ONLINE CLASS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC

ONLINE CLASS DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC Written by: Debora Syalom Irene Somba Mona Natalia Patricia Arista

Online learning is defined as a learning process that is carried out synchronously or asynchronously by using different devices (e.g. handphones, laptops, computers, etc.) with internet access. The learning process is synchronous in the sense that students take direct lectures using the web or other supporting devices such as (Microsoft team, zoom, etc.) and there is real-time interaction between educators and students, and there is the possibility of instant feedback between educators and students. Meanwhile, the asynchronous learning process is not well structured and students are required to learn independently using previously provided learning materials and there is no real- time interaction between educators and students (Littlefield, 2018).

Online learning has a good impact on students, such as: flexible study schedules and practicing virtual communication and better collaboration. However, there are also challenges in conducting online learning, such as: lack of direct supervision from the teacher in learning which results in students sometimes losing focus, limited internet access, and reduced direct interaction between students and educators.

According to Scherer that online learning provides many advantages, including: can learn at any time and there is no limit (Scherer, Rich, and nunn, 2002; Dietrich, 2003).

Through online learning, the professor gives a lecture through accessible virtual classes anywhere and at any time. This enables students to freely choose which topics and what tasks they think are priority. Sun et al., (2008) show that the flexibility of online time, location and learning methods affect student satisfaction with learning. The learning process can be successful if students have good motivation to learn and also able to develop student independence.

Apart from the advantages of online learning, there are also many challenges that occur during online learning during a pandemic, one of which is that students will find it more difficult to focus on the material presented and also online learning has very little supervision of what students are doing. The separate location of students and teachers causes teachers not to be able to directly supervise the activities of their students so there is no guarantee that students really pay attention and listen to the material presented.

Another thing that becomes obstacles in online learning is limited internet access or the problem of an unstable internet connection. Not all regions have stable connections so that when doing Zoom or Google Meet, the instructions given by lecturers and instructors are less understandable (Sadikin & Hamidah, 2020).

Furthermore is the lack of interaction with teachers. Communication during learning tends to be one- way, even though there are some students who answer questions or respond to what the teacher explains (Hidayat & Noeraida, 2020). As a result, it can slow down the formation of values in the learning process. (Rahmawati, 2009).

Therefore, to increase student's interest in learning, the selection of learning strategies is very important because by choosing the right learning strategy can motivate students to learn.

The learning strategy that can be done to increase student interest in learning during the Covid-19 pandemic is to prepare learning material that is easy to understand, short, and interesting because in this online learning system it is very different from face-to-face learning. In offline learning, students can ask if there’s something they don’t understand. But in online learning, students find it difficult to ask questions because of many obstacles. From this strategy students can also read while practicing. Furthermore, choose learning media that is interesting not only nonverbally but also verbally. Another strategy that can be used to increase student interest in online learning is to choose interesting media. Media that can be used, namely zoom, kahoot etc. In this strategy students can also listen while memorizing. (Sutarto et al., 2020).

In conclusion, Online learning is defined as a learning process that is carried out synchronously or asynchronously using different devices (e.g. handphones and laptop) with internet access. There are many advantages to doing online learning, namely to build self-motivation, self- discipline, and flexible study schedules. In addition, online learning can improve virtual communication and collaboration. Even so, online learning also has disadvantages, namely the lack of supervision in learning and interaction with educators, limited internet access, and sometimes students lose focus. For online learning situations, lecturer are expected to create new learning strategies, for example lecturer can choose interesting media and prepare learning material that is easy to understand, short, and interesting. Therefore, students can better adapt to online learning during the pandemic.

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