Exploring Filipino preservice teachers' online self-regulated learning skills and strategies amid the COVID-19 pandemic

The massive shift from face-to-face classes to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic made the assessment of students' capacity to regulate their learning more important. The researchers conducted an explanatory sequential mixed methods design with validation of a five-point 24-item Likert scale questionnaire called the online self-regulated learning questionnaire (OSLQ) for use with Filipino students. The OSLQ was disseminated using cross-sectional survey method through Google Forms and 301 preservice teachers in the Philippines responded. To substantiate the data from the survey, the researchers conducted an interview with the selected participants (n = 10) and faculty members (n = 5) determined through intensity sampling. The confirmatory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha estimates revealed that the OSLQ is valid and reliable (α = 0.921). The results showed that the participants' self-regulated learning (SRL) skills and strategies are above average, with high levels of environment structuring and goal setting but low on task and help-seeking strategies. They encountered several challenges in employing SRL in online courses. The findings of the study signify the need to use the validated OLSQ for Filipino preservice teachers in various context and to innovate activities that promote SRL skills and strategies.


Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the world economy (Caggiano et al., 2020). This impact affected the global, national, and local education sectors, leading to the temporary closure of many schools and educational institutions and affecting over 89% of the world's student population (Dhawan, 2020;UNESCO, 2020). Given this, the education sector has been forced and required to undertake several emergency modifications to establish procedures and continue educational services (Talidong & Toquero, 2020;Williamson et al., 2020). Among these changes is the massive shift from traditional in-person face-to-face classes to pure online and hybrid learning, held synchronously or asynchronously, supplemented by standardized and contextualized self-learning modules (SLMs) (Crawford et al., 2020;Funa & Talaue, 2021). However, in this kind of learning setup, the ability of students to successfully monitor and regulate their own learning is important (Carpenter et al., 2020). In this regard, the researchers investigated the preservice teachers' perceptions of their self-regulated learning (SRL) skills and strategies in an online learning environment amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Preservice teachers, in this study, pertains to individuals who are currently enrolled in an undergraduate teacher education program and are preparing to become licensed professional teachers; hence, they are both students and future teachers. In terms of SRL, pre-service teachers are likely to have distinct experiences compared to other specialty students because their training and preparation are focused specifically on teaching. Pre-service teachers are learning how to create effective learning environments for their future students, and SRL is an important component of this process. They may have a unique perspective on SRL and its application in the classroom setting that they can hone and share with their future students, most especially in online learning.
Online learning is convenient for students, most especially for adults living with multiple responsibilities and highly scheduled lives. It allows institutions to offer additional courses that are more accessible to the flexible time of students (Castro & Tumibay, 2019). Moreover, teaching online gives the faculty a positive level of satisfaction such as the accessibility of online classes to both the faculty and students and the flexibility of the online environment (Walters et al., 2017). However, in the case of the COVID-19 pandemic wherein both the developed and developing countries shuttered physical campuses, developed countries maintained higher education continuity via pure online education, a feat that is not as common in poor and developing countries (Crawford et al., 2020). The urgent development and distribution of SLMs are among the measures that have been established to protect the students from the COVID-19 infection, as they are required to accomplish them in their own homes. This strategy minimizes the physical interaction among students and faculty personnel; hence, decreasing the chance of viral transmission among them. SLMs come in printed or digitized format to address digital inequalities, especially in developing countries in which students lack technology and internet connection (Funa & Talaue, 2021). Yet, these emergency measures have brought adverse effects on students' learning such as trimming down the content and competencies in the curriculum (Funa & Talaue, 2021); constraints on time, and conducting group works (Adnan & Anwar, 2020;Funa & Talaue, 2021); and loss of contact hours between students and teachers due to lockdowns (Reimers & Schleicher, 2020;Sintema, 2020;Van Lancker & Parolin, 2020). Thus, considering how students are adapting to these changes is essential to ascertain a favorable online learning outcome.
Online learning and the use of self-learning educational materials are probably among the appropriate approaches to a pandemic pedagogy. These learning strategies are a kind of education in which students are given access to online courses with a considerable amount of independence. When the learning process is less externally supervised by the teachers or the faculty, more SRL becomes significant for improving student achievement (Jansen et al., 2020;Voils et al., 2019). Therefore, students must control their learning to a higher level, elevating the importance of SRL skills and strategies. According to Zimmerman (2002), to effectively cope with the autonomy provided by online education, students need to engage in SRL, in which they need to be actively involved in learning, metacognitively, motivationally, and behaviorally.
Students are understood to have distinct ways of learning behaviors. As defined by Barnard-Brak (2010), SRL strategies are a set of skills that exist across students to manage and regulate their own learning that is significantly associated with various academic achievements. SRL strategies are divided into several factors including goal setting, environment structuring, task strategies, time management, help-seeking, and self-evaluation (Barnard-Brak, Paton, & Lan, 2010). Examining these variables is imperative to determine the presence of favorable online learning outcome, as studies showed that the online learning outcome and SRL has a positive relationship with each other (Im & Kang, 2019). Thus, exploring the preservice teachers' SRL strategies is a necessary step to inform faculties, administrators, and curriculum designers of the development and use of SLMs to promote SRL, and the highly suitable and contextualized content and approaches to learning and teaching processes in an online learning environment.
