Students' perceptions and experiences of an online well-being programme: a phenomenological study protocol

Background The pandemic has ensued challenges across all sections of the human population such as livelihood and educational changes, which involve the abrupt shift to online learning, immensely affecting the students' well-being. Negative health consequences of e-learning among students stem from the increased demand for new technological skills, productivity, information overload and restriction of students to spend time with their peers.Objective To explore the experiences of the students from the University of Santo Tomas-College of Rehabilitation Sciences (UST-CRS) who participated in the online well-being programme.Methodology A phenomenological design will be used to determine the participants' perceptions and experiences. Purposive sampling will be used to recruit 8-10 undergraduate students from UST-CRS ages 18-22 years, who participated in the well-being programme, and completed the study's quantitative counterpart. Semistructured, in-depth questions will be used to conduct a focus group discussion. The transcripts will be analysed using thematic analysis via the NVivo V.12 software.Ethics and dissemination The study protocol is approved by the UST-CRS Ethical Review Committee (Protocol Number: SI-2022-034 (V.4)). It will be implemented in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and the National Ethical Guidelines for Health and Health-Related Research, and Data Privacy Act. Findings will be published in accredited journals and presented in related scientific fora.Registration ID PHRR230214-005419; Philippine Health Research Registry.