* Corresponding author IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9 (1), 2021, 102-119 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i1.22744 This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) Available online at IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education) Website: http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee EXPLORING EFL TEACHER’S AND STUDENT’S CHALLENGES IN REMOTE LEARNING CONTEXT IN TABANAN, BALI Hery Santosa, I Gede Putu Dharma Dewangga Putra*, Ni Putu Astiti Pratiwi dharmadewangga1@gmail.com Received: 8th October 2021; Revised: 18th May 2022; Accepted: 29th June 2022 ABSTRACT This descriptive qualitative study aimed to investigate the challenges faced by and strategies used by EFL teachers and students to cope with the challenges in implementing online remote learning. A public school in Tabanan was chosen as the setting of the study, with a teacher and five students as the subjects based on two criteria, namely activeness, and participation. The data were collected through observations and interviews to determine the challenges and the strategies used by the teacher and the students. The data were analyzed by using Interactive Model Analysis. The results indicated that the challenges the teacher and the students faced were mainly related to the platforms being used and the network connection. However, the teacher also faced a prominent challenge related to the student's motivation in learning. Several strategies were used by the teacher and the students, mainly solving the issue related to the network connection. The study results indicated the need for proper infrastructure and the teacher’s ability to support remote learning. Key Words: challenges; remote learning; strategies ABSTRAK Studi kualitatif deskriptif ini bertujuan untuk menyelidiki tantangan yang dihadapi oleh guru dan strategi yang digunakan baik oleh guru maupun siswa pembelajar Bahasa Inggris sebagai Bahasa asing dalam mengatasi tantangan dalam pelaksanaan pembelajaran jarak jauh. Sebuah sekolah negeri di Tabanan dipilih sebagai latar studi ini, dengan seorang guru dan lima siswa sebagai peserta dalam penelitian ini dengan mempertimbangkan kriteria yaitu: keaktifan dan partisipasi. Data dikumpulkan melalui observasi dan wawancara untuk mengetahui tantangan dan strategi yang digunakan oleh guru dan siswa. Data dianalisis dengan menggunakan analysis model interaksi (Interactive Model Analysis). Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa tantangan yang dihadapi oleh guru dan siswa sebagian besar terkait dengan platform yang digunakan dan koneksi jaringan. Namun, guru juga menghadapi tantangan yang menonjol terkait motivasi siswa dalam belajar. Ada beberapa strategi yang digunakan oleh guru dan siswa terutama untuk menyelesaikan masalah yang berkaitan dengan koneksi jaringan. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan perlunya infrastruktur yang layak dan kemampuan guru untuk mendukung pembelajaran jarak jauh. Kata Kunci: tantangan; pembelajaran jarak jauh; strategi How to Cite: Santosa, H., Putra, I.G.P.D. Dewangga, Pratiwi, Ni P.A. (2022). Exploring EFL Teacher’s and Student’s Challenges in Remote Learning Context in Tabanan, Bali. IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9(1), 102-119. doi:10.15408/ijee.v9i1.22744 IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9 (1), 2022 103-119 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i1.22744 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license INTRODUCTION Teaching and learning activities nowadays do not always require teachers and students to interact directly, meaning that they can be separated in time and distance (Geraedts & Pollalis, 2008). This practice can be made possible due to the development of technology. This is the reason why technology has been integrated with every teaching and learning activity. Most countries worldwide have been implementing technology, especially in the form of online learning platforms, to support the teacher at school. Online learning platforms, such as Schoology and Google Classroom, can help teachers teach students and deliver the materials easily. This allows teachers and students to remotely teach and learn from their homes (Heredia et al., 2019). During the COVID-19 pandemic, countries worldwide use online learning platforms to teach their students remote learning to decrease the spread of the virus. The online learning platform is used to teach the students because it can help the teacher to share the materials easily, and the students can access it anytime and anywhere (Eroz-Tuga, 2013). The teacher can use the platform to support them in distance learning. They do not need to meet at school to do learning activities. Besides helping facilitate the learning process during this unprecedented time, the practice of online learning also gives a lot of challenges, especially for the students. They may get into trouble in their network or connection while accessing the materials or during video conference meeting through the platform (Setlhako, 2014). Students may get problems with their internet connection because of their geographic location. Students living on a mountain or hill may have problems with their connection as the signal is difficult to attain in such places. Students' problems may affect their participation in the online learning process, affecting their learning outcomes at the end of the semester. They cannot learn effectively as what they learn at school. Furthermore, as they cannot meet in person, the group discussion process will be more difficult to be conducted (Motzo & Proudfoot, 2017). They could not meet each other to do the assignment with their friends, which affected the result of their group assignment and the discussion quality. SMAN 1 Baturiti is one of the schools implementing remote learning for its students. The results of the preliminary observation indicated that IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9 (1), 2022 104-119 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i1.22744 