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UNIVERSITY OF MAKATI

HIGHER SCHOOL NG UMAK

S.Y. 2020-2021

IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS IN RESEARCH

PROJECT

“Pinoy Code: Integrating the Unconnected National Information Technology

Workforce”

By:

DE GUZMAN, CHEN ABRIEL

ERNA, LOUIS MIGUEL

MONTESA, NIEL IVAN

MORES, AMIEL JAPHETH

SORIANO, HANNON NORIELE

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1:
Rationale of the Study 3
Research Objectives 4
Hypothesis 4
Review of Related Literature 5
Correlation Between Measures 7
Conceptual Framework 8
Significance of the Study 9
Definition of Terms 9
Chapter 2
Research Methodology 11
Research Design 11
Population Sampling 11
Research Locale 12
Research Instrument 12
Data Gathering Procedure 12
Chapter 3
Data Analysis 14
Results 21
Discussion 21
Conclusion 22
Recommendations 22
References 24
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CHAPTER 1
Rationale of the Study

The IT course has been popular amongst Filipino high school students

significantly in our current era. With that exposure of the IT course in

Philippines, most Filipinos consider IT course as their first option in college

since it's in demand in the work industry. In that case, most IT students or

even an IT specialist will search answers for their problems. The problems

they are experiencing might be unique or common problems that a normal

IT would encounter. In this study, the researchers have come up with the

idea to launch a website where students and IT professionals can reach out

to each other with ease. Our main objective is to help IT students in general

to solve their own problems by reaching out to professionals and to provide

knowledge respectively. Students nor professionals can write anything on

the website as long as it's IT related, they can ask for tips, problems, and

even fix their complications. The researchers decided to conduct this

research to help other students that are struggling with the course. During

the pandemic, online classes have started and the most reliable source is

the internet. The researchers want to use the internet as a tool to launch a

platform where IT students can address their current problem they are

experiencing and it can be answered by experienced IT professionals.

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Research Objectives

This research study was to create a medium to help the information

technology workforce to: unify as a community, help information technology

students to solve intricate problems and aiding students by connecting

them with professionals.

Hypothesis

 If the Pinoy Code forum proves to be affluent in aiding the unification

of the local Information Technology workforce, then a positive change

will be noticeable in the quality of knowledge, cooperation and team

building in the field.

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents the related literature and studies, which provided the

researcher the needed information and direction for the completion of the

study.

Online Forums as a Platform for Education

If used correctly, technology has the potential to improve student learning.

Students may be more independent and engaged in their learning if they

have access to technology. (McKimm, Jollie & Cantilllon, 2003). With the

rapid development of computer-mediated communication, online forums

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have become more involved in classroom settings to promote student

critical thinking, knowledge construction and language learning autonomy

(Lim & Chai 2004; Marra, Moore & Klimczak 2004). Computer-based online

discussions or online forums have been used in a wide range of higher

education setting to provide major learning environments for distance

education or to supplement face-to-face discussion (Jacobsen 2006).

Discussion board or online forums are one of the primary tools of electronic

learning according to Harman & Koohang (2005).

Technology and increased online access offer flexibility for all students,

including on-campus students who can choose to access online lecture

notes and resources instead of attending on-campus lectures. Through the

use of computer-mediated communication, it also supports distance and

online learners. The use of online discussion forums allows students and

teachers to interact, and it is changing the way universities approach

distance education. (McDonald, 2007)

Online Forums as a Platform to inquire Field Experts

Millions of questions and answers are available through Community

Question-Answering (CQA) services, making them a valuable resource for

information not easily accessible through web search engines. The main
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goal of these services is to provide high-quality answers to users' questions

by collaborating with a community of experts. Voting, badges and

reputation are examples of mechanisms provided by some CQA services to

assure the quality of questions and answers. (Riahi, 2012).

In theory, online communities allow people to gain access to a diverse

group of users' knowledge and abilities. In reality, the most qualified users

are not participating in current implementations of various online

communities. The involvement of qualified users, or experts, is critical to

the social welfare and widespread adoption of these systems. (DeAngelis,

2011)

StackOverflow’s on Community Unification

StackOverflow's general concept is to allow expert discussions on

questions, provide a way to collaborate on discussions, allow for the

determination of problem solutions, and finally to preserve discussions.

