FICS Scholarly Articles

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https://repository.upou.edu.ph/handle/20.500.13073/8
Faculty and staff research papers from the Faculty of Information and Communication Studies.

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    17 MOOCs In Six Emerging APEC Member Economies –Trends, Research, and Recommendation
    (Routledge, 2020) Jung, Insung ; Garcia Mendoza, Gibran A. ; Fajardo, Jennifer Christine ; Figueroa, Roberto B. Jr. ; Tan, Siaw Eng
    A collaborative team of five foreign researchers who reside in Japan purposefully conducted research to describe the development of MOOCs in Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Mexico. It is important to point out that these countries represent six emerging economies that are members of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). It seeks to answer three key questions: (1) When did MOOCs begin in APEC countries in Southeast Asia and Latin America? (2) How did they develop? (3) How were they supported? To accomplish these goals, research articles published in relevant local, regional, and international journals together with related books and reports were thoroughly examined. Furthermore, interviews of local experts were also conducted to provide meaningful context. This chapter begins with a review of the overall trends of MOOC growth in the six selected countries. It then discusses research findings and local experts’ comments on MOOC-based learning experiences and points out various challenges currently faced as well as apparent opportunities moving forward. Finally, it concludes with several valuable lessons learned from the MOOC experiences of those emerging economies.
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    Adapting the Compass Framework in a hybrid course on wearable technology design and futures thinking
    ( 2022-11) Maranan, Diego S.
    The Wearable Futures Hackathon (WFH) was a 12-week long, hybrid learning experience was collaboratively created with and for undergraduate students at UP Open University’s Bachelor of Arts program in Multimedia Studies (BAMS). The course explores wearable technology, e-textiles, speculative design, and futures thinking. The course is the first of its kind at the university in terms of the following aspects: - The course themes (i.e., physical computing, e-textiles, speculative design, and futures thinking); and - The use of a hybrid format (80% online, 20% face to face) for BAMS studio course. For this course, the Index Project's design thinking framework--the Compass--was integrated with UPOU’s standard principle and practices in outcomes-based online learning design resource-based course authoring.
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    Anthropology Of, For, And With Design: A Philippine Perspective
    ( 2014) Cajilig, Pamela G. ; Maranan, Diego S.
    The intersection of the fields of design and anthropology emerges as fertile ground for study as societies increasingly acknowledge the tremendous impact the objects we create for ourselves have on our lives. As anthropologists and ethnographers involved in running our own design research company in the Philippines, negotiating the alignments and contradictions between the two fields of knowledge is an essential component of our everyday research practice. This paper outlines different models of the relationships between design and anthropology as systems of knowledge and practice. We first extend a theoretical framework that distinguishes between anthropology of, anthropology for, and anthropology with design (Gunn and Donovan 2013): we maintain that anthropology with design underlies an approach increasingly used in commercial industries known as "design thinking", and describe the different ways by which knowledge is generated and mobilized in each of these relationships; we further describe how the artifacts of design can be seen to either materialize, shape, or probe culturally-mediated meanings, power relations, and values. We illustrate these concepts through client-commissioned projects that our organization has conducted in the Philippines. We next examine how and when these design-anthropology relationships are realized when working with clients. While anthropology with design will likely create better outcomes for our clients, larger clients must often settle for anthropology for design; we describe how we have negotiated these tensions and present our outcomes from our engagement with them. We end with a call for the development of a local prism through which practitioners in the field of design can further engage in critical reflection of the production of artifacts, particular those created with the intent of addressing social concerns. Specifically, we call for more localized conceptual frameworks of design that can be patterned (for instance) on India's notion of jugaad, and advance an increased engagement for anthropology with design across various sectors of Philippine society.
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    Archiving as Artistic and Personal Practice: Tools, Methods, Examples, and Learning Resources
    ( 2022-05-22) Maranan, Diego S.
