Merilyn Sera

Bachelor of Science in Social Work 

Research 2

Title of the Study

The Challenges and Learning Experience of 4th year Social Work Student During
Virtual Field Instruction to the School Year 2021-2022 in Concordia College
 Chapter I

Introduction

Online learning has become a staple in higher education. Allen and Seaman
(2013) in conjunction with the Online Learning Consortium report that “the
proportion of chief academic leaders that say online learning is critical to their long-
term strategy is now at 69.1 percent – the highest it has been for this ten-year period”
(p. 4). An in-depth and nuanced body of literature exist discussing student learning,
performance and success in relation to a wide variety of factors, but in comparison, a
much smaller body of scholarship addresses the characteristics and dispositions of
online educators (Bolliger & Erichsen, 2013). As Maor (2003) put forward, “If
emoderating is indeed a new type of instruction, then there is a pressing need to revisit
the role of the online instructor.” (p. 354). In the same vein, Bonk, Kirkley, Hara, and
Dennen (2001) note, as the very fabric of higher education evolves, so too must our
understanding of the characteristics and traits of efficacious online educators. Appel
(2006) purports that the basic functions of teaching, learning, and communication are
fundamentally different in online learning ecologies, asking the pivotal question,
“What is the role of the online instructor?” (p. 2). The benefits of the online learning
environment with its geographic and temporal flexibility for both learners and
instructors is often emphasized, however, Rose (2012) emphasizes that “it takes a
special set of skills and attitudes to excel at it” (p. 28). Cook (2007) avers we often
function under the assumption that learning discourse in online learning ecologies is
similar to that of the conventional classroom, and we underestimate the essential
differences. Hewett and Ehmann (2004) concur, arguing that the learning
environments as well as the roles learners and instructors play are fundamentally
different online.

Overview of the Problem 

Field Instruction subject is a component of social work course that requires

students to undergo practicum that provides opportunity to put into practice their
learning's by having direct or face to face encounter or contact with the clients such as
individual, family, group and community that has been restricted or inhibited by the
pandemic. However, the students cannot drop out to be able to finish the course, so
they enrolled and have been undergoing virtual field instruction and have limited or
without direct interaction with clients.

Fieldwork in social work education is the most important component of social

work education. As part of the fieldwork curriculum, students are placed for current
fieldwork either in an agency or community setting. Besides that, other components of
fieldwork like orientation programs, individual conferences, and group conferences,
and rural camps are also core components of fieldwork practicum.

This problem has been an upsurge in transition to the student who was an
experience of virtual fields learning taking place mostly in higher education, many
students affected by this pandemic and around the world have had to leave their brick-
and-mortar schools all of a sudden and necessarily turn to fully-online education since
the outbreak of Corona virus pandemic (Covid-19). Such global emergency cases
reacquaint us with the fact that education cannot be taken for granted, making the
findings of the current research literature inevitable and ready for immediate use for
future policy-making regarding virtual field education. This research approach
showed that virtual fieldwork makes it hard for the student affiliates to gain the
relevant fieldwork; it may provide a more in-depth perusal of the impacts of virtual
field learning and its effectiveness in student achievement. Virtual learning education
is defined as education being delivered in an online environment through the use of
the internet for teaching and learning. This includes virtual learning on the part of the
students that are not dependent on their physical or virtual co-location.

In section 2 of my paper, I will describe the research problem. In section 3, I

will enumerate the research question about the effect of the student affiliates in their
virtual fieldwork. 

Research problem 

The problem of an entire 4th year social work affiliates student experience
compacted into a virtual field is unusual, as facing the reality of fieldwork outside the
school. It can be unnerving for the social work students who have only ever known
traditional fieldwork settings to confront different clients or members of the
institution. Traditionally, a degree of passivity is expected during fieldwork,
particularly when note-taking and listening to interviews with the clients, while
discussing the different issues for a limited time. Virtual fieldwork learning demands
have their origins into action, accepting course material in a variety of fieldwork in
the organization or institution, and taking part in virtual discussions which can
continue indefinitely to their clients. Virtual fieldwork courses are every bit as
detailed and demanding as their offline counterparts, though this realization may not
be fully formed yet in their field of time. The intangible, digital nature of virtual fields
means that bad time management could lead to the failure of the students who
suffered in virtual field’s instruction and can’t cope with the problem of their clients.

