Online Learning in Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, State University of Medan: Lecturers’ Preferences for Online Learning Media During the Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Online learning has long been promoted by the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences (FMNS), State University of Medan (SUM). The online learning system (SIPDA) has been developed by Unimed as the backbone of online learning, but the number of lecturers using the system has not been as expected. The covid-19 has succeeded in forcing all lecturers to migrate from classroom face-to-face (offline) to online learning. This research was aimed to study the preferences of lecturers for available online learning media during the Covid-19 pandemic. The data were obtained using questionnaire that distributed online to all lecturers and students who were active in lectures for the even semester of the 2019/2020 academic year. The data shows that all lecturers have implemented online learning to serve all classes. The majority of lecturers serve their class by using more than one online media. The order of the three types of online media which became the main preference of lecturers experienced a shift during the 3 months of observation, namely from WhatsApp (WA) - Email - Google Classroom (GC) in the first, to WA - GC - SIPDA in the second, and to WA - SIPDA - GC in the third month. It can be concluded that, although initially the lecturers’ main preference in learning was social media (WA), they have tried hard to make SIPDA as the main choice among the available e-learning media.