LECTURERS’ PERCEPTION ON THE USE OF WHATSAPP IN TEACHING AND LEARNING ACTIVITIES DURING COVID-19

The covid-19 has an impact on the educational field. Learning process has changed from conventional to online learning. Several applications are offered to help educators in doing online learning. One of them is Whatsapp application. Whatsapp is one of the information media that is widely used by many people, including teachers, lecturers, and students. In subsequent developments, Whatsapp application is not only used to communicate and exchange messages, but Whatsapp is also used for educational purposes. The researcher conducted the study of using Whatsapp in teaching and learning activities during Covid-19 at English Education Study Program Jambi University by implemented a qualitative approach with a case study design in gaining the data. Interviews with four English Lecturers were used to obtain data and evidence about how do they perceived the use of Whatsapp in teaching and learning process during covid-19. The results of data analysis revealed that all of lecturers have many positive perceptions rather than the negative one about using Whatsapp to do online learning during covid-19. Using Whatsapp in online learning during covid-19 is easy because lecturers can monitor learning at any time, it does not consume a lot of quota, and many features available on Whatsapp make it easier for lecturers to take the usefulness of these features to carry out online learning activities such as discussion, sharing learning material in various formats, giving assignments, collecting assignments, giving review or feedback and for academic planning and scheduling.


INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, the Corona virus becomes a crucial health issue in the world.The pandemic or the Corona Virus  has spread to more than 200 countries and has an impact in educational field.Isolation, social and physical distancing is carried out by the government as a policy to anticipate the transmission of the virus.All activities must be carried out from home such as work, worship and study (Jamaluddin et al., 2020).
Students, parents, and educators around the world are experiencing the extraordinary ripple effects of the Covid-19 when school are closed and quarantine method are being ordered to deal with a global pandemic.Based on data obtained from UNICEF (2020), "morethan 60 millionstudent in Indonesia temporarily out of school because of Covid-19".One educational initiative that can help teaching and learning activities during Covid-19 is distance learning or online learning.theMinister of Education and Culture, NadiemMakarim issued a policy as outlined in Circular Letter No.4/2020 on March 24, 2020 concerning the implementation of education in emergency corona virus, one of which emphasized distance learning or online learning.
There are several application lists that can help educators to do online learning.One of them is Whatsapp application.Whatsapp is one of the information media that is widely used by many people, including teachers, lecturers, and students.In subsequent developments, Whatsapp application is not only used to communicate and exchange messages but now Whatsapp is also used for educational purposes.Teaching and learning activities through Whatsapp during Covid- This research is expected to give contribution to new ideas and knowledge on how lecturers and learners can conceptualize and use Whatsapp in teaching and learning process and it is hoped this research can provide inspiration to lecturers or teacher in teaching through online learning using Whatsapp application.

METHODS
This research used qualitative approach with a case study as a design.Before selecting the participants, the researcher conducted a preliminary survey by distributing Google forms to English lecturers at Jambi University.There were 12 lecturers gave responses.In selecting the samples, the researcher used purposive sampling.There was a criterion in determining the sample, namely lecturers who use Whatsapp into their teaching and learning activity during covid-19.Based on the data obtained in the previous survey, there were 4 lecturers as the sample in this research.
In this study, the data collected through interview.The interview guideline was created by the researcher based on the purposes of the research and related to the research question.It helped the interviewer to ask the questions.Before doing the interview, the researcher provided the consent form and interview protocol to the participants then participant responses was recorded and each interview lasted for around 10-15 minutes.The type of interview used indepth interview with semi structured interview.An in-depth interview was chosen because it made the researcher understood the story of the interviewee.
After the researcher got the data, the researcher copied all the results of the interviews.Then the participants' statements on the theme had been analyzed.The researcher used coding to identify themes and data interview patterns.Finally, researcher drew research findings to answer research question and research objective.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Based on the data that the researcher got from the interview there are three themes to answer research questions about how lecturers' perceive toward the use of Whatsapp in teaching and learning activities during Covid-19 at English Education Study Program Jambi University.They are perceived ease of use, perceived the usefulness, and perceived the challenges.

