The COVID-19 Pandemic Pause: Navigating the Struggles of Second-Year Engineering
Students in MSU-IIT of the Academic Year 2023-2024 in Transitioning from Senior
High School to College
Submitted by:
Billon, John Jay Rohn
Dalanta, Mero
Dela Cruz, Carlo
Maulas, Jan Rafael
Pucot, Cedric Dave
December 2023
1
Abstract
During the COVID-19 Pandemic, classes were held online and/or modular setting
wherein students are not allowed to go outside the premise of their homes. This highly affects
the students’ capacity in transitioning from online classes to the school setting, especially on
transitioning from senior high school to college. Among the 160 students that were interviewed,
135 out of 160 (84.38%) students said that they prefer face-to-face classes. This means that
students were struggling during that time and so is in transitioning to face-to-face classes.
Keywords: COVID-19, online class, face-to-face class, transition
Introduction
These past years, the landscape of education has undergone a significant transformation
with the widespread adoption of online learning platforms to the real school setting. While
these virtual environments have provided unprecedented flexibility and accessibility for the
students’ learning, the sudden shift from online classes to face-to-face instruction has
introduced a new set of challenges for students — specifically, the ones who spent their senior
high school education through online and/or modular learning modalities i.e., the second-year
students in academic year 2023-2024 generally in the Philippines. This paper endeavors to
delve into the struggles encountered by students during this transition, determining their
experiences during those times, and what were their experiences on that period of time.
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Hypotheses

The second-year students in academic year 2023-2024 highly affected batch of the
pandemic in terms of learning gap, wherein they spent their entire senior high school class
online and/or modular.

Most students in the said target population are struggling on how to cope up on different
learning fields they need to learn, given the fact that they have no face-to-face experiences
during their senior high school days.

Those students who do not like the remote learning modality will be more likely to be the
highly impacted on the transitioning of classes.
Locale of the Study
The study was conducted at Iligan City, Mindanao State University- Iligan Institute of
Technology (MSU-IIT). This place has been selected by the researchers that accommodates
college students from different high schools whom are specifically affected by the 2019
pandemic with two (2) years of senior high school of online and modular modality learning
during their senior high school from batch 2020-2021 to 2021-2022 or the second-year college
students (batch 2023-2024).
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Data Gathering and Processing
I.
Sampling Procedure
In this study, the researchers used simple random sampling as the sampling procedure
for the target population (second-year engineering students), where each member of target
population is given an equal of being selected. Random sampling has been used to generate the
purest probability to specifically prove the hypothesis and determine the goals of the study.
II.
Instruments and Tools of the Study
The data gathering instruments are tools used for gathering, measuring, and analyzing
data on the researcher’s related subject. In this study the researchers used survey questionnaires
to acquire the appropriate data needed.
The researchers used survey questionnaires which consists of three parts to acquire the
hypothesized result.

Part I – consists of questions about the experiences during online class using four-point
Lik,ert scale.

Part II consists of questions regarding transitioning from online class to face-to-face class
using four-point Likert scale as well