Statement of the Problem

 What are the main difficulties of emerging remote learning for the affiliate
students?

 How the pandemic does affects the adaptation and transition in virtual field
instruction of the students?
 What are the available tools and approaches in terms of communication and
managements in community organization?
 What are the experiences and challenges of the student’s affiliate during virtual
field instruction and in handling their clients?
 What are the coping mechanisms in managing and overcoming challenges issue
in virtual field instruction?

Research Objectives 

      The purpose of this study is to examine the learning of the student affiliates on
their virtual field instruction in this time of the pandemic. This study is to identify the
problems of the student in this new transition of virtual field instruction to their
academic and adaptation of the study and their behavior. The students who suffered
from online and offline instruction often have slightly negative outcomes in the
primary areas of cognitive gain, and some problems students experience is that virtual
fieldwork instruction makes it hard to obtain the client's problem. Students who have
negative and positive experiences in virtual field instruction can't cope up with the
instruction and how to deal with the problem of their client. A student affiliate is a
4th-year student who is studying the fieldwork of the Social Work Department in
Concordia College. The students encountered this kind of situation facing the virtual
fieldwork not working as a normal fieldwork instruction of being a social worker.  

 To access their knowledge of affiliate students in their situation relative to the

virtual field instruction in terms of analyzing their learning behaviors or
interactive content and providing learning contents, user interface, or practice of
their virtual field instruction.
 To identify the learning status or problems for delivering the virtual fields
instruction learning by analyzing the advanced educational experience by
allowing affiliate students to participate in remote learning communities using
their learning skills in virtual field instruction.
 To improve the quality and effectiveness of their field instruction and enhance the
ability to make effective and to determine how affiliate students improved their
skills in virtual field.

Theoretical Framework

This study “The Challenges and Learning Experience of 4th year Social Work
Student during Virtual Field Instruction to the School Year 2021-2022 in Concordia
College” sought to understand the concept of virtual field instruction to the affiliate’s
student in order to provide possible learning to guide affiliates student into virtual
field instruction. The theory that defined this is meant to explain and help us
understand how people learn; however, the literature is complex and extensive enough
to fill entire sections of a library. It involves multiple disciples, including psychology,
sociology, neuroscience, and of course, education. 
 Learning experience

Social presence Cognitive presence

Teaching presence

Figure 1. Learning theories “presence” {Garrison, Anderson, and Archer, 2000} 

 This study the Theoretical framework proposed does not attempt to explain or
describe every possible variable and relationship among variables in virtual field
instruction. It rather provides a set of concepts that can be used to think about the
fieldwork of the affiliates. It can be used as a heuristic tool to examine relationships
among concepts, the study of field virtual to the affiliates, develop additional lines of
research, and raise new questions. This framework is not only applicable to the
fieldwork education to the 4th year affiliates, but also to the study of “hybrid”
educational situations that use a combination of face-to-face and mediated
interactions. 

This theory that defined this is meant to explain and help us understand how
people learn; however, the literature is complex and extensive enough to fill entire
sections of a library. It involves multiple disciples, including psychology, sociology,
neuroscience, and of course, education. 

The learning theory of this research framework is connectivism by {George Siemens

2004}. A learning model that acknowledges major shifts in the way knowledge and
information flows, grows, and changes because of a vast data communications
network. Internet technology has moved to learn internal, individual activities to the
group, community, and even crowd activities. 

Siemens describes connectivism as the integration of principles explored by chaos,

network, and complexity and self-organization theories [where] learning is a process
that occurs within the nebulous environment of shifting core elements - not entirely
under the control of the individual. Learning {defined as actionable knowledge} can
reside outside of ourselves {within an organization or a database}, is focused on
connecting specialized information sets, and the connections that enable us to learn
more and are more important than our current state of knowing. {Siemens, 2004}.

Siemens noted that connectivism as a theory is driven by the dynamic of information

flow. Students need to understand, and be provided with, experiences in navigating
and recognizing oceans of constantly shifting and evolving information.

This study the research framework shows that in the virtual field instruction had a
presence of learning how the affiliate students handle the situation in the virtual
learning process. The learning experience of virtual is hard for those 4th-year students
in Concordia College Social Work Department who suffered from this situation. This
framework shows that the theory will guide us on how to cope with the learning in
virtual field’s instruction to deal with the different clients and making them a case-
study to help improve their life situation. The affiliate students face the struggle
because we know social work has faced so many fields and the client to deal with but
in this time of the pandemic, we use virtual learning or virtual education for our
safety.  