Perceived Ease of Use
Ease of use is one of the reason English lecturers choose Whatsapp as an alternative medium in doing teaching and learning activities during Covid-19.According to Davis (2000) ease of use means a person believes that using a system is easy.Each of English lecturers agreed that Whatsapp is easy to use.In this case, L1 agreed that Whatsapp is easy to use because learning activity can be monitored anytime.Besides that, L2 claimed discussion activity also can be done via Whatsapp.There is chat group feature that available on Whatsapp.One of them is creating group that contain maximum 256 members in one group.It makes the students can collaborate online (Barhoumi, 2015).They can discuss and comment to the others related to the courses in the Whatsapp group.In addition, L3 said that accessing learning material and giving information is easy.To provide an information or announcement to the students, L3 share it into group class in Whatsapp and all of the students knew the information that was shared.Then, Whatsapp is a low cost.Like what stated by L4.He said that Whatsapp is cheaper and it does not consume a lot of quota.The students and the lecturers did not worry about running out of their quota.

Perceived The Usefulness
Whatsapp is very useful in carrying out the online learning process.There are many uses for Whatsapp that lecturers can apply to support learning activities during pandemic.One of them is academic planning and scheduling can be done via Whatsapp.L3 claimed that he used Whatsapp to tell the students about what time the class will be started and what material will be discussed in the next lectures.Additionally, Whatsapp can also be used for collecting students' assignment.It was reflected from L2.However, the assignments that were collected only assignment in the form of answering direct questions or concluding discussion results in the form of texting in Whatsapp.In the other hand, providing assignment and providing review or feedback could be done via Whatsapp.It was stated by L1.And L3 had the same opinion as L1.He said that providing assignments can be done through Whatsapp.Not only that, L3 also added that through Whatsapp, sharing learning materials in various formats also can be done.L4 also supported L3 opinion.They said that they could upload learning materials in the form of text,videos,photos or pdf to their students.It can be done via Whatsapp because there are some features that available on Whatsapp such as document, photos, videos, voice call, video call and voice notes (Barhoumi, 2015).Lecturers can choose it based on their learning objectives.

Perceived The Challenges
Although Whatsapp useful in supporting the online learning process during Covid-19.It cannot be denied that there are several challenges faced by English lecturers when using Whatsapp in an educational context.All of the participants have their own challenges.One of the challenges is cheating potential.It was stated by L1.She said that cheating potential has increased because when the students submit their assignments into group class then their friends can copy and paste their work.This issued was also found in Bounhik and Deshen (2014) which found that using Whatsapp in online learning could increase cheating potential.However, this problem can be overcome by asking the students to submit their work via private chat.L1 also added that Whatsapp has limited size.It means not all assignments can be sent via Whatsapp.For heavy task that contain a big capacity such as assignments in the form of videos that can make Whatsapp become overload.To overcome this problem, the lecturer asks the students to submit their assignments via email or e-learning.Besides that, unstable internet connection also becomes the challenges of lecturers in doing online learning.It was reflected by L4 and L1.Distinctly, L2 does not have problems with technical barriers such as internet connection.The challenges that she faced during teaching and learning process through Whatsapp were no effort by some students.The last challenge is family culture.This statement was conveyed by L4.Based on his experience, there were students who are not allowed to use gadget during certain hours by their parents.So, because of that these students cannot take online lectures.

CONCLUSION
The results of the study showed that all of English Lecturers have many positive perceptions rather than the negative one toward Whatsapp as an alternative medium to do teaching and learning activity during Covid-19.Whatsapp is ease to use to do online learning during Covid-19.Through Whatsapp, learning activity can be monitored any time, it does not consumes a lot of quota, and many features available on Whatsappmake it easier for lecturers to take the usefulness of these features to carry out online learning activities such as discussion, sharing learning material in various formats, giving feedback on students' assignment, providing and collecting assignments and for academic planning and scheduling.But, it cannot be denied that potential cheating, limited size of Whatsapp, and unstable internet connection also become the challenges of Whatsapp in doing online learning.However, all of the challenges can be overcome by sending an assignment into private chat, email, or google drive.