    This presentation was given at the Philippine Documentary Heritage Webinar Series: Digital Technology and Documentary Heritage. See https://www.facebook.com/PHDHDigitalRepository/videos/2798957150400534 for the full video of the presentation. See also: *https://www.facebook.com/PHDHDigitalRepository/posts/171802621911907 *https://www.facebook.com/PHDHDigitalRepository/posts/174371968321639 *https://www.facebook.com/PHDHDigitalRepository/posts/173741721717997
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    Artscience Thinking for the Global South
    ( 2023-03-16) Maranan, Diego S.
    Pluridisciplinary practices that span art and science are well-known in Western research and creative communities. Some of the most interesting and significant of these works confront audiences with deep questions about "life, the universe, and everything” (with apologies to Douglas Adams). But in the Global South—where addressing basic human needs, achieving economic and political security, and adapting to the unfolding climate crisis—are widely regarded as priorities, is there even space or time for the same? Using recent artscience research and creative projects I have been involved in, I argue that despite—or indeed because—of the challenges confronting the Global South, research, practice, and education on the intersections of the arts and the sciences is more necessary than ever.
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    ASEAN CONVERGENCE. Towards an ASEAN Identity: Discourses on Communication and Culture
    (Faculty of Information and Communication Studies, UPOU, 2019) FLOR, ALEXANDER G. ; GONZALES-FLOR, BENJAMINA PAULA G.
    This monograph is a collection of papers used as required reading for ASEAN Studies 231. The course was developed as a contribution of the UPOU Faculty of Information and Communication Studies to the Master of ASEAN Studies (MAS) Joint Program of the five open universities in Southeast Asia: the UP Open University; Universitas Terbuka in Jakarta; Sukhothai Open University in Bangkok; the Hanoi Open University; and the Open University of Malaysia. MAS was meant as a major initiative for the regionalization of education in the ASEAN region. Hence, this course takes on a regional outlook on communication. By communication, we refer to information and communication technologies and media (traditional, mass and new media). This course is also crosslisted under the UPOU Master of Development Communication program as DEVC242.
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    Biodiversity Tower: A community art project by SEADS, Compostmeesters Willebroek & Kris Mys
    ( 2019-10-21) Vermeulen, Angelo ; Maranan, Diego S.
    This presentation was given during the 2019 Institute for Public Art (IPA) Research Network Meeting. The meeting was part of the 2019 International Award for Public Art event, during which Biodiversity Tower was awarded the Eurasia Commended Project designation. For more details, see https://www.instituteforpublicart.org/case-studies/biodiversity-tower/
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    Biomodd: A Case Study In Combining Online Learning With On-Site New Media Art Practice
    ( 2011-09) Librero, Al Francis D. ; Maranan, Diego S. ; Vermeulen, Angelo
    Biomodd is a new media art project that integrates cross-cultural dialogue, ecology and technology while encouraging innovative collaboration. The project started in 2007 in the United States, and has since spawned multiple versions that have been built both by the people that originally came up with the idea, and by other communities throughout the world. During its run in the Philippines, a team was formed to build an installation that went on display was exhibited in two cities in the Philippines. The UP Open University, in return for its sponsorship, employed the project as a springboard in a course for students to explore and practice new media art. Since Biomodd involved a series of on-site workshops and classroom sessions, the challenge was to find a way to engage students despite their ability to physically attend the workshops. This was addressed through the use of various online applications to accomplish tasks outside the construction of the art installation. Communication was coursed through several avenues, including the university's official learning management system, text messaging, mailing lists, online photo albums, personal blogs and mass media. Through an analysis of the exchanges conducted through these various channels of communication, we show how learners and course facilitators were able to build and sustain a sense of community, as well as connect with external stakeholders who enabled learners to extend their exploration in new media art practice as shaped by their experience of working on Biomodd, thus constituting a highly enriching learning experience.
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    Biomodd: Exploring Relationships Between Biological, Electronic, And Social Systems Through New Media Art
    ( 2014-11-17) Maranan, Diego S. ; Librero, Al Francis D.