Teacher education in the Philippines is typically offered synchronously in-person in colleges and universities as a Bachelor of Science in Education (BSEd) degree program. The BSEd program aims to equip preservice teachers with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for effective teaching in the Philippines. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it shifted to online. Hence, understanding pre-service teachers' SRL experiences in this context is imperative. Effective teaching requires pedagogical skills, including the ability to design and implement effective instructional strategies (Ramallosa et al., 2022), which may be developed through SRL. Improving pre-service teachers' SRL experiences can have broader implications for educational reform by creating a generation of teachers who are better equipped to adapt to changing educational contexts and support students in developing their own SRL skills.
Several instruments to evaluate students' SRL strategies like the online self-regulated learning questionnaire (OSLQ) were established by different countries including a Turkish adaptation (Korkmaz & Kaya, 2012), Romanian version (Cazan, 2014), andRussian (Martinez-Lopez et al., 2017). However, to the knowledge of the researchers, there is no version of OSLQ validated especially in the Philippine context. In this regard, the researchers cross-culturally adapted and evaluated the OSLQ to investigate its validity and reliability for use with Filipino preservice teachers (see Appendix). Results from this research are imperative to enable the conduct of cross-cultural studies and supplement existing studies to facilitate systematic reviews in connection to SRL skills and strategies in learning online and using self-learning educational materials.

Purpose of the study
The general purpose of this study is to validate an instrument to assess preservice teachers' SRL strategies that are suitable for use in the Philippine context and to explore their perceptions of their SRL strategies in an online learning environment amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, the researchers sought answers to the following questions: (1) Is the (OSLQ) valid and reliable for preservice teachers in the Philippines; and (2) What are the Filipino preservice teachers' SRL skills and strategies, in terms of goal setting, environment structuring, task strategies, time management, help-seeking, and self-evaluation?

Methodology
Research Design. The researchers utilized the explanatory sequential mixed methods design that enables them to use the obtained quantitative data from the survey to formulate questions that directly produce qualitative data, which in turn helps to explain the quantitative data (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). The explanatory sequential mixed methods design has three phases: quantitative data interpretation, qualitative data interpretation, and integration of qualitative data into quantitative data.
The OSLQ by Barnard-Brak et al. (2010) obtained acceptable internal consistencies (≥.70) for both the pre-and post-surveys. Aside from the internal consistency of the instrument, the researchers adapted it because it has the significant components of online self-regulated learning that are important for evaluating SRL. Before obtaining the quantitative data, the researchers adapted and evaluated the validity and reliability of OSLQ as they are employed in the Philippines for Filipino preservice teachers. This process of instrument validation is crucial to ensuring the correctness and completeness of the content and determining if the instrument consistently and properly measures what it was intended to measure (Fitzner, 2007;Funa & Ricafort, 2019).
In adapting the OSLQ, quantitative data were obtained from the answers of the participants through a cross-sectional survey. A crosssectional survey is an observational study design, wherein researchers collect data at a single point in time without altering the exposure status of the respondents (Setia, 2016). Further, the researchers used Google Forms in disseminating the questionnaire online to avoid physical interaction among preservice teachers during the COVID-19 pandemic. For one month, the questionnaire was available for preservice teachers to respond to. Then, the researchers collected qualitative data by creating interview questions based on the values obtained from the survey. The interviewed preservice teachers (n = 10) and faculty members (n = 5) were purposively selected. The responses from the interview were synthesized to substantiate the values obtained from the survey.

Participants
Sending links through emails and social media and encouraging people to open those links and participate in the study is challenging because some people believe that the links sent to them come with malicious software that may adversely affect their gadgets and computers Hunter, 2012). To address this issue, the researchers used the criterion sampling technique by requesting first their known preservice teachers, who passed the set criteria, to open the link and answer the questionnaire. This is followed by a snowball sampling technique via a statement at the last part of the questionnaire to pass the link to other preservice teachers that the previous respondents know. Included in the statement are the criteria for respondents: (1) must be a preservice teacher in elementary or secondary education and (2) must be enrolled during the COVID-19 pandemic. Through these sampling techniques, the researchers and the previous respondents may gain the trust of the succeeding respondents to open the shared link. This aspect of conducting an online survey through the Google Forms link has affected the number and profile of the respondents in this study. A total of 301 preservice teachers from the public schools in the Philippines had responded to the disseminated online questionnaire. The demographic profile of the respondents, who voluntarily answered the online survey questionnaire, was shown in Table 1.
To ensure compliance with research ethics, the researcher took appropriate measures in handling the participants' personal information. The online questionnaire was designed to prioritize data privacy and included an explanation of the Data Privacy Act of 2012 at the beginning. The participants were informed that their personal information would be treated with the utmost confidentiality, and only the data required for research purposes would be reported. Additionally, respondents were required to consent by checking an item indicating their willingness to answer the questionnaire voluntarily, ensuring their autonomy in participating in the study.
Most of the respondents who participated in the study were first-year secondary education preservice teachers who are using digitized SLMs in a pure-online environment during the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, the digitized module pertains to the softcopy of the instructional materials sent to preservice teachers by their instructors through emails or social media communications. These digitized modules facilitate distance learning that minimizes the risk of COVID-19 infection among preservice teachers and researchers as it reduces the physical contact among them (Funa & Talaue, 2021).
For data triangulation, the researchers used intensity sampling that generated 10 preservice teachers and five faculty members for a series of online interviews conducted through Zoom video conferencing applications. The intensity sampling allowed the researchers to choose participants of rich cases, manifesting the phenomenon of interest for indepth analysis of the data obtained from the survey (Patton, 1990). The chosen preservice teachers for the interview were respondents to the survey, including the faculty attending those preservice teachers. Prior to conducting the online interview, the researchers sought the participants' consent. Interview with preservice teachers is imperative to elucidate their responses and ascertain the challenges and opportunities associated with their responses to the survey. On the other hand, the interview with the faculty members is needed to determine how they addressed the challenges and opportunities determined by preservice teachers with regard to their SRL skills and strategies.

