The impact of extreme weather on student online learning participation

In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic forced over 1 billion learners to shift from face-to-face instruction to online learning. Seven months after it began, this transition became even more challenging for Filipino online learners. Eight typhoons struck the Philippines from October to November 2020. Two of these typhoons caused widespread flooding, utilities interruptions, property destruction, and loss of life. We examine how these severe weather conditions affected online learning participation of Filipino students pursuing their undergraduate and graduate studies. We used CausalImpact analysis to explore September 2020 to January 2021 data collected from the Moodle Learning Management System data of one university in the Philippines. We found that overall student online participation was significantly negatively affected by typhoons. However, the effect on participation in Assignments and Quizzes was not significant. These findings suggested that students continued to participate in activities that have a direct bearing on their final grades, rather than activities that had no impact on their course outcomes.