1. Gain attention: Use media relevant to the topic.

2. Describe the goal: Provide clear objectives to the overall course goals.

3. Stimulate prior knowledge: Review previously presented material and concepts

and connect them to the material to be addressed in the current module.

4. Present the material to be learned: Readings, presentations, demonstrations,

multimedia, graphics, audio files, animations, etc.

5. Provide guidance for learning: Discussions to enable learners to actively reflect

on new information in order to check their knowledge and understanding of content.

6. Elicit performance: Activity-based learning such as group research projects,

discussion, homework, etc.
7. Provide feedback: Immediate, specific, and constructive feedback is provided to
students.

8. Assess performance: Assessment activity such as a test, research project, essay, or

presentation.

9. Enhance retention and transfer: Provide opportunities for additional guided

practice or projects that might relate learning to other real-life activities.

Figure 2: Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction

This theoretical study of virtual learning for the research frame work using a
virtual field instruction include the theories of Nine events of instruction in
multimedia learning. In the process of active learning, students are defined as active
individuals in constructing knowledge. Some of these elements include building
communication columns in which students are able to contact the teachers as well as
proving the relevant links for students to explore topics in greater depth. These
theories also guide and encourage a good response from students through reactive
elements such as doing their interview to the client to generate thought, build
curiosity, and enable deeper exploration. In the cognitive processes of word
processing, the student, or learner, will pay attention to some of the words that
produce some construction of sound in working memory. In the process of the
cognitive selection of images, students pay attention to several aspects of the
construction of some of the pictures producing images in working memory. Verbal
reasoning involves the process of selecting words and phrases and integrating these
into the knowledge base. The cognitive theory of multimedia learning states that
meaningful learning occurs when students engage in verbal reasoning and visual-
spatial processing.

Conceptual Framework

The conceptual framework proposed does not attempt to explain or describe

every possible variable and relationship among variables in virtual field instruction. It
rather provides a set of concepts that can be used to think about the fieldwork of the
affiliates. It can be used as a heuristic tool to examine relationships among concepts,
the study of field virtual to the affiliates, develop additional lines of research, and
raise new questions. This framework is not only applicable to the fieldwork education
to the 4th year affiliates, but also to the study of “hybrid” educational situations that
use a combination of face-to-face and mediated interactions. 

Figure 1: Domains by Personality, Beliefs, and Behaviors

Aspects of Dispositions

People’s behavior, generally speaking, is driven by their perceptions of the world.

From a perceptual viewpoint, behaviors are considered corollaries of underlying
personal values, beliefs, and perceptions of the world. Understanding an individual’s
general world perceptions provides insight into their observable behaviors.
Accordingly, a person’s disposition and personality are not seen as causing their
behavior, but rather that a person’s behaviors serve as indicators of an individual’s
personal traits and characteristics. For example, an educator does not praise students
because she has a disposition to be supportive or an agreeable personality. Instead, we
make observations of an educator who makes use of praise across contexts and on
frequent occasions and therefore describe her as having a supportive disposition or an
agreeable personality. It is important to understand that the concepts of dispositions
and personalities are descriptive characteristics that may entail a predictive element.
Thus we may be able to establish a Social Cognitive Personality Beliefs Behaviors
Pedagogy 47 relationship between descriptive behavioral characteristics and other
potential behaviors. Someone who demonstrates supportive behavior over time is
more likely to be supportive the next time as well. Descriptors of effective educator
behaviors, then, can be used as indices of a potentially successful repertoire of
practice (Kirwan & Roumell, 2014). Three aspects are taken into consideration in
order to define an “educator disposition,” including an individual’s characteristics and
traits, a person’s values and beliefs that serve as a justification for action, and regular
patterns of an individual’s behavior. Together, these three aspects can help identify
the inclinations and tendencies of an educator within online learning environments.
For the purpose of developing dispositional constructs within the domains of
cognitive presence, pedagogical presence, and social presence in online instruction,
these three aspects of dispositions will be considered, namely personality traits,
beliefs pertaining to educational practice, and frequency and types of behavior.
Personality Traits. There have been many theories of personality since the concept
was first developed. Personality is commonly defined as a relatively complex set of
traits that influence behavior across time and situation (Graziano & Eisenberg, 1997;
Zimbardo & Gerrig, 1996). Personality types are individual attributional factors that
influence an individual’s general outlook on the world, and general ways of being in
the world, as well as in learning environments. Since the mid 1980’s, a frequently
used measure of normal personality is the fivefactor model. The five-factor model
(often called the Big Five or OCEAN) has been found to be a robust and broad
measure of normal personality in the field of psychology (Tokar, Fischer, & Subich,
1998; Oh, Wang, & Mount, 2011). The factor structure and construct validity of the
Big Five constructs (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and
neuroticism) have 48 been validated and applied across a wide range of contexts
(Costa & McCrae, 1994, 2011), including learning styles (Kirwan, Lounsbury, &
Gibson, 2014).

