19, 2023 and in relation to CALOHEA, will work to ensure the dissemination and sustainability of the theee recognition mechanisms.