True to the UP mandate as a public service and research university, the UPLB Department of Humanities (DHum) and the UP Open University Faculty of Education (FEd) have partnered to train the scientists, researchers, and staff of the Department of Agriculture Regional Field Office (DA-RFO), Region IV-A CALABARZON, in research writing through a series of synchronous and asynchronous sessions running from July 2020 to June 2021.
The engagement kicked off with an online course, Introduction to Research Proposal Writing, which ran from 13 July to 21 August 2020. The modules were developed by Vice-Chancellor for Student Affairs Dr. Janette Silva of DHum and Prof. Ana Katrina Marcial of FEd, who are also the main proponents of the partnership, and Prof. Cheeno Marlo Sayuno of DHum, who also served as the head mentor during the proposal writing phase of the online course. DHum faculty members Profs. Liberty Notarte-Balanquit, Diane Manzano, Mariyel Hiyas Liwanag, and Jerard Ancel Eusebio also served as mentors.
The course, which was participated in by 34 staff members from DA-RFO, not only refined the participants’ knowledge on how to prepare introduction, review of related literature, and methodology chapters but also facilitated the writing of outputs where they were expected to produce actual research proposals after the course. They were able to use these proposals for possible funding applications, as well as for their requirements in their work.
The second phase of the engagement was a webinar on revising and preparing papers for publication, which transpired via Zoom last 18 December 2020. Prof. Charisse Reyes of FEd talked about disseminating research findings through her experiences in scientific journal publication, while Prof. Sayuno shared tips on various ways of research dissemination and the painpoints and gainpoints of submitting articles for publication in journals.
The webinar was attended by 34 representatives from DA-RFO, many of whom were also completers of the first phase of the extension work. This engagement allowed for the continuity of their research productivity.
For the third phase, a training module was developed by Prof. Marcial with Profs. Jonelle Marin and Daryl Pasion of DHum, this time focusing on designing academic, scientific, and PSA posters. This time, the training had three components: 1) a comprehensive training module discussing three major topics on design and research dissemination; 2) webinars for clarification of concepts, headlined by Profs. Marin and Pasion; and 3) focused mentoring where the participants were assigned mentors who guided them in improving their poster outputs. The training happened from 10 May to 05 June 2021.
The training mentors include Profs. Marin, Pasion, Sayuno, Pauline Gidget Estella, along with DHum Extension Committee Head Prof. Jea Agnes Buera and members Profs. Liwliwa Malabed, Jualim Vela, Kristine Adalla, and Krisnah Tan. Profs. Marcial and Buera were the key proponents of this phase of the partnership, signing a unit agreement with Rosemarie Bautista-Olfato of DA-RFO.
These three activities are only the start of a long-standing engagement with the DA-RFO. More events, projects, and workshops are set in the coming months as DHum continues to champion the passion for service that UP continually upholds.
— CMM Sayuno