The instrument
The researchers adapted a 24-item five-point Likert scale self-report instrument called the Online Self-Regulated Learning Questionnaire (OSLQ) by Barnard-Brak et al. (2010). This instrument was initially intended for students in the United States; hence, in this study, it was subjected to validity and reliability tests to evaluate its suitability for Filipino students. This instrument validation allows other researchers in the Philippines to adapt this instrument for future empirical studies in the context of SRL among Filipino preservice teachers.
The OSLQ was divided into six factors namely, goal setting, environment structuring, task strategies, time management, help-seeking, and self-evaluation. Goal setting refers to the short-and long-term standards set by preservice teachers to help them achieve a certain objective; environment structuring refers to how preservice teachers organize their surroundings to eliminate distractions and accomplish tasks on time; task strategies pertain to the various techniques that preservice teachers do to effectively learn and participate with the online class; time management pertains to how preservice teachers allocate their time efficiently for each activity; help-seeking refers to the ability of preservice teachers to seek assistance from other people such as their classmates, family, and teachers; and lastly, self-evaluation refers to how preservice teachers examine their own performance compared to the standards and what they have learned and what they still needed to learn.
Based on the study of Beaton et al. (2000), one of the possible scenarios for cross-cultural adaptations is wanting to use the questionnaire in a new population in another country and another language. They proposed five stages to do this: translation (stage I), synthesis (stage II), back translation (stage III), expert committee review (stage IV), pretesting (stage V), and submission, and appraisal of all written reports by developers/committee (stage VI). In the translation stage, the questionnaire was translated into the Filipino language by two translators, wherein the first translator was aware of the context of the research study, and the second translator, who is a teacher majoring in Filipino, was not informed of the context of the study. Then, for the synthesis stage, the two translators met through the Zoom video conferencing app with the researchers to compare the translation of the questionnaire. To validate the translated questionnaires by translators one and two, the researchers did a back-translation in which two translators who are teachers in English, translated the questionnaire in Filipino back into the original English language. The researchers together with the translators and the back translators did another online video conference to decide on the prefinal version of the questionnaire based on semantic, idiomatic, experiential, and conceptual equivalence. The prefinal version of the questionnaire was initially administered to 12 preservice teachers for field testing. Each of these preservice teachers was interviewed to probe what they thought of each item and their responses. For the last phase of the adaptation process, the researchers gathered again to decide on the reasonable translation of each questionnaire item before dissemination to the target respondents.
For the interview, the researchers used the general interview guide approach, wherein they formulated questions based on the answers of the respondents to the survey. For instance, as a follow-up question for item number two (Q2) which pertains to short-and long-term goals, the researchers asked the selected preservice teachers to enumerate these goals and how these goals affect their current performance based on their perceptions. Similarly, the researchers asked the faculty members how they guide students in developing their short-and long-term goals as one of the strategies needed for SRL. The researchers stopped asking questions when the topic is exhausted or when there is repetitions to the answers of the participants.

Data collection and analysis
The link for the Google Forms to answer the OSLQ was sent to Table 1 The demographic profile of the respondents (n = 301). preservice teachers from the different universities in the Philippines, particularly in the Bicol region, through their corresponding teachers. This link could be accessed for a period of one month. After a month, the researchers consolidated and analyzed the results using the following scales: 5 (always), 4 (often), 3 (sometimes), 2 (seldom), and 1 (never). Then, making use of the obtained data, the researchers subjected the instrument for construct validation using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and reliability test through Cronbach's alpha estimates. On one hand, the CFA is imperative to identify whether the items in the questionnaire fit within the various domains of SRL (goal setting, environment structuring, task strategies, time management, help-seeking, and self-evaluation) accordingly. On the other hand, Cronbach's alpha estimates are essential to determine if the items are consistent with the SRL questionnaire as a whole and within each of the different domains. Following that, the researchers used descriptive statistics such as the frequency to describe and summarize the values from the obtained data. The researchers capitalized on the survey responses to conduct the general interview guide approach. According to Gall et al. (2007), the general interview guide approach is a type of interview where questions are more organized than the informal conversational interview, while its composition is still relatively flexible depending on how the researchers construct the questions. This type of interview allowed the researchers to have an informal environment with the participants while guided by the questions based on the participant's responses to the survey.

Results and discussion
The researchers presented the results in order, following the purpose of this study. The discussion below shows how the researchers confirm the validity and reliability of the OSLQ for use with the Filipino preservice teachers, as well as their SRL strategies in terms of the identified factors. Those items with a high and low percentages of agreement were emphasized to identify the participants' SRL strategies that may be retained and improved in future studies. Additionally, interview data were provided to substantiate the findings and to get a thorough understanding of the contextual influences of online learning environment on the participants' SRL strategies.

Validity and reliability of OSLQ
The researchers performed a normality test to examine if the assumptions were met before doing exploratory factor analysis (EFA). The results show that the Kolmogorov-Smirnov estimate is not significant (D (301) = 0.037, p > .05) which indicates that the obtained data is normally distributed, and the investigation may proceed to analyze the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) and Bartlett's tests. Then, through KMO and Bartlett's tests, the researchers validated the eligibility of data for EFA. The KMO values that are between 0.8 and 1 imply adequate sampling and the significant result in Bartlett's test suggests homogeneity of variances among all samples. These results indicate the rejection of the null hypothesis (Dodge, 2008;Lowie & Seton, 2013;Russell, 2002). Considering these obtained values, the KMO of 0.84 and Bartlett's value of χ 2 (276) = 5410.48, p < .05, signify that the obtained data for OSLQ met the assumptions to continue the EFA. The results of EFA for the OSLQ are shown in Table 2.
