CHAPTER 2

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES

The Covid-19 epidemic caused educators and school

systems to reconsider how they communicated with their

students; new places, new schedules, and resources drove

everyone to be more adaptable in their approach to learning.

Al-karaki et al (2021) confirmed the sudden transformation

to online learning has changed completely the shape of

normal teaching practice demanding educators and

institutions to develop more innovative teaching methods in

supporting students during this growing crisis.

With the new flexible learning, the students tend to

adapt to the large range of technological applications

available to facilitate their learning. Students have more

control over when and where they learn; and chances for

self-directed learning. Individualized learning in which the

learner chooses their own path through the learning

materials; and support for a wide range of learning styles

and students can pick from online resources from a variety

of devices and systems.

The Philippines' Commission on Higher Education (CHED)

recommended HEIs to continue using "available flexible

learning and other alternative modes of delivery in place of

on-campus study". These declarations are meant to motivate

people to keep learning. Private HEIs, on the other hand,

are left to create their own policies in the absence of

implementing laws and regulations.

Haftador et al (2018) testified that teaching

methodology is one of the strategies for creation of

motivation and promotion of learning. Because instructors

play such an important part in the teaching-learning

process, they must be well-versed in modern teaching

approaches in order to educate correctly based on learners'

capacities.

UNICEF (2020) pointed out that when there are multiple

learning modalities being rolled out, it is important to

integrate them within an overarching education strategy,

anchored to the curriculum. Teachers need training that is

consistent with the learning modalities they use. Even the

usage of common technology, such as cell phones and SMS,

needs training: not in the technology itself, but in the

pedagogy of teaching using these modalities.

In this study, determinants for an effective flexible

learning are in terms of the following indicators of

teaching modalities:

Use of Technology
 A flexible learning environment would be impossible to

achieve without technology, therefore gadgets and internet

connections of instructors and students can be critical

since Jones, N. (2020) confirmed that 45% of Filipino

citizens (46 million) and 74% (34,500) of public schools do

not have access to the internet.

Chowdhury (2018) highlighted that with technological

advancement, HEIs must prepare their students to

continuously learn, unlearn and re-learn with the help of

new technologies while Davis, Lauren (2020) opposed that

with merely providing students with access to devices does

not necessarily lead to better outcomes but the thoughtful

integration of technology to enable students to actively

engage with ideas and their peers does enhance the learning

experience.

Ali, W. (2020) discussed that ICT has become an

integral part of everyday life and has transformed the

learning environment to the extent that ICT literacy has

become a functional requirement for nearly all

qualifications and integration of technology in education

has not only changed how students learn but has also changed

the teaching pedagogies by promoting collaborative

activities.
 Ismail (2021) penned that Learning Management System is

a form of software that enables educational institutions to

create and manage lessons, courses, quizzes and other

training materials. Amisado Et al. (2020) added that the

standard classroom, paper textbooks, and paper handouts are

no longer the only way to teach and educate students. The

development of information and information technologies has

provided an opportunity for their direct use in the training

process. Using particular apps, using digital spaces to

enhance course materials, and giving entirely online courses

via course management systems are all examples of how

technology is integrated into courses and Mariners’

Polytechnic Colleges opted to use free LMS like Google

Classroom to adapt to the needs of their teaching and

learning process of their students. By using Google

Classroom, Instructors of Mariners’ Polytechnic Colleges

practice the form where the curriculum and learning are

implemented online without the face-to-face meeting with the

students and in which the instructor meets the students once

a week or depending on the needs and requirement of each

subjects.

Course Content

The substance of such online course content cannot

deviate from the standard; the variation in learning

experiences derives from the presentation of course

materials and the students' circumstances, necessitating the

use of distinct pedagogic skills. The word "instructional

material" refers to the precise materials used in a class

that are presented in a variety of media types, including

video, audio, print, and so on.

