Online Learning Applications for Students: Opportunities & Challenges

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to discover: 1) how students perception to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic; 2) what are the most popular online learning applications by students; 3) the challenges and problems faced by the students during the implementation of online learning. The research approach employed was descriptive qualitative research with survey tools. The study instrument utilized was an online survey in the form of a questionnaire. This study population consisted of 1503 students from the Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Negeri Padang (FT-UNP). Sampling using purposive sampling technique as many as 207 people. According to the poll results, 89% of students supported the use of online schooling during the epidemic, although it turned out that many students stated that they did not like online learning because it was considered less fun, and the lecturer gave more assignments than usual. Although online learning has many advantages, the survey results show that online learning also has many challenges, including internet connection, lecturers' poor performance, students' poor independent study skills, technical issues with the use of technology, heavy tasks, and students' low motivation, and unsupportive environment. Google Classroom is the most popular application (90%), and Google Meet is the second choice of interest (42%), followed by Zoom (22%), meaning that students want an online learning platform that in addition to supporting discussions, assignments, online assessments must also support virtual face-to-face interaction via video conferencing. So, it is necessary to combine the use of various online learning applications so that the shortcomings of each existing application can be covered by each other.