The spike in COVID-19 cases all over the world poses a massive impact on various sectors of society. The global economy is no exception, for it has been severely affected by the unprecedented public health crisis leading businesspeople to shutdown commercial establishments and dramatically shifting businesses into digital platforms. Immense challenges brought by the pandemic have turned into great opportunities among entrepreneurs from different parts of the globe. In pursuit of the recovery path, they considered digital tools to be instrumental to surviving the crisis and even thriving in the long term. This study explores drivers and barriers to digital innovations in micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) during economic disruptions from the perspective of Filipino young entrepreneurs. Researchers employed a qualitative method for the conduct of in-depth interviews with 46 online entrepreneurs in the Philippines and transcribed them for Inductive Content Analysis to generate themes. Results found the adverse effects of the pandemic, which reinforce entrepreneurial innovations of shifting businesses to digital platforms, categorized into intrinsic (e.g., personal and professional growth) and extrinsic (e.g., mobility restrictions, market conditions, and household economic status) motivations. Participants described the barriers to digital entrepreneurship, including skills needed for doing online business, market-related problems in digital platforms, availability of quality internet infrastructures, and the pandemic restrictions. The findings of this study contribute to the entrepreneurship literature and areas for an empirical investigation to develop programs that support entrepreneurs during economic disruptions. This would serve as a guidepost in the formulation of government policies and strategies for economic recovery through digital entrepreneurship while considering the perspectives of young entrepreneurs. This further recommends future related researches to empower entrepreneurs, particularly those in the developing economies during the pandemic and beyond.

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The unexpected COVID-19 pandemic has closed schools and shifted the mode of education to digital and distance learning methods. However, the socioeconomic status of students affects their access to education. Blended learning, which includes online classes, television and radio broadcasts, and modular lessons, offers a more inclusive education that caters to the needs of the students. While the subject has been discussed in the literature from the perspective of the learners, this paper explores the perceptions, experiences, and insights of teachers in the Philippines on blended learning at the time of the pandemic. This study surveyed 39 basic education teachers and analyzed the data using qualitative content analysis. The results showed an agreement on teachers' perspectives about the effectiveness of educational policies implemented and the government's response to the pandemic. Despite the flexibility in using blended learning, the teachers experienced various challenges in applying this method during the pandemic, such as readiness, technology literacy, access to technology, financial difficulties, and health risk. These findings suggest the government and other education stakeholders provide additional financial support to schools during the pandemic; enhance the professional development activities for teachers; and continue developing learning platforms allowing open access to quality and reliable educational resources during and beyond the pandemic.

Worldwide, misconceptions and non-scientific notions about evolution are prevalent within academic circles. As online learning gains popularity because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is crucial to identify practices that support learning in these contexts. Using the ADDIE instructional model, this study developed and evaluated a nature of science-based online course in evolution for tenth-grade junior high school students. Results revealed that the biology teachers considered the quality of pedagogies, resources, and delivery strategies in the online course excellent. Correspondingly, the students deemed the classroom climate in the online course exceptional in terms of instructor behaviors, course structure, course clarity, and student connectedness. The online course also helped them understand how evolution works through the videos and informative content and accept evolution by considering that several pieces of evidence and information support it and science and religion are not contradictory. Although the online course is good the way it is for most students, some of them provided recommendations for improvement. Overall, the students regarded the online course as recommendable because it is educational and manageable.

Investment in sustainable energy sources is one of the climate mitigation strategies that can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the energy sector. However, in developing countries, investment is challenged by high capital expenditures and several uncertainties. This paper aims to provide decision support for investment in sustainable energy projects by evaluating the comparative attractiveness of shifting energy sources from fossil fuels to renewables and nuclear. Applying the real options approach (ROA), we calculate the value of the flexibility to postpone the investment decision and identify the optimal timing (described here as the trigger price of coal) for shifting to sustainable energy sources. We consider various uncertainties, such as coal and electricity prices, negative externality of using fossil fuels, and the risk of a nuclear accident, which are modelled using geometric Brownian motion, Poisson process, and Bernoulli probability. Applying the ROA model in the case of the Philippines, results find that investing in sustainable energy is a better option than continuing to use coal for electricity generation. However, contrary to conventional option valuation result that waiting is a better strategy, we found that delaying or postponing the investment decisions may lead to possible opportunity losses. Among the available sustainable energy sources, geothermal is the most attractive with trigger prices of coal equal to USD 49.95/ton, followed by nuclear (USD 58.55/ton), wind (USD 69.48/ton), solar photovoltaic (USD 72.04/ton), and hydropower (USD 111.14/ton). We find that the occurrence of jump (extreme) prices of coal, raising the current feed-in-tariff, and considering negative externalities can decrease the trigger prices, which favor investments in sustainable energies. Moreover, the risk of a nuclear disaster favors investment in renewable energy sources over nuclear due to the huge damage costs once an accident occurs. Results provide bases for policy recommendations toward achieving a more secure and sustainable energy sector for developing countries that are too dependent on imported fossil fuels.