The coronavirus pandemic has brought the unexpected challenge of providing distance learning as the primary mode of education. College students were forced to adopt a digital approach, dramatically transitioning traditional in-person classroom instruction to predominantly distance learning and causing higher prevalence of anxiety among the population. The study determined the prevalence of symptoms of anxiety, classified the severity of these symptoms across selected demographic variables, and determined the perceived advantages and disadvantages of distance learning. This study employed an analytical cross-sectional design, and the participants were 293 college students of Zamboanga State College of Marine Sciences and Technology, Zamboanga City. The Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) questionnaire and Backzek et al.’s (2020) advantages and disadvantages checklist were used. There were 186 (63.5 percent) college students who exhibited symptoms of anxiety ranging from mild to severe: 130 (44.37 percent) experienced mild anxiety, 42 (14.33 percent) experienced moderate anxiety, and 14 (4.78 percent) experienced severe anxiety. The other 107 (36.5 percent) exhibited minimal symptoms of anxiety. The prevalence rates were higher among females compared to males, with 97 (33.11 percent) and 89 (30.37 percent), respectively. The most frequent perceived advantages of distance learning were the ability to stay at home (63.38 percent), learning at their own pace (51.19 percent), and continuous access to online learning. The majority of the students chose poor learning conditions at home (69.62 percent), technical problems (55.97 percent), and reduced interaction with the teacher (48.81 percent) as the main disadvantages. Attention should also be given to the impact of the pandemic in the economy, politics, and even the educational system.

Keyword: Effect of distance learning on self-related anxiety