Because the same discussions frequently recur, this final aspect,

preservation, can be considered essential. (Hara, 2016)

StackOverflow allow that any question can be asked within the platform as

community-driven self-moderation takes place. Any question that is not

related to technical topics (for example, spam) will receive negative

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comments and down-votes, resulting in the question being removed from

the attractive search result positioning. Given a sufficiently low score,

questions and comments are eventually removed.

Correlation between Measures

To support our hypothesis the researchers will be doing statistical measure

about IT students on how on effective the project will do the IT students. It

will be measure by asking questions to the respondents on how they take

the information provided and the help the students got. The researcher can

also measure on how well it help the students in the education we are

currently in.
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Conceptual Framework

Item 1

Integration

Unconnected
National
Information
Technology
Workforce

Item 2

Local Forum

Knowledge of the Knowledge of other

user who asked a programmers that
question can contribute or
help other
programmer
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Significance of the Study

Students, this study may help them to get more information about the

various subject. Being educated can help them to adjust in this type of

situation for them to improve their skills while learning through online.

Teachers, this may serve as a guide on how to help their students to learn

more as they continue to pursue their dreams. This may help them know if

the lessons they teach is effective and to know how to improve their

teaching skills while teaching their students through online.

Parents, may be informed about what is happening to their kids’ online

class and like the teachers; they may know that their kids are studying.

Future Researchers, this may help some future researchers to gather

some information for their research, especially if they will make a research

about on how to help their fellow students through research. The future

researchers can base on this research as they study their own research.

Definition of Terms

Information technology - is the use of computers to store, retrieve, transmit,

and manipulate data or information.

StackOverflow - a question and answer site for professional and enthusiast

programmers.
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Computer-mediated Communication - an umbrella term that encompasses

various forms of human communication through networked computers,

which can be synchronous or asynchronous and involve one-to-one, one-

to-many, or many-to-many exchanges of text, audio, and/or video

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Chapter 2
Research Methodology

This chapter presents the research methodology which includes the

research design used in conducting the study. It also includes the sources

of data, locale of the study, population/sampling, and the instrumentation

and data collection.

Research Design

Quantitative research design was used to collect and gather information

about the respondent’s knowledge about the Information Technology

community. Specifically, descriptive research design was used to describe

and to test relationships between the answers of the respondents. It was

also presented in numerical form, and analyzed through the use of

statistics. The collected data was used as a basis of information of the

development of the Pinoy Code forum.

Population Sampling

The participants of the study are the students of two classes of Grade 12

Computer Programming, namely CPG-01 and CPG-02, regardless of their

age, gender, race, and socioeconomic status. The study won't include other

strands.
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The sampling technique that the researchers have decided to use is

voluntary sampling, in which the respondents are free to participate in the

survey.

Research Locale

The study was conducted at University of Makati, also known as UMak. It is

a public school located at J.P, Rizal Ext.

Makati City, Philippines. This school was the first universities to pilot the

Department of Education’s Senior High School Program in 2012.

Research Instrument

The instrument used in this study is a questionnaire made in Google Forms

to gather the required data for each student. The researchers also wanted

to investigate how many students are struggling to study computer

programming, the researchers also wanted to measure the frequency each

of the student's knowledge about the mentioned course.

Data Gathering Procedure

We conducted the gathering of data through Google Documents. Because

of the restrictions of the quarantine, the researchers were unable to go out

and give physical hard copies of the research instruments. The link of the
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instrument was sent to several grade 12 CPG students in the University of

Makati through messenger. We managed to get fortyfive (45) respondents

to be able to answer the instrument.

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Analysis and Interpretation of the Data

This chapter presents the presentation, analysis and interpretation of the

gathered data. The researchers used a descriptive form of analysis.

Data Analysis

Table 1 and Table 2 shows the demographics of the respondents. Out of

50 respondents, 76% of them were males and 24% of them are females.

The researchers also noticed that we had diversity in the sections, getting 2

or more respondents in every CPG section.

Table 1. Section of the Respondents.

