VIRAMA: An Interactive Baybayin Learning Application
Dayrit, Richard V. Garino, Ronnel Roy S. Mercado, Joshua C.
BSIT BSIT
Mabalacat City College Mabalacat City College Mabalacat City College
Mabalacat City Mabalacat City Mabalacat City
09967390888 0995851170 09361153464
rvdayrit04@gmail.com ronnelroyg9@gmail.com jhoshmercado@gmail.com
ABSTRACT
Virama, is an android based application that provides various
functionalities and features in teaching on how to write Baybayin
– one of the many scripts and the most dominant writing system
of the Philippines. The application is provides and interactive
experience to user which makes it unique compared to other
similar applications in the market.
The application will provide varieties of lessons which is essential
in learning the traditional script. It will guide you in different
topics such as word construction, glyph strokes, vowel
cancellations and etcetera. After learning the fundamentals of the
writing script, you can practice your learnings with the use of the
GAMES which is another feature that the application caters. Your
expertise can also be measured by it, gauging it from the time
finished the quiz and number of right answers. The TOOLS
feature will also a handy function in familiarizing the other glyphs
or characters, from Flashcards and custom keyboard that can be
used in translating Baybayin to Tagalog and vice versa. Virama,
as a teaching material, is a lenient method in teaching the Filipino
citizen given by its wide availability not limited to students or
teachers and professors, as long as the users know how to speak
or communicate in Tagalog, the application is available to use.
Mobility and accessibility is also one of the selling factors that the
application has which makes the application accessible not only to
the young but also to the elders with the basic knowledge in
mobile devices.
Following the approval of the proposed House Bill 1022 or also
known as the National Writing System Act, this application will
make a drastic change in learning the script compared to the
traditional way of teaching with the use of pen and paper. This
social relevance is an opportunity for the IT industry to tackle this
area of innovation not limiting it only in teaching Baybayin but
also in other fields or subjects and courses.
General Terms
Teaching, Interactivity, Leaning, Writing, Translation, Tutorial,
Lesson, Quizzes, Games, Social Relevance, Mobile Device,
Android Operating System, Application
Keywords
Virama, Baybayin, House Bill 1022, Scripts, Glyphs, Tagalog,
Writing System, Strokes
1. INTRODUCTION
Writing system is established in almost the whole entirety of
mankind, whether it be from the Asian, European, American and
other continents. As what David R. Olson (n.d.) once said, writing
Tiosen, Aeroll C. Valen, Aljon R
BSIT BSIT BSIT
Mabalacat City College Mabalacat City College
Mabalacat City Mabalacat City
09755411475 09667560578
blaketiosen@gmail.com aljonreyesvalen@gmail.com
is a technology of relatively recent history that must be taught to
each generation of children so they may concentrate on a single
aspect in which it would increase their efficiency in using a
certain script. Meaning it has been observable even thousands of
years before, from the Egyptians, Sumerians, and Greeks. Even
the Philippines has its very own writing system that is called
Baybayin and is used before the Spanish colonization. Even
though the patronization of the late country’s writing system has
vanished prior to the colonization of the country, in our current
times, the new generation are spearheading an act to revive the
once dead Baybayin. Through the approval of the proposal for
making Baybayin as the national writing system of the
Philippines, it is an opportunity for the new generation to provide
an advance way of teaching it given that we are at the modern age
of technological advancement. And with the help of innovating
the Baybayin teachings through its implementation to mobile
devices, which is the goal of this research, the access to the
national script will be more efficient, and is more effective
because of its diverse availability for the new and the old
generations because mobilization of various old practices is the
way for it to adapt to the fast progression of our world.
2. RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
2.1 General Objective
The study aims to develop an interactive mobile application,
running in an Android Operating System Platform which will
provide an exemplary mode of education for Baybayin to its
users, through basic writing, syllabic ruling (addition and
