Psychological Effects of Blended Learning to the Faculty of Sultan Kudarat State University, Philippines

The study on the Psychological Effects of Blended Learning among the Faculty of Sultan Kudarat State University was conducted to determine the blended learning and its psychological effects on the teachers. The result shows that modular learning is satisfactorily implemented while online learning is moderately implemented. When it comes to the psychological effects of blended learning in terms of teachers’ anxiety, the teachers are moderately experiencing it and in terms of teachers’ distress and boredom, the teachers are seldom experiencing it. The top 5 issues and concerns on blended learning are also asked. © 2021 Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia Article History: Received 15 Nov 2021 Revised 07 Dec 2021 Accepted 14 Dec 2021 Available online 13 Dec 2021 ____________________ Keyword: Anxiety, Boredom, Distress, Modular learning, Online learning. Indonesian Journal of Educational Research and Technology Journal homepage: http://ejournal.upi.edu/index.php/IJERT/ Indonesian Journal of Educational Research and Technology 2 (1) (2022) 71-74 Manghano et al., Psychological Effects of Blended Learning to the Faculty of ... | 72 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10. 17509/xxxx.xxxx pISSN 2775-8419 eISSN 2775-8427


A B S T R A C T S A R T I C L E I N F O
The study on the Psychological Effects of Blended Learning among the Faculty of Sultan Kudarat State University was conducted to determine the blended learning and its psychological effects on the teachers. The result shows that modular learning is satisfactorily implemented while online learning is moderately implemented. When it comes to the psychological effects of blended learning in terms of teachers' anxiety, the teachers are moderately experiencing it and in terms of teachers' distress and boredom, the teachers are seldom experiencing it. The top 5 issues and concerns on blended learning are also asked.

INTRODUCTION
Coronavirus disease  is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus (Moon, 2020;Acter et al., 2020). Most people infected with the COVID-19 virus will experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and recover without requiring special treatment. It originated in Wuhan, China on December 31, 2019, and subsequently spread worldwide (Pei & Yau, 2021). It has become a global health crisis that affects more than a billion learners worldwide.
In the Philippines, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), both public and private academic institutions, have also had to adjust to the new situation where face-to-face interaction and mass gatherings are prohibited. From the confines of their homes, teachers and administrators were put to the task of revising and adapting course syllabi and requirements as they shifted to alternative or remote teaching modalities, both synchronous and asynchronous. The students and teachers had access to electronic devices and reliable Internet connections and learning management systems.
In Mindanao, learners also have difficulty studying, particularly those who live in remote areas and do not have access to critical locations when taking online classes. Meanwhile, the Department of Education implemented blended learning, both modular and online methods. Sultan Kudarat State University is conducting blended learning (modular and online platforms) in this time of the pandemic and various problems are encountered of both teachers and learners. Thus, this study was conducted to determine the psychological effects of blended learning on the faculty of the University.

METHODS
Blended learning is a fusion of online distance learning and in-person delivery of printed materials to the homes of the learners through the barangays for those who don't have internet access and interactive facilities in the comforts of their homes. The research focused on the shared 180 faculty members of Sultan Kudarat State University with at least one semester of teaching, graduates of Bachelor of Secondary Education, and licensed teachers. The interview was conducted through Google form.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Tables 1-4 show the findings of the study with the responses to the questions asked in the interview. Table 1 shows the extent of implementation of blended learning in Sultan Kudarat State University in terms of modular learning and online learning. Specifically, modular learning resulted in the grand mean of 2.82 with the standard deviation of 1.15 which means that the teachers are satisfactorily implementing modular learning while on the online learning the grand mean is 4.13 with the standard deviation of 1.00 which means that the teachers are moderately implemented the online learning. This also believes that the faculty preferred online learning rather than a modular platform where they prepare various self-made materials. Table 2 shows the level of psychological effects of blended learning among the teachers of Sultan Kudarat State University. Specifically, teachers' anxiety got a mean of 3.50 with a standard deviation of 1.22 which justifies that the faculty experience psychological effects, particularly moderate anxiety. The faculty also encounter distress with a mean of 3.30 and a standard deviation of 1.36. This indicates that their responses are the neutral same thing with the respondents' boredom with a grand mean of 3.43 with the standard deviation of 1.11. Therefore, the faculty of the University experience the psychological effects of blended learning (Wong, 2019). Table 3 shows the results of the test of the relationship between the extent of implementation of blended learning and the level of psychological effects to the teachers of Sultan Kudarat State University The 0.08 P-value is greater than 0.05 and this justifies that there is no significant relationship between extent implementation of blended learning and level of psychological effects to the teachers of SKSU as implied by the Pearson Correlation test result at 0.05 level of significance. It also implies a slight correlation or relationship with a Pearson Correlation Coefficient of 0.357. This is a very dependable relationship. Table 4 shows that poor internet connection with 92% of the total responses is the number one issue in the University. This justifies that the faculty experience difficulties in preparing their materials and conducting classes that resulted in their bad experiences with the online class, this is one of the reasons for their anxieties, distresses, and boredom.
The least is the issue of the power interruption with 36% of the responses. This problem leads to the destruction of their class schedules and activities. They cannot continue their classes once the power is not stable.

CONCLUSION
The study has come up with the following conclusions: The modular learning is satisfactorily implemented in the University, online learning is moderately implemented in the University, teachers are experiencing anxieties, distresses, and boredoms contributors to their problems, and the issues and concerns include the poor internet connection as their number one concern and the power interruption as their least concern.