The researchers performed an EFA using the varimax rotation method to probe the construct validity of the OSLQ. The rotation was set at six factors (same as the original instrument). There are no items that obtained a factor loading lower than 0.30; as a result, all 24 items from the original questionnaire were included as shown in Table 2. In assigning the items to each factor, the highest eigenvalue was considered except for item Q4 as this item was constructed originally for factor 1. The values of these factors range from 0.424 to 0.917. In addition, the researchers conducted CFA using the identified factors from the EFA. This is to determine if the items fit in each identified factor. The factorial model for OSLQ is shown in Fig. 1.
The results of CFA revealed that the Chi-Square value is significant (p < .01), indicating that the items allocated to each component are not fit. However, Chi-square as a basis for assessing the model fit is sensitive to sample size and usually rejects the model when high sample sizes are utilized (Hooper et al., 2008). Hence, the researchers used standardized root mean square (SRMR) to determine the model fit. The obtained SRMR value of 0.0621 is within the range for adequate fit (≤0.08) (Hu & Bentler, 1999), indicating that the items distributed for each factor are in good fit. To further examine the data, Table 3 shows the descriptive statistics, eigenvalues, variance percentages, and Cronbach's alpha estimates. As shown in Table 3, the six extracted factors account for 68.75 percent of the total variance. Moreover, the Cronbach's alpha estimate yielded a favorable result for each factor (values ranged between α = 0.707 and α = 0.913) and the overall instrument (α = 0.921). These results along with the results of CFA signify that the OSLQ is valid and reliable, meaning it can be used for Filipino preservice teachers to collect responses in relevance to their SRL skills and strategies in an online learning environment.

Preservice teachers' self-regulated learning strategies
As shown in the succeeding tables, the researchers examined the preservice teachers' perceptions of their SRL strategies in terms of the six identified factors and their overall outcome. Table 4 refers to the preservice teachers' goal-setting strategies. The majority of preservice teachers always (57.5%) and often (32.9%) set goals to help them manage their studying time for online courses (Q4). According to Kizilcec et al. (2017), goal setting and strategic planning are positive predictors of learning achievement, specifically on attaining satisfactory grades, completing assessments (independent of grades), and watching lectures relevant to the content of the lesson. These results indicate that the achievement of learning goals may depend on how preservice teachers set their goals beforehand. Examining the survey results on goal setting, almost half of the respondents are always (29.6%) and often (44.5%) setting their goals.
During the interview with the preservice teachers, they mentioned the kinds of short-and long-term goals they are setting with regard to their online courses. Among the short-term goals of the preservice teachers are to accomplish and submit their activities/assignments in the SLMs on time and attend their online classes without distractions from the environment and impediments of a slow Internet connection. On the other hand, their long-term goals are to pass the summative exams and online courses and to graduate from their academic program. "Isa sa mga short-term goals ko ngayong online class ay masagutan yung mga activities sa modules namin at maipasa ko ito sa tamang oras. Para naman sa long-term goals, siyempre makagraduate." (One of my shortterm goals for this online class is to complete the activities in our modules and submit them on time. As for my long-term goal, it is to graduate, of course.) -preservice teacher #7. Preservice teacher #7 aims to finish on time the take-home activities in their SLMs that were given to them by their teachers as short-term goal, and graduate as longterm goal. "Ang gusto ko lang po sa ngayon ay makaattend ako palagi ng online class namin na walang aberya. Yung long-term goal ko naman po ay maipasa ko lahat ng aking mga exams." (What I want for now is to be able to attend our online classes without any disruptions. My long-term goal is to pass all my exams.) -preservice teacher #2. The short-term goal of preservice teacher #2 is to attend the online class without distraction from the environment or slow internet connection, and the long-term goal is to pass future examinations. Further, they added that these goals are not formally constructed or written somewhere else, and they are just literally in their minds.
The respondents of this study are on the tertiary level of education or undergraduate education students. Considering their age (mostly 17-22 years old) and educational level, they are expected to be able to set their own learning goals. Adult students with more formal education are expected to develop their metacognitive abilities; hence, they engage more in goal setting and strategic planning (Kizilcec et al., 2017). However, although the respondents strongly believe that setting goals could help them with online learning, many of them do not always set high standards of short-term and long-term learning goals (Q2, Q3). As a result, it is imperative to consider not only that the preservice teachers are setting their goals, but also the kind of goals (high standard or low standard) they are aiming to achieve.
The type of learning goals that students set is an important aspect that affects learning strategies and facilitates positive academic achievements (Alhadabi & Karpinski, 2019). For instance, instead of goals like performing better than their classmates, which may be resulted from their extrinsic type of motivation, preservice teachers could think of a higher standard goal resulting from their intrinsic motivation, like improving their skills and knowledge of the online courses. According to Bodmann, Hulleman, and Harackiewicz (2008), students who are motivated to study for extrinsic reasons, such as receiving praise or outperforming their classmates, are more likely to withdraw effort once they failed. As a result, helping the preservice teachers how to set more advantageous short-and long-term goals for intrinsic purposes is essential for a successful online education to occur.
