Challenges and Preferences for Online Teaching Practice during Pandemic Time: Students and Teacher Perspective

Dr. Mareike Lotulung, M. Pd

Universitas Klabat

(Source: https://cherishacademy.sch.id/img/article/A20210210001_image2021_02_10_11_58_51.jpg)

        The researcher mentioned there are three things which become the background of this research. First, covid-19 came suddenly, schools were unprepared for online learning. Second, to continue learning activities, schools opt for virtual classrooms. Last, offline teaching practices used in the online environment create additional challenges for teachers and students. She used a qualitative method to do this research, and the respondents of this research are 32 teachers in 32 schools (20 senior high schools and 12 junior high schools) in eastern part of Indonesia (6 provinces).

       The researcher’s motivation to do this research because she wants to identifying challenges in online teaching practice could shade insight for better teaching practices, knowing the student predilection in classroom communication and instruction delivery could be a beneficial, and to portray the real challenges faced by teachers and students in online classroom during the pandemic time

The findings of this research:

        There are 5 challenges of online learning, (1) low motivation and difficulty to maintain discipline, (2) inability to communicate naturally. (3) limited access to learning resources and assessment. (4) problems with learning facilities and technology adaptation, (5) distraction and noise. Preferences by students and teachers in online learning practices, (1) teachers prefer oral communication, but students opt for a more informal/personal text-based communication using social media, (2) there is a need for teachers not only to accommodate student preference, but also to explain their preferences to students and parents.