Section Respondents
F %
G11 01 CPG 2 4%
G11 02 CPG 9 18%
G11 03 CPG 8 16%
G12 01 CPG 2 4%
G12 02 CPG 29 58%
Total 50 100%

Table 2. Gender of the Respondents.

Gender Population
F %
Male 38 76%
Female 12 24%
Total 50 100%
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The Tables 3 – 17 represent the data that was collected in the main survey.

The main survey consists of two different multiple-choice questions and a

Likert scale.

The data gathered in the main survey was varied, although it revealed that

the respondents were very familiar with internet forums and was able to

successfully submit feedback for Pinoy Code. In tables 3 – 9, the majority

of the respondents were able to say that they used internet forums a few

times a week with a mean of 7.75, and that they mostly used Reddit, with a

mean of 7.66. These responses also informed us that they use these

forums as a form of learning programming, with a mean of 11.33.

The responses in tables 10-17 tells the researchers the evaluation for

Pinoy Code. It was mainly positive with 98% of the respondents saying that

they will either use it very frequently or they will use whenever they need it.

The questions also consist of what kind of improvements Pinoy Code may

do to better help the integration of the information technology work field.

This is also varied, with majority of the respondents agreeing on the

following improvements: more categories for different fields, a different

theme, a larger networking platform and the ability to tag posts with the

school a student is in.

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Table 3. Internet Forums used for Education.

Choices f % Mean
Reddit 23 46% 7.66
StackOverflow 16 32% 5.33
Quora 11 22% 4.66
Table 4. Frequency of Usage of Forums.

Choices f % Mean
Daily 4 8% 1
A few times a week 31 62% 7.75
Once every month 14 28% 3.5
A few times a year 1 2% 0.25
Table 5. Form of Interaction with the Forums.

Choices f % Mean
Ask questions regarding 12 24% 4
Programming
Read existing thread about 34 68% 11.33
the specific problem
Discuss with other people 4 8% 1.33
on other threads

Table 6. Factors that make a forum helpful.

Choices f % Mean
Specific information for 19 38% 4.75
specific problems
The freedom to ask anything 15 30% 3.75
and answer anything
The privilege of getting 13 26% 3.25
questions answered by
experienced people
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The freedom to ask anything 3 6% 0.75

and answer anything

Choices f % Mean
Ability to ask questions in 25 50% 8.33
Tagalog or Taglish for easier
communication
Tagalog language for the 8 16% 2.67
interface of the forum
Organized forums for 17 34% 5.67
individual Programming
Languages
Table 7. Factors to make a localized forum better.

Choices f % Mean
Oversaturation of 14 28% 4.67
information
Categories are not 17 34% 5.67
organized
Trolls or spammers 19 38% 6.33
ruining the website
Table 8. Factors that make Internet Forums bad.

Table 9. Type of information to see in a localized forum.

Choices f % Mean
Categorized 33 66% 11
discussions regarding
programming
Networking forum 9 18% 3
where you could meet
new people
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Updates about new 8 16% 2.67

technological advances
Table 10. Forums that Pinoy Code can be compared to.

Choices f % Mean
Reddit 25 50% 8.33
StackOverflow 21 42% 7
Quora 4 8% 1.33

Choices f % Mean
Ability to ask any question 19 38% 6.33
to be able to answer any
type of question
To be able to answer any 12 24% 4
type of question
Friendly user interface 19 38% 6.33

Table 11. Function to integrate the information technology work field.

Table 12. Improvements on Pinoy Code’s functionality.

Choices f % Mean
More categories for different 25 50% 8.33
fields
Ability to message other people 12 24% 4
To be able to give badges for 13 26% 4.33
the people who are qualified for
it
Table 13. Improvements on Pinoy Code’s interface.

Choices f % Mean
Different themes or color 21 42% 7
The language should be in 10 20% 3.33
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tagalog
Less clutter or more 19 38% 6.33
minimalistic

Choices f % Mean
Be able to access it with school 25 50% 8.33
email
Different categories for 12 24% 4
individual schools or
universities
To be able to tags of your own 13 26% 4.33
school when posting
Table 14. Improvements on Pinoy Code’s accessibility to students.

