Distance Learning During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Exploratory Data Analysis on a Philippine Public Junior High School

The COVID-19 pandemic shifted the conduct of education during the period when cases were high. It changed the traditional face-to-face setup into different distance learning-based methods that complied with strict quarantine regulations. Depending on the country, academic level, economic status, and other factors, each student experienced distance learning in different ways. As such, many works have been recently published to understand the distance learning setup that was conducted during and even after the pandemic. To further add to the literature on this topic for educational planners to consider in their decisions and policy-making, the present performed an exploratory data analysis (EDA) on the collected data from a survey related to distance learning. The said survey was conducted on students of a selected Philippine public junior high school where it asked questions on (a) the mode of distance learning, (b) experiences, perspectives, and challenges of distance learning, and (c) the prospect of a hybrid learning setup. From the gathered information, the following key findings were observed: (a) improvisation of available devices and platforms to conduct distance learning, (b) the dissatisfaction of students with understanding the lessons, and (c) the preference for the face-to-face setup and limited use of distance learning modalities.