Part III consists of questions regarding the status during online class through close-ended
questions (Yes or No).
Also, in this study the researchers used Microsoft Excel and R Tool as data analysis
tool, to provide the proper navigation, data cleaning, summarization, and computing of the data
that the researchers gathered from the sampling. This will also provide the researchers with
structured data.
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Data Analysis and Discussion Results
There were a total of one-hundred and sixty (160) students who participated in the study
with an age range from 18 to 23 years old. Figure 1 shows the distribution of ages of the
participants.
Figure 1. Age Distribution
The sampling method used was a simple random sampling and there were sixteen (16)
courses that participated. Table 1 shows the number of students per course and Figure 2 shows
the graph of distribution.
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Number of
Course and Year
Students
BS-IAM 2
28
BS-CE 2
20
BS-ME 2
17
BS-ECE 2
15
BS-EM 2
13
BET-ESET 2
13
BET-MET 2
12
BET-CET 2
9
BS-ENE 2
8
BET-ELET 2
8
BET-CHET 2
6
BS-CERE 2
4
BS-CHE 2
2
BS-EE 2
2
BS-CPE 2
2
BET-MMT 2
1
Total
160
Table 1. Number of Students per Course
Figure 2. Participants’ Courses Distribution
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Hypothesis I
Based on one of the hypotheses, it states that the second-year students in academic year
2023-2024 highly affected batch of the pandemic in terms of learning gap, wherein they spent
their entire senior high school class online and/or modular. The students were tasked to answer
the four-point Likert Scale (4-Strongly Agree, 3-Agree, 2-Disagree, 1-Strongly Disagree).
After summing up the result from each question, it can be interpreted based from the mean of
each question using the following range:
Strongly Agree
3.26 – 4.00
Agree
2.56 – 3.25
Disagree
1.76 – 2.50
Strongly Disagree
1.00 – 1.75
Table 2. Likert Scale Interpretation
Among the one-hundred and sixty students who were interviewed and answered our
survey, it can be noticed that 83.75% (134 out of 160) of the population said that they prefer
face-to-face classes to online classes. This can be inferred that the target population is highly
affected by the transitioning of the class environment. Table 3 shows the result about the
students who preferred online class and face-to-face class:
YES
NO
134
26 (83.75%)
26
134 (16.25%)
Face-to-face
Class
Online Class
Table 3. Number of Student Preferring Online and Face-To-Face Class
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This means that this population is said to be highly affected by the pandemic wherein
there is a high percentage of preference to face-to-face modality.
According to the survey, online classes were challenging for the students to cope up on their
studies that affects their learning and were experiencing struggles. With a mean of 2.87 based
on the Likert scale, this concludes that they agree on this based on the Likert scale range. Also,
they said that they feel left behind during online class according to the fourth question on
“Experiences During Online Class” with a mean of 2.63 i.e., agree.
On the other hand, having laptops, cellphones, and stable internet connection is crucial
in a remote learning environment. Figure 3 shows the result of students who had these three
crucial technological needs.
Figure 3. Technological Problems Faced by the Students
The graph shows that the majority of the students only rely on cellular phones which
was crucial and their only way to learn, communicate, and survive on those times. This is true
based on their response on the third question about experiences during online that having
necessary gadgets is crucial during online classes wherein majority of the respondents said that
they strongly agree (81 out of 160) about this matter.
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Hypothesis II
Most students in the said target population are struggling on how to cope up on different
learning fields they need to learn, given the fact that they have no face-to-face experiences
during their senior high school days. According to the survey, this is true based on the first
question under the “Transitioning from Online Class to Face-to-Face Class” wherein the
average weighted mean of the responses is 2.89 which is said to be “Agree” based on the Likert
scale. Table 4 shows the frequency of students who answered on the question and Figure 4
shows the proportions:
frequency
Frequency × Likert scale
Strongly Agree (4)
55
55 × 4 = 220
Agree (3)
60
60 × 3 = 180
Disagree (2)
18
18 × 2 = 36
Strongly Disagree (1)
27
27 × 1 = 27
160
463
Average: 463/160 = 2.89
Table 4. Impact on Transitioning
Figure 4. Proportion of Responses
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While some of the students are not confident about attending face-to-face college
classes. Table 5 shows the frequency of students who said that they are confident in attending
such and Figure 5 shows its proportion:
frequency
Frequency × Likert scale
Strongly Agree (4)
32
32 × 4 = 128
Agree (3)
62
62 × 3 = 186
Disagree (2)
53
53 × 2 = 106
Strongly Disagree (1)
13
13 × 1 = 13
160
433
Average: 433/160 = 2.71
Table 5. Confidence
Figure 5. Confidence
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Hypothesis III
In navigating the struggles of the second-year engineering students in MSU-IIT in
transitioning from senior high school to college, it is crucial for the researchers to study the
status of the targeted population whether the targeted population are more likely to prefer
remote learning modality or face-to-face learning. This will determine the scale of how they
