One Year Reflection of Online Learning: The Students` Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Online Learning amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic in a University

This research explores higher education students` perceptions related to the effectiveness of online learning amidst pandemics to get a better understanding of online classroom implementation in the learning and teaching practice. Understanding this issue is important because online learning is generally a new thing for students in Indonesia; thus, the exploration of students` perceptions would be the key to unpack the challenges in an online classroom context faced by the students. To investigate the issue, a case study was employed. This methodology allowed the researchers to delve into the problems by interviewing students using semi-structured interviews in a higher education institution. In this study, 6 students from different study programs agreed to participate and become the interviewees. To explore this topic, this research employed a model of predictors for effective online learning. Based on the analysis of the findings, most of the students believed that online learning was less effective compared to offline learning. The reasons are due to the inefficiency of learning tools, less interaction between teachers and students, teachers` lack of attention to students` workload and deadlines, disruptions coming from their home environment, and the challenges of managing time to join online classroom which led to the inflexibility of learning. The findings imply that there is a need to improve the learning management system and learning policy for both teachers and students to create a better learning atmosphere. Therefore, this study proposes that stakeholders should reconceptualize the teaching strategies and policies for the future of online learning.