Semarang – The outbreak of Covid-19 in Indonesia since March 2020 has forced the world of education to continue its agenda with virtual face-to-face learning, this is of course not necessarily easy for actors working in the world of education, including lecturers of Communication Studies at Diponegoro University. The existence of a significant shift from face-to-face to virtual face-to-face requires lecturers to quickly adapt to the various challenges that lie ahead.

One of the most obvious challenges is technical constraints, as complained by one of the lecturers of Communication Science, Dr. Turnomo Rahardjo M.Si, who admitted that he was faced with somewhat unfamiliar technology.

“First, technical constraints. This means that it takes readiness, it takes time to prepare well because it feels like suddenly, from face-to-face lectures to online lectures. This problem, especially me, is faced with the problem of understanding technology that is not very good. Then they have to prepare the material online,” he explained.

Furthermore, the lecturer who is familiarly called Mas Hardjo in the Communication Science environment also admits that he needs extra time in carrying out online lectures in addition to the presence of technical problems.

“So, actually it takes time, in addition to matters that in the implementation there are technical problems, such as signal disturbances, and so on.” he continued.

The existence of these various challenges did not make the lecturer despair, one of the lecturers who was none other than the Head of the Undip Communication Science Undergraduate Study Program, S. Rouli Manalu Ph.D. explained the principles he held in online lectures, according to him the most important was the existence of activities such as capable discussions. stimulate student thinking.

“In my opinion (the main thing) all the approaches used can stimulate student thinking. If the principle is like that, the most important thing is that the material we explain can make students think and be stimulated to think about something. So there must be activities such as responding to discussion questions, and so on,” she explained.

Seeing the various challenges faced by lecturers, Turnomo Rahardjo admitted that the Undip Department of Communication also provided training related to online lectures, and was even considered responsive in helping technical problems that often become a scourge.

“The Department (Communication Studies) has provided online lecture training, this is done by the Department through Mbak Tyas, Mbak Uli, and Mas Yanuar, especially for lecturers who are classified as seniors who are a bit tech-savvy. Then if there are technical problems, it will be assisted, how to operate the Kulon properly and properly, “he explained.

He added that the training was not only carried out formally – it was even more often held informally.

“As far as I can remember, the formal ones are about two times, but the informal ones are frequent,” he added.

As is well known, Undip through the information on its official website announced that virtual face-to-face lectures will be continued in the even semester 2020/2021. In this regard, the Head of Undip Communication Studies Study Program, S. Rouli Manalu, Ph.D. advised doing the best together in this difficult situation.

“We have to realize that we are both. Don’t feel that students are more disadvantaged than lecturers, and are more burdened by lecturers. But what we are doing is that in these difficult conditions all parties are trying to do their best together,” she said.

Writer: Luthfi Maulana A.

Reporter: Nur Laily M, Amelia Nur