THE CHALLENGES OF IMPLEMENTING ONLINE LEARNING IN THE PANDEMIC PERIOD

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused schools to shut down and resulted in over billions of students are out of the classroom globally. This resulted in a shift towards online learning as more and more people stay at home. While each country may differ in what stages they are in the COVID-19 infection rates, it is likely that everyone will eventually follow the trend of internet education via online classes as the number of students seems to be growing exponentially.

This phenomenon of information and communications technology (ICT) altering the nature of social interaction and another aspect of our lives is not new in our society, it has been commonly known as the Industry 4.0. With the current pandemic forcing countries to implement strict social distancing policies with the closing of schools and universities, students and teachers are also forced to embrace the new Industry 4.0 era by exploiting technology to keep the education going. This resulted in a shock caused by the dramatic change of education towards online learning, moreover in developing countries such as Indonesia where the infrastructure is not quite ready to take the sudden shift.

Developing countries are facing many challenges in implementing online education. The challenges cover from poor network infrastructure, a low number of competent people that can interact with the online learning system, to a lack of motivation from people outside of the urban areas to conduct online learning.

Indonesia, being a developing country, surprisingly has a higher internet penetration rate than the average of Asian countries. According to the latest survey in 2019 by the Indonesian Internet Service Providers Association (APJII), Indonesia has internet penetration rate of 63.5 percent with more than 170 million people are connected to the worldwide web. That is 69 percent of Indonesia’s total population.

In the last decade, the government of Indonesia has been vastly expanding cellular networks particularly the 4G network. As of early 2019, more than 76 percent areas have been covered including the more rural and villages area. However, a fixed-line broadband network is still uncommon as the penetration rate does not even reach 10 percent nationally.

In May 2020, more than 60 higher education institutions in Indonesia has shifted to online learning due to the government policies of distance education in the pandemic era. For the last few months, students from primary to higher education in Indonesia use their laptops or smartphones to join online classes held by their school teachers or university lecturers.

The young generation seems to be excelling in adapting to online learning with their familiarity with technology and the internet. This is more visible in big cities such as Jakarta as the urban lifestyle helps the delivery of changes to online learning more successful. In the big city, online learning is seen as a cheaper and more flexible way of education. However, it is a different case in the smaller city and rural areas.

Providing decent network infrastructure is one of the prominent challenges for Indonesia. The social distant policies are forcing students to go back to their home town, thus making those who came from smaller rural towns lose their access to better internet in the city. The students from rural areas even have to go to the extent of finding and going to higher places such as the top of the hills only to get decent internet signal to be able to do their school assignment. That is if they have the device to do so in the first place.

Even worse is that most Indonesian internet users still have to rely on mobile network instead of the fast and reliable broadband network. Online learning is often conducted through the means of video conference which require large data exchange. Mobile network has a small limited capacity that is not capable enough to provide a stable online video conference. On top of that, mobile network is more expensive than broadband network.

All of this greatly affects the loss of motivation to embrace online learning by those who reside in small town and low-income families. Working is seen as a more feasible choice due to the difficulty of gaining access to online education and to support the family’s economy from the impact caused by the pandemic, this is the case even for the young children. Not a few have to give up their education completely.

There is also a problem concerning the lack of IT competencies from the teachers and lecturers. Some of our educators are still not accustomed to using or operating the device used in providing online classes. This may come from teachers who are accustomed to habitual pattern of using conventional teaching and learning. Likewise, some students are still unfamiliar with online learning, especially in rural areas. However, the young generation can learn how to use the internet rather quickly while the teachers and professors are having a harder time picking up new skills and sufficient knowledge to utilize the technology due to their old age.

Computer technology is seen as a complex and scary device by the older generation of teachers in Indonesia. They are hesitant to try and embrace the new technology and stick with the conventional way of teaching. The COVID-19 outbreak forced them to leave their comfort zone and learn how to start online classes for their students when most of them do not even know how to turn on the computer. The teachers are immediately required to be able to create effective online learning by utilizing appropriate online devices or media and in accordance with the material being taught. They seek help from younger teachers or lecturers and their children to teach them.

The simplest thing a teacher can do is to use WhatsApp Group. Even if most of the older teachers and professors are not able to operate computers, almost all of them are familiar with social media such as WhatsApp in their daily life. WhatsApp is perfect for beginner online teachers because the operation is very simple and easily accessible to both the students and the teachers. The material will be shared in form of presentation file in the group and students are given the time to hold discussion and ask questions via group chat. The teacher also simultaneously able to fill out the list of attendees based on student activity on the group. But obviously, this is not the best solution to online learning. WhatsApp group video conference is unstable compared to other applications such as Zoom or Google Meet therefore online face-to-face learning using WhatsApp is deemed to be not practical. Hence, the teachers can not directly oversee the learning progress of individual students and limit the ability to hold active online discussions between the students and teachers when using WhatsApp as media for online learning.

As for online teachers who have more enthusiasm, they can improve their abilities by using various online learning applications. But again, choose the application that suits the needs of the teacher and students themselves. Not all online learning applications can be used directly but first must be considered with the needs of teachers and students, suitability to the material, as well as limitations of device and network infrastructure. It is very ineffective if the teacher teaches using the Zoom meeting application but the network or signal in the area of the student lives is not good.

Online learning media must be packaged effectively, easily accessed, and understood by students. Many teachers over-insist an application that is considered contemporary and cool, but it is not in accordance with the initial purpose of online learning, which is to facilitate students to get learning for education in this COVID-19 pandemic situation.

Creativity is the key to the success of online learning. The ability of teachers to be creative in designing and gathering materials, learning methods, and what applications are in accordance with the material and methods. Creativity will enable the teacher to motivate their students to keep their enthusiasm in learning online and not become a psychological burden. Most important of all, the teacher must continue motivating students in learning.

Online learning is beneficial to the students both living in cities and rural areas. Online learning enables teachers and lecturers from big cities to teach students in rural schools. Lecturers from top universities will be able to share their expertise and knowledge with students in regions outside of the big cities. The young people will also have more time to make contributions to their communities since online learning keeps them in their home areas.

The impact in the long run of online learning in Indonesia will be enormous. Indonesian students from smaller and rural regions no longer need to travel to big cities in pursuit of better education. The community in the region can retain their talent to help develop villages thus helping the government’s effort at regional development equalization.

This period of school closure caused by the COVID-19 outbreak should be fully utilized by all people taking part in the education sector. Society needs to adapt to online learning and find the best formula for how it will help develop and deliver a better future of Indonesia’s education system.