Table 15. Improvements on Pinoy Code’s accessibility to students.

Choices f % Mean
Offer a larger networking 25 50% 8.33
platform
Have company or business 12 24% 4
tags
Have specific forums for 13 26% 4.33
individual fields
Table 16. Frequency of usage on supposed Pinoy Code release.

Choices f % Mean
Yes, I would use it very 19 38% 6.33
frequently
I would use it whenever I 30 60% 10
need it
I would barely use it 1 2% 0.33

Table 17. Video Evaluation.

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Indicators Strongly Agree Disagree (2) Strongly Mean Standard

Agree (3) Disagree (1) Deviation
(4)
F % F % F % F %
Pinoy Code is a 34 68% 14 28% 1 2% 1 2% 3.62 3.14
good medium
for the IT
community.
Pinoy Code is a 18 36% 28 56% 3 6% 1 2% 3.26 2.79
functional
forum.
I would use 24 48% 24 48% 1 2% 1 2% 3.42 2.95
Pinoy Code to
help find
solutions for my
Programming
problems
Pinoy Code 29 58% 20 40% 0 0 1 2% 3.54 3.06
offers freedom
for me to
answer
questions
regarding
programming or
ask them.
I can learn 28 56% 20 40% 1 2% 1 2% 3.5 3.03
different
programming
techniques
The video 24 48% 24 48% 1 2% 1 2% 3.42 2.95
perfectly
captured what
the Pinoy Code
forum can do.
I would 27 54% 22 44% 0 0 1 2% 3.5 3.02
recommend
Pinoy Code
forum to my
classmates
Pinoy Code has 29 58% 20 40% 0 0 1 2% 3.54 3.06
a user-friendly
interface
Total 27.8 20.97

Results
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The gathered data in the pre-test will serve as the basis of information

whether the respondents are familiar with the topic of the research. The

questions were formed to test what cognitive knowledge about the topic the

respondent may have. On the other hand, the post-test and the evaluation

of the video tests the effectivity or the functionality of Pinoy Code, whether

it succeeds or fails.

The pre-test revealed that the majority of the respondents used internet

forums as a medium of education and is also familiar with the benefits and

flaws of it. The respondents then evaluated and chose what improvements

Pinoy Code can have based on their answers on the pre-test. Although

certain upgrades were in order, the respondents agreed that the current

version of Pinoy Code was more than enough to succeed to connect the

Information Technology workforce.

Discussion and Interpretation

According to the post-test of the research instrument, 68% of the

respondents agreed that Pinoy Code is a good medium for the information

technology workforce to communicate. Further proving the first hypotheses

that Pinoy Code can aid in unifying the community. 56% of the respondents

also agreed that Pinoy Code can help them solve intricate problems
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regarding programming due to the ability to learn specific techniques and

solutions from experts in an internet forum. This also helps the first

hypotheses, since internet forums or CQAs’ (Community Question-

Answering) main intention is to connect amateurs to experts to further

improve their knowledge. This also obtains many of the research

objectives: aiding students in learning programming languages, unifying

students to information technology professionals, and allowing the students

to learn how to solve programming issues by themselves.

Conclusion

After thorough analysis of the results, the researchers may conclude that

Pinoy Code does prove to be affluent in aiding the unification of the local

Information Technology workforce.

Recommendation

The researchers experienced a handful of limitations throughout the

execution of this research project. The researchers recommend the

following to future researches that are related:

 A much larger sample size

 Expand more about the local information technology community

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The researchers also recommend that information technology students

should utilize internet forums as a source of information that cannot be

easily accessible by normal search engines.

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References

 Wang, Shaowei, Lo, David, Lingxiao, Jiang (2013). An empirical

study on developer interactions in StackOverflow

 Doyle, Walter; Olszewski, Ronald W. (2021). Colleague Interaction

and Teacher Performance

 Hu, Xiaowen, Zhou, Jiang (2015.) Knowledge Sharing and Life

Satisfaction: The Roles of Colleague Relationships and Gender

 De Angelis, David (2011). Encouraging expert participation in online

communities

 Riahi, Alex (2012). Study on Q&A Services Between Community-

based Question