To improve the implementation of water, sanitation and hygiene in schools (WASH in Schools) in the Philippines, the Department of Education (DepEd), together with its development partners, GIZ and SEAMEO INNOTECH, has developed two Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) specifically for the implementation of the DepEd Order No. 10, series of 2016, on WASH in Schools.

The MOOCs are digital learning solutions that incorporate the use of social media, discussion forums, peer learning, videos and other digital interactive mediums to facilitate learning for education sector officials (Division level MOOC), principals and teachers (School level MOOC). The two MOOCs are hosted via the free e-learning channel KEEP (Knowledge and Education Exchange Platform) and due to their digital nature, are flexible, cost-effective, administratively efficient and optimized to reach a wider audience compared to traditional methods of training delivery.

In response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the increased focus on hygiene and WASH and current school closures, the courses will be relaunched in June after the first successful pilot run to reach an even larger number of schools and education sector officials to prepare for safeguarding the health of students in the Philippines.

Interested individuals can view a course introduction and register for enrolment HERE.

There are two courses available on WASH in Schools (WinS):

“Leading WinS in Schools” is a MOOC for school heads and teachers to enable them to more effectively implement WinS in their respective schools. The first pilot run for the “Leading WinS in Schools” course was launched at the end of 2019 in 5 selected regions and 17 divisions with a total of 978 participants, 174 (17.8% of total enrolees) of whom successfully completed the course. Based on consolidated responses from the end-of-course survey, enrolees had a very satisfactory to excellent learning experience with the course.

“Accelerating WinS in Divisions” is a MOOC for equipping sub-national officials with essential knowledge and learning activities to help support and manage WinS program implementation. The pilot run was launched in early 2020 and just finished this May. Out of a total of 169 participants, 27 (16% of total enrolees) successfully completed the course. Evaluation results show that the course especially led to changes for indicators requiring school-based management aspects (i.e., access to drinking water, group handwashing). It was also discovered that schools with course completers made improvements with their scoring points in the annual WinS monitoring compared to those schools with non-completers.

Feedback obtained from the respondents of the end-of-course survey of the pilot period are being thoroughly reviewed and documented to guide the MOOCs development team in addressing the challenges that were raised by the first batch of participants. Those lessons will be used to further improve the overall user experience for succeeding enrollees.