While e-learning is not an entirely new concept, the COVID-19 pandemic has put its adoption at the fore to ensure that students continue their learning and access to education during this time.
ePLDT, the ICT arm of PLDT Enterprise, continues to build its portfolio of solutions as well as its expertise in digital educational tools to help schools improve the quality of learning by leveraging on technology.
“In these times, it is paramount for us to ensure that our children have access to education to support their growth and well-rounded development,” said Jovy Hernandez, ePLDT President & CEO and Senior Vice President & Head for PLDT and Smart Enterprise Business Groups.
“Understanding the challenges we face now given the uncertainty of this current health crisis, we at ePLDT nonetheless believe that technology can bridge that access gap to quality education, and we have made it our mission to deliver the innovative e-Learning tools that will enable schools to reach their students and allow them to continue learning,” Hernandez added.
Advances in technology in the last few years, particularly in the areas of cloud computing and Internet connectivity, have made learning more widely accessible without sacrificing quality.
The group’s partnership with global IT giants Microsoft and Google, for instance, helps ePLDT to deliver highly effective products and packages that support the sector’s push to jumpstart e-learning.
Among the products ePLDT has in its portfolio is Microsoft Office 365 for Education, which is rooted in the highly reliable Microsoft Office 365 productivity, messaging, and collaboration tools. A key feature, Microsoft Teams for Education, serves as the hub for learning and collaboration that brings conversations, content, assignments, and apps together in one place. Schools can use Teams to build collaborative classrooms, create and distribute assignments, foster professional learning communities (PLCs), and connect with colleagues from a secure Office 365 Education experience.
“Now more than ever, these tools allow the delivery of quality learning to students even while they are made to follow social distancing and other measures to keep them safe and healthy amidst the global pandemic,” said Nico Alcoseba, VP & Head of ICT Business for PLDT Enterprise.
To date, ePLDT has deployed more than 248,000 Microsoft for Education licenses to different schools nationwide which are being utilized by both teachers and students. These schools include Holy Cross College of Pampanga, Sacred Heart School – Ateneo de Cebu, University of Cagayan Valley, Don Bosco Technology Center-Cebu, Gullas College of Medicine, Holy Family School of QC, St. Theresa’s College, and Velez College, among others.
Another valuable offering is Google Cloud’s G Suite for Education that combines G Suite’s exceptional collaboration capabilities with Google Classroom – a highly intuitive online learning system designed for simplicity and ease of use. ePLDT also offers Chrome for Education via Chromebooks to help students and teachers with hardware access. License and hardware bundles are delivered in partnership with well-known laptop manufacturers like Asus, Acer, Dell, and Lenovo to ensure that the students and teachers have high-quality devices through which to learn and teach.
All these digital learning tools empower Filipino students and teachers with global-class e-Learning platforms to aid their online education under the new normal.
“We continue to review and expand our suite of e-learning tools to make sure that as students and academic institutions’ needs evolve, we are able to support them to achieve their educational goals,” said Alcoseba, who also noted that ePLDT has already deployed these solutions for a number of schools across the country.
PLDT Enterprise aims to redefine the future of learning through its continuous engagements with universities, colleges, schools and learning institutions across the country so no learner is left behind.
