February 12, 2018

The Philippine Rice Information System  conducted an Operations Manual Usability Assessment last January 15, 2018 at the Heritage Hotel Manila to assess the content and usability of the PRISM Operations Manual for the intended users before its final printing. Through the facilitation of a team of editors led by Dr. Lorna Calumpang, the project team had assessed the operations manual systematically and creatively. There were 87 participants from DA Regional Field Offices, PhilRice, and IRRI who joined the assessment.

Breakout sessions were made during the assessment. Activities such as reading and commenting the chapters of the manual and filling out of survey instruments were also conducted through the help of the PRISM staffs who served as facilitators during the assessment. Role playing and simulation on the field monitoring procedures were also conducted to assess if users understand and can easily follow the manual.

After the activities during the break out sessions, feedbacks from the volunteer role players were raised. The participants also shared their impressions and lessons learned.

Ms. Alice Laborte, PRISM’s Project Leader said that PRISM received positive results from the external reviewers. She also added that PRISM works are very pioneering thus, everyone should be proud as it moves on to operationalization.

After the usability assessment, the PRISM Team will be working on improvements in the operations manual that will be ready for distribution before 2nd semester 2018.