UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES OPEN UNIVERSITY (UPOU)

COMMUNICATION PLAN
Yourgin O. Montejo

As the appointed UPOU Communications Officer, it is my privilege to present this Communication Plan with
the intent of efficiently and effectively managing the communication networks and activities of the UPOU.

Introduction

The University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) is a public research university and distance
learning institution established on February 23, 1995 as one of the constituent university campuses of the
University of the Philippines System. UPOU’s mission is to provide Filipinos everywhere access to quality
higher education through innovative methods of teaching and learning that are designed to be responsive
to their needs as well as to national development priorities. We uphold values of scholarship, academic
excellence, academic freedom, humanism, social responsibility, and service to the nation.
UPOU employs the distance education (DE) mode of teaching and learning. As such, students and
teachers are physically separated from each other; no face-to-face class meetings are conducted. Students
are privileged to undertake independent study of specified learning materials in various media – print,
video, and multimedia. The Interactions between teachers and students, and among students, normally
take place through the MyPortal course site (https://www.myportal.upou.edu.ph) but may also be facilitated
using e-mail, text messaging, and teleconferencing. Final examinations are usually conducted on-line but
may also be held at designated UP learning centers.

Situation Analysis
During a survey conducted in the first quarter of CY 2021, students, teachers, and prospect learners
responded to an online feedback program of the UPOU. Responses from the said survey indicated areas
for improvement in the following survey findings:
1. Lesson communication between students and teachers has become too student-centered that a
lack of interaction has been perceived on the part of some of the faculty-in-charge (FIC).
2. Faculty meetings require ample time to be organized due to the long-standing practice that
meetings were being scheduled merely one (1) day ahead of time, leaving faculty members little to
no time for preparation concerning the agenda.
3. Reading materials for UPOU have been slightly restricted due to the inability of students to access
reading materials and videos on various UPOU online platforms.

COMM 330 Final Exam Page 1

Bearing these alarming responses in mind, a reformulation of UPOU Communication Plan is deemed
necessary to rectify identified errors and bridge communication gaps between students and teachers.

Communication Plan Framework

The following shall be the guiding principles of this Communication Plan, to wit:
1. Transparency. UPOU communications shall be based on the principle that the information needs of
the students will not be restricted, except only when the structures of the courses are designed to
limit accessibility that may affect the pacing of the students enrolled.
2. Accountability. Students and teachers are mutually bound to uphold being held accountable for the
information that they share both online and offline.
3. Responsiveness. Students and teachers must act accordingly to address concerns that are being
raised in lieu of the courses concerned. They must maintain all possible lines of communication to
ensure that information management is well-maintained and continuously developed.
4. Professionalism. UPOU communications shall be set within acceptable standards of the UP
system. Hence, communications should come in a way that does not violate any applicable privacy
rules or ethical standards.

Participants

The following are identified to be primary movers of this Communication Plan:

1. UPOU Administrators. The key officials of UPOU shall oversee the formulation, implementation,
and evaluation of communication strategies and tools undertaken to manage the flow of
information and communications across the University. They shall secure that the academic
information needs of the students and the educational infrastructure requirements of the teachers
are being made available. They shall also provide the necessary funding for policy implementation.
2. UPOU Teachers. As faculty-in-charge of their respective courses, they shall be primarily
responsible in disseminating all crucial information to their students, such as the Course Guide, the
Learning Materials, and the distribution of Mid-Term and Final Examinations.
3. UPOU Students. As the recipients of academic information for the courses that they take, the
students shall be responsible in providing the necessary learning feedback expected from the
courses enrolled. Included in the learning feedback are the application of theories, principles, and
concepts into real situations, as may be deemed necessary.

COMM 330 Final Exam Page 2

 4. UPOU Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Division. The ICT Division shall manage
network infrastructures as well as maintain online database management activities as may be
deemed appropriate and proper. The Division shall continuously provide accessible communication
platforms among students and teachers.

