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This study purposed to describes the learning process during the University closures in Indonesia from mid-March to June 2020 in the Second Semester of 2019/2020 Academic Year. Initially, the courses designed used face-to-face delivered mode, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic all the plan and forced to the online learning delivered approach. Many unexpected events occur during the process of changing learning patterns during the COVID-19 pandemic. Unequal online learning support facilities at various Public Universities in Indonesia certainly force lecturers to adapt and innovate so that the learning process can be carried out.

 

This study used descriptive and explanatory case study method. The participants’ data kept anonymity and pseudonymity according to research ethics. In this study, we choose two Public University located in Surabaya, East Java and another in Tarakan, North Kalimantan. In Surabaya, we examine the science-related course, and in the Tarakan, we examine the mathematics-related course, which both delivered online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study, we also discuss the location factor, and it impacts on the adaptation taken by the lectures. The data collected consist of qualitative and quantitative data source, i.e. student participation, interviews, and educational artefacts.

 

In the first University in Surabaya, “Mr. A†who taught in the science related-course, start the online learning by asking his students what the delivered method they need? Majority of his students choose using WhatsApp group instead of using the meeting platform such as Zoom, Google Meet, or Cisco Webex. The students select WhatsApp group chat, because it needs low bandwidth data (internet). After all, many students live in a rural area, and they do not live in Surabaya due to COVID-19 pandemic. Mr. A adapted the chat WhatsApp group with threaded discussion strategy and grouping the students into some small group work to present the course topic each week. The live group chat session also conducted by Mr. A to ensure student understanding. On some week, Mr. A shares some journal articles to enrich the students’ knowledge. At the end of the course, Mr. A, surveyed his students to evaluate their understanding. Mr. A rare to use the synchronous learning mode because it consumed a lot of data.

 

In another University in Tarakan, “Mr. B†who taught in the mathematics related-course, changed to the online learning before the mid-semester examination. He chooses to use the meeting platform in the synchronous learning mode. The synchronous learning is matching to teach the mathematics-related course. He prefers to use Zoom because its user experiences simply to his students, because of the University location near the border between Indonesia-Malaysia. Some students who live in a rural village near the border cannot join the class meeting because of no internet access there. Mr. B tried to use the University learning management system (LMS), but the system itself had trouble. This situation force Mr. B to make a lecture video and upload it to YouTube, so his student still can learn the course with asynchronous mode.

 

We also collected the students’ feedback from the two lectures (Mr. A and Mr. B). Despite the differences in the two public universities location, majority of the students’ feedback result is the same (Table 1).

Table 1. Students’ feedback from the lectures.

 

No

Frequently students’ feedback

1.

The use of online meeting applications is very wasteful of internet data packages

2.

More comfortable to learn with face-to-face mode

3.

Assignments should not be too much

5.

Campus LMS often has trouble issues

 

Based on the two stories, these results illustrate that the lecturers forced to make various adaptations to start online learning due to COVID-19, and this is not planned in the syllabus. The workload of lecturers has also experienced changes, especially in designing and choosing spaces and modes of delivery of material in online learning. Many of the students cannot access the online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. It indicates that online learning requires careful planning and packaging of materials and taking into account equal access opportunities for students and minimizing gaps. The positive side of the forced transfer of learning modes from face to face to online learning becomes a catalyst for designing hybrid online learning models, especially for undergraduate teacher education programs.

Distance education; Educational technology; Online learning; Teaching profession