    Biomodd is a collaborative new media art project that explores the symbiosis between biological, electronic, and social systems. The project started in 2007 in the United States, and has since spawned multiple versions globally. The Philippine team was led by educators from the UP Open University, who organized a course on new media art practice as a springboard for exploring and developing the project. We discuss the imaginative and abstract relationships between biological, eletronic, and social systems that learners articulated over the course of the project. We describe how local, culturally-specific narrative elements were imaginatively integrated into the physical and interactive design of the installation, resulting in a technically complex, visually poetic expression of the relationship between nature, technology, and humans.
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    Biomodd: the integration of art into transdisciplinary research practices
    (oekom verlag, 2023-05-20) Kuchner, Ulrike ; Nasser, Mona ; Steyaert, Pieter ; Maranan, Diego S. ; Birsel, Zeynep ; Haines, Agatha ; Peeters, Ann ; Vermeulen, Angelo
    Biomodd is an artistic project with the potential for supporting transdisciplinary practices in blended virtual and in-person environments. After describing the project components, we discuss the collaborative process of idea generation and participant engagement. In this paper, we argue for the integration of collaborative art practice in transdisciplinary (TD) research to generate ideas and engage researchers and non-academic stakeholders. We draw on the virtual and in-person (hybrid) participation of members of the TD collective Space Ecologies Art and Design (SEADS) during Biomodd, an art installation that addresses global challenges in ecology, humanity, technology, and technological waste. Using survey responses, diaries, and meeting minutes, we reflect on the process, methods and ideation during Biomodd and map them to the concept of the “idea journey” discussed by Jill E. Perry-Smith and Pier Vittorio Mannucci. We find that while in-person ideation was driven by utility, materiality, and emergence, the hybrid mode provided favorable conditions for a feedback loop of expansive, individual experimentation and online sharing.
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    Changing the Lives of the Filipino Teachers and Students: Participants' Perceptions of the PLDT Infoteach Outreach Program
    (International Journal of Latest Research in Humanities and Social Science (IJLRHSS), 2023-06-02) Amoloza, Emely M.
    As part of its role in serving the nation, the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) has collaborated with various institutions in implementing projects that support community development. One of which is the PLDT Infoteach Outreach Program. To enable the participants to acquire the essential digital skills for 21st century teaching, learning, and working is the program’s goal while changing the lives of Filipino teachers and students is the program’s aspiration. This study focused on the third phase of the PLDT Infoteach Outreach Program and sought to present the participants’ perceptions of the PLDT Infoteach Outreach Program. Applying a case study method, this research made use of various available data that were gathered from messages, focused group discussions, and participant observations. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. The results of this study showed that the participants have positive perceptions of the project; they feel grateful for the knowledge gained and the extended assistance. A complete list of the participants’ comments and recommendations on improving the modules, training, schedule, quiz, and program were included in this paper. Constant communication among partner institutions, conduct of FGDs, and cascading the training were the best practices identified by the participants.
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    Cinemaspace, Cyberspace: Mapping the Philippine Moving Image
    ( 2008-11-20) Trice, Jasmine ; Maranan, Diego S.
    This presentation will consist of two, interrelated parts, reflecting the interests of the participants in integrating the critical and theoretical, on the one hand, and the artistic and material, on the other. Operating under the same rubric and tackling parallel conceptual problems regarding nation, the moving image, and notions of the public, we hope to unravel some distinctions between art and criticism, following the cue of many practitioners and theorists in the Philippines, in order to sketch out possibilities for links between Philippine cinema as a digital mode of production, the usual way in which cinema and new media are linked, as well as examining the use of Philippine online spaces as a digital mode of circulation.
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    Collaborative Relational Database Software-as-a-Service as Authoring Tools for Online and Offline OERs: Using Airtable and Notion to Make Your Own Learning Management System
    ( 2022-11-22) Maranan, Diego S.
    In this presentation, I describe how specific collaboration, authentication, and sharing features of two popular, low-cost, relational database software-as-a-service (SaaS) platforms, Airtable and Notion, can be used to create open educational resources (OERs) that are easily updatable, shareable, and repurposable. Not only do these SaaS platforms provide opportunities for student assessments to be closely align with course content, but they also afford course facilitators a way to quickly verify and monitor such content-assessment alignment. Using two examples of courses taught at the UP Open University, I additionally describe how SaaS relational database platforms facilitates the use of previous student outputs as learning material for subsequent iterations of courses and drives the continuous improvement of course design.
