Impact assessment of a campus journalism extension project: Write here right now

Abstract

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are directed to instill change in the people of their community and implementing extension programs and services is one of the modalities. This study assessed the impact of the “Write Here, Right Now” extension project of the College of Teacher Education of one state university in Laguna. “Write Here, Right Now” is a set of training aimed to develop skills in campus journalism, such as news writing, feature writing, sports writing, editorial writing, editorial cartooning, literary writing, photojournalism, and layout design with students of one elementary school in the Department of Education Sta. Maria District is the beneficiary of the project. This mixed methods research utilizing the sequential exploratory design intends to explore the attainment of the objectives of the project and the impact of the project on the social aspect of its beneficiaries. The responses of the total enumeration of the beneficiaries were considered in the analysis of the evaluation of the project and two participants for the case study were interviewed. All the training conducted was rated excellent and beneficiaries have gone from zero to adequately skilled in campus journalism due to the competencies acquired from the project. Triangulated results showed that the “Write Here, Right Now” extension project has contributed significantly to the improvement in the knowledge and skills of the students as evidenced by the establishment of a school paper and awards received in district-wide and division-wide press conferences. It is therefore recommended to replicate the project in a different locale and with an increase in the number of beneficiaries.