Pedagogical Beliefs. An educator’s general beliefs about what is “good” and

worthwhile in a given learning environment greatly impact their behaviors, decisions,
and actions in a learning environment. Much of the literature on online learning
describes particular orientations toward learning and education that tend to be more
successful than others (Burant, Chubbuck, & Whipp, 2007; Caroll, 2012), and
therefore an educator’s views about education are included as an aspect for
consideration in the proposed dispositions model.

Patterns of Behavior. An educator’s common behaviors and instructional practices are

the interactive manifestations of their personality and their orientations and beliefs
about good instruction. Behaviors are the externalized actions that can be observed,
and thus are also valuable indicators as to how an educator is likely to behave and
respond in a given situation and context. Together, the three domains of cognitive
presence, pedagogical presence, and social presence with the three dispositional
aspects of personality, pedagogical beliefs, and behavioral patterns create the matrix
that we are presenting here. The table below offers a summary and gestalt for the
conceptualized model we have described above.

Significance of the Study

This study served as a guide to the Concordia College Community, especially

in the Department of Social Work, to understand the effect of virtual filed instruction
to the 4th year student affiliates enrolled in practicum subject department of social
work in Concordia College in order to widen the background knowledge regarding on
virtual field instruction. This study would be help to the students to know what is the
effects of virtual field instruction to affiliate students who are conducted a case study
report to their clients.

This study the affiliate students aware the effects of virtual field instruction
how does they feel that they cannot interact other people in the institution. This
research would also be beneficial to students affiliate, teachers, the department of
social work in school and the administrators to be able to understand the virtual field
instruction to the situation of the affiliate students, the changes when it comes to the
field, because we know that social worker is to interact with other people to see the
differences of behavior and how perform to engaged the problem of their clients.
They cannot easily cope up the problem situation of their clients, the attitude of their
co-workers and the experience in the field.

Students affiliates.

Teachers. This would be a guide to the teachers of what the affiliate’s student
experience and gain the challenges during virtual field instruction.

Department of Social Work. This would deepen their knowledge how the virtual field
instruction helpful to the student or their learning experience during their Field work.

Administrators.

Future Researchers. This would serve as a reference for more researchers for the
students who are taking virtual filed instruction in practicum subject. This may help
them formulate productive researches in order to help them how to better social
worker in the future base on the virtual learning.

Scope and Limitation of the Study

This study focuses on the 4th year social work affiliates students who are taking in
Practicum Subject. The data collection will be conducted to the students who are
enrolled in Practicum Subject in Concordia College, school year 2021-2022 who will
represent as the participant. This study will not cover the other problems that not
taking of Practicum Subject in social work department. This study would be done
through the utilization of questionnaire to the students as a survey and reference. By
their strategy the researcher will be able to know the effects of virtual field instruction
to the affiliate students.

Definition of Terms
 The following terms which are alphabetically arranged are conceptually and
operationally defined.

Behavioral Factors. They determined the factors: goals, outcome expectancies, and
self-efficacy and sociostructural variables. Goals are plans to act and can be
conceived of as intentions to perform the behavior.

Coping Mechanism. That is a psychological strategy or adaptation that person relies

on to manage stress.

Effectiveness.The capability of producing a desired result or the ability to produce

desired output. When something is deemed effective, it means it has an intended or
expected outcome, or produces a deep, vivid impression.

Field Work Instruction. It is viewed as learning laboratories utilized to assist students

apply and integrate theoretical concepts learned in classrooms. Field agencies and
organizations provide students with valuable experiences that complete their Social
Work education.

Learning Process. A process that people pass through to acquire new knowledge and
skills and ultimately influence their attitudes, decisions and actions.

