E-learning Platforms Used by the EFL Teacher during Distance Learning

Due to the Covid-19 outbreak, learning activities had to be changed from face-to-face activities in class to distance learning. The e-learning platform has been essential to use since the covid-19 outbreak. However, online learning has several obstacles, such as the lack of facilities owned by students. Some parents and students face a problem during distance learning because they do not have a computer or android device. This study aims to analyze the bold learning platform used by EFL teachers during the covid-19 outbreak and analyze the use during distance learning. This research uses a descriptive qualitative approach. Observations and interviews were used as methods in this study. The subject of this research is an EFL teacher. This study indicates that EFL teachers entirely use WhatsApp as an e-learning platform to carry out teaching activities during distance learning using several steps. First, the teacher sends a greeting, reviewing the previous material and information on today's material. Second, the teacher provides additional material in e-modules and learning videos. Third, the teacher gives some assignments to students. Fourth, the teacher collects the collection of assignments. This research can be used as a reflection on how the implementation of classroom language used by the EFL teacher during distance learning. This is an open-access article under the CC BY-SA license. Copyright © 2021 by Author. Published by Universitas Pendidikan Ganesha.


INTRODUCTION
Due to the covid-19 outbreak, learning activities are forcedly changed from face-to-face in-class activities into distance learning. The implementation of online learning is officially advised by the Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia who announced that all education units must be changed into online learning (Ambarita, 2021;Anggrasari, 2020;Raharja et al., 2019). Implementing distance learning surely requires some e-learning platforms in conducting distance learning (Abumalloh et al., 2021;Almaiah et al., 2020;Aprilia et al., 2020;Sindiani et al., 2020). E-learning platforms is really important to utilize since the covid-19 outbreak. E-learning platforms are significant since they are used in managing the learning process, doing an evaluation, informing the students, and communication services (Ja'ashan, 2020;Lapitan et al., 2021;Yawson & Yamoah, 2020). In addition, it is also really helpful for both the teachers and the students in conducting teaching and learning activity. E-learning platforms' utilization in the learning process can improve efficiency and effectiveness therefore the students' highest potency can be achieved (Ardini et al., 2020;Arifuddin et al., 2020;Rahmat, 2020;Ristanto et al., 2020).
Based on the results of observations and interviews with one of the English teachers in SMP N 6 Kintamani, the teacher explained that at the first online meeting, she has ever tried to use Google Meeting and Zoom but the participants were only ten of two classes in grade 7. As the result, the teacher did not use video conferences such as Zoom, Google meeting, Cisco WebEx in remote learning due to the student's problems. Furthermore, the teacher mentioned that the facilities used by the students are limited, for instance, mobile phones and laptops, therefore, most of them borrow them from their parents. The findings of previous studies also stated that the problem faced by some parents and students during the implementation of remote learning is that they do not have a computer or an Android device (Efriana, 2021;Mufaziah & Fauziah, 2020;Rigianti, 2020;Wardani et al., 2020). Most of their parents athe also cannot help their children to apply to those video conferences. The data package had by the students is also limited. Conducting remote learning, particularly using video conferences are surely requires a high cost that makes both students and their parents from middle-lower class economies do not have enough budget to provide the data package ( (Efriana, 2021;Hutauruk & Sidabutar, 2020;Primasari & Zulela, 2021). Moreover, the internet signal was not good enough because they live in the villages. It is also supported previous research that even though most the students have the internet in their hands, they still face difficulty in accessing the internet network due to geographical location that affects the unstable network (Efriana, 2021;Hutauruk & Sidabutar, 2020;Windhiyana, 2020). Some students have already mobile phones however the problem is it did not support conducting video conferences.
E-learning platforms used in distance learning can be in the form of applications and online platforms. First, there are some applications used by the teacher and students starting from junior high school to college students during the covid-19 pandemic. The applications are Zoom, Google Meeting, Skype, and so forth as video conferences (Marsiding, 2021;Mpungose, 2021;Putra, 2021;Suhery et al., 2020). There are some applications used during online learning in the form of video conferences namely zoom, google meeting, and WebEx (Abidah et al., 2020;Putra, 2021;Setyawan et al., 2020). Previous research also stated that nowadays, many e-learning platforms are applied by the teachers due to the covid-19 pandemic namely Rumah Belajar, Quipper School, Ruang Guru, Google Classroom, and so on (Haka et al., 2020;Kumar et al., 2020;Octaberlina & Muslimin, 2020). Second, some online platforms are used namely Google Classroom, Schoology, Edmodo, or even WhatsApp that both teachers and students use as learning platforms (Hasyim & Eldiana, 2020;Resty et al., 2019;Sefriani et al., 2021). Several online learning platforms are available for the English teachers such as e-mail, google form, Schoology, posting teacher notes, and social e-learning platforms that are used in distance learning (Solehana et al., 2019;Widyaningrum et al., 2020;Zhang et al., 2020). Distance learning is defined as a learning activity in which conducted in an online way by implementing e-learning platforms such as Google Classroom, Schoology, Edmodo, WhatsApp, and so on. Distance learning is a learning process that implements technology that both the students and teacher uses in distance teaching and learning activities forth (Churiyah et al., 2020;Lase et al., 2021;Mamahit, 2020). Distance learning is known as a learning process by utilizing technological advances such as multimedia technology, video, virtual classes, animated online text, voice messages, e-mail, telephone conferencing, and online video streaming, in which both students and teachers do not meet face to face in one place (Assidiqi & Sumarni, 2020;Goudeau et al., 2021;Kalyuga, 2012).
In the Indonesian research context, previous research has conducted the latest research on e-learning platforms used during the COVID-19 outbreak (Tathahira & Sriayu, 2020;Wardany et al., 2021). However, the context of their studies was in vocational school and senior high school, and have yet to focus on e-learning platforms used in junior high school, particularly in SMP N 6 Kintamani. Other research conducted research on the utilization of learning platforms in the Madrasah Ibtidaiyah Teacher Education (PGMI) Study during the covid-19 period only briefly discussed the e-learning platforms used in conducting distance learning Saputra et al. (2021). Therefore, the purpose of this study was to analyze the e-learning used by EFL teachers during the covid-19 outbreak at SMP N 6 Kintamani; and analyze the use of e-learning platforms during distance learning. This study is urgent to conduct since it is covid-19, which makes many various e-learning platforms were used during the online teaching and learning process. Therefore, knowing the e-learning platform used by the teacher can give a beneficial contribution for the present or future teachers to use for appropriate e-learning platform in distance learning. Moreover, this study can be used as guidance in implementing for e-learning platforms to prepare preservice teachers when conducting distance learning.