are impacted on the transitioning of classes.
According to the hypothesis III, "Those students who do not like remote learning
modality will be more likely to be the highly impacted on the transitioning of classes.” To
prove this hypothesis, we need to visualize the result of the data gathering.
In Part II of the questionnaire, question number one. The question states that "COVID19 highly impacted my ability in transitioning from online class to face-to-face class." In Part
III of the questionnaire, question number ten, and question number Eleven. The questions states
that “I prefer online class” and “I prefer face-to-face class”.
Part II
Question
COVID-19 highly impacted my ability to transition from online
Question 1
class to face-to-face class.
Part III
Question
Question 10
I prefer online class.
Question 11
I prefer face-to-face class.
The data that we obtained from these questions will prove the third hypothesis shown
in Figure 6.
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Figure 6. Preference Break
The data in the graph shows that 27 respondents strongly disagreed with the question,
18 respondents disagreed to the question, 60 respondents agreed to the question, and 55
respondents strongly agreed to the question. Looking at Figure 6 we can say that most of the
respondents agreed with questionnaire Part II, question number 1. This can be proven by
getting the mean of the answers of the respondents which is 2.89 and using the scale in Table
2.
On the other hand, the following data shows that 26 out of 160 respondents prefer online
class, and 134 out of 160 respondents prefer face-to-face class. This means that most of the
respondents do not prefer online classes.
Название диаграммы
134
150
134
100
50
26
26
0
Question Number 10
Question Number 11
YES
NO
Figure 7. Preference
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Hence, the third hypothesis that states “Those students who do not like remote learning
modality will be more likely to be the highly impacted on the transitioning of the class” is
proven because majority of the respondents agreed to Part II question number 1, which clearly
shows that the majority of the respondents are highly impacted on the transitioning of the class,
and this majority do not prefer online class.
Conclusion
The results from the study indicated that there are has been a struggle from the target
population when it comes to transitioning from online senior high school to face-to-face
college, wherein there is an average of 2.89 (Agree) of the students’ responses from the Likert
scale range, where the students experienced learning gap from that period of time. It can also
be interpreted that most students in the said target population are struggling on how to cope up
on different learning fields they need to learn, given the fact that they have no face-to-face
experiences during their senior high school days. Moreover, those students who prefer face-toface classes to online setting are the ones who are highly affected.
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Appendix
Survey Questionnaire:
Name (Optional):
Age:
Course and Year:
A. Using the 4-point Likert Scale shown below, rate the following questions by placing a
check mark (✓) in the box. Please answer the question honestly and DO NOT leave an
item unanswered.
4 – Strongly Agree
3 – Agree
2 – Disagree 1 – Strongly Disagree
1
2
3
4
I. Experiences during Online Class
1. Online classes are challenging.
2. Financial stability is crucial during online classes.
3. Having the necessary gadgets (e.g., laptop, cellphone) is crucial
during online classes.
4. I feel left behind in my online classes.
5. Environmental distractions affect my focus during online classes.
6. Collaborating with peers is challenging in the online class setting.
7. Limited interaction with professors is a drawback of online
classes.
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8. Access to reliable internet is crucial for a successful online
learning experience.
9. I have consistently attended all my online classes.
10. I have my peers to contact with when I seek virtual interactions.
11. I have difficulties during distance learning due to housework and
chores.
II. Transitioning from Online Class to Face-to-Face Class
1. COVID-19 highly impacted my ability to transitioning from
online class to face-to-face class.
2. I feel confident about attending face-to-face college classes.
3. I experienced learning gaps during my first days in college.
4. Face-to-face interactions with professors were beneficial for my
academic progress.
5. I find it challenging to adapt to the in-person learning
environment.
6. Transitioning back to face-to-face classes positively influenced
my social interactions with peers.
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B. Kindly answer the following questions honestly by placing a check mark (✓) to the
corresponding box, and DO NOT leave any item unanswered.
III. Status During Online Class
YES
NO
1. I had a stable internet connection during online class.
2. I had access to a laptop during online class.
3. I had access to a phone during online class.
4. I had my own personal space during online class.
5. I had enough support from my parents/guardian during online class.
6. I faced challenges in finding a quiet space for participating in online
classes.
7. I faced technical issues (e.g., internet disruptions, device malfunctions)
during online classes.
8. I was experiencing some physical health problems such as eye straining,
back pain, etc.
9. I was experiencing social isolation during online classes.
10. I prefer online class.
11. I prefer face-to-face class.
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