THE COLLEGE of Architecture has adopted a new “student-centered” teaching system with the full implementation of an “Outcomes-Based Education” (OBE) curriculum this semester.
Architecture Dean John Joseph Fernandez said the OBE curriculum would be focused on the teaching strategies of professors, rather than the subjects, to facilitate students’ learning.
“With OBE, we aim to explain to the students the things that they did wrong and make them fully understand,” Fernandez said in an interview.
In UST, Architecture students are required to submit three plates for their design subjects.
In the old curriculum, students who failed in the first plate were allowed to work on the succeeding plates. The scores for the three plates were averaged at the end of the semester to determine their grades.
In the OBE curriculum, students will not be allowed to work on their second and third plate unless they passed the first.
“When students fail, the plate is given back to them and a one-on-one discussion is conducted,” the dean said.
Students who fail in the first plate will be allowed to do it again until they meet the standards set by the professor, but the highest grade they can get for their repeated works is 75.
The curriculum change was also implemented in preparation for ASEAN integration in 2015, and to meet the requirements set by the Commission on Higher Education to maintain a “Center of Excellence” status and the Philippine Association of Colleges and Universities for a Level 1 accreditation.
Other faculties and colleges that have shifted to the OBE curriculum are the Faculty of Arts and Letters, Faculty of Engineering, College of Nursing, and the College of Tourism and Hospitality Management. Arianne F. Merez