Course content helps learners to acquire skills or

knowledge and the provision of a complete curriculum helps

young people to reach their full potential as established by

Ali (2020) that as long as the education sector is engaged,

teachers and students have ample support, the curriculum and

content of the learning modules are well-defined and

personalized, technological limitations are acknowledged,

and user-friendly and enjoyable materials are present,

education will continue one way or another.

Dwivedi Et al (2018) quoted that both cognitive and

social presence of the instructor is important for continued

engagement of the students with the online content.

Students' satisfaction is impacted by a number of aspects,

including the instructor, the course, and the environment

wherein technology, class management, engagement, and

training are all important factors to consider.

COURSE DELIVERY
 In the education academe, teachers and students are

fully aware of how our educational system works. Delivery of

lessons are done with the students where they should be

physically present inside the classroom. However, during the

pandemic, the delivery of learning has taken on totally new

dimensions.

In the report of UP Los Banos (2020), the mode of

instruction refers to the way content is transmitted to

target learners. A flexible learning system optimizes a

range of delivery modes. These include digital sources

(e.g., computers, smartphones, and the Internet), non-

digital sources (e.g., modules and textbooks), or a

combination of both.

When teachers provide a lesson to a student in real

time, this is known as synchronous learning. On the other

hand, asynchronous learning has usually taken the shape of

homework and reading assignments, in which the student

acquires knowledge at their own pace. It is through the

virtual learning environments where course information and

communication (forums, messaging, announcements), course

material (lecture notes and sources), and evaluation and

feedback are all available.

To show how technology may help in a Learning

Management System (LMS), which is the standard venue for

course delivery. When students use an LMS, they establish

profiles and submit bios that other students and professors

may see. These qualities contribute to the social presence's

success. Teachers may use the LMS to publish lessons,

directions, videos, and activities, allowing them to be more

visible in the classroom. Another component of LMS is online

discussion forums. To enhance student involvement and

community, online discussion forums are employed as a best-

practice teaching tool.

For Mariners’ Polytechnic Colleges (Naga Campus), these

Course delivery are defined as follows:

- Synchronous Learning is real-time communication

between teachers and learners (lectures, webinars

and teleconferences like zoom and google meet).

- Asynchronous Learning is non-real-time communication

between teachers and learners from text-based (basic

email, Facebook Messenger, etc) to online discussion

in MPC’s Learning Management System like Google

Classroom.

An online teacher must be able to compensate for the

virtual classroom's lack of physical presence by providing a

supportive environment in which all students feel

comfortable engaging and, more importantly, where students

know their instructor is reachable.

E-classroom Management

Because of the pandemic, Schools suddenly converted

from traditional classroom to online learning and there are

things that might be beneficial to evaluate instructional

practices when changing the course to a new format. The

activities in a typical classroom are synchronized (everyone

is present at the same time). Lectures, talks, laboratories,

and small group work are all examples of this. Reading,

media viewing, and schoolwork are examples of asynchronous

activities.

Teaching practices that are normally synchronous have

become asynchronous as a result of the sudden closure of

schools. There are teachers who reduced lectures down into

small movies that students can watch online.

Challenges

While learning technologies provide new possibilities, they

can also present institutions with new challenges. Students

and teachers are concern with the delivery of collaborative

learning, plagiarism, and the resource implications of such

options.

Learners: Technology allows them to be more flexible in

terms of what they learn, how they learn it, and where they

learn it. It can give a variety of tools and information, as

well as opportunities to engage with teachers and other

students. However, such flexibility can lead to confusion,

particularly when it comes to deciding what, where, and how

to study; it can also lead to information overload – with

too many resources to manage and too many references to

follow; and, as the learner's learning location becomes a

choice – at the institution, at home, at work, or on the

move – the learner faces a new challenge of selecting a

suitable location; understanding what to do and carrying out

the necessary work.