Practicum Subject.A course of study designed especially for the preparation of

teachers and clinicians that involves the supervised practical application of previously
studied theory.

Teaching Process.Is fundamentally a process, including planning, implementation,

evaluation and revision. Planning and teaching a class are familiar ideas to most
instructors.

Virtual Communication. To any technology people use to communicate with each

other when they can't be face to face. It favors the ability to see and hear one another
in real time, simulating the experience of a physical visit.
Virtual Learning.To learning through computers and the internet, inside as well as
outside the facilities provided by the educational organization. The instructions are
provided by the teachers in an online environment for their students.

Hypothesis 

The virtual fieldwork of the students must be prioritized and function well to seek the
problem of their clients and face the reality of field works outside the campus. This
study raises the awareness of the importance of fieldwork to the affiliate students and
gain more experience to achieve their dream to be a successful social worker.
 Chapter II

Review of Related Literature

This chapter includes the various foreign and local related literature and students
from books, journal article, and websites that are related the effects of virtual field
instruction to affiliate students to the research.

Foreign Literature and Studies

 The COVID-19 pandemic (Fauci, Lane, & Redfield, 2020) has posed a unique
set of challenges to higher education (Sahu, 2020), and particularly to face-to-face
field activities and the virtual learning outcomes associated with them. Meeting these
challenges may be hampered by a general lack of research on field pedagogy and the
somewhat idiosyncratic nature of field teaching (Fleischneret al., 2017).The pandemic
has highlighted an ongoing need for educational research on pedagogy in field
settings (Singer et al., 2013), and immediately, focused on how instructors may be
able to most effectively shift the teaching of important learning outcomes from face-
to-face to remote teaching that fieldwork is for experience the affiliate students who
conduct the case-study.

         This study related literature in virtual fieldwork is consistent with the

description provided by the author, describing a student experience in a social work
course offered through the virtual field instruction. A student would enter their online
course where the student is presented by the teacher to discuss the related and specific
output, possibly case study report of other students, many challenges in this pandemic
to higher education especially to the student affiliates, and field teaching. The student
particularly has face-to-face activities to have some experience with fieldwork
experience, calendar, other web-based material, and students–teacher communications
to determine the specific reading assignments and written work to be completed each
week. Using the virtual field course content and possibly an interview with the client,
true virtual or phone call to access the information. The student would work face-to-
face and complete the written work or the case study that students conduct interviews
with the client – who would be submitted to the teacher for written feedback delivered
to the students through the course management system. In the example of the virtual
field learning of the student affiliates, students would ‘‘make an appointment or
interview about a current event dealing with different clients. 

The development of the fieldwork to the affiliate students needs more experience and
to be available, such a good social worker for the students to access information has
rapidly increased in the previous decade (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Now more than
ever is there a notion of collaboration to enrich the data sets created in virtual
fieldwork or to the communities from nonfunctional to functional for which both
educators and students can access to enhance their learning environments (Litherland
& Stott, 2012). Although there is little argument in literature to deny the benefits of
fieldwork, it does come with its challenges.

     This study the literature student must have experience and functional to deal with
the client and to collaborate the data that can be accessed through the client's problem
and participate in a discussion about the data that is based on what data collected”.
Based upon the instructions for this activity, the students are the driving force behind
the participation and the teacher simply monitors the discussion, only contributing
when there are serious misunderstandings, errors, or problems to the client”. Unlike
facing the clients of the independent method of delivery, the students must know what
the clients need and what students provide much more than a set of resources by using
face-to-face fieldwork management and allows more interaction between the teacher
and the students, and among students themselves. The role of the affiliate students in
this method of delivery is much more active to gain the client's problem, guiding the
students through the case study of their fieldwork and serving as the source of both
formative and summative evaluation of the students’ fieldwork. However, even with
this increase in the level of students' involvement, there is still a great deal of
independence associated with the asynchronous method of delivery.

         This study the literature, virtual field instruction must provide the prior
knowledge of the site to collect and analyze the case study that they presented to the
professor. Student affiliates allow them to develop their skills and enhance their
confidence to face the fieldwork instruction. Such advancements and usability will
increase the effectiveness of virtual field instruction and we will see the virtual field
guides moving closer in alignment to traditional fieldwork. This narrowing gap
between the real and the virtual world will increase when technology for moving
around a virtual environment becomes more main stream in the next few years.
Virtual fields are one way in which this gap is narrowing. Virtual learning field work's
must focus to be a reality to cope up with how fieldwork is being effective to the
student affiliates. Virtual fieldwork has seen many forms and is most noted in
education for the application of second life, for which some educators have tried to
develop and utilize in their teaching and learning. The virtual fieldwork is useless
when doing an interview with the client because in the fieldwork students have more
experience with and dealing with the different communities or organizations that you
must conduct the interview to have some resources and data.