METHOD
This study used a descriptive qualitative method. By using qualitative research, the researcher analyzed a social phenomenon namely e-learning platforms used by the teacher in junior high school by investigating a person, in this case, who is an EFL teacher who teaches English subjects during remote teaching. The data were collected by observation and interview. The observation was conducted to find out the data about what e-learning platforms are used and the use of it during distance learning by the teacher in SMP N 6 Kintamani. Furthermore, the interview was also conducted using a voice note by WhatsApp application to support the data of observation since the teacher was not able to conduct the interview directly face to face or using any video conferences. The interview was informal. The researcher only asked open-ended questions and allowed the participant to answer the questions based on what they knew about it.
The participant of this study was an EFL teacher at SMP N 6 Kintamani as the main source of data. The researcher chose only one teacher because of 9 English teachers in SMP N 6 Kintamani, only one teacher gave her consent in this research and after doing preliminary observation and interview, only a teacher who could conduct the distance learning well enough using WhatsApp as the medium used in distance learning. The researcher used two steps to collect the data. The first step was observation to see what e-learning platforms were used and their use of them during a covid-19 outbreak. The observation was conducted by joining a group of class 7 H and I (it was labeled from A to I). The second step was a semi-structured interview using a voice note of the WhatsApp application to support the data of the observation. Those methods were used to obtain the data from the participant based on their understanding and experiences. The analysis of all data was organized to obtain findings that were interpreted appropriately. There were three steps in analyzing the data starting with transcribing the data. The next step was reducing the data. The last step that had to be done was describing the data.

