Recently, the education system has faced an unprecedented health crisis that has shaken up its foundation. Given today's uncertainties, it is vital to gain a nuanced understanding of students' online learning experience in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although many studies have investigated this area, limited information is available regarding the challenges and the specific strategies that students employ to overcome them. Thus, this study attempts to fill in the void. Using a mixed-methods approach, the findings revealed that the online learning challenges of college students varied in terms of type and extent. Their greatest challenge was linked to their learning environment at home, while their least challenge was technological literacy and competency. The findings further revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic had the greatest impact on the quality of the learning experience and students' mental health. In terms of strategies employed by students, the most frequently used were resource management and utilization, help-seeking, technical aptitude enhancement, time management, and learning environment control. Implications for classroom practice, policy-making, and future research are discussed.

Purpose-This study was designed to create platforms to train students in higher education to be caring and responsible citizens. This was an extension mission that aimed to tap into the expertise of academe and its knowledge to help the community. Based on the framework of academic of community empowerment, the researchers measured the long-term impact of a 44-month community extension program in the Philippines. The extension program described in this study was implemented between March 2009 and December 2015 to address the capacity-building needs of a low-income community. This paper highlights some key development activities which includes partnership with local government, training needs assessment through grassroots-level participation and design of practical education-training programs. Methodology-The study followed a descriptive research design. The Community Outcome Scale (COS) was developed to measure perceived knowledge, attitude, and lifestyle of the beneficiaries. Fifty-four community residents were purposively selected based on their attendance to the community-based education and training programs. The ANOVA method with post hoc analysis was employed to determine the differences between perceived knowledge, attitude, and lifestyle among residents, stratified according to the degree of completion of the training programs.

This study aims to adapt the Gratitude Questionnaire (GQ-6) to the Philippines, gathering evidence of its validity and reliability. Two studies were conducted. Participants in Study 1 were 340 college students (Mage= 20.63; 62.1% female), who completed the GQ-6 and demographic questions. The exploratory factor analysis was performed, indicating a one-factor solution (a= .80). Participants in Study 2 were 813 college students (Mage= 19.99 years; 50.1% male), who answered the GQ-6, the Life Orientation Test-Revised, the Subjective Happiness Scale, and the Spirituality/Religiousness items. Results corroborated the one-factor structure (e.g., CFI= .98, RMSEA= .05) showing evidence of its association with life orientation (r= .29), subjective happiness (r= .08), and religiosity (r= .31). The scores from the GQ-6 also exhibited invariance across gender. In conclusion, the GQ-6 provide evidence of factorial and criterion validity and reliability, justifying its use in the Philippines.

In this study, we assessed student soft-skills after a 36-month long community service program in a Philippine private higher education institution. The Soft Skills-Graduate Attribute Scale was developed to measure professional competence, critical thinking skills, communication skills, lifelong learning, social and ethical responsibility, productivity, and interpersonal skills. Sixty (60) marine engineering students were purposively selected based on their participation in the various community service activities. The result shows that students who regularly volunteered have significantly higher measures of graduate attributes relating to professional competence, communication skills, and social and ethical responsibility as compared to non-regular and first-time volunteers. This study underscores the value of service learning programs in higher education in improving soft skills as well as the cross-cultural competencies of students in highly technical fields.

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