Gender Sensitivity of UPOU-Produced Open Educational Resources

Abstract

In support of the Magna Carta of Women and to further promote gender mainstreaming, the Philippine national government issued a circular directing government agencies, including state colleges and universities to adopt Gender Equality Guidelines in the development of media policies and programs. Studies (Benavot, 2016; Blumberg, 2007; Jenkins & Phillips, 1995; Kerkhoven, Russo, Land-Zandstra, Saxena, & Rodenburg, 2016; Mills & Mustapha, 2015;) showed that gender bias and language insensitivity in learning materials negatively affect female students’ general performance. The Multimedia Center (MC), the unit of the University of the Philippines Open University (UPOU) that is tasked to design, develop, produce, and disseminate multimedia course materials has been implementing practices to make UPOU multimedia learning materials more inclusive and gender fair. This study examines the gender fairness of the “Open Educational Resources (OER) for Technology for Teaching and Learning” video series. These series of videos produced by the MC is disseminated to the learners and general public via the UPOU Networks, the university’s virtual repository of learning materials. To study the gender sensitivity of the videos, content analysis will be done using the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) gender-sensitive indicators and the Philippine Commission on Women Towards a Gender Fair Media guidelines.