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    Designing clinical trials for future space missions as a pathway to changing how clinical trials are conducted on Earth
    (Journal of Evidence-Based Medicine, 2020-05-25) Nasser, Mona ; Peres, Nicholas ; Knight, Jacqui ; Haines, Agatha ; Young, Charlie ; Maranan, Diego S. ; Wright, Julian ; Carvil, Philip ; Robinson, Karen ; Westmore, Matthew ; Griffin, Joanna ; Halkes, Matthew
    Objective The project aims to build a framework for conducting clinical trials for long-term interplanetary missions to contribute to innovation in clinical trials on Earth, especially around patient involvement and ownership. Methods We conducted two workshops in which participants were immersed in the speculative scenario of an interplanetary mission in which health problems emerged that required medical trials to resolve. The workshops used virtual reality and live simulation to mimic a zero-gravity environment and visual perception shifts and were followed by group discussion. Results Some key aspects for the framework that emerged from the workshops included: (a) approaches to be inclusive in the management of the trial, (b) approaches to be inclusive in designing the research project (patient preference trials, n-of-1 trials, designing clinical trials to be part of a future prospective meta-analysis, etc), (c) balancing the research needs and the community needs (eg, allocation of the participants based on both research and community need), (d) ethics and partnerships (ethics and consent issues and how they relate to partnerships and relationships). Conclusion In identifying some key areas that need to be incorporated in future planning of clinical trials for interplanetary missions, we also identified areas that are relevant to engaging patients in clinical trials on Earth. We will suggest using the same methodology to facilitate more in-depth discussions on specific aspects of clinical trials in aerospace medicine. The methodology can be more widely used in other areas to open new inclusive conversations around innovating research methodology.
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    Designing for Movement: Evaluating Computational Models Using LMA Effort Qualities
    ( 2014-04-29) Maranan, Diego S. ; Alaoui, Sarah Fdili ; Schiphorst, Thecla ; Pasquier, Philippe ; Subyen, Pattarawut ; Bartram, Lyn
    While single-accelerometers are a common consumer embedded sensors, their use in representing movement data as an intelligent resource remains scarce. Accelerometers have been used in movement recognition systems, but rarely to assess expressive qualities of movement. We present a prototype of wearable system for the real-time detection and classification of movement quality using acceleration data. The system applies Laban Movement Analysis (LMA) to recognize Laban Effort qualities from acceleration input using a Machine Learning software that generates classifications in real time. Existing LMA-recognition systems rely on motion capture data and video data, and can only be deployed in controlled settings. Our single-accelerometer system is portable and can be used under a wide range of environmental conditions. We evaluate the performance of the system, present two applications using the system in the digital arts and discuss future directions.
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    Designing for One's Own: Towards Technology Design Education for Home and Family Care
    ( 2024-04-24) Maranan, Diego S.