Result
This section provides the result of observation and interview. The researcher observed the e-learning platforms through observing 10 meetings. The observation was conducted by joining a group consisting of grade 7 H&I (the classes were labeled from A to I). In addition, the interview was also conducted to support the data of the observation. The use of e-learning platforms (WhatsApp) during distance learning was presented in Table 1. The teacher conducted distance learning using WhatsApp in the first meeting to continue learning material from the previous meeting in chapter 3. Previously, the teacher taught about telling time and days. At the end of the class, the tasks were given and must be submitted no later than 2 p.m. Giving exercise for the previous materials: telling time, days, dates, and months (CHAPTER 3) The teacher preferred to use WhatsApp in meeting 2 to give learning exercises for the students since all materials in chapter 3 have been done. There are 4 exercises namely: 1.
The ways how to ask the time 2.
The ways how to ask days 3.
The ways how to ask the date 4.
The ways how to ask the month They are required to submit it no later than noon. Giving daily test of the materials: telling time, days, date, and month (CHAPTER 3) The teacher used WhatsApp to conduct a daily test consisting of 40 multiple choice questions and 10 questions of the essay. The daily test was conducted by sending the questions in the form of pictures because most of the students were confused about how to use google form.

Stating things (CHAPTER 4)
The teacher used WhatsApp to conduct the learning process. The students were instructed to read their book first on pages 59-64 and they could ask anything if they did not understand the material. At the end of the lesson, students were given 4 tasks to find: 1. The name of 10 things in the bedroom. 2. The name of 10 things in the living room.
3. The name of 10 things in the bathroom 4. The name of 10 things in the kitchen. Students must read and record it in the form of voice recording and then submitted it to the teacher personally. 1. The use of articles "a" and "an" 2. The use of "have" and "has" (CHAPTER 4) The teacher applied for WhatsApp to conduct teaching and learning activities. The material was sent in the form of an e-module and four explanation videos made directly by the teacher. At the end of the meeting, tasks were given to the students.

Stating public place (CHAPTER 4)
The teacher use WhatsApp to conduct teaching activities by sending some pictures related to the material, text messages, and four explanation videos. Students were also given three tasks: 1) writing the name of rooms in the TOPIC DESCRIPTION students' house, 2) making sentences based on the pictures given, 3) filling up the missing sentence with the correct preposition. Measuring uncountable nouns (CHAPTER 4) The teacher uses WhatsApp to conduct teaching activities. the materials were sent by giving an e-module in the form of some pictures, one learning video derived from YouTube, and four explanation videos directly made by the teacher. In the end, students were given three tasks in the form of making 5 sentences based on the situation in the picture. 1. Many and much (countable and uncountable nouns) 2. Subject pronoun (CHAPTER 4) The teacher use WhatsApp to conduct teaching activities still about chapter 4 which covers: Those were sent through e module in the form of some pictures and a video from YouTube. At the end of the lesson, the teacher gave tasks about: 1. Making conversation about the number of things based on the pictures given 2. Making sentences by mentioning the name, number, and location of things (have and has). Giving exercises related to the previous material (preposition, many, much, there is, there are) (CHAPTER 4) The teacher applied the WhatsApp application for giving some practices or exercises related to the material in the previous meeting. The exercises are: 1. Making sentences based on the picture given 2. Making voice recordings based on the sentences made.