Bowyer et al (2017) stated that there is some evidence

that the introduction of blended learning can lead to

improved course outcomes, in terms of higher student

retention as well as increased passing rates since virtual

classrooms allow students to learn from anywhere at any time

and students can also meet with their classmates for a more

collaborative learning. However, the quality of this

learning must be questioned. It is important to determine

whether the rising usage and utilization of mixed learning

strategy and the availability of online instructional

resources have a favorable influence on pupils' academic

achievement, and as a result, if learning outcomes have

improved.

It is also important to consider that while it is true

that students’ perception of the introduction of a blended

learning environment seemed to have a positive attitude,

students preferred face-to-face lectures and step-by-step

instruction.

GAP Bridged by the Study

Theoretical Framework

The well-known Community of Inquiry (CoI) Framework,

established by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer, is one model

that highlights the dynamic link between aspects in online

learning. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework

emphasizes social, instructional, and cognitive presence as

critical factors for successful educational experiences in

online distance learning contexts and are particularly

important to blended learning. The CoI Framework has been

widely used to investigate interaction in synchronous and

asynchronous computer mediated communication (CMC). Bektashi

(2018) cited Befus (2016) that despite the fact that

hundreds of CoI-based publications have been published

critics of the framework argue that other presences, such as

the learner presence, should be included to the framework.

The Community of Inquiry (CoI) model (Fig 1) depicts

how a group of individual learners learns through an

educational experience that takes place at the nexus of

social, cognitive, and teaching presence. According to

Garrison et al. (1999), online academic staff and students

collaborate to create a productive online learning

environment in which knowledge is generated by skillfully

marshalling several types of presence. The term "community,"

which is frequently used in educational studies, refers to

the cognitive or emotional ties formed between physically

separated learners.

Costley (2019) confirmed that this model is one of the

most established and tested models for understanding

student-to-student interaction in online learning situations

and is therefore a useful lens to understand as explore

students’ cognitive development.

 FIGURE 1

In the study of Garrison et al (2000) where they stated

that the model of CoI allows us to understand how three

differing aspects of learning – teaching presence, cognitive

presence and social presence – interact together

conceptually. The first part of the model is teaching

presence, i.e. instructor’s behaviors that help facilitate

learning in the online learning class. Second is social

presence, i.e. learner’s emotional qualities and their

ability to express themselves in the learning environment.

Finally, cognitive presence, i.e. the core of learning which

can be seen as how learners interact and engage with the

contents of the class.

Social Presence. Fiock (2020) described social presence as

the ability to project one’s self and establish personal and

purposeful relationships. In online learning, social

presence stimulates the whole eLearning experience, promotes

learner-instructor interactions, and boosts learner-to-

learner activities. Social presence is critical,

particularly early in the semester when students are

learning to know and trust their teachers and one another.

Students are more likely to engage with the course and its

material if they can form interpersonal ties with their

classmates. Indicators of Social Presence include:

Affective responses such as Interactive answers such as

extending a conversation thread, referring to other students

in a message or post, asking questions, and expressing

agreement or appreciations are examples of interactive

responses while Cohesive responses such as utilizing other

students' names, referring to their group or class with

inclusive pronouns, and participating in small chat.

Fiock (2020) repeated a study conducted by Richardson

and Swan (2003) that social presence positively affects

student and instructor course satisfaction. During the

study, a relationship between social presence and perceived

learning was identified; students who perceived high social

presence learned more than those who perceived low social

presence (Richardson & Swan, 2003).

Nazir, M. (2020) argued that social presence may be

influenced by demographic characteristics differences,

course content and technology, instructional strategies, as

well as students’ personalities and learning styles.

Learning systems with social presence qualities improve the

learner experience. Through the channel of communication

employed, social presence may be described as being linked

to and interacting with other human beings as "actual

people." As a result, a "good" social presence setting is

one in which students may express their emotions and

sentiments while also interacting with one another in a way

that helps them learn.

