Level of Awareness, Implementation, and Engagement on the Community Outreach Activities of a Selected Higher Education Institution in Cavite: Basis for a Community Extension Services Plan

Abstract

Introduction

HEI's are enjoined to respond to the call for social transformation especially for the poorest of the poor. ( RA 7722) . This priority, however, was given less importance among the trifold mission of the HEI's ( Nasution, 2006). Hence, this study aimed to evaluate the community outreach activities of a selected Higher Education Institution (HEI) in the level of awareness, implementation, and engagement of the three groups of respondents, of select HEI's in the Cavite, Philippines.

Methods

This study adopted Descriptive -Evaluative research. The respondents of the study were composed of twenty (20) faculty members ( full-time and part-time), one hundred-two (102) students and thirty (30) selected families of the adopted community selected using purposive sampling. For Quantitative data analysis, both descriptive and inferential measures were utilized in the treatment of data gathered from the self-made questionnaire including frequency count, percentage, mean, ranking, analysis of variance, and applicable multiple comparisons or posthoc tests. For the Qualitative data analysis gathered from group discussion, unstructured interview and documentary analysis, coding and memoing were used to analyze the data.

Results

The study identified the Alternative Learning System and the Mathematical literacy as the least responded need of the community. On the level of implementation, conducting community needs analysis is least implemented. On the level of engagement, the respondents were not engaged in Program and Activity information dissemination. The analysis of variance manifested a significant difference among the three respondents in the three areas of concern, namely, the level of awareness, implementation, and engagement. The post hoc analysis further showed the group of faculty, staff and administrator caused a significant difference to the two other groups of respondents.

Discussions

The discrepancies on the level of awareness, implementation, and engagement of the three groups of respondents can be attributed to the absence of the concrete plan of the Community Extension Services of the selected Higher Education Institution in Cavite. The researcher, therefore, recommends adopting the output of this study, the Community Extension Services Plan. This can be done through the incorporation and integration of the Community Extension Activities in the core and minor subjects as part of the requirement of the course.