Animals (CHAPTER 4)
The teacher applied WhatsApp for giving the students tasks related to chapter 4 about animals. The tasks are: 1. Reading the name of the animals based on the picture and record your voice! 2. Making some sentences by mentioning the name of animals and the amount of it.
The e-learning platform used during distance learning was WhatsApp only from observation 1 to 10. From those, each meeting covered different topics starting from meeting 1 to 10 (Table 1). Chapter 3 covered observations 1 to 3 meanwhile chapter 4 covered observations 4 to 10. More detail about the reason for using full WhatsApp was presented in the following interview quotation.
"The limitation of students' learning facilities such as poor internet connection in some place/area. In addition, the data package provided by the government is still not maximally utilized by the students. Therefore, it causes a lack of students' data packages that also affect the use of WhatsApp as the alternative for conducting distance learning. Apart from data package, lack of knowledge in using any learning application also makes me mostly use WhatsApp during distance learning." (Int01-15-12-2021) As mentioned previously, WhatsApp was fully used by the EFL teacher during distance learning. This kind of e-learning platform was used through some learning steps or processes as follows: greeting the students, reviewing the previous material, informing today's topic, giving additional material, giving tasks, informing the tasks due date, and farewell. The teacher greeted the students during the distance learning specifically at the beginning of the learning process. More details about the expressions, namely "Good morning students, I hope all of you have great condition". The teacher-reviewed shortly the previous material before the learning process began. More detail about the expression of previous material namely "Last week, we have already learnt about telling time and days". The teacher gave brief information related to the topic of today's meeting before the learning process began. More detail about the expression of informing today's topic is "Now, we will continue the material to learn about telling the month and date".
The teacher gave additional learning material in the form of e module and e-learning videos. E-learning videos were manually made by the teacher. More detail about the reason for giving e-learning videos by herself namely; "I give some learning videos to make the students easier to understand the material. The manual videos were made to be a simple version of YouTube Video. Sometimes the learning videos on YouTube are too long which make the students bored and do not listen to it as a whole. Therefore, I must make or retake learning videos for discussing the main topic". The teacher informed the students before the additional materials were shared with them. The expressions of giving additional material are "I will give you additional material…", "Please write the additional material".
The teacher gave tasks in the form of making a voice recording, reading comprehension, and making sentences. More detail about the reason for giving e-learning videos by herself are "After watching the video above, make voice recording about reading the names of months in English". "Answer those questions". "Please read the example in the table on page 51, after that write down the birthday of your big family member". There are some reasons why the teacher gave those tasks for the students such as the teacher wanted to know how far the students had understood about the learning material during distance learning. More detail about the reason for giving tasks are "Assignments are given to check students' understanding and ensure that the material presented can be understood well. Others than that it also to determine what steps I can do if the material is not well understood by the students. In addition, I must know how far students' understanding of the material that has been learned". The teacher informed the tasks' due date through sending the message in WhatsApp group. More detail about the due date of the tasks are "I hope all of you can do this task. Please collect the result of your work no later than 2 PM in the afternoon to my personal WA". For the tasks' submission, the students had to submit theirs to the teacher personally. More detail about the way students submitted their tasks are "I ask the students to take some pictures of their tasks, then they have to send it to me in WhatsApp personally". The teacher conveyed a massage indicating farewell at the end of the lesson in WhatsApp group. More detail about farewell is "Have a great day", "Good luck".