This study importance of field instruction in helping students engages in

reflective thinking in order to integrate classroom theory with field practice. This
sometimes requires the field instructor to reflect on their own personal and
professional journey in order to facilitate and model this process for students. The
virtual field instruction to examine the importance of individuals in assessing students
to their study indicated that they were assured of student's competency when the
students were able to: analyze situations, engage in doing case-study, and evaluate
situations. Students who had all of these abilities were considered to demonstrate
overarching competence. The students explore the underlying complexity of student
learning and the integration of ideas into practice. 

Local Literature

2.1 Education and the COVID-19 pandemic

 In December 2019, an outbreak of a novel coronavirus, known as COVID-19,
occurred in China and has spread rapidly across the globe within a few months.
COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by a new strain of coronavirus that attacks
the respiratory system (World Health Organization, 2020). As of January 2021,
COVID-19 has infected 94 million people and has caused 2 million deaths in 191
countries and territories (John Hopkins University, 2021). This pandemic 7322
Education and Information Technologies (2021) 26:7321–7338 1 3 has created a
massive disruption of the educational systems, affecting over 1.5 billion students. It
has forced the government to cancel national examinations and the schools to
temporarily close, cease face-to-face instruction, and strictly observe physical
distancing. These events have sparked the digital transformation of higher education
and challenged its ability to respond promptly and effectively. Schools adopted
relevant technologies, prepared learning and staff resources, set systems and
infrastructure, established new teaching protocols, and adjusted their curricula.
However, the transition was smooth for some schools but rough for others,
particularly those from developing countries with limited infrastructure (Pham &
Nguyen, 2020; Simbulan, 2020). Inevitably, schools and other learning spaces were
forced to migrate to full online learning as the world continues the battle to control the
vicious spread of the virus. Online learning refers to a learning environment that uses
the Internet and other technological devices and tools for synchronous and
asynchronous instructional delivery and management of academic programs (Usher &
Barak, 2020; Huang, 2019). Synchronous online learning involves real-time
interactions between the teacher and the students, while asynchronous online learning
occurs without a strict schedule for diferent students (Singh & Thurman, 2019).
Within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, online learning has taken the status of
interim remote teaching that serves as a response to an exigency. However, the
migration to a new learning space has faced several major concerns relating to policy,
pedagogy, logistics, socioeconomic factors, technology, and psychosocial factors
(Donitsa-Schmidt & Ramot, 2020; Khalil et al., 2020; Varea & González-Calvo,
2020). With reference to policies, government education agencies and schools
scrambled to create foolproof policies on governance structure, teacher management,
and student management. Teachers, who were used to conventional teaching delivery,
were also obliged to embrace technology despite their lack of technological literacy.
To address this problem, online learning webinars and peer support systems were
launched. On the part of the students, dropout rates increased due to economic,
psychological, and academic reasons. Academically, although it is virtually possible
for students to learn anything online, learning may perhaps be less than optimal,
especially in courses that require face-to-face contact and direct interactions (Franchi,
2020).

In the sphere of education, many of the measures that the region’s countries have
adopted in response to the crisis are related to the suspension of face-to-face classes at
all levels, which has given rise to three main areas of action: the deployment of
distance learning modalities through a variety of formats and platforms (with or
without the use of technology); the support and mobilization of education personnel
and communities; and concern for the health and overall well-being of students.
(UNESCO, 2016a; Messina and García, 2020).

This study the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to the temporary
interruption of educational activities in the classroom. University students and high
school students in their final years are in an unprecedented situation, which does not
allow for a clear perspective of the future. The length of the pandemic and its effects
on daily life, costs and other financial issues can directly affect the continuation of the
education of university students and high school students. The vulnerability caused by
the disturbances in the academic space is worrying. The situation of both
undergraduate and postgraduate students has generated unfavorable conditions, such
as the necessity to drop out of education. A feeling of exclusion was created by the
pandemic situation, outlining an image of inequity in the academic education system.