During the interview with the faculty members, faculty #1 revealed that to help students develop their goals in online courses, it is important to maintain good communication with them and repeatedly explain the possible effects of their planned actions. "Maintaining good  communication between students and teachers is one of the challenges in online education. Kaya kung may mga tanong sila, nirereplayan ko agad-agad. I ask them about their plans and make them realize the possible outcomes of their plans. Hindi ako nagsasawa kakaexplain sa kanila and at the end of our conversation, I always let them decide. In that way, they will be empowered and responsible for achieving their set goals." (Maintaining effective communication between students and teachers is a significant challenge in online education. To address this challenge, I promptly respond to their inquiries and concerns. I encourage students to share their plans and aspirations, and I provide guidance on the possible outcomes of their decisions. I take the time to thoroughly explain the options, and at the end of our discussion, I empower them to make their own informed decisions. By doing so, students feel empowered and responsible for achieving their set goals.)faculty #1. In addition, faculty #1 revealed that letting the students decide on their learning goals makes them empowered and responsible. "Siyempre dapat laging may guidance ng teacher sa pagdevelop ng online learning goals ng mga students. Kasi, these goals need to be realistic and achievable." (Of course, teachers should always provide guidance in developing online learning goals for students. These goals should be realistic and achievable.) -faculty #3. Faculty #3 mentioned that through the guidance of the faculty, students can develop goals that are realistic, reasonable, and attainable. To prevent negative emotions and dysfunctional responses to goal failure during self-directed learning in online learning settings, it is crucial to scaffold students' SRL strategies, such as realistic goal setting, performance monitoring, and regulation (Hofer et al., 2021). Preservice teachers always (61.1%) and often (25.6%) looked for a study location that has a lesser distraction from the surroundings (Q6), as shown in Table 5. This is in parallel to the statement of preservice teacher #2 during the interview that among the short-term goals they set is to attend online classes without too much distraction from the environment. However, some of them were not sure of a location and time where they can most efficiently study the most (Q8, Q9). "Mahirap po sir maghanap ng lugar na may malakas na signal at tahimik para sa online class po. Minsan nakikisabay pa yung aso namin sa ingay, lalo na pag may mga bisita, tahol nang tahol." (It's difficult to find a place with strong signal and quiet surroundings for online classes. Sometimes, our dog joins in with its barking, especially when we have visitors.) -preservice teacher #1. "Sa bahay po sir walang signal, kaya kailangan ko pong lumabas para maghanap ng signal para sa synchronous classes online at makagawa ng mga assignments." (There is no signal at home, so I have to go outside to look for a signal for synchronous online classes and to work on assignments.) -preservice teacher #10. In the interview with the preservice teachers, they mentioned that there is a limited area in their houses where they can avoid distractions such as various noises from cars, animals, and family members. Furthermore, some of them needed to leave their houses and look for a place where there is a strong reception area for the Internet to attend their online classes and do some research for their assignments (see Table 6).
During the interview with the faculty, faculty #2 mentioned environmental distractions in online synchronous classes. "Hindi talaga maiiwasan ang mga distractions na yan during online classes. (It is really unavoidable to have those distractions during online classes.) What I do before I start my discussion is I keep on reminding my students to look for a quiet place with good Internet signal, mute their microphones, and turn off their cameras to save bandwidth." -faculty #2. According to faculty #2, Keeping the students reminded to look for a good place to study, mute the microphones, and turn cameras off when not needed is important during online synchronous classes.
Environmental structuring is one of the important factors to consider in online learning. Some subjects included in the preservice teachers' curriculum require a good environmental structuring. For instance, in their English classes, where they are encouraged to speak their thoughts. According to Su et al. (2018), the web-based learning process tends to be more effective when the environment is suitable for learning and far from various distractions. This kind of environment helps the preservice teachers to express their thoughts, concentrate on what they needed to do and accomplish, and boost their self-confidence and motivation (Su et al., 2018). Therefore, providing preservice teachers with a suitable environment for online learning is imperative.
For the preservice teachers' task strategies, many of them always (33.9%) and often (41.9%) take notes for their online classes (Q10). They believed that taking notes is more important for learning online than in regular classroom. In an interview, preservice teacher #9  mentioned that taking notes is important; however, taking notes in an online class may be different from regular in-person classes. "Opo, naniniwala ako na mas importante na magtake note ngaung online class kesa noong regular class pa kami dahil minsanan lang kami magkita sa isang linggo ng teacher namin. Kaya dapat kung may mga importanteng bagay, kailangan itake note. Pero yung pagtake note ngayong online ay iba na sa regular class. Noon kasi, papel at ballpen ang gamit, ngayon naman po ay pwede na mag picture, screenshot, at screen record." (Yes, I believe that taking notes is more important now during online classes compared to when we had regular classes because we only see our teacher once a week. Therefore, it is important to take note of important things. However, taking notes during online classes is different from regular classes. Before, we used paper and pen, but now we can take pictures, screenshots, and screen records.) -preservice teacher #9. According to preservice teacher #9, they can see and talk to their teachers less often in online courses; as a result, it is important to listen carefully and take notes of important things. Moreover, taking notes in online courses do not only involves pen and paper but also taking photos, screenshots, and screen recordings. Students take notes to have access to materials as guide for learning, most especially when the professors do not give them access to PowerPoint and video presentations (Witherby & Tauber, 2019).