subtraction), and word construction.
2.2 Specific Objectives
The following are the specific objectives of the research:
1. To develop an android application that teaches on
how to write Baybayin
2. To generate a feature that tutors the user on how to
write a certain glyph and validates its accuracy
3. To create an interactive experience that will appeal
to the attention span of the user
4. To develop a way to measure the learnings of the
user through quizzes and/or side games
5. To create a custom keyboard which translates the
input of the user from Baybayin to Tagalog and
Tagalog to Baybayin
2.3 Scope and Limitations of the Research
This section encompasses the scope of the study and presents the
limitations which are not covered by the developed system.
2.3.1 Scope of the Research
The following are the scope of the study:
The application’s scope surrounds around the development of an
interactive learning experience, provide lessons which will give
the user the basics and essentials needed in learning on how to
write in Baybayin, customization of Baybayin Keyboard that
translates the Latin alphabet, gauging feature to measure the
learnings of the user, and tools to practice the acquired knowledge
in writing the script.
2.3.2 Limitations of the research
The following are the limitations of the study:
The developed system is only limited to Android Operating
System. The application is also available for Baybayin which is
only one of the many writing scripts of the country
3. RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES
Culture is the identity and characteristic of a particular
community where they share the same belief, language, religion,
and other social habits (Zimmermann, 2017). To make it more
understandable, culture is the "way of life" of people in a
particular place and how they do things on their own. It is
considered as the main concept having the range of phenomena in
which it can be transmitted in human societies through social
learning. The Center for Advance Research on Language
Acquisition (2017) took a step further and they stated that culture
is a shared behavior and interactions that are learned through
socialization. With that being said, each and every people across
the globe has a culture to be part of.
One thing is certain in a culture, and that is the imminent change.
(De Rossi, 2017). Because of this constant change, the past should
be respected and preserved as well. Culture can become the key in
our interconnected world, which consists of many ethnically
diverse societies but can also be corrupted by the conflicts to the
other elements which make up culture. The United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) was
built by the United Nations to identify the national heritage of
every culture to protect and conserve it.
Languages play a unifying and a diversifying role in human
society as a whole. We can also say that a language is a part of
culture and plays a big role in it. There have been a lot of confuse
that occurred whether the official language is the Tagalog or the
Filipino. According to the Philippine Constitution initiated in
1986, the Filipino language was named as the country's official
language. The Tagalog language actually came first as it was
initiated in 1897. But then, it was the Filipino language, wherein
its basis is the Tagalog language that became as an official
language of the Philippines (Kungu, 2018).
British classist Eric A. Havelock (n.d.) once wrote, at a stroke of
the Greeks provided a table of elements of linguistic sound not
only manageable because of economy, but for the time in the
history of homo sapiens, also accurate, pertaining to the invention
of the Greeks of that alphabets and its convenience to the people.
Such inventions are notable advance for representing the Greek
language but not necessarily for representing the Semitic
language. That’s the area where the eastern countries are capable
of achieving language such as Chinese and Japanese, which
possesses a simpler syllabic architecture together with a much
greater count of homophones. What has been mentioned
showcases the diverse characteristic of a writing system from
different parts of the world and its adaptability to fit what certain
needs are to be met.
Writing is a form of communication with the use of visible marks
that are related to each other (Olson, n.d.). Languages is defined
as systems of symbols and we can say that a writing system is for
symbolizing these symbols. As previously mentioned, a writing
system renders a language visible. Speaking and writing depend
upon the underlying structures of language. With that, writing
