by Kareen Gancio
ZARRAGA, Iloilo – The faculty members of West Visayas State University College of Communication Broadcasting Division and Zarraga National High School celebrated the completion of the Project BEST workshop series on May 20, 2022.
Project BEST, or Broadcasting for Extension Service and Training, is a COC-initiated capacity-building effort that enables the adopted community members to acquire practical broadcast communication skills.
Since the trainers conducted the program virtually, which limited the facilitators-participants interaction, participants anticipated the much-awaited face-to-face culminating workshop.
It concluded the three-part training that covered topics on scriptwriting, broadcast performance, and media production. Its highlights include the participants’ presentation of their multimedia output and a feedback session with the facilitators.
For over a decade, the COC has partnered with ZNHS as one of the college’s adopted communities for its extension programs. ZNHS Senior and Junior High School teachers have expressed their struggles in learning new tools and techniques like many other teachers all over the country.
The needs assessment conducted before the implementation of this project reveals that the training participants are generally confident in their knowledge of the subjects they teach. They also have access to basic tools needed to produce multimedia output that can serve as learning materials for their students.
However, some of them were overwhelmed by the spate of information and the situations they needed to adapt to within a short time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Further analysis of their responses revealed they needed help with conceptualization, media production, and on-camera performance, which became priorities in the workshop series developed for Project BEST.
The first installment of the series, Writing Broadcasting Material for Educational Content, was conducted from September to December 2021. The training exposed the participants to the development of concepts and scripts intended for video-based instruction.
It prepared the participants for the succeeding training on broadcast performance and the production of the actual instructional media material conducted from January to May 2022. During the broadcast training, the participants learned basic techniques in self-presentation in front of the camera and voice projection. The training in media production exposed them to basic camera shots, audio-visual elements, and editing techniques.