A retrospective study of the online self-regulated learning skills of occupational therapy students enrolled in a full online curriculum at the University of Santo Tomas amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

Background@#The pandemic brought permanent changes in education in terms of set-up and delivery. In the Philippines, most universities switched to online learning to provide educational continuity to their students. Without direct supervision from instructors, higher educational level learners bear greater responsibility for their learning behaviors, emphasizing the need to employ online self-regulated learning (OSRL) skills, which are goal setting, environment structuring, time management, help-seeking, self-evaluation, and metacognition.@*Objectives@#This study examined the OSRL skills of occupational therapy (OT) students enrolled in a full online curriculum at the University of Santo Tomas (UST) during the academic year (A.Y.) 2020-2021. It also describes the differences between students' OSRL skills and their demographic characteristics—sex, age, year level, and student status.@*Methods@#The study employed a cross-sectional records review of the 2021 Student Life Survey, which was deployed through Google Forms to a total of 205 respondents. Responses from the Online Self-Regulated Questionnaire were extracted and analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics in SPSS version 27, using the Mann-Whitney U Test and Kruskal-Wallis Test with a significance level set at 0.050.@*Results@#Data analysis showed that UST OT students reported average to high levels of online self-regulated learning, with the highest SRL mean score in environmental structuring and goal setting. The students’ online self-regulated learning in goal setting is statistically significant to sex (p= 0.021) and age (p= 0.036). Additionally, year levels have a significant difference in task strategies (p= 0.042) and time management (p= 0.006).@*Conclusion@#OSRL skills vary depending on the students’ contexts and learning environment. They are independent of the students’ demographic characteristics. These findings could inform stakeholders and researchers about students’ OSRL levels, which can help in providing pedagogical strategies that will enhance students' self-regulated learning in online education.