Educational institutions have taken some strategic planning to support learning from home after the outbreak of COVID-19. Some adjustments have been implemented to ensure every party involved is comfortable with the unprecedented shifting from offline to online learning. How do students feel about the shifting? Let’s hear from BINUSIAN in Malang regarding the challenges of a virtual learning environment in the English language learning context.

“I usually feel sleepy. When I am sleepy, my brain cannot process any information during the online class. I also often got distracted by other things outside the class.” (Jennifer)

 “Most of the time, I cannot hear what the lecturer is saying because the audio echoes a lot. I usually just ask my classmate for a recap to make sure I heard everything correctly.” (Iqtira Hanis Guinatri)

 “I always got distracted easily while in an online class and sometimes I cannot hear the lecturer’s voice clearly.” (Daniella Oktalina Manalu)

 “My main problem is having a member of a group (in a group project) that is inactive/never participating in the project/discussion. Also, I have problems with my Wi-Fi especially when it rains and in the evening. My parents had changed the Wi-Fi 3 times in the span of not even a year and the connection remains unstable until this day.” (Gabriele Angkawijaya)

 “Usually in class, people do not want to respond much, especially when asked a question. I find it very awkward when the teacher asks something and gets no response, so I feel inclined to answer more.” (Vigilio Hadi Susanto)

 “There isn’t any problem I’ve encountered maybe when in group project we sometimes had a miscommunication that affects our PowerPoint or assignment. We solved it by making an open chat every time we are confused.” (Alpha Daury)

 “Sometimes the sounds got cut off or not clear, making it hard to understand. Usually, I just listen to the next part and put the pieces together and, most of the time I can get the gist of what it is.” (Eureka Djatu Kejora)

 “It’s kind of hard to coordinate my teammate for group works, then there’s also network problem.” (Yuan Adikusuma Yulianto)

 “Online classes made me struggle to understand the material. It is also quite challenging to interact generally because of the bad internet network (sometimes). But I always ask the lecturer via WhatsApp to resolve it, thankfully the lecturer did not mind that and answered it enthusiastically.” (Michelle Angelique)