Discussion
Based on the result of this study, the result revealed that after observing meetings 1 to 10, the EFL teacher in SMP N 6 Kintamani used 100% WhatsApp only as an e-learning platform during distance learning. In discussing learning material, the students prefer to use the WhatsApp application with 535 respondents (64.61%) specifically in the WhatsApp group rather than other e-learning platforms (Padmo et al., 2020). The teacher mentioned that the use of the WhatsApp application only as an e-learning platform was because of the limitations of students' learning facilities such as lack of data package and poor internet connection in some places since most of the students live in the village. The teacher also stated that a lack of knowledge in using any learning application makes the teacher mostly used WhatsApp during distance learning. Students have limited facilitates for conducting online learning like computers, laptops, or smartphones, and insufficient internet access and quotas (Hutauruk & Sidabutar, 2020;Shodiq & Zainiyati, 2020;Windhiyana, 2020). Many students also complained that mostly all of them only have data packages for WhatsApp only. In addition, most of the students in grade 7 H and I still did not know how to operate for other e-learning platforms such as Zoom, Google Meet, Google Classroom, and so forth. It was because they were still in grade 7 and were known about e-learning platforms for the first time. However, mostly all of them have already used WhatsApp to send some messages out of the learning processes. Therefore, the teacher conducted distance learning through WhatsApp as the alternative for the students (Azhari & Fajri, 2021;Churiyah et al., 2020;Goudeau et al., 2021;Mamahit, 2020;Mansur et al., 2021).
WhatsApp as the e-learning platform was used through sending messages consisting of greeting, reviewing the material in the previous meeting, telling today's material, giving learning videos made by the teacher and taken from other sources such as YouTube, providing e-module shared in form of some pictures, and checking the students' understanding by giving tasks to the students (Abroto et al., 2021;Mulyono et al., 2021;Singh et al., 2020). After comparing this research and other research conducted a research on the changes from offline to online learning during covid-19 outbreaks, the result of the study revealed that distance learning was conducted through Google Classroom and WhatsApp (Faizah et al., 2021;Haka et al., 2020;Rosmiati & Lestari, 2021). There were some steps of conducting distance learning namely the material was sent by the lecturer to the class leader or WAG, students accessed the material, the lecturer gave assignments for the students, and deciding the deadline for collecting the assignments (Faizah et al., 2021;Kumar et al., 2020). When the teacher only gave tasks for the students during distance learning, it can make the students feel under pressure and it causes learning anxiety. The teaching and learning system during the COVID-19 outbreak has caused a variety of panic and had many impacts one of them is some students complain that online lectures caused anxiety and were not focused while learning the material delivered (Hutauruk & Sidabutar, 2020;Shodiq & Zainiyati, 2020).
WhatsApp is considered to be a good application as an alternative for conducting teaching and learning activities. The implementation of WhatsApp as an e-learning medium to deliver classroom languages is helpful particularly for the teacher when conducting distance learning (Daheri et al., 2020;Singh et al., 2020;Susilowati, 2020). Previous research found that WhatsApp media is very useful in distance learning (PJJ) or online learning and the cost of using this application is very cheap if compared with other applications (Kusuma & Hamidah, 2020;Suriyani Djamdjuri & Kamilah, 2020). This application is also great and appropriate for the students who have a lack of data package and poor connection since it does not require so much signal to use this e-learning platform. It was so cheap application and did not consume more signals and quotes in practice therefore the students no longer worried about the cost when using this application (Kholis et al., 2020;Mulyono et al., 2021;Sahidillah & Miftahurrisqi, 2019). Since it does not consume so much signal, the teacher can easily share the classroom languages without any obstacles. Via WhatsApp, the teacher can send classroom languages or learning material fast as well as students do (Kholis et al., 2020;Rosmiati & Lestari, 2021). Furthermore, through this application students must not only learn the material at a schedule determined by the teacher but they can access the material whenever and wherever they want. Besides, most of the students in SMP N 6 Kintamani used this application that indicates this application is really easy to utilize. Most students (74%) liked to share new information on WhatsApp and this app can also increase the students to be brave and confident to communicate asynchronously with the teacher in remote learning. Therefore, through this application learning anxiety of the students can be reduced (Kheryadi, 2017).

CONCLUSION
WhatsApp was fully used by the EFL teacher to conduct distance learning through some teaching steps namely sending messages consisting of greeting, reviewing the material in the previous meeting, telling today's material, giving learning videos made by the teacher, and taking from other sources such as YouTube, providing e-module shared in form of some pictures, checking the students' understanding by giving tasks to the students, and informing the way submitting the tasks. This research can be used as a reflection on how the implementation of classroom language used by the EFL teacher during distance learning. In addition, the researcher also has suggestions for other researchers to conduct further research about the implementation of WhatsApp in reducing learning anxiety.