Welch (2018) specified that social presence or co-

presence, refers to the “sense of being with another”.

Through the use of technology, peer learning is one

component of technology where communication become more

interactive and collaborative, allowing people to better

engage with the topics they are learning and having

difficulty with.

Teaching Presence. Teaching presence in online education is

dependent on course design and structure, encouragement of

online dialogue, and well-focused direct instruction, as

opposed to face-to-face teaching, which is dependent on

physical presence and instructor immediacy. Fiock (2020)

mentioned that in the study of Anderson, et al. 2001, the

design, facilitation, and direction of cognitive and social

processes for the aim of achieving personally meaningful and

educationally desirable learning outcomes is characterized

as teaching presence. Teaching presence has three

components: (1) instructional design and organization (e.g.,

setting curriculum, designing methods, etc.); (2)

facilitating discourse (e.g., setting course climate,

acknowledging or reinforcing student contributions, etc.);

and (3) direct instruction (e.g., summarizing the

discussion, presenting content/questions, etc. Teaching

presence in online education is dependent on course design

and structure, encouragement of online dialogue, and well-

focused direct instruction, as opposed to face-to-face

teaching, which is dependent on physical presence and

instructor immediacy. When utilizing CoI as a basis for good

course design, the instructor's duty is to develop a

narrative journey or path through the course design and

material. While many studies have focused on the

significance of teaching presence in online discussion

forums, we must not overlook the ways in which an

instructor's presence may be formed in other elements of the

course.

Cognitive presence. Two fundamental notions underpin

cognitive presence: practical inquiry and critical

reasoning. In our online classrooms, the measures we take to

engage learners in the latter and provide learning settings

where they may generate their own questions and replies in

the spirit of the former all contribute to cognitive

presence. The importance of cognitive present in student

learning cannot be overstated. The amount and quality of

critical thinking, collaborative problem-solving, and

meaning building that occurs in student-student and student-

faculty interactions are reflected in the degree of

cognitive presence. In conversations, assignment feedback,

and other exchanges with students, teachers may demonstrate

and promote cognitive presence.

Fiock (2020) recognized the works of Richardson, Ice

and Swan (2009) where they mentioned that Instructional

cognitive presence strategies include having students self-

select topics they are curious about within the topic being

taught, facilitating critical analyzation discussions (role-

playing discussions), creating course rules to allow for an

open environment for different perspectives, and encouraging

students to share with each other resources related to the

course topic.

Sezgin (2020) cited Garrison, et al. (2001) argued that

the Cognitive Presence is the basic component that defines

the CoI model which they described it as “the extent to

which learners are able to construct and confirm meaning

through sustained reflection and discourse”.

Conceptual Framework

USE OF
TECHNOLOGY

COURSE
CONTENT

EFFECTIVENESS
OF STUDENTS
 CHALLENGES
OF STUDENTS
COURSE
DELIVERY

E-CLASSROOM
MANAGEMENT

Figure 2 shows this study on flexible learning will be

guided by the concept of Community of Inquiry (CoI)

Framework, established by Garrison, Anderson, and Archer.

The Conceptual Model illustrates the flow of the study and

describes the relationship between variables. The framework

draws the process to determine how these teaching modalities

could eventually lead to the effectiveness of a flexible

learning of Hospitality Management Students at Mariners’

Polytechnic Colleges.

Teaching Modalities like the use of technology, course

content, course delivery and e-classroom management

facilitate elements of the COI framework for online learners

while using a Learning Management System (LMS) where

subjects are taught. When a student uses the Google

Classroom, he/she create profiles that can be viewed by

other students and the teachers. Through this, it helps to

support the social presence while the teachers can deliver

instructional materials like uploading lessons,

instructions, videos and activities through the Google

Classroom, thus using the different techniques of e-

classroom management making it possible to be felt by the

students their teaching presence. Online discussions forums

are one of the best practice pedagogical techniques to

encourage student interaction. By using