Category: Featured

October 28, 2022 was a challenging but memorable day for the faculty and staff researchers of JBLCF-Bacolod as, finally, the proposals they have conceptualized since August 2022 and written for two months since then were presented and reviewed by external experts. The 2022-2023 Oral Presentation and External Review of Research Proposals virtually took place thru Zoom with the researchers themselves, the Administrator, and some members of the Unit Research Committee and Department Heads in attendance.

Dr. Dennis V. Madrigal, Dean of the Recoleto de Bacolod Graduate School of the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos, and Dr. Carmen C. Menes, Head for Research, Accreditation, and Quality Management Office, served as this year’s external reviewers/experts. As outstanding research leaders of their respective institutions, Dr. Madrigal and Dr. Menes shared their vision of elevating the papers in terms of quality, making them worthy of international publication. The process was tedious yet gratifying as both experts scrutinized the areas that needed to be strengthened, improved, or even revised while offering helpful suggestions to the researchers.

Engr. Roberto Neal S. Sobrejuanite, who remained attuned in the day-long activity, was all praises for having witnessed the entire exercise. He expressed his gratitude to the external reviewers for their patience in sharing their expertise and declared his all-out support to the researchers.

This activity articulates JBLFMU’s unrelenting quest for excellence in the field of research, making it part of the research process that researchers undergo, from the conceptualization to the completion of their papers.

This year’s research proposals deal with research topics in various disciplines in the context of Maritime Education and Training, as well as other issues and concerns affecting seafarers and the industry, and the physical and social environment.

“Don’t just give them wings; teach them the tricks of how to use them well so, like you, they can spread their wings and fly.” —-Dr. Emeliza T. Estimo, Research Coordinator, JBLCF-Bacolod

On August 9-10, 2022, a Research Capability Enhancement Webinar-Writeshop was hosted by JBLCF-Bacolod for the faculty and staff identified to do research for the school year 2022-2023. The first part of the activity was a webinar held on the morning of August 9, which was graced by the wisdom of two of the best research leaders in the city, Dr. Dean DV Madrigal, Dean of the Recoleto de Bacolod Graduate School of UNO-R, and Dr. Carmen Castro Menes, Head of the Research Office of LCC-Bacolod. They shared their personal journeys in research and publication and inspired the participants to explore opportunities to be internationally acclaimed as published researchers. Miss Irene C. Mamon, faculty of the College of Maritime Education and an active member of the Unit Research Committee, served as the MC of this virtual activity.

The second part of the activity continued in the afternoon of Day 1 thru a face-to-face writing session with the researchers. The primary purpose of this initiative was to guide the participants through the actual writing process while keeping tabs on fine points to develop publishable quality papers. Dr. Emeliza T. Estimo, the Research Coordinator of JBLCF-Bacolod, started the session by mentoring the researchers on how to write the INTRODUCTION.

We were also grateful for the professional assistance shared by Dr. Sylvino V. Tupas, our in-house research consultant, mentor, and expert in Statistics, who served as mentor-facilitator for the writing of the METHODOLOGY.

Day 2 continued with Dr. Elisa V. Garcia, who trained the researchers on the proper way of referencing and citing sources. She also introduced Zotero as one of the reference management tools which could help the researchers organize their research sources.

The two-day activity was participated by various researchers from the College of Maritime Education, College of Business and Education, and some administrative staff. The said event successfully ended with the presentation and critiquing of one of the model outputs authored by Mr. Rogie Padernal, a Mathematics instructor at the College of Business and Education. Kudos and thank you to all our participants for their cooperation which contributed to the activity’s success.

Key people of the JBLCF-Bacolod Unit Research Committee (JB-URC) joined their heads together in formulating the Unit Research Agenda for the next three years on July 28, 2022, at the campus Main Library. The activity was spearheaded by Dr. Emeliza T. Estimo, Research Coordinator of the Bacolod campus.

 

With the JBLFMU Integrated Management System Policy and the JBLFMU Ten-Point Agenda as the main points of reference, the URC identified key topics/areas for research and aligned them with the National Higher Education Research Agenda (NHERA), the Philippine Association of Maritime Universities National Research Agenda (PAMI-NRA), and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDG). The initiative of aligning the Research Agenda of the University with the research priorities in the national and international landscape is meant to ensure that the studies being conducted are relevant and responsive to the institution’s needs and the global community.

 

Other ideas for research were also derived from problems identified during the previous year’s Management Review; findings, observations, and OFIs from previous audits; topics suggested for further research by studies previously conducted; institutional problems needing solutions; and feedback gathered from various groups of stakeholders composed of the employees, students, parents, alumni, and shipping companies/industry partners who participated in identifying the pressing issues for further exploration and research.

 

For each identified research topic or key research area, suggested research titles were proposed by the committee members, who were divided into six working groups. The interactive workshop was done face-to-face, aided by Teams, one of the applications included in the Microsoft Office Software Packages. Using this application, all groups could simultaneously encode their ideas on the e-spaces. The application has editing features; hence, the Research Coordinator could automatically review, edit, and improve their inputs as the workshop progressed, making the entire work ready for presentation when the allotted time for the workshop ended.

This best practice has worked well for the RDC of JBLCF-Bacolod since 2013. The activity was another remarkable experience for the members of the Unit Research Committee, who were driven by their sheer commitment and sense of volunteerism in sharing their ideas as they worked collaboratively to complete the task.

Sincere appreciation is accorded to the significant contribution of all the URC members who actively participated in the process. Thank you also to Engr. Roberto Neal S. Sobrejuanite, Administrator of JBLCF-Bacolod, for the gentle push and encouraging words that warmed the hearts of the participants.