Communication Goals and Objectives

The Communication Plan shall have the following objectives or goals:

1. To maximize the capacities of students and teachers in engaging in learning interactions.
2. To promote distance education learning as effective as face-to-face classroom learning.
3. To increase awareness for potential students/learners of the distinctions of UPOU as an alternative
method of education.

Strategies, Approaches, and Activities

The main implementation of the Communication Plan shall be discussed in this section. Here are the
courses of action identified to meet the aforementioned communication goals and objectives, to wit:
1. Provision of UPOU Messenger App. Students and teachers shall be enrolled in a mobile UPOU
Messenger app that will be linked to the UPOU MyPortal Course Site, as well as the Academic
Information Management System (AIMS) Portal of UPOU. The app shall allow sharing and
downloading of videos, learning materials, and other essential learning tools specific for UPOU-
designed courses. It will also enable the Chat features for students and teachers, with interactional
guidelines provided for each course.
2. Conduct of Semi-Monthly Faculty Meetings. The meetings shall be conducted via online (UPOU
Zoom platform) and shall be attended by all concerned professors within their respective Faculty
divisions. The Division Chair shall spearhead faculty meetings and lead in the discussion of
academic concerns, as well as initiate in planning research activities.
3. Monthly Virtual Coffee Session. This session shall be led by the assigned faculty-in-charge in all
UPOU courses and shall demonstrate informal communication between the FIC and all students.
This may involve discussions or chat unrelated to the course; this is designed to act as an open-
line for students not essentially related to academic concerns. This also helps teachers understand
students’ concerns, especially those in the post-graduate level who are expected to be mostly
preoccupied working students.

COMM 330 Final Exam Page 3

 4. Institutionalization of the UPOU Knowledge ASAP. This UPOU website feature shall act as a chat-
bot that assists UPOU students in their need for valid and updated references for lessons or
information concerning their courses. The UPOU Database shall be continuously updated to
enable the Knowledge ASAP feature to serve as an extension online library in the fastest method
possible. This hopes to especially capacitate offshore students who cannot personally go to the
UPOU library to borrow a particular book. This feature shall promote the use of Read-Only e-books
for fair use of materials.
5. Institutionalization of the modernized UPOU ResearchShare. This UPOU online feature shall be
similar to Coursera or Academia.edu. This online storage of academic papers and published
researches shall be made available to students, teachers, and potential researchers for all fields of
arts and sciences. Much like the Knowledge ASAP feature, ResearchShare shall also promote the
use of duly-licensed Read-Only e-books that can be accessed as reading materials, not only by the
UPOU community but also by the global educational system. This helps intensify Philippine setting
of information-based researches and contributes to the globalization of knowledge made free for
the use of the worldwide community.

Monitoring and Evaluation

This section details the specific implementation details of each strategy in this Communication Plan:
Person/Unit/Division Expected Time of Delivery and Evaluation
Strategy
Responsible Method
Third Quarter of CY 2021 /
Office Performance and Commitment Review /
Provision of UPOU UPOU Administrators
100% of enrolled students and teachers shall have
Messenger App UPOU ICT Division
downloaded and have been registered to the
Messenger App before the start of AY 2021-2022
Effective 2nd week of May 2021 /
Conduct of Semi- Individual Performance and Commitment Review /
UPOU Administrators
Monthly Faculty Each division shall have submitted minutes of their
UPOU Teachers
Meetings semi-monthly faculty meetings to the Office of the
Chancellor for validation and approval.
Fourth Quarter of CY 2021 /
Office Performance and Commitment Review /
UPOU Administrators Each course shall have conducted at least one (1)
Monthly Virtual Coffee UPOU ICT Division virtual coffee session monthly. Each FIC shall
Session UPOU Teachers submit an accomplishment report to the Division
UPOU Students Chair for review and to the Chancellor for
monitoring.