In the interview with the faculty, faculty #5 mentioned that some faculty members do not share all their materials with students because of the reasons of privacy and copyright. "Yung ibang faculty members, they do not share their materials. This is because of copyright issues. Also, it took them a lot of time and effort to develop these materials, and students might share these materials to other schools or publicly online." (Some faculty members do not share their materials due to copyright issues. It also took them a considerable amount of time and effort to develop these materials, and there is a risk of students sharing them with other schools or posting them publicly online.) -faculty #5. Further, they mentioned that faculty members spent so much time and effort creating the learning materials that they are using for online courses. They want to protect the copyright of these materials; hence, sharing them with their students is only possible for their exclusive use only and not shared with anyone else.
In contrast, preservice teachers sometimes (42.2%) and seldom (16.6%) prepare questions before joining in the chat room and online class discussion (Q12). "Minsan po nagtatanong kami sa teacher, pero hindi po kami nagpeprepare ng mga tanong bago magsimula yung klase. Nakakapag-isip po kami ng mga tanong sa kalagitnaan at pagkatapos po ng discussion." (Sometimes, we ask our teacher questions, but we don't prepare them beforehand before the class starts. We come up with questions during the class or after the discussion.) -preservice teacher #5. According to preservice teacher #5, they do not prepare questions ahead of online synchronous classes; however, they sometimes develop questions during the discussion and ask the teacher during or after the online class discussion. "Pag may mga tanong po ako, nagchachat po agad ako sa teacher ko. Baka po kasi makalimutan ko pa po yung itatanong ko di parehas ng regular class pa po, naghihintay talaga ako kinabukasan para magtanong po sa teacher. Ngayon po parang normal na lang magchat sa mga teachers, kaya minsan napaparami din po ang mga tanong ko." (If I have any questions, I immediately chat with my teacher. I do this because I'm afraid I might forget what I wanted to ask, unlike in regular classes where I have to wait until the next day to ask the teacher. Nowadays, it's normal to chat with teachers, which is why sometimes I tend to ask too many questions.) -preservice teacher #7. Preservice teacher #7 message their teachers as soon as they have questions, because sending message to teachers in an online education through social media apps feels normal, wherein sometimes, they ask many questions. Unlike during in-person classes, they tend to wait for the class to start to ask teachers their questions. In online education, particularly in a video-conferenced settings, students asked more questions, posed more difficult questions, and instructors devoted a higher amount of class time to Q&A than in the in-person settings (Caton et al., 2020). These results illustrate how the social environment and technological features of online classrooms influence student involvement in class.
As stated above, along with goal setting, task strategizing is an important factor for successful online learning. Students with high SRL levels tend to be more flexible in their approach to learning and identifying their own learning paths; wherein, in contrast, students with low SRL levels tend to follow a linear or established approach to learning (Littlejohn et al., 2016). In this regard, enumerating the different possible task strategies that preservice teachers can do to enhance their performances in online learning would be helpful, most especially for those preservice teachers who have low levels of SRL.
In Table 7, preservice teachers always (36.9%, 35.2%) and frequently (40.2%, 41.5%) make their schedules every day or every week even though they do not have to attend classes (Q15, Q16). However, preservice teachers were divided on the item pertaining to allocating extra studying time (Q14). During an interview with them, many of them mentioned that they did not have extra time for studying because, as they work from home, they are expected to participate more in doing the household chores. "Hindi na po namin kayang maglaan ng ekstrang oras sa pag-aaral kasi ang dami pong mga pinapagawa sa bahay tulad ng paglilinis, hugasin, at mag-alaga po ng mga kapatid. Minsan nga nauubos na rin ang oras naming dahil sa dami ng pinapagawa sa bahay." (We can no longer allocate extra time for studying because there are a lot of household chores that need to be done, such as cleaning, washing, and taking care of our siblings. Sometimes, our time is consumed by these chores.) -preservice teacher #10. The extra time wherein they can supposedly allocate for studying additional content or materials were assigned for accomplishing household chores instead. This result may be one of the reasons for the obtained scores on item Q13 that only some preservice teachers work with extra problems in addition to the assigned ones to master the online course content. As mentioned by the preservice teachers, they could not do extra problems for an indepth understanding of the lessons because of time constraints. "Sa dami po ng activities kada subjects, hindi na po kami nakakagawa ng ekstrang activities at readings. Kung ano lang po talaga ang kailangan at may grade po, yun ang priority naming tapusin." (Due to the high volume of activities in each subject, we are no longer able to do extra activities and readings. We prioritize finishing only the necessary tasks that are graded.) -preservice teacher #6. In addition, preservice teacher #6 added that graded activities are the ones they prioritize to finish and submit on time (see Table 8).
Time constraint is one of the challenges that preservice teachers encountered during the COVID-19 pandemic (Funa & Talaue, 2021). According to Maqableh and Alia (2021), the amount of time spent on online learning is higher than on traditional learning. Although for others, studying online saves them time for they do not need to spend time traveling to school and going back home, other students spend too much of their time finding a quiet place for learning with good Internet reception. The pandemic has various effects on the amount of time that preservice teachers spent on a certain activity. Some of them benefited from the pandemic in which they were spared extra time wherein they efficiently make use of it (Maqableh & Alia, 2021). However, in worst-case scenarios, poor time management becomes the main reason why students are dropping their courses (Nawrot & Doucet, 2014). Considering these results, guiding preservice teachers on how to use their time efficiently for studying is a crucial step towards developing SRL skills and strategies which may lead to the success of online learning.
