MANILA, Philippines — Mapúa University, one of the top engineering and technological schools in the Philippines, unveiled how it will leverage AI-led collaboration and connectivity tools to redefine the classroom experience for students in the upcoming academic year, beginning in August 2024.
Created in collaboration with Cisco as part of its Country Digital Acceleration (CDA) program in the Philippines, UGNAYAN 2030, the country’s first digital classrooms support Mapúa’s Tri-X (triple experience) teaching and learning framework.
This gives learners the power to choose their mode of participation for every lesson, whether it is face-to-face, synchronous or asynchronous learning.
“The future of education is here, and our learning modalities at Mapúa are breaking barriers by creating limitless opportunities for personalized, accessible learning. We are excited for this next chapter of our partnership with Cisco to enable students to achieve better learning outcomes with greater flexibility and personalized learning with our digital classrooms. This is a big step towards our vision to foster sustainable socio-economic growth through innovation, digital transformation and lifelong education,” said Dr. Dodjie Maestrecampo, president and CEO of Mapúa University.
A strategic partnership with government leadership, industry and academia to accelerate countries’ national digital agendas, UGNAYAN 2030 aims to build greater digital resilience for the Philippines by addressing the gaps it is facing under the key pillars of connectivity, collaboration and cybersecurity.
“Technology is transforming the way we work, learn and live. We are excited to support Mapúa University’s transformative journey to become a leading innovation hub that utilizes cutting-edge teaching and learning methods under UGNAYAN 2030. By helping the university leverage AI and inclusive collaboration tools in the classroom, we are closing the learning divide, enhancing student access and ensuring quality education for every student nationwide so that no one gets left behind,” said Zaza Soriano-Nicart, managing director of Cisco Philippines.
With support from ICT solutions integrator Microdata, Cisco’s purpose-built artificial intelligence (AI)-powered collaboration tools and smart cameras will help create inclusive, engaging and secure learning experiences for hybrid learning. At an exclusive media preview, Mapúa showcased the full range of these capabilities:
- Webex Boards, enabling students and teachers to join video meetings and serving as a digital canvas for digital whiteboarding and annotation of shared content
- AI-powered features through Webex Suite, including background noise removal that optimizes speakers’ voices and people focus, which automatically crops the videos of remote participants so they can be seen more clearly during hybrid classes. Real-time automated closed captions are available in all meetings.
- AI-generated meeting summaries—real-time highlights, chapters and action items with every recorded lecture
- Meraki cloud-managed smart cameras, configured to work seamlessly with underlying wireless connectivity. The wide-angle, fixed-focus lens offer panoramic wide area coverage, enhancing surveillance capabilities even in low lighting.
Webex harnesses enterprise-grade protection that is built in to verify every learner, protect every device and browser, and ensure that all communications are secure with encryption.
The university now boasts five digital classrooms—three at the Intramuros Campus, delivering courses in Engineering, Architecture, Liberal Arts and Athletics; and two at the Makati Campus, for Information Technology, Media Studies, Business, Health Sciences and Nursing.
As it starts a new academic year in August, Mapúa University will open the digital classrooms for official use in course lectures, extra-curricular activities and inter-campus planning sessions and meetings across its Intramuros, Makati, Laguna and Davao campuses.
These smart classrooms represent a step toward realizing Mapúa’s ambition of becoming a full-fledged smart campus. In the next phase of its journey, the university will look at further leveraging digital classrooms to make education accessible across borders and drive an internationalized education experience for its students.
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