COMM 330 Final Exam Page 4

 Person/Unit/Division Expected Time of Delivery and Evaluation
Strategy
Responsible Method
2nd Semester of AY 2021-2022 / Office Performance
and Commitment Review /
ICT Division shall ensure the operationalization of
Institutionalization of UPOU Administrators the Knowledge ASAP chatbot, linked to available
the UPOU Knowledge UPOU ICT Division online references to address students’ concerns.
ASAP UPOU Students ICT Division shall submit monthly and quarterly
report to UPOU Administrators of the number of
students who availed of the Chatbot for each
course.
1 Semester of AY 2022-2023 /
st

Office Performance and Commitment Review /

ICT Division shall operationalize the ResearchShare
online database which shall be open worldwide for
all academicians and researchers. Users may
Institutionalization of register for free and/or avail of premium subscription
UPOU Administrators
the modernized UPOU annually for unlimited access to licensed UPOU
UPOU ICT Division
ResearchShare research papers.
Upon operationalization, ICT Division shall submit a
weekly report to the UPOU Administrators about the
statistics of users and online references enabled for
sharing.

At the end of implementation of the communication strategies, UPOU Administrators shall be responsible in
the annual Communication Plan Evaluation & Review at the start of AY 2022-2023 to discuss operational
bottlenecks or gaps to be addressed. Administrators may utilize Delphi technique to obtain policy feedback.

Funding Requirements

The overall cost for the proposed strategies in this Communication Plan is amounting to Eight Million Three
Hundred Thirty Thousand Seven Hundred Fifty Pesos (₱8,330,750.00). This represents the amount to be
supplemented for the budgetary needs of all communication strategies.
It is to be noted that about half of the entire budget shall be allocated for the institutionalization of the
UPOU ResearchShare online database, in order to intensify global access to UPOU-published journals and
papers, as well as maximize global connectivity among scholars and academicians across all fields.
To particularly identify the distribution of budget of each strategy, the following financial computations are
hereby presented:

COMM 330 Final Exam Page 5

 Strategy Cost Source of Funding
General Appropriations Act, in coordination with the Philippine
Department of Information and Communications Technology
Provision of UPOU Messenger App ₱2,535,000.00
(DICT) and the Department of Science and Technology
(DOST)
Conduct of Semi-Monthly Faculty
₱25,000.00 Maintenance and Other Operating Expenses
Meetings
General Appropriations Act, Maintenance and Other Operating
Monthly Virtual Coffee Session ₱250,750.00 Expenses, Partial Funding from Gender and Development
(GAD)
Institutionalization of the UPOU General Appropriations Act, in coordination with the DICT and
₱1,400,000.00
Knowledge ASAP DOST
Institutionalization of the To be sponsored by Google, with partial funding from the
₱4,120,000.00
modernized UPOU ResearchShare General Appropriations Act
TOTAL ₱8,330,750.00

Operational Timetable

The implementation of this Communication Plan shall be illustrated using the following Gantt chart:
Action Steps 2021 2021 2022 2022 2022
3rd Quarter 4th Quarter 1st Quarter 2nd Quarter 3rd Quarter
Provision of UPOU
Messenger App
Conduct of Semi-Monthly
Faculty Meetings
Monthly Virtual Coffee
Session
Institutionalization of the
UPOU Knowledge ASAP
Institutionalization of the
modernized UPOU
ResearchShare
Communication Plan
Evaluation & Review

UPOU Administrators shall ensure that the operational timetable is strictly in force and is observed
according to the allotted period provided for each strategy.

Legal Bases

This Communication Plan shall be made compliant to the following established Philippine laws and other
applicable rules and regulations, such as Republic Act 8292 (Higher Education Modernization Act of 1997),
Republic Act 9239 (Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines), Republic Act 10650 (Open Distance
Learning Act), Republic Act 10173 (Data Privacy Act of 2012), Republic Act 10175 (Cybercrime Prevention
Act of 2012), Republic Act 11032 (Ease of Doing Business Act of 2018), and all issued UPOU Open
Educational Resources (OER) policies.

COMM 330 Final Exam Page 6