GROUP 4

MEMBERS:
DOLINEN, Kimberly
GARCES, Krystal
GENARO, Kristel
PALSIW, Kristel
PANGKAS, Violie
SIPLAT, Karen
SONGDAY, Wayna
SUMOBA, Jericho

LEARNING AT A DISTANCE IN A DIGITAL AGE

Background of the Study

COVID-19 has become a global health crisis. As of October 6, 2020, almost 36 million people

have been infected and over one million have died. This pandemic has forced global physical closure of

businesses, sport activities and schools by pushing all institutions to migrate to online platforms. In the

Philippines, this translates into almost 325,000 infected and 6,000 deaths (Worldometer, 2020). To

control the spread of COVID-19, most governments have taken to employ varied quarantine protocols

and temporarily shut down their educational institutions. As a result, more than a billion learners have

been affected worldwide. Among this number are over 28 million Filipino learners across academic levels

who have to stay at home and comply with the Philippine government’s quarantine measures. To respond

to the needs of learners, especially of the 3.5 million tertiary-level students enrolled in approximately

2,400 higher educational institutions (HEIs), certain HEIs in the country have implemented policies for

the continuance of education despite the closure. These policies include modified forms of distance

learning that aim to facilitate student learning activities.

Distance learning is broadly characterized as any form of learning experience where the learner

and the instructor are physically separated from each other (not only by place but also by time). Arguably,

such a dislocation is “the perfect context for free-flowing thought that lets us move beyond the restricted

confines of a familiar social order” (Hooks, 2003). In the time of COVID-19, distance learning became a
necessity for learners and educators all over the world. The most commonly used type of distance

learning is online learning.

Online learning refers to the type of learning that uses the Internet as an instructional delivery

tool to carry out various learning activities. Online learning might be in terms of synchronous, real-time

lectures and time-based outcomes assessments, or asynchronous, delayed-time activities, like pre-

recorded video lectures and time-independent assessments (Oztok et al., 2013). Online learning can be

integrated into a curriculum that turns into a full-blown course or as a supplement to traditional courses.

They are considered as an important teaching approach in university that can overcome limitations related

to on-campus learning. One reason why there is so much discussion going around online learning is that

there are many supported benefits and uses of online learning. Some of the most important ones are: its

effectiveness in educating students, its use as professional development, its cost-effectiveness to combat

the rising cost of postsecondary education, credit equivalency at the postsecondary level, and the

possibility of providing a world class education to anyone with a broadband connection (Bartley & Golek,

2004). Many scholars and educators believe that online learning can be an effective tool in opposing the

rising cost of postsecondary education by spreading the cost of a class over a much larger number of

students compared to the traditional setting, dividing the cost by tens or hundreds of thousands of students

as opposed to dozens (Bowen, 2013).

There is the hope that online learning will be able to provide a world class education to anyone,

anywhere, and anytime as long as they have access to the Internet. In fact, one of the most purported

benefits of online learning is the effectiveness of the online format in educating students. There have been

a large number of studies that find positive statistically significant effects for student learning outcomes in

the online format compared to the traditional face-to-face format. Some of the positive learning outcomes

are improved learning as measured by test scores, student engagement with the class material, improved

perception of learning and of the online format, stronger sense of community among students, and

reduction in withdrawal or failure. Navarro and Shoemaker (2000) found that student learning outcomes

for online learners were as good as or better than traditional learners regardless of background
characteristics and that the students were greatly satisfied with online learning. Online learning will also

enable students to be able to receive a quality education without having to sacrifice work time, family

time, and travel expense. Instead of having to be at a specific location at a specific time, online

educational students have the freedom to communicate with instructors, address classmates, study

materials, and complete assignments from any Internet-accessible point (Richardson and Swan, 2003).

This type of flexibility grants students much-needed mobility and, in turn, helps make the educational

process more enticing. In addition, several studies have found out that online learning brings more

positive emotions to students. For online-learning environments, D'Errico et al. (2016) demonstrated that

students' positive emotions across different online-learning activities are higher than negative emotions,

particularly during synchronous activities with a teacher and with peers. They also found that

experiencing positive emotions during exam preparation strongly correlates with students' motivation

supporting students learning process and learning outcome.

Even though there are positive findings for the effectiveness of online learning, it is still unclear

that this generally holds true across studies. Bernard et al. (2004) found that overall, there was no

significant difference in achievement, attitude, and retention outcomes between distance education, which

included online education, and the traditional face-to-face education. However, there was significant

heterogeneity in student learning outcomes for different activities. Separating student learning outcomes

based on synchronous and asynchronous activities, activities that have to be done at the same time or at

each person’s convenience respectively, showed that the mean achievement effect sizes for synchronous

work were better for the traditional format, but asynchronous work favored distance education. Otherwise

stated, the medium of distance education, whether it is mail correspondence or the TV or the Internet,

explains the least of the variation in learning outcomes. Other studies have also arrived at similar

conclusions. For instance, a recent systematic review comparing the learning of clinical skills in

