Students can continue learning process at home with DepEd Commons

Snipped image of DepEd Commons taken from commons.deped.gov.ph

School year 2019- 2020 ended earlier as the national and local government units decided to suspend classes because of CoVID- 19. The deadly virus really affected the teaching- learning process as some schools were not able to conduct fourth quarter exams. The Department of Education has been doing steps to address the problems brought by the pandemic like the provision of transmutation templates that will help teachers to compute grades of the learners sans quarterly assessment results. Aside from that, the Department made another breakthrough as it launched DepEd Commons. This is an online platform where students and teachers can access learning materials while staying at home. 

Last March 16, my Facebook news feed showed the post of Sir Mark Anthony Sy, our lecturer of Open Educational Resource (OER), asking to check the website to ferret out the effect of simultaneous visits. I tried it, but our school and school ID number was not included yet that time. To access the content of the site, you need to go to commons.deped.gov.ph. Then, encode school name or the school ID number. 

Two days after the announcement of Sir Mark, I went to the site anew and I was glad to see that my school is now present. The site looks promising. It has learning materials classified per grade level. I pressed the senior high school core subject portion. I found Reading and Writing presentation. I used my Gmail account to access the slides stored in Google Drive. I am happy seeing this and I consider it as a gift. It will ease my teaching next school year as I have materials I can use. Preparing learning materials require hours. Having a unified source of instructional materials can help me to maximize my saved time. 

This innovation does not only make teachers glad, but also the learners. This project of the Department is timely as the learners are stuck at home as precautionary measure to combat the coronavirus. The students can access online quizzes and other materials through their phones and computers. 

I told my learners about it and one of them was able to access the site. He sent me a screenshot of his visitation on the said site. I am happy that my learners can grasp knowledge during this critical time.

This is the screenshot sent to me by Julius, a Grade 11 learner in our school. 

DepEd Commons is the the department's way to cater quality basic education to all learners. DepEd Undersecretary Alain Pascua posted a note on his Facebook account regarding with the birth of the online study platform. He wrote that the site is a way to help teachers in facilitating distance learning. He admitted that the site is not perfect as it still undergo improvement, but the current situation prompted his team to launch it as immediate way to facilitate learning. He mentioned that the contents are made by public school teachers who are subject experts, and he encouraged more teachers to create and submit Open Educational Resource materials and other instructional media. 

I like to commend the Department for coming up with this project. I really feel the digital rise in the bureaucracy I am employed. I hope I can contribute soon by passing my material. Thank you, DepEd. 

To use the site, it has user's guide section. Here is the link to have a smooth utilization of the site: User's Guide.