Chapter II

Review of Related Literature

In December 2019, an outbreak of a Corona Virus Diseases 2019, known as COVID-19,

occurred in China and has spread rapidly across the globe within a few months. COVID-19 is an
infectious disease caused by a new strain of corona virus that attacks the respiratory system
(World Health Organization, 2020). As of January 2021, COVID-19 has infected 94 million
people and has caused 2 million deaths in 191 countries and territories (John Hopkins University,
2021). This pandemic has created a massive disruption of the educational systems, affecting over
1.5 billion students. It has forced the government to cancel national examinations and the schools
to temporarily close, cease face-to-face instruction, and strictly observe physical distancing.
These events have sparked the digital transformation of higher education and challenged its
ability to respond promptly and effectively. Schools adopted relevant technologies, prepared
learning and staff resources, set systems and infrastructure, established new teaching protocols,
and adjusted their curricula. However, the transition was smooth for some schools but rough for
others, particularly, those from developing countries with limited infrastructure (Pham &
Nguyen, 2020; Simbulan, 2020).

Inevitably, schools and other learning spaces were forced to migrate to full online
learning as the world continues the battle to control the vicious spread of the virus. Online
learning refers to a learning environment that uses the Internet and other technological devices
and tools for synchronous and asynchronous instructional delivery and management of academic
programs (Usher & Barak, 2020; Huang, 2019). Synchronous online learning involves real-time
interactions between the teacher and the students, while asynchronous online learning occurs
without a strict schedule for different students (Singh & Thurman, 2019). Within the context of
the COVID-19 pandemic, online learning has taken the status of interim remote teaching that
serves as a response to an exigency. However, the migration to a new learning space has faced
several major concerns relating to policy, pedagogy, logistics, socioeconomic factors,
technology, and psychosocial factors (Donitsa-Schmidt & Ramot, 2020; Khalil et al., 2020;
Varea & González-Calvo, 2020). With reference to policies, government education agencies and
schools scrambled to create fool-proof policies on governance structure, teacher management,
and student management. Teachers, who were used to conventional teaching delivery, were also
obliged to embrace technology despite their lack of technological literacy. To address this
problem, online learning webinars and peer support systems were launched. On the part of the
students, dropout rates increased due to economic, psychological, and academic reasons.
Academically, although it is virtually possible for students to learn anything online, learning may
perhaps be less than optimal, especially in courses that require face-to-face contact and direct
interactions (Franchi, 2020).

Recently, there has been an explosion of studies relating to the new normal in education.
While many focused on national policies, professional development, and curriculum, others
zeroed in on the specific learning experience of students during the pandemic. Among these are
Copeland et al. (2021) and Fawaz et al. (2021) who examined the impact of COVID-19 on
college students’ mental health and their coping mechanisms. Copeland et al. (2021) reported
that the pandemic adversely affected students’ behavioral and emotional functioning, particularly
attention and externalizing problems (i.e., mood and wellness behavior), which were caused by
isolation, economic/health effects, and uncertainties. In Fawaz et al.’s (2021) study, students
raised their concerns on learning and evaluation methods, overwhelming task load, technical
difficulties, and confinement. To cope with these problems, students actively dealt with the
situation by seeking help from their teachers and relatives and engaging in recreational activities.
These active-oriented coping mechanisms of students were aligned with Carter et al.’s (2020),
who explored students’ self-regulation strategies.

In another study, Tang et al. (2020) examined the efficacy of different online teaching
modes among engineering students. Using a questionnaire, the results revealed that students were
dissatisfied with online learning in general, particularly in the aspect of communication and
question-and-answer modes. Nonetheless, the combined model of online teaching with flipped
classrooms improved students’ attention, academic performance, and course evaluation. A
parallel study was undertaken by Hew et al. (2020), who transformed conventional flipped
classrooms into fully online flipped classes through a cloud-based video conferencing app. Their
findings suggested that these two types of learning environments were equally effective. They
also offered ways on how to effectively adopt videoconferencing-assisted online flipped
classrooms. Unlike the two studies, Suryaman et al. (2020) looked into how learning occurred at
home during the pandemic. Their findings showed that students faced many obstacles in a home
learning environment, such as lack of mastery of technology, high Internet cost, and limited
interaction/socialization between and among students. In a related study, Kapasia et al. (2020)
investigated how lockdown impacts students’ learning performance. Their findings revealed that
the lockdown made significant disruptions in students’ learning experience. The students also
reported some challenges that they faced during their online classes. These include anxiety,
depression, poor Internet service, and unfavorable home learning environment, which were
aggravated when students are marginalized and from remote areas. Contrary to Kapasia et al.’s
(2020) findings, Gonzales et al. (2020) found that confinement of students during the pandemic
had significant positive effects on their performance. They attributed these results to students’
continuous use of learning strategies which, in turn, improved their learning efficiency.

Although there are few studies that report the online learning challenges that higher
education students experience during the pandemic, limited information is available regarding
the specific strategies that they use to overcome them. It is in this context that the current study
was undertaken. This mixed-methods study investigates students’ online learning experience in
senior high schools. Specifically, the following research questions are addressed: (1) What is the
extent of challenges that students experience in an online learning environment? (2) How did the
COVID-19 pandemic impact the online learning challenges that students experience? (3) What
strategies did students use to overcome the challenges?

The typology of challenges examined in this study is largely based on Rasheed et al.’s
(2020) review of students’ experience in an online learning environment. These challenges are
grouped into five general clusters, namely self-regulation (SRC), technological literacy and
competency (TLCC), student isolation (SIC), technological sufficiency (TSC), and technological
complexity (TCC) challenges (Rasheed et al., 2020, p. 5). SRC refers to a set of behavior by
which students exercise control over their emotions, actions, and thoughts to achieve learning
objectives. TLCC relates to a set of challenges about students’ ability to effectively use
technology for learning purposes. SIC relates to the emotional discomfort that students
experience as a result of being lonely and secluded from their peers. TSC refers to a set of
challenges that students experience when accessing available online technologies for learning.
Finally, there is TCC which involves challenges that students experience when exposed to
complex and over-sufficient technologies for online learning.
 To extend Rasheed et al. (2020) categories and to cover other potential challenges during
online classes, two more clusters were added, namely learning resource challenges (LRC) and
learning environment challenges (LEC) (Buehler, 2004; Recker et al., 2004; Seplaki et al., 2014;
Xue et al., 2020). LRC refers to a set of challenges that students face relating to their use of
library resources and instructional materials, whereas LEC is a set of challenges that students
experience related to the condition of their learning space that shapes their learning experiences,
beliefs, and attitudes. Since learning environment at home and learning resources available to
students has been reported to significantly impact the quality of learning and their achievement
of learning outcomes (Drane et al., 2020; Suryaman et al., 2020), the inclusion of LRC and LEC
would allow us to capture other important challenges that students experience during the
pandemic, particularly those from developing regions. This comprehensive list would provide us
a clearer and detailed picture of students’ experiences when engaged in online learning in an
emergency. Given the restrictions in mobility at macro and micro levels during the pandemic, it
is also expected that such conditions would aggravate these challenges. Therefore, this paper
intends to understand these challenges from students’ perspectives since they are the ones that
are ultimately impacted when the issue is about the learning experience. We also seek to explore
areas that provide inconclusive findings, thereby setting the path for future research.
Citation:

Barrot, J.S., Llenares, I.I. & del Rosario, L.S. Students’ online learning challenges during the
pandemic and how they cope with them: The case of the Philippines. Educ Inf Technol 26, 7321–
7338 (2021). [Link]