Evaluation of online learning for mathematics education students

Abstract

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected most countries in the world, including universities in Medan, Indonesia. The spread of Covid-19 through social interaction requires the omission of face-to-face learning activities. Based on UNESCO data, 850 million students around the world, including Indonesia, study at home. For the mathematics education students in a private university in Medan, Indonesia, studying at home is a new phenomenon. Students and lecturers must change the learning method without preparation due to the sudden pressure. This article examined this phenomenon. The method used was descriptive qualitative to describe the process of implementing distance learning, the media, and evaluation used in e-learning during the Covid-19 pandemic for mathematics education students. Data collection was conducted by a questionnaire administered to 200 lecturers, interviews, and direct observation. The results show that Group Chat via WhatsApp was the most widely used online communication media, especially the Baby Boomers and Generation X, but millennials used online multimedia more frequently. The implementation has several shortcomings: the lack of interaction between instructors and students, students being asked to learn independently and do independent projects, teachers using more than one media not following the teaching-load hours or spending less time, and many experiencing technical obstacles.

Peningkatan Hasil Belajar Penjumlahan dan Pengurangan Bilangan Siswa Kelas I dengan Media Konkret

“…Selama ini, Pembelajaran matematika hanya berfokus pada penerapan konsep matematika. Siswa di sekolah hanya diberi pengetahuan tentang definisi, teorema, dan contoh soal sebelum mereka diberi latihan soal (Anggraini, 2022;Baldiris, 2019;Gunawan, 2023;Paulo, 2023;Pinheiro, 2022;Purnomo, 2023;Siregar, 2021;Williams, 2021). Akibatnya, mereka kurang memahami konsep dan sering mengalami kesulitan matematika di kelas (Sumartini, 2016).…”

Distance Lesson Study in Mathematics: A Case Study of an Italian High School

“…According to the authors, the pandemic worked as a lens on the already important issues of social and educational problems. Some authors (Siregar and Siagian, 2021) evaluated the online learning of mathematics, highlighting the change in its learning method. For example, they designed new teaching approaches and orienting mathematics learning toward solving social problems such as species extinction, climate change, and building a sustainable future.…”

Postsecondary Mathematics during the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review

“…The rise in the number of cases was attributed to the slow response of the Indonesian government when its neighboring countries were already imposing lockdowns (Olivia et al, 2020). Notably, Indonesia was reportedly unprepared for e-Learning as well, with only nine universities having established systems for e-Learning before the pandemic (Siregar et al, 2021). The three Indonesian studies in this review took place in different cities.…”

“…For the qualitative studies, sample sizes were mostly between 14 to 31, with the exception of Siregar et al (2021), whose sample included 200 lecturers; however, it should be noted that these 200 lecturers were from a single university, thus also limiting the generalizability of their results. The two quantitative studies had 120 and 467 undergraduate students for their samples, while the mixed methods studies had 27 and 51 professors for their samples.…”

“…), who utilized online workshops and online discussion forums, andSiregar et al (2021), who utilized observations, interviews, and other files in their study.Various types of analyses were used in the qualitative studies, including content analysis(Nsengimana et al, 2021), open coding(Naidoo, 2020), and the Miles and Huberman procedure(Sulistyani et al, 2021), while the others did not specify the type of analysis used. Both of the quantitative studies involved descriptive statistics, and did not specify the instrument used for analysis.No correlations or causations were established in the quantitative studies.…”