For help-seeking strategies, the preservice teachers' perceptions were divided. During the interview with them, computers and other gadgets that are available for communication have helped them to interact with their classmates and teachers; however, the topic of their conversation with their classmates is mostly not related to lessons in school. "Ngayon po madali na lang makipagusap sa mga kaklase at teachers namin gamit yung mga cellphones at laptop. Kaya lang madalas yung pinaguusapan namin ng mga kaklase ko eh hindi naman tungkol sa lesson po. Minsan tungkol po sa mga trending sa social media." (Nowadays, it's easy to communicate with our classmates and teachers using our cellphones and laptops. However, our conversations with classmates are often not related to the lesson but about trending topics on social media.) -preservice teacher #5. Moreover, aside from the distractions caused by trending topics on social media, among the factors for reduced communication and help-seeking strategies as mentioned by the preservice teachers were the lack and slow Internet connection and the monetary cost along with it. As a result, they even meet their classmates in-person to discuss their problems regarding their online subjects (Q19). "Minsan, hindi talaga kami nakakahingi ng tulong kapag wala pong signal o Internet connection dahil naputulan po o minsan nagbrownout. May mga times na need naming lumipat ng lugar or puntahan yung kaklase naming na malapit sa amin para magtanong." (Sometimes, we really can't ask for help when there's no signal or internet connection because there is a power outage or sometimes there's a brownout. There are times when we need to move to another location or visit our classmate who is near us to ask questions.) -preservice teacher #9. For students to know how they learn promotes academic self-regulation, enabling them to choose when and how to seek external support (Newman, 2002). However, recognizing that they need help is not enough; they need to act to seek assistance from appropriate people to solve their academic problems (Ryan & Pintrich, 1998). As shown in the statement of participants #5 and #9, whenever preservice teachers encountered difficulties in their online courses, they use their immediate available resources to seek help from significant others such as their phones and other gadgets.
There are two ways wherein the researchers viewed seeking help. On one hand, when preservice teachers established a "study buddy," they could probably be considered as organized, committed to learning, engaged in collaboration, and socially inclined students; however, the other interpretation for preservice teachers who are inclined to seek help is that they may probably alone, less confident, and hoping to join a community of preservice teachers for academic support (Bandura, 1997;Kizilcec et al., 2017). In an interview with the faculty members, faculty #2 mentioned that in online courses, they prefer to give students activities in groups which may result in increased interaction among them and decreased difficulty of accomplishing shared tasks. "May mga tasks na for individual, pero mas gusto ko magbigay ng tasks na by group para kahit papaano may interaction pa rin ang mga bata. Provided na online at susunod sila sa health safety protocols." (There are individual tasks, but I prefer to give group tasks so that there is still interaction among the children. This is provided that the tasks are done online, and the children follow the health and safety protocols.) -preservice teacher #2. Faculty #2 declared that interactions among students must be online or through phone calls and messages. If in-person face-to-face interaction is needed, they need to follow health safety protocols implemented in their respective areas. Moreover, faculty #4 mentioned that group activities could help the struggling students through peer tutoring, as mentioned above, as a "study buddy." "Minsan may mga batang hindi talaga naiintindihan ang lesson, mas gusto nilang mga kaklase nila ang nagpapaliwanag sa kanila. Siguro mas naiintindihan nila yung level kung papaano nageexplain yung mga kaklase nila sa kanila."(Sometimes, there are children who do not understand the lesson well, and they prefer their classmates to explain it to them. Perhaps they understand the level of explanation their classmates provide more.) -faculty #4. Faculty #4 stated that among the factors why some students preferred a "study buddy" is because their classmates may provide explanations suitable at their level in a way that they can comprehend the most. This result is supported by the study of Kang et al. (2021) that online peer tutoring may be a valuable strategy to enhance the effectiveness of online distance learning. Considering these different interpretations of seeking help, Kizilcec et al. (2017) recommended that scaffolding for seeking help is necessary and that distinguishing the comparative parameters between productive struggle and seeking help is crucial.
In comparing where preservice teachers mostly get help with their academic struggles in taking subjects online, they get help from their classmates rather than their teachers. During the interview with preservice teachers, preservice teacher #3 mentioned that they are more comfortable asking their classmates for help than their teachers. "Sa kaklase po muna kami nagtatanong bago sa teachers po. Nahihiya po kasi kami sa teacher, pag di alam ng classmates namin, saka lang po kami nagtatanong sa teachers po." (We usually ask our classmates first before asking the teachers. We feel shy to ask the teacher directly. If our classmates don't know the answer, that's the time we ask the teacher.)preservice teacher #4. When their classmates did not know the answers Note. Items were adapted from the study of Barnard-Brak, Paton, & Lan, 2010. A.A. Funa et al. to the questions related to their lessons, that is the time they seek help from their teachers. They added that although they get help first from their classmates, they still preferred the help of their teachers. These findings are consistent with the results of the study of Talandron-Felipe et al. (2021) that students preferred seeking the help of teachers because they can facilitate learning better than asking their classmates; however, although they prefer asking their teachers, they limit it because many of them are afraid to be regarded as unintelligent or not listening attentively. Moreover, they revealed that their classmates who are most in need of academic help (low-performing preservice teachers) tend to ask fewer questions than the high-performing preservice teachers. In view of this, activities wherein the teachers encourage and give equal opportunity for preservice teachers to ask questions regarding their online education and academic struggles are imperative, most especially for low-performing preservice teachers. The frequency of the communication of preservice teachers with their classmates is not only to ask for help (Q18, Q19) but also to compare and evaluate their learning (Q23, Q24) and to check and find comfort with one another. Based on the interview with preservice teachers, they mentioned that interacting with their classmates, through calls, online, and in-person has helped them monitor the phase of their learning, check updates if they are still on track, evaluate their learning status, and alleviate the stress felt due to the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Kee (2021), there are five primary themes emerged from students' emotional and psychological experiences during the pandemic: embracing virtual learning and teaching, dealing with disappointment, experiencing powerlessness and fear, and employing coping techniques to find comfort; hence, finding appropriate workspace and receiving emotional support during pandemic were recommended.
