Abstract.

The Philippine school system has welcomed flexible learning and made adaptations to allow for remote instruction via digital platforms since the COVID-19 pandemic dramatically switched traditional study to online learning. QCU launched complete online learning in 2020–2021, 2021–2022, and blended learning in 2022–2023.Online learning was not widely accepted before the pandemic. Thus, researchers want to know how much students learned online during the pandemic. The study also gives teachers, university policymakers, and designers ideas for student engagement strategies to improve academic performance. This also makes accreditation and benchmarking data more accessible.Since online students rarely interact with the institution, Martin and Bolliger stress student engagement. Newmann, Wehlage, and Lamborn defined student engagement as “the student’s psychological interest in and effort towards obtaining, comprehending, or mastering the knowledge, skills, or crafts required for academic performance.”How engaged are online students? Does student engagement affect academic performance? A descriptive cross-sectional survey was chosen. Focus group discussions and interviews confirmed, explained, and triangulated the investigation’s findings.This study involves QCU students enrolled in the second semester of the Academic Year 2022–2023. A total of 657 students responded to the invitation to answer the questionnaire. A Shapiro-Wilk’s test and a visual inspection of their histograms and normal Q–Q plots showed that the respondents’ midterm general weighted average was not normally distributed. However, the distributions of Likert scores for the Online Classroom Student Engagement Scales (OCSES) were approximately normal for all the indicators.Students’ overall level of engagement revealed a mean score of 3.37, which was interpreted as moderate engagement. Among the indicators, assignment activity was the highest. Online student engagement does not have much effect on the midterm grades of the students except on assignment activity, which usually requires a higher level of active engagement by the students.In general, students would be more engaged in learning when they are given activities or tasks that involve deeper learning. Therefore, it is recommended to provide tasks, activities, discussions, and interactions that involve deeper learning, understanding, or analysis from the students.

Keywords: Academic performance, COVID-19 pandemic, Traditional learning, Flexible learning, Online learning, Student Engagement