cannot be ordinarily be read by someone who's not familiar with
the linguistic language that was used. David R. Olson (n.d.) also
stated that syllabaries provide unique symbol for each distinct
syllable and a syllable is a unit of speech that is composed of a
vowel count or sometimes, a combination of consonant and vowel
sounds.
In the Philippines, there is a writing system that was used by the
Filipinos prior to the Hispanic colonization. Baybayin is an
ancient writing system native to the Philippines which has been a
core part of our heritage and culture for centuries ("Ancient
Writing Script of the Philippines", 2018). It was mainly used to
sign documents, write poetries, communicate, and to write letters
to one another. According to the Emerencia Catapang (2014),
there are several indigenous scripts that are associated or share the
same lineage of Baybayin that are still used by some tribes and
communities in the Philippines and these ancient scripts managed
to survive because of the people that prevented the influence from
the outside to their own way of life. Filipinos believed that the
Spanish were the one to blame for the demise of the script but
they are also the ones to keep it documented extensively (Kabuay,
2013).
Baybayin was widely known in the Spanish colonization. Some
wanted it to be destroyed, and some took the advantage of the
native's literacy by publishing several books that contained
Baybayin text (Morrow, 2002). Baybayin was noted by the
Spanish priest Pedro Chirino in 1604 and Antonio de Morga in
1609 to be known by most Filipinos. However, according to
William Henry Scott, there were some dates from 1590s who
could not sign affidavits or oaths, and witnesses who could not
sign land deeds in the 1620s. The first book that was published
was the Doctrina Christiana in 1593. Many scholars believed that
it was based mainly from the manuscript that was written by Fr.
Juan de Placencia. This book also provides a view of how the
Tagalog language was spoken before the Spanish had a chance to
make changes on the language.
Education can have no endings because learning is a part of an
individual's entire life (Lideman, 2015). As what E.C Lindeman
(2015) stated, learning is already attached on an individual's life.
It is a continuous process in which it can help someone to easily
understand things with less comprehension. Learning things
through education enables us to interpret things among the other
ideas. It is also proven that some may gain information but it
cannot be apply into knowledge without proper education.
According to Kafoumba Doumbia (2013), one thing why the
education is important because it is the one of the major
foundation of gaining knowledge and it also develops an
individual's perspective in life.
As highly prioritized by the government, education in the
Philippines is considered as one of the most important thing than
an individual must take (Lockyer, 2014). In fact, children are
obliged to attend the school, spending a total of 12 years in basic
education before proceeding into college - with 6 years in
primary, 4 years in junior high school, and an additional 2 years
for senior high school because of the introduction of the K-12
program in 2012. As records shown by the World Data Atlas
(2015), the Philippines' adult literacy rate, which ranges from 15
years old and above, climbed up from 2000 up to 2015. Year 2000
and 2003 had a value of 92.6% literacy rate and a massive 96.6%
in year 2015.
Students and teachers, particularly the new teachers, are
demanding the modern day teaching for its capability to create
more educational opportunities. It allows the students and
teachers to be more collaborative in using advanced educational
technologies. According to Tyler Wantulok's article entitled,
"How Important is Technology in Education" (2015), these
children are the digital natives wherein they know technology
better because it is an integral part of their life. Wantulok (2015)
also stated that they can even have their own pace of learning that
the traditional classroom can't do.
Due to the flexibility of the technology, E-Learning has been
introduced. Maybe, it is more personal and interactive to learn
inside a classroom, but there are also a lot of benefits in taking up
online courses because of its convenience and affordability
(Clover, 2017). E-Learning allows the learners to access
educational curriculum outside of a traditional classroom.
According to Kamy Anderson (2017), E-Learning is absolutely
essential in today's fast-paced world and with the continuous
