The shift to online learning has been ASMPH’s blue ocean flagship project since June 2019.

One of the flagship projects of ASMPH’s (new) leadership (at that time) is online learning. This is very consistent with the unstoppable global shift of medical education towards the left of the ICAP Pedagogical Framework (Interactive, Constructive, Active, Passive learning framework). The ICAP Framework (of the Association of Medical Educators in Europe), in turn, has shown to be consistent with the decades-old World Health Organization resounding call for “transformative medical education”. At the same time, this teaching method lends itself more openly to Ignatian pedagogy characterized by its flexibility, nimbleness and relevance to the present. In the practical side, the population growth of ASMPH outgrew its physical space provision. While keeping quality education delivery and assessment at par, if not better and updated, flipped class methodologies were introduced and implemented using up-to-date virtual and face-to-face technology on individual faculty initiative basis as early as the school year 2018-2019. This gained significant momentum across year levels the following school year. Encouraging feedback came from both students and faculty alike. Hence, one of the earliest resolutions of the Dean’s Council last June 2019 is the implementation of its 2-year plan of gradual shift from pure face-to-face delivery and assessment of the MD-MBA-PH program into a blended 70-30% or 60-40% face-to-face-online learning teaching-learning method.

Dr. Cenon R. Alfonso