    Participatory design is a well-known methodology that involves end-users in the design process to create products and services that better meet their needs [1]. However, this approach is often applied to public or shared spaces rather than (one’s own) personal or family spaces. Even in family-centered design practices, designers’ attention are on the families of others, not their own [2], [3]. In this presentation, I describe the early stages of development of an educational approach as part of art and design research education, where students intentionally collaborate with their own family members, relatives, and friends as research participants and co-designers, and not merely for convenience. The approach draws inspiration from Hiroshi Ishii's "Weather Forecast Bottle," a tangible interface he developed specifically for his mother in the early 2000s [4], and has since fundamentally contributed to the field of tangible and embodied interface research [5]. The presentation will also discuss artistic and design projects I have undertaken with the intent to develop technologies and design propositions that benefit and provide care for my own family [6]. The framework borrows approaches from design fiction [3], [7], somatic practices [8], user experience and human-computer interaction (HCI) research [9], and visual and performance arts, and could be used to apply digital and frontier technologies such as wearable technology, IoT, and artificial intelligence in developing interventions for facilitating care within one’s home and family. I suggest that such an approach contributes to design education even as it addresses the need to care for one's own loved ones through targeted and context-appropriate applications of conventional participatory design and family-centered design. [1] C. Ten Holter, “Participatory design: lessons and directions for responsible research and innovation,” J. Responsible Innov., vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 275–290, May 2022, doi: 10.1080/23299460.2022.2041801. [2] K. Cheong and A. Mitchell, “Kwento: Using a Participatory Approach to Design a Family Storytelling Application for Domestic Helpers,” Lect. Notes Comput. Sci., pp. 493–500, 2015. [3] L. V. Nägele, M. Ryöppy, and D. Wilde, “PDFi: participatory design fiction with vulnerable users,” in Proceedings of the 10th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction, in NordiCHI ’18. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, Sep. 2018, pp. 819–831. doi: 10.1145/3240167.3240272. [4] H. Ishii, “Bottles: A transparent interface as a tribute to Mark Weiser,” IEICE Trans. Inf. Syst., vol. E87D, pp. 1299–1311, Jun. 2004. [5] B. Ullmer, O. Shaer, A. Mazalek, and C. Hummels, Weaving Fire into Form: Aspirations for Tangible and Embodied Interaction, 1st ed. New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2022. doi: 10.1145/3544564. [6] D. S. Maranan, J. Grant, J. Matthias, M. Phillips, and S. L. Denham, “Haplós: Vibrotactile Somaesthetic Technology for Body Awareness,” in Proceedings of the Fourteenth International Conference on Tangible, Embedded, and Embodied Interaction, in TEI ’20. Sydney NSW, Australia: Association for Computing Machinery, Feb. 2020, pp. 539–543. doi: 10.1145/3374920.3374984. [7] D. Oogjes, W. Odom, and P. Fung, “Designing for an other Home: Expanding and Speculating on Different Forms of Domestic Life,” in Proceedings of the 2018 Designing Interactive Systems Conference, in DIS ’18. New York, NY, USA: Association for Computing Machinery, Jun. 2018, pp. 313–326. doi: 10.1145/3196709.3196810. [8] R. Berland, E. Marques-Sule, J. L. Marín-Mateo, N. Moreno-Segura, A. López-Ridaura, and T. Sentandreu-Mañó, “Effects of the Feldenkrais Method as a Physiotherapy Tool: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials,” Int. J. Environ. Res. Public. Health, vol. 19, no. 21, p. 13734, Oct. 2022, doi: 10.3390/ijerph192113734. [9] T. Almeida, R. Comber, and M. Balaam, “HCI and Intimate Care as an Agenda for Change in Women’s Health,” in Proceedings of the 2016 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, San Jose California USA: ACM, May 2016, pp. 2599–2611. doi: 10.1145/2858036.2858187.
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    Developing and Evaluating a Website as an OER for Faculty Development
    (International Journal of Open and Distance eLearning, 2020) Figueroa, Roberto B ; Fajardo, Jennifer ; Jung, Insung ; Tan, Siaw Eng
    Abstract Faculty development (FD) is an important activity that helps faculty members of an academic institution to provide quality education to students while fulfilling the institution’s missions and improving faculty members’ capacity to teach. With sustainability and scalability in mind, several institutions often use web media to distribute training materials for FD. This paper describes the design and development of a web-based FD program at the International Christian University (ICU), Japan during the fall of 2017. It also presents a thematic analysis of the initial feedback from the first batch of users and external reviewers. Furthermore, it reports a rough measure of the usability and usefulness of the website as an Open Educational Resource (OER).