As shown in Table 9, preservice teachers frequently communicate with their classmates to evaluate their learning and compare whether what they are learning is the same as what their classmates are learning (Q23, Q24). Further, they frequently examine their understanding and question themselves about what they have learned in their online subjects (Q21, Q22). Self-evaluation, along with goal setting, is a powerful element of human agency that can affect one's thoughts and subsequent behaviors (Bandura, 1997;Chumbley et al., 2015). Thus, self-evaluation, when done effectively, may enable preservice teachers in becoming more aware of their academic goals, priorities, and expectations. This kind of awareness may lead to improving their thoughts and behaviors towards their online learning endeavors.
As shown in Table 10, the overall results of SRL strategies show that many of the preservice teachers, who responded to the survey, are performing the SRL strategies provided in the OSLQ. There are 51.4% of the respondents strongly agreed that they always do environmental structuring to find a suitable place for studying online courses (Environmental Structuring). They often (42.7%) set goals, manage time, and evaluate themselves for effective learning to occur (Goal Setting). However, 31.5% of them sometimes strategized tasks and 27.1% sought help less than the others.
The high SRL level in environment structuring and goal setting and the low SRL levels in help-seeking is in parallel with the findings of Martinez-Lopez et al. (2017) for SRL levels of Russian engineering students. Effective SRL strategies as employed in an online learning environment benefited students' learning achievement more than the traditional or conventional approaches including cognition, motivation, and behaviors (Lai et al., 2018;Liang et al., 2016;Su et al., 2018). With the given results in Table 10, it can be deduced that the level of SRL strategies among the respondents is above average, obtaining high overall percentages for always and often, 31.7% and 36.9%, respectively. However, there is almost 31.7% (combined results from sometimes, seldom, and never) among the respondents who do not have a good level of SRL. Thus, incorporating activities that would promote Filipino preservice teachers' SRL strategies in an online distance learning environment is significant.

Conclusion and recommendations
The purpose of this research study was to establish the validity and reliability of the OSLQ for use with Filipino preservice teachers as well as to explore their SRL skills and strategies. The researchers used CFA and obtained Cronbach's alpha estimates for validity and reliability tests, respectively, and analyzed the data obtained based on the factors provided in the OSLQ. These interventions were followed by data triangulation and analysis of preservice teachers' responses to the survey through a series of interviews with them and the faculty members. This study is critical for enabling cross-cultural investigations and supplementing previous studies to promote comprehensive evaluations of SRL methods throughout the epidemic. Further, the findings of this study inform teachers, administrators, and curriculum designers about the development and use of SLMs in relevance to the promotion of SRL strategies, as well as the development of highly appropriate and contextualized content and approaches to learning and teaching processes in an online learning environment.
The results of this study signify the validity and reliability of OSLQ and each of its factors (goal setting, environment structuring, task strategies, time management, help-seeking, and self-evaluation) for use with Filipino preservice teachers. In general, most preservice teachers consider themselves to frequently use their SRL strategies in an online learning environment. Specifically, in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, they often find a suitable environment to learn, set their own learning goals, manage their daily and weekly schedules, evaluate  Note. Items were adapted from the study of Barnard-Brak, Paton, & Lan, 2010. A.A. Funa et al. their learning, seek help from their classmates, teachers, or significant others, and plan their task strategies. These findings suggest that the majority of the preservice teachers, who responded to the survey, have developed their cognitive and metacognitive abilities as they are engaged more with SRL. However, using preservice teachers' SRL skills and strategies in an online learning environment presents certain difficulties. The following are the difficulties mentioned by some preservice teachers: they are not sure of the standards of the learning goals that they have set, there are limited areas available for conducive learning and good Internet reception due to COVID-19 restrictions, the lack of ideas on good and appropriate task strategies to follow and perform, the inefficient time allocation, the reduced interaction among their classmates and teachers, and the inability to recognize their own objectives, priorities, and expectations. In view of these findings, incorporating activities in preservice teachers' online courses wherein they can improve their SRL skills and strategies are imperative.
Focusing on the SRL experiences of preservice teachers is significant for the wider educational context as it promotes the development of effective and self-regulated teachers and learners. Preservice teachers with strong SRL skills may become effective teachers, helping students to become self-regulated learners, especially in remote learning. Understanding preservice teachers' SRL experiences can inform teacher education programs that promote SRL as a core competency, preparing future teachers to support their students' SRL skills development. Teachers with strong SRL skills may model and promote these skills in their own classrooms, leading to better learning outcomes for their students.
There are certain limitations when considering the implications and generalizing the results of this study. The scope of this research is limited to preservice teachers taking online courses (pure online and hybrid) during the COVID-19 pandemic in public schools in the Philippines, specifically in the Bicol region. Based on the findings of this study, the researchers recommend the following: use of the validated OSLQ to investigate the SRL strategies of Filipino preservice teachers across different regions in the Philippines; development and incorporation of contextualized pedagogies, activities, and standards that will help improve preservice teachers' SRL strategies in their online learning courses, most especially for students with low levels of SRL; and more studies focused on in-depth investigations on the relationship among various SRL strategies and how preservice teachers in different levels and disciplines specifically apply them in various learning environments and courses.

Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. Alam ko kung saang lugar ako makapag-aaral nang mabisa para sa aking online courses. ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ ⃝ Q9