At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, students had to reorganize their daily
schedule to adapt to a situation of isolation. Those studying abroad had to go back
home, but, at the same time, many of them were blocked due to the closure of airports
and borders. The lack of socialization affected students and their socio-emotional
balance suffered, especially in young people with pre-existing problems of this nature.
Students claimed that main the effects of isolation were anxiety and depression.
 CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter includes the research design, research locale, the population and
sampling technique, instrumentation, data collection method used, and statistical
analysis of data.

Research Design

This research will use a descriptive method of qualitative research design for this
study. The research will be descriptive data to the present situation of affiliates
students enrolled in practicum subjects by a virtual field instruction face-to-face focus
on group.

Research Participants

Research Locale

Population and Sampling Technique

Research Instrument

It is crucial to define the research instrument in this study. In addition, according

to Arikunto (2010) in order to facilitate the researcher, research 26 instrument is
chosen as assisting tool to collect the data. Ary (2010) stated that the most common
research instruments used in qualitative research are observation, interview, and
document analysis. In this study, the researcher uses observation and interview to
collect the data
Data Collection

The data were collected from the affiliate’s student who is taking practicum
subject in Concordia College. The procedures of collecting data are written below:

1. Observing of the affiliate’s student activities in virtual. The researcher used field
notes in observing the class in order to gain rich information about the challenges and
experience learning of the affiliate’s student

2. Formulating the interview guideline in order to prepare interview with the

affiliate’s student about the challenges and experience in virtual field instruction.

3. Doing interview with the affiliate’s student to identify the challenges and learning
experience in virtual field instruction

4. Collecting the data gained from the observation and interview to the affiliate’s
student.

Data Analysis

After collecting the data, the researcher continued to analyze the data through
Some steps:

1. Classifying the challenges and learning experience of affiliate’s student and

the ways to overcome the difficulties from the data of interview.

2. Selecting the answers from interview to know whether the data provided were
sufficient information or not.

3. Interpreting and verifying the data of observation and the data from interview.

4. Drawing conclusion based on the result of the data that have been analyzed.

The data gathered is based on the student’s experience of virtual field instruction. The
challenges of fieldwork are seen and are encountered in reality, because in the social
work profession we conduct a case- study on the client who asked for help to function
well. Primarily, dealing with the client required a face-to-face encounter. Some
students are unable to cope with up more constitutional abstract mode of engagement
with the virtual field instruction. In this data, we gathered some details of how the
students face it and they manage this kind of situation that they conduct an interview
with the client with individual, group. Virtual field instruction has served the largely
unrecognized purpose of providing the broadest and most impact to the affiliate
students and educator development program ever conceived. In the traditional field,
instructions can work in different fields of what they prepared and what them experts
to do as social work.

This study provides the experience of the student effects on their virtual field
instruction learning. Therefore, this research emphasized that although the virtual
field instruction can’t function well because students cannot see the actual situation of
their clients. These include articles that study distance education more broadly
because such studies typically do not specify the type of virtual field instruction to the
fourth-year students who experience this situation. The virtual field instruction can
help give them ideas or views but that’s not enough to literally learn the real thing. 

In the virtual field, instruction learning has advantages and disadvantages to the
students who have experience of this situation nowadays. In the virtual fields
instruction has a new method of gaining an education in all types of subjects and the
social work students also gain different clients and conduct an interview.

The affiliate students of virtual field’s instruction are, they can be accessible to
conduct an interview with the client but not face it in the reality of the condition of the
client. They can take a virtual but not a specific situation that the fieldwork must be
actually viewed so that students know how to give solutions. Students can learn from
the comfort of their own home; it means that there are no travel costs involved in
virtual field instruction to the affiliate students but the experience of having quality
time to the member of the organization, time that you conduct interviews with your
client. Students can study at their own convenience which makes this type of learning
preferably for those with can do but to make case-study and those who have
responsibilities that require output at specific times or places.

This research method focuses on describing individual experiences and beliefs to

collect data. Data will be collected through a prepared questionnaire containing
methods of through open-minded questions by face to face prepared by the researcher
which will be answered narratively and the answers by the respondents will be
interpreted by the researcher. The interview questionnaire is designed in the manner
to elicit the interview’s perspective regarding the topic {The Effects of Virtual Field
Instruction to the Student Affiliates Enrolled in Practicum Subject Department of
Social Work in Concordia College}.