Deped Commons: Year 1 yields 9M+ unique users

THE Education Department recently revealed that its Open Educational Resources (OER) platform, or Deped Commons, has served more than 9.6 million unique users nationwide.

Undersecretary for Administration and Deped Commons’ main proponent Alain del Pascua reflected on the journey of the platform supporting the learning and teaching process during the pandemic. It became fourth in the overall trending Google searches and ranked No. 1 in the most searched topic under the education category in the Philippines in 2020.

“The start was not that easy. There was a lack of much-needed support and the training of teachers in the use of OER, which is the heart of… deped Commons,” Pascua shared.

The proposal of making all teacher-made, quality-assured OERS available online was first proposed in the second quarter of 2019, as part of the department’s response to the 2021 Paris OER Declaration of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, or Unesco.

Though yet to be set up for largescale implementation, the platform was officially announced live on March 17, 2020, in support of the implementation of the Basic Education-learning Continuity Plan, or BE-LCP.

“But through the bayanihan spirit of everyone involved in the Deped Commons, we have now reached over 9.6 million-plus unique users who are diverse coming not only from public schools, but also from the Alternative Learning System, Special Education, and from private schools,” the undersecretary noted.

Deped Commons is part of the Public Schools of the Future Framework’s Digital Rise Program of the Administration Strand under the leadership of Education Secretary Leonor Magtolis Briones.

Indispensable during pandemic

EDUCATORS all over the country have vouched for the effectiveness of the Deped Commons platform.

For one, Teacher Shiela May R. Abucay of Tagum City in Davao del Norte said Deped Commons has been a big help not only to her students, but to her son as well, as they continue their educational journey in their respective homes.

Abucay claimed that while attending to her students, she also makes sure the learning material of her son from Deped Commons is produced in hard copy, so that she could personally teach him.

“We print out learning material from Deped Commons. We did not also stop our routine of reading every day before playing, or doing other things,” the teacher said in Filipino.

For Schools Division Superintendent Merlina P. Cruz of San Jose del Monte City in Bulacan, Deped Commons is not only about the children who are being taught on using the learning platform, but also of the parents downloading content and participating in the interactive test.

Meanwhile, Principal Lourdes R. Robes of Kakawate National High School also in San Jose del Monte City said that Deped Commons is a helpful tool during this time of the public-health crisis.

“It goes to show that students can still learn, even if the doors of the classrooms are closed, and chalks could no longer be used,” the schoolmaster seconded in Filipino.

Future features

PASCUA also shared that the department is still eyeing to expand the features of Deped Commons—including certification of teachers, legal vetting, curation, and rating of content.

“Deped Commons will continue to be relevant, as another phase of the pandemic comes in with vaccinations, as well as the talks of the resumptions of faceto-face classes in the future,” he said.

“One thing’s for sure: Deped Commons will continue to move forward, and will evolve to cater to the needs of the Filipino learners in times of pandemic, natural calamities, or even social unrest,” Pascua emphasized.

He recognized the teams behind the platform, including the Educational Technology Unit, Solutions Development Division, Technology Infrastructure Division, and User Support Division—all of which are under the Information and Communications Technology Service-education Technology Unit headed by Director Abram Y.C. Abanil. The latter is under the Administration Strand led by Pascua and Assistant Secretary Salvador Malana III.

Deped Commons (commons. deped.gov.ph) can be accessed free of data charges, in cooperation with the Department of Information and Communications Technology, National Telecommunications Commission, Smart Communications and Globe Telecom.