growth of the learning organizations, more and more
organizations have now been involved in implementing E-
Learning, which they believed, to be more helpful for them to
learn and improve an individual's skills.
With these innovation, a new educational system was introduced -
Mobile Learning. According to Vangie Beal (n.d.), mobile
learning is a learning process by the use of mobile technologies
such as smartphones to obtain learning materials. Just like E-
Learning, mobile learning is flexible, which allows students to
access education, anywhere and anytime. Mobile Learning was
practically more convenient to use, because of the portability of
the mobile devices. It also supports a continuous access to the
learning process and provides a way for educational institutions to
deliver knowledge and contents through their learners.
Mobile Learning is no more an option but a "must have" (Pandey,
2018). It is a learning on the go and offers flexibility to the
learners to take their learning on the device of their choice.
Mobile Learning is being used 47% of the organizations
worldwide. Because it is known for its higher engagement,
different learning institutions has accepted the Mobile Learning
into their platform. Asha Pandey (2018) stated that there are some
compelling stats that reaffirm that Mobile Learning is a must have
in an organization: For Gartner Inc. (2013), 45% of businesses
will have a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Policy by 2020; for
Justin Ferriman (2014), 70% of the learners felt more motivated
when learning on a mobile device, as opposed to a computer;
MNA Learning (n.d.) observed that E-Learners typically study for
40 minutes longer than students using a desktop or tablet; while
in the E-Book released by the Lynda.com, it is stated that
smartphone learners complete courses 45% faster than those using
a computer.
4. METHODOLOGY, DISCUSSION AND
IMPLEMENTATION
4.1 Development and Testing
This chapter will present the discussion of the methodology of
this study and how the application was developed by the use of
the development tools and techniques that will be used by the
proponents. From the procedure of the data gathering, up to the
testing and evaluation, and even the implementation of the
application, will be made to meet the expectation of the testers
and evaluators.
Figure 1 shows that the Prototype Model will be used in
developing the application. Some of its advantages in
methodology is that errors, missing and confusing functions can
be easily identified. Also, with the consistency of the evaluation
by the end users, improvements can be made and are expected to
be met to the greatest extent. Prototype model has 6 phases and
these are as follows: Requirement Gathering, Quick Design, Build
Prototype, Customer Evaluation, Refining Prototype, and
Engineer Product.
Figure 1. Prototype Model
4.1.1 Requirement Gathering
In this phase, the proponents will identify the basic requirements
that will be needed. The proponents will make an initial data
gathering through research and several interviews with Mr. Leo
Emmanuel Castro, a Baybayin expert, about the writing system
4.1.2 Quick Design
The proponents will now list down the several possible concepts
of the application to be worked out. After the brainstorming, the
proponents came up to an idea to create designs based on the
resemblance of the script.
4.1.3 Build Prototype
With the extra information that are going to be gathered from the
end users, the first prototype will now be modified. The
proponents' designated graphic artist will provide the designs as
soon as possible and after that, the programmer will also start to
build and develop the application.
4.1.4 Customer Evaluation
This phase will allow the proponents to present it to the end users,
particularly, History Major students from Mabalacat City College,
so they can give their feedbacks and recommendations based on Figure 3. LEARN Feature
the current application.
Figure 4 is the interface of the TOOLS section displaying the
4.1.5 Refining Prototype tracing and translation feature of the application (Character stroke
The suggestions, developments, and other additional requirements tutorial and customized keyboard).
will all be depending to the feedbacks of the end users. The
development and the refining of the new prototype will continue
to be worked out until all of the requirements that were given by
the customers are met.
4.1.6 Engineer Product
The final prototype, which must be 100% complete, will be
released in the Google Play Store and will provide the copy of the
application in .apk or android package formation.