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    Expressing technological metaphors in dance using structural illusion from embodied motion
    (ACM, 2013-06) Maranan, Diego S. ; Schiphorst, Thecla ; Hwang, Albert ; Hwang, Albert
    We illustrate how technology has influenced creative, embodied practices in urban dance styles by analyzing how technological metaphors underlie conceptual representations of the body, space, and movement in three related styles of urban dance: liquid, digitz, and finger tutting. The creative and technical embodied practices of urban dancers are not well understood in either the ethnographic or creative movement scholarly literature. Following an exploratory netnography of movement practitioners, we claim that unlike most dancers of traditional genres or other urban dance styles, dancers of these three styles frequently employ representations of the body and of space that are geometrical, mathematical, mechanical, or digital. To explain how viewers perceive and understand these metaphors, we extend the perceptual theory of structure from motion in order to apply dance performance reception theory to a model we call 'Structural Illusion from Embodied Motion' (SIEM). Our analysis of performance techniques of these styles suggests that during performance, dancers leverage SIEM to represent two types of 'illusions' to viewers: a) the dancer's body has a reconfigurable structure; and b) the dancer is immersed in a virtual environment that contains invisible, mutable objects and structures that are revealed only through the dancer's movement. The three dance styles exemplify a trend in popular dance in which body, space, and time are understood in the language of technology.
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    Ēngines of Ēternity: An Artistic Inquiry Into Space Settlement Ideology Using Rotifer Experiments on Board the ISS
    ( 2022-09) Vermeulen, Angelo ; Steyaert, Pieter ; Versbraegen, Nassim ; Maranan, Diego S. ; Wan, Arise ; VIZCARA, SHERYL ANN B. ; Sena, Frederico ; VIZCARA, SHERYL ANN B. ; Peeter, Ann ; Faber, Nils ; Mirzada, Fatana ; Van Doninck, Karine
    Ēngines of Ēternity is a transdisciplinary project that takes the biological phenomena of cloning and DNA repair as metaphorical departure points for an art installation about humanity’s enthrallment with cultural immortality. Cultural immortality has long fascinated humankind, with such diverse examples as the Roman Empire, the Han Dynasty, and the Mayan Civilization, all assuming perpetuity through monumental works in art and architecture. This aspiration of cultural immortality is also deeply embedded in the imaginary of space exploration. Space settlements are often presented as the culmination of technological and cultural evolution. However, the quest for cultural immortality is often imbued with conflict because of convictions of superiority and impulses of colonialism, and this will be no different in outer space. Ēngines of Ēternity explores these human tendencies through the lens of the smallest animals on Earth, rotifers. On the surface, rotifers seem an unchanging biological culture, perfected through evolution, cloning itself endlessly, and surviving extreme conditions such as drying or freezing. However, during drying, genetic material gets broken and repaired, and in the process diversity is generated. Moreover, DNA from totally different organisms such as fungi, bacteria and plants were discovered inside the rotifer’s genome. This horizontal gene transfer is another mechanism through which rotifers seek out diversity. In Ēngines of Ēternity it’s precisely this contrast between stasis and flux that is used as a metaphorical device to reflect critically on the aspirations of humankind in space. What concept of culture and identity will we develop in space? Who will have a say in this? And if we end up with a rich diversity of cultures and identities, how will we maintain cohesion? Ēngines of Ēternity is a joint effort between SEADS and the laboratory of Karine Van Doninck (UNamur/ULB). In a series of space biology experiments, rotifers were sent to the ISS in 2019 and 2020. SEADS sent a human fingerprint code along with the rotifers. This code formed the algorithmic seed for an evolving artwork. After each space mission the genetic expression of the rotifers was used to parametrically evolve the art. As such, Ēngines of Ēternity engenders new forms of co-creation between humans, biological organisms, algorithms, and outer space. In this talk, the core concepts of the Ēngines of Ēternity project will be presented, together with reflections on the challenges of transdisciplinary research and the need for a more holistic perspective on our future in outer space.
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    False prophets: exploring hybrid board/video games
    (Association for Computing Machinery, 2002) Mandryk, Regan L. ; Maranan, Diego S. ; Inkpen, Kori M.
    In order to develop technology that promotes social interaction rather than isolation, we are exploring the space between board games and video games. We created a hybrid game that leverages the advantages of both physical and digital media. A custom sensor interface promotes physical interaction around the shared public display while the un-oriented tabletop display encourages players to focus on each other rather than on the interface to the game. The ensuing social interactions define the course that the game takes, while the computer enhances the gaming experience by completing the menial tasks and providing dynamic, exciting environments. Our hybrid board/video game has the potential to enhance natural and enjoyable recreational interaction between friends.