undergraduate nurse education between the online format and the traditional found that there was no

significant difference between the two formats (McCutcheon, Lohan, Traynor, & Martin, 2015).
 As supported by all researches stated, online leaning is not a novel discovery, hints on online

universities degrees’ surface as far back 1980s, coupled with 1990s and 2000s as optimal maturation time

for online education, and another undeniable fact is that online education has regularly been viewed from

the perspective of good-to-have alternative but not a serious-mission model to guarantee steadiness of

instructional activities (Ribeiro, 2020). Online learning on its own has advantages, such as flexibility,

interactivity, self-pacing and opportunities, the current increase in its adoption by universities is born of

their desire to direct their actions toward alignment with both local and global practices and policies to

overcome the spread of Covid-19 pandemic and maintenance of academic calendar. The global

acceptance of social distancing policy, as announced by WHO as a measure to curb the spread of Covid-

19, has forced schools to close their doors, and this has caused unexpected disruption of traditional

teaching and learning method. As a result, this digital transformation of instructional delivery came with

several challenges and modifications.

For the Philippines, online learning is a new venture; hence, facing a lot of challenges in its

implementation. There had been a lot of arguments that “access to the internet connection and learning

devices continued to be a privilege up to this day, placing those with poor internet access at a

disadvantage when it comes to online classes.” For a better picture, 45% of Filipino citizens (46 million)

and 74% (34,500) of public schools do not have access to the internet (Jones, 2019). Furthermore,

“adding more workload for the students increases their burden and contradicts the purpose of the

lockdown, which is to help their families prepare and adjust to the situation at hand.” There is also an

issue about the “lack of environments conducive to learning at home and the effectiveness of the online

lectures” (Bagayas, 2020). Finally, there are deep socio-economic concerns for online learning in a

developing country like the Philippines. Students in far-flung areas in the country do not even have roads

or electricity, let alone access to computers and the internet. Moreover, given current internet

infrastructure, even students in urban areas may have limited internet access. This then results in a

“digital divide” between those who do have access and those who do not.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The concept of traditional education has changed radically within the last couple of years. We

are now entering a new era — the revolution of online education. This study will be undertaken to

measure the effectiveness of online learning and its effects on students. The findings of this study can be

highly beneficial and significant to the following:

Students. This will help them further study the problems and benefits of learning at a distance in a digital

age. This will be also the students guide to furthermore understand and demonstrate the use of technology

in a distance learning.

Teachers. The findings will be very beneficial to the teachers to know more about how learners cope up

with online learning. They will be informed about the problems and could adjust their pedagogical

approaches and strategies to convey knowledge effectively. This can also help them give insights to their

future students.

Society. Through this study, it will revolutionize people’s orientation towards online education.

Researchers. Being students, the researchers will gain knowledge regarding this study.

Future Researchers. Through this study researchers, future researchers can accumulate different

information on the distance learning digital age. It could be also help for future references. This study can

provide data for similar studies.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

The theatrical framework will define and introduce concepts, theories and contexts that are crucial for

this study.

Distance Learning. Distance learning is where students educate themselves without in-person interaction

among peers or an instructor. Instead, students rely on the internet for their course delivery, which

generally involves webinars, videos, online texts and audio. Distance learning is a form of online learning

since it almost always occurs over the internet. (Top Hat Glossary)
Online Learning. Online learning is education that takes place over the Internet. It is often referred to as

“e-learning” among other terms. However, online learning is just one type of distance learning. Online

learning is catalyzing a pedagogical shift in how we teach and learn. There is a shift away from top-down

lecturing and passive students to a more interactive, collaborative approach in which students and

instructor co-create the learning process.

Synchronous Learning. Synchronous learning is any type of learning that takes place in real-time, where a

group of people are engaging in learning simultaneously. Although learning occurs at the same time,

learners don’t have to be there in-person, or even in the same location. Synchronous learning enables

learners to ask questions and receive answers on-the-spot, while also collaborating freely with their co-

learners. (Lawless, 2020)

Asynchronous Learning. Asynchronous learning is more learner-centered. It enables your learners to

complete courses without the constraints of having to be in a certain place at a certain time. In essence,

asynchronous learning doesn’t hinder learners by place or time. As long as they have access to the

internet, asynchronous learners have the freedom to complete course materials whenever they choose, and

from any location. (Lawless, 2020)

Community of Inquiry. The “community of inquiry” model for online learning environments developed

by Garrison, Anderson & Archer (2000) is based on the concept of three distinct “presences”: cognitive,

social, and teaching; while recognizing the overlap and relationship among the three components. Their

model supports the design of online and blended courses as active learning environments or communities

dependent on instructors and students sharing ideas, information, and opinions. The community of inquiry

has become one of the more popular models for online and blended courses that are designed to be highly

interactive among students and faculty using discussion boards, blogs, wikis, and videoconferencing.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

according to numerous researches that ventured into this topic. Specifically, it aims to answer the

following questions:

1. What is the impact of online learning to the academic performance of students?

2. What are the issues and challenges faced by students in a distance learning set-up?

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