Challenges Encountered during Pandemic in Flexible Learning Among College Students Living in Urban, Rural, and Suburban Areas in the Philippines

The study aims to identify and differentiate the challenges encountered by the college students living in urban, rural and suburban areas in one province in the Philippines. Quantitative descriptive type of research was utilized in the study with 367 college students from different academic institutions served as survey respondents. Result showed that those who are living in rural areas have significantly higher problem encountered in terms of loss of electricity and lack of people at home with adequate technical skills compared to those living in urban and suburban areas. Students from rural areas have encountered significantly higher challenges on resources and communication while students from suburban area expressed significantly higher challenges in terms of environment Meanwhile, moderate challenges on economic, instruction and learning outcomes are being experienced regardless of their location. Students are concerned on how learning outcomes can be fully achieved from flexible learning modality where laboratory extensive classes are not offered during pandemic followed by their challenges in the delivery of instruction and communication with the teachers. Keyword: educational management, flexible learning, learning environment, learning resources, student outcomes INTRODUCTION Location of the students is important to consider in flexible learning approach in delivering either synchronous or asynchronous classes because of their challenging situation in terms of diverse learning environment, economic condition, mode of communication which might affect the availability resources, delivery of instruction, and achievement of the learning outcomes. The accessibility of information, internet connection and other concerns from their location in rural, urban, or suburban areas can influence the teaching and learning process. Most of the higher education institutions were located in the urban areas. Before pandemic, the students travelled for couple of minutes to more than an hour just to reach their classes every morning and will return to their respective places at night. But when pandemic comes March 2020 in the Philippines, everything has to be changed. To continue the schedule of classes, everything has to be done remotely or online. Flexible learning is a great learning system for HEIs to meet students’ diverse needs and preferences where HEIs can benefit from this modality [1], whether students are ready or not to take the challenges of this online learning approach. Instructors, learners, and institutions all play a role in flexible learning [2] but even the family members are important element to be included in this kind of learning process because of their participation and support in the social environment where the learning takes place at home. Flexible learning is often used synonymously with terms such as e-learning, open learning [3]. In this way, teaching and learning can be flexible rather than fixed, to promote easy, engaged and effective learning [4]. However, limited resources for online learning had been considered as some of the major challenges faced by teachers and students. The result of the study of Dela Cruz and Catura [5] in Philippine setting showed that teachers are doubtful on the availability of a reliable internet connection and computer accessories like microphones, headphones, and webcams to be utilized in virtual classroom. Several challenges during the implementation of flexible learning were also identified according to the study of Zhang et al. [6] where the reliability of the infrastructure is hard to guarantee in some rural areas in China. Several studies considered the significance of geographical location of the schools and/or the learners Laguador, Challenges Encountered during Pandemic in Flexible Learning Among College Students. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 11 Asia Pacific Journal of Educational Perspectives Vol. 8, No. 1, May 2021| ISSN: 2782-9332 (Print) in their performance. Like the study of Cakir [7] noted that student achievement gap between urban and suburban regions are a major issue in US schools. Another study investigated when the results of the performance of students from all parts of Australia who participated in the OECD/Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2000) were analyzed based on geographical location where large gaps emerge in student achievement between remote, rural and metropolitan schools [8]. The results for Australian schools located in major Cities and Inner Regional areas were above the OECD average in reading literacy while Outer Regional Areas and Remote/Very Remote areas were at below the OECD average. Meanwhile, the study of Belay [9] explored on the educational inequality of rural students of Ethiopia using situational analysis where the findings revealed multiple inequalities of rural students that make them in a disadvantaged position compared to urban students. The available distance learning programs homogenizes students which can create educational inequality. One of the main characteristics of rural area is its low population density [10]. In Nigeria, a rural area is defined as an area having a population of less than 20,000 persons [11]. In western literature, rural area is regarded as a distinct territorial community with villages and small towns to 30,000 inhabitants. The municipalities are the basic administrative-territorial units so we can consider the territory of municipalities with center villages or small towns as rural areas [12]. The rural area is a single sector economy with little scope for diversification [13]. In 2019, the Philippines has 57,140,712 or 52.85 percent Filipinos living in rural areas which is a little lower than Egypt with 57,492,249 or 57.27 percent; Vietnam with 61,129,966 or 63.37 percent and India with 895,386,226 or 65.53 percent [14]. This signifies that majority of the people from these countries are living in rural areas. Unlike Indonesia with 119,115,844 or 44.02 percent where less people are living in rural than urban, the same in Nigeria with 98,156,651 or 48.84 percent. Meanwhile, in 2010, nine out of the total 80 provinces registered a level of urbanization higher than the national level in the Philippines. Rizal had the highest level of urbanization of 92.7 percent, followed by Laguna (71.9%) and Bulacan (70.9%). In 2007, except for Bataan, these provinces also had a level of urbanization higher than the level of urbanization for the country with 42.4 percent [15]. Furthermore, the farming class reflects the trend that China’s rural area is transforming from traditional agricultural society to modern industrial and commercial society [16]. Meanwhile, most of rural land areas in the Philippines is dedicated for farming or agricultural activities. Filipino families are trying to encourage their children to finish their college degrees so that they would not go into farming like what their forefathers and ancestors did who only completed grade school or majority of them were not even finish elementary level. There is a great support from families to finish the college degrees of their children in the Philippines. Furthermore, in China, social mobility in rural area is one of the most important socio-economic phenomena at the current stage [16]. The ability to provide a solution for solving the social issues faced by each rural area is the key to substantiating the necessity for high-speed networks [17]. In China, people living in rural areas have low education levels, low income, heavy labor and different behaviors and lifestyles, compared with people living in urban areas [18]. In Indonesia, rural poverty mostly happens in the remote area. Inequality of income distribution makes unequal development. Development in some of rural area is very slow. It makes the people in those area hard to get out of vicious cycle [19]. Likewise, landslide vulnerability in the rural area is strongly related with the necessary fragility of socio-economic systems in these areas wherein poverty and lack of resources are very common [20]. The poverty level has been largely distributed in rural areas. In terms of the level of poverty in the Philippines according to the data from Macrotrend.net, it shows a negative five percent (-5%) change from the 2012 data of 60.10 percent of poverty to 55.10 percent in 2015 as the latest report based on the percentage living under US $5.50 per day. This signifies that the economic condition of the country is improving from the year 2000 with 64.30 percent of poverty. Poverty headcount ratio at $5.50 a day is the percentage of the population living on less than $5.50 a day at 2011 international prices [21]. If poverty is said to be associated with the quality of education [22]-[24] people living in rural areas struggle to support their education and made their life more difficult to come together with the technology in addressing their gaps between knowledge and survival. On one hand, the urban area consists of formal manufacturing jobs, an informal sector, and the possibility to obtain formal government jobs or subsidies [13]. The land use in urban area of China is mostly for construction uses, such as commercial use, public building use, residential use [25]. On the other hand, a suburban area is a residential area within commuting distance of an urban center and connected to it by public Laguador, Challenges Encountered during Pandemic in Flexible Learning Among College Students. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 12 Asia Pacific Journal of Educational Perspectives Vol. 8, No. 1, May 2021| ISSN: 2782-9332 (Print) transportation and main roads [26]. It is also intertwined with farms [27]. The suburban area in China based on the study of Shi et al., [28] is mainly for the use of agricul