Teaching / ← Teaching philosophy

Assessment that makes learning visible

I combine frequent, low-stakes retrieval with a smaller number of substantial interpretive assignments. A short weekly quiz of around ten questions checks key ideas and gives prompt feedback, with occasional longer cumulative quizzes. Questions include short applications and distinctions between plausible explanations. Efficient marking, with tools such as ZipGrade where appropriate, leaves time for discussing misconceptions and for feedback on selected writing.

Quizzes alone cannot establish research competence. Brief in-class explanations, annotated readings, analytic memos, staged projects, and focused oral follow-ups show how students connect concepts to evidence. I sample these activities strategically rather than mark every contribution at equal depth. A transparent rubric, published return dates for every staged task, and opportunities for revision keep assessment developmental. Students should be able to explain their work as well as submit it.

Course design and materials

I design my own courses and materials. Every staged task has a guide, a template, and a worked example. Research methods courses move from a question to a proposal, an ethics application, a dataset, and a report, with each procedure (ethics clearance, MAXQDA analysis) taught before the task that needs it. Where local concepts fit, I teach research through them: one lesson frames qualitative research as pag-unawa (understanding) and compares research methods to jeepney routes, “different paths, same destination.” Selected course outlines are on the Course materials page.

What I have taught

• Polytechnic University of the Philippines, College of Communication: Qualitative Methods in Communication Research; Qualitative Data Analysis and Research Report; Media Criticism (BA Communication Research); Discourse Analysis in Communication, taught twice; and Advanced Research Report Writing and Publication (PhD in Communication).
• De La Salle University, Department of Sociology and Behavioral Sciences: Science, Technology and Society, fully online and hybrid.
• University of Santo Tomas, Faculty of Arts and Letters: Political Communication; Writing for New Media.
• Earlier: marking for an undergraduate communication course at the University of Canterbury, and senior high school and undergraduate courses in Manila (2013–2017).

What I am prepared to teach

Ready now (taught before): qualitative research methods, qualitative data analysis, and research report writing; discourse analysis (graduate); research writing and publication (graduate); media criticism, political communication, and writing for new media; science, technology and society.

Ready to prepare (grounded in my research): introduction to communication theory, tested against Philippine and Southeast Asian cases; media and society; health communication; risk and crisis communication, including what happens after a crisis is officially over; science communication; political sociology.

Proposed electives: Political Communication Beyond Elections; Trust, Scandal, and Democratic Life; Interpretive and Comparative Methods in Communication. I would develop these in conversation with an existing curriculum and students’ needs.

In a theory course, students explain a concept from a primary reading before applying it to a media example and assessing its limits. In research methods, they connect a question, evidence, analytical choices, and ethical obligations before using AI to interrogate the design.

Curriculum and program design

As program proponent, I designed a research-intensive PhD in Interdisciplinary Communication Studies for the Polytechnic University of the Philippines: a milestone-based structure (proposal, ethics clearance, publication, defense), several dissertation formats, a bridging track for graduates from outside the social sciences and humanities, and a dual-advisor supervision model.

Teaching beyond my own courses

I have trained students and colleagues in research and writing beyond my own courses, including as resource speaker for an undergraduate MAXQDA certificate course at Silliman University (2025) and in guest lectures at Universitas Airlangga on generative AI in communication research and on academic writing and publishing (2026).

Course materials → · Full academic CV