As the Philippines enters multiple lockdowns each month, with Manila on its third toughest lockdown in 2021 since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic the previous year, online education will continue in the Philippines. Most learners and lecturers would prefer to return to face-to-face classes, but they are currently limited to following the government's suggestion to continue blended learning. As per a recent survey, the unpredictable internet connection continues to be the primary concern of teachers, students, and parents in distance learning. Poor internet connection was highlighted as a "common aggravation" among online students, according to the study (34 %). They also found that the inability of many (13%) to purchase data contributed to their intermittent online class attendance.

    

  

  Since the spread of the coronavirus, online classes have become indispensable to today's universities. While most schools now offer courses exclusively online, educators are still working out best practices for student engagement in virtual classrooms. Every day, kids are put in the position of having to choose between asynchronous and synchronous learning or between dozens of possible instructional resources.

    As the first batch of students who have undergone online distance learning and are pre-medical students, this phase has impacted us. Our blog focuses on the effect of online classes, specifically the poor internet connection and our experience.

 

   Inadequate internet access can impede even the most routine of school activities. Email, cloud-based phone services, software products, video conferencing, and other collaboration technologies are negatively impacted. The online class setup, for the most part, was pretty great and enjoyable. I can say that multiple factors bring inconvenience and frustration from time to time, such as slow internet connection that happens coincidentally when we are reporting or presenting as well as complete internet disconnection and power outages that occur during critical moments such as exams or class meetings. The scenarios that have been stated don't happen as often as they may seem. Nevertheless, I still think that online class is pretty great because at this time, for me, nothing beats the feeling of being on the course on time by just opening my laptop and opening my Microsoft teams to join our class meeting and not worry about other things as I do at face to face classes.

   Online class setup caused me to adjust drastically to the new normal. This leads to many struggles, including internet connection, lack of gadgets, financial problems, etc. I had so many problems with using data connection for online classes, from poor internet to the finances we carry due to the pandemic. There were instances when I could not attend classes due to poor connection, which affected my studies. I honestly could not understand things fully because even professors are having difficulty with a good internet. In addition, I experienced a situation where I could not consistently listen to class because my phone randomly disconnected the call. This results in an inability to fully grasp the lessons and struggling with answering the exams and doing activities. Thankfully, there were understanding professors that also understood the situation. But I cannot deny that it affects my overall performance in academics. However, this hindrance we were able to survive is something that we should be proud of ourselves.

  

    The online setup made me feel more struggled than before. Poor connection, insufficient devices, and lack of social interaction were the few factors the students, including me, experienced. Thus, it results in more time-consuming scenarios, especially if the students had to submit some requirements while the due date was near. Most importantly, it will delay the learning or topics discussed by the teachers online if an internet incident happens. In contrast, the students had to catch up on the missed lessons after the internet was fixed rather than rest in the unoccupied time. With these, the current setup shows some effects on the students nowadays, not only for the lack of devices or technical difficulties which commonly occur but how it may affect the students' learning today in the online learning era.

    Since we adapted to the world of online learning, there have been times when a poor connection has prevented people from doing things. I believe that online setup learning is only available to those who are fortunate enough. Not everyone can afford a good laptop and high internet bills. Not to mention that some areas have extremely poor internet connections. In those cases, you must travel to a specific location just to intercept a signal. Personally, I was not immune to this. During that time, I was without an internet connection for one week. I remember how difficult that moment was because I needed to use data to attend my 3-hour synchronous class in two subjects. Learners face this struggle every day, and most of the time, we can't do anything about it because it's completely out of our hands. This frequently results in students becoming frustrated and disinterested in learning, as I can attest. Even though we've been doing this for nearly two years, it can still have an impact on one's academic performance.

  

    As a student, a poor internet connection is one of the big problems I face in the online setup. Whenever my internet connection gets slow, my work progress (academic or extracurricular) tends to move slowly too. Which in result, affects my productivity towards and focus towards it. It was really difficult having a poor internet connection, especially now that we are still amidst the pandemic, our communication platforms needs a internet connection. When I have a poor internet connection, my morale and productivity was affected. It causes me delays with submitting or complying my tasks. 

    The accomplishment gap will only widen if access to high-quality internet is limited. Students from low-income backgrounds and underrepresented groups may also have to close the digital divide. This new disparity is a significant issue in classrooms today, and it's been dubbed the "digital gap." Many potential answers have been presented. Low-income families can gain access to the internet through government and nonprofit-sponsored programs. However, there has been no breakthrough in closing the digital gap, and millions of students still lack access to the internet.