Digital Stress Experienced During Pandemic by Faculty and Students of Pangasinan State University

Abstract

The study aimed to identify the digital stressors using an adapted and validated survey questionnaire from Fisher et al. (2021) as experienced by both faculty and students of Pangasinan State University during the 2^nd semester of School Year 2020 – 2021, with the end in mind of developing a framework of online learning boundaries during teaching and learning, as well as research-based principles for online classes. For faculty, ten parameters were considered as study variables, while seven parameters were considered for students as study variables.

The researcher found that both the faculty and student respondents generally ‘Agree’ that they experience digital stress during online teaching and learning. Further, the study found significant relationship between selected profile variables of both the faculty and student respondents, in at least one stress indicator, and their perception on being digitally stressed out. Furthermore, for both the faculty and students, their readiness to attend online class and their competence to use MS Teams, are found to significantly relate with their experience of digital stress. Finally, for both the faculty and students, age, gender, gadgets most used in teaching-learning and attendance to stress management related trainings, do not significantly relate with the digital stress that they experience during pandemic.

The researcher recommends a framework for implementation to reduce and or arrest the level of digital stress experienced by the faculty and students as well as the proposal to conduct a comprehensive webinar series which will present topics on ICT, data privacy act and the right to disconnect from work.