4.2 Description of the Prototypes

Figure 2 shows the Home page of the application which is also the
landing page of the app. This is the navigation part where the user
will pick on what function the user would want to use.
Figure 4. TOOLS Feature

Figure 5 displays the Games features that will hone the skills
acquired from learning the script.

Figure 2. Home Page

Figure 3 shows the interface of the learning section of the

application. This is where the user will choose its topic to be
learned.
 application will undergo Alpha and Beta testing. The system will
be tested by an IT expert (Android Developer, Multimedia Expert,
IT practitioner) and the User. In Alpha and beta testing, the IT
practitioner and User will use Android Phone. The Equivalent
Score given by the respondent in alpha and beta test interpret with
use of evaluation scale as:

 Player experience:
 Focused Attention
 Fun
 Challenge
 Social Interaction
 Confidence
 Relevance
Figure 5. GAMES Feature  Satisfaction
Figure 6 is the area where in you can customize the audio and  Perceived Learning
sound FX.  Usability:
 Aesthetics
 Learnability
 Operability
 Accessibility

5. RESULTS

Based on the alpha tests results, the respondents depicted their

perspectives regarding the developed app.

The alpha testers rated the developed system with great

inclination to Strongly Agree in terms of Player Experience as the
Figure 6. SETTINGS Interface
table shows in Table 1.

3.3 Implementation Plan

Perc Relev Foc F Soc Satisf Ch C
eived ance use u ial actio alle o
nge n

n
e

c
e

M
f
i

d
2 1 2 2 1 0 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 0 1 2 2 2 1 1 1e

a
i
The proponents plan to deploy the application to Mabalacat City
College students who are undertaking History related courses
which makes them a more possible candidate in criticizing the
n

applications effectivity, efficiency, acceptability and usability. For

the initial users familiarity, the developers while provide mobile
ract
n Inte

devices and will be noting impromptus comments and suggestions

ion

provided by the users.

3.4 Implementation Result

enti
Att

on
d

As to the result on the evaluation made by the twenty (20) History

Major students of Mabalacat City College, the researchers would
like to achieve the same, much more if better result on the
evaluation of the students. The proponents have tallied the
suggestions of the students and summarized it for a better
ning
Lear

comprehension of the result. If that so, the implementation plan is

successful and that means the developed system is accepted by
initial usersIn the Testing and Evaluation, the Application will be
evaluated using MEEGA+, the proponents will using the
MEEGA+’s questionnaire used in evaluating the application
Table 1. Alpha Test Player Experience Results
which covers the players experience and usability. The
And with the results with high positive ratings into the Usability While in usability section, the results showed a positive result too.
as Table 2 shows. Meaning the application is well compelling to the beta tester
perspective. It shows the difference compared to the initial test
conducted just as how table 4 displays.

ics n
e

essi rabi bility thet a

etic

Acc Ope Learna Aes i

era ability sth
Op Learn Ae

M
s

d
e

a
0 0 2 1 1 1 1 1 2

i
1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 2
bili
ty

bilit lity
Acc

ibili
ess

ty

y
Table 2. Alpha Test Usability Results
Table 4. Beta Test Usability Results
And as to the results of the beta tests, the results where more
positive compared to the initial test. Giving the application a more
affinition to the latter testers. Just as how table 4 depicted, it is 6. CONCLUSION AND
likely to assume that the developers appealed to the seconds RECOMMENDATIONS
testers.
After the test and evaluation has been conducted. The proponents
drew their conclusion and recommendations from the results
given by the evaluators. To sum up the results, the applications’
1
Socia Satisfac Chall C
enge o
n
fi
d

n
e

c
e

proclivity falls under the Player Experience’s Fun and Challenge.

Providing a lesson-like procedure loses the enticing factor that
2 1 2 2 2 0 1 1 2 2 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 2 1 1

most active games provides justified because of the applications

nature, learning game. To appeal to the Challenge declination of
result, the proponents might suggest into providing more eye-
tion

catching and exciting side games and/or activities. With the

findings and conclusion of the study, the researchers recommend
some advance studies and researches for future development of
the system, the following recommendations are drawn:
Intera
ction
l

1. Users’ inability of providing their own mobile device.

The developers recommends in accessing multi-
Fu

platform options for Windows OS and IOS users.

n

2. Since the application is only capable of teaching

Atten

Baybayin script, the users recommends on adapting

Perceiv Relevan Focu

tion
sed

even to the other traditional writing scripts of the

Philippines.
3. As to the users’ recommendations, the developers
might adapt into using other color scheme for the
ce

interface.
4. To heighten the users’ expertise, the developers
recommends on adding different side activities not
Learnin

limiting to only three activities.

ed

Table 3. Beta Test Player Experience Results

7. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost, we thank God for everything and to our

families who keep on supporting and believing us. We would like
to thank our adviser, Mr. Ralph Cadalzo, whose encouragement,
guidance and support from the initial to the final level enabled us
to develop an understanding of the project. Lastly, we offer our
regards and blessings to all of those who supported us in any
respect during the completion of the project.

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