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license both the teachers and the students faced challenges during the remote learning process. The students who lived in mountainous areas often experienced trouble during their learning. They had an unstable internet connection, which made the video and audio quality bad during the video conference. Furthermore, the student reportedly could not upload their assignment to the platform their teacher used. This certainly becomes a problem as Ossiannilsson (2020) suggests that one of the principles in the practice of remote teaching is accessibility which allows students to access the platform or devices anytime and anywhere (Ossiannilsson, 2020). As online learning in the emergency remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic seems to be continued shortly, it is important to address all of the challenges the teachers and the students face during the process. It is urgent to be done to seek a better solution for better implementation. Thus, this study arose to investigate their challenges during the online learning process. Further, this study also investigated the solution the EFL teachers and students used to encounter the challenges. This study took SMAN 1 Baturiti in Tabanan regency, Bali, as the setting of the study, with the teachers and students as the samples. It was chosen because it is located on high land, surrounded by hills and mountains. This makes it often gets terrible internet access. Thus, considering this phenomenon, this study arose to investigate (1) the challenges of the EFL teachers and (2) the challenges of EFL students in implementing online learning in the emergency remote teaching context in SMAN 1 Baturiti. Besides that, this study also investigated (3) how the EFL teachers and (4) students cope with the challenges. Thus, there were four major focuses of this study. Several studies also indicated the existence of challenges during the practice of online learning. Studies by Setlhako (2014), Almegren (2015), and Motzo and Proudfoot (2017) showed that online learning becomes challenging for students as they face problems with technology use and internet access. The internet connection is not only faced by the students. Nugroho et al. (2021) found that the teacher also experienced network issues during remote learning. Moreover, to provide a stable internet connection, both parties need to purchase internet data which can lead to another challenge regarding the financial issue. This is supported by Basaza and Milman (2010), who state that the financial cost of education is quite high. IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9 (1), 2022 105-119 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i1.22744 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license Further, Budiman (2021) found that virtual meeting during online remote teaching consumes a lot of internet data. If the students have economic issues, it will be hard for them to afford internet data. Besides internet connection, other studies also revealed more challenges in distance learning. Ekmekçi (2015) found that giving feedback to the students also becomes a challenge during distance learning, and the teacher could not give the feedback due to time limitations of distance learning. Motzo and Proudfoot (2017) state that it is also hard to do a discussion online due to the network problem or the number of students on the course. Giving a response also becomes a challenge to the student if they cannot hear their friends’ explanations due to the network issue. This will affect the quality of student interaction between students and teachers (Chawdhry, 2010). Regarding the previous studies, this study also investigated the challenges faced by the teachers and students in online learning. However, this study also explored the teachers' and students' strategies to cope with the challenges. METHOD Research design This study used a qualitative descriptive research design as it could help gain rich data or information from the participants by using different data collection methods and instruments. The data could also be described in detail. According to Mohajan (2018), a qualitative research design is a research that tends to make the researcher explore the meaning and insight that is given to the researcher based on the researcher's experience. Research site and participants The subjects of the research were an EFL teacher and 5 students at SMA N 1 Baturiti, representing their grades for the research. The students’ identities were coded as S1, S2, S3, S4, and S5 in the study. Purposive sampling was used to choose the participants from the students. The rationale for choosing this setting was the location in a mountainous village. Data collection and analysis The data were collected through two methods they were observation and interview. The observation was conducted with an observation checklist as the instrument for which IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9 (1), 2022 106-119 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i1.22744 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license validity had been ensured. It helped the researcher to gain and gather the data through real-life experiences. The researcher virtually observed the teacher and students due to the pandemic situation. The things being observed included the strength and limitations of the platform used and the interaction between the teachers and the students. Then, an open-ended interview was used to help gain the data about the challenge that the EFL teacher and students experienced and the strategies to scope the challenge. The observation was done through an observation checklist that was adapted from Ossiannilsson (2020), while the interview was conducted using an interview guide which was also adapted from Ossiannilsson (2020). The observation sheet covered three main aspects, including the platform’s accessibility, network issue, and students’ motivation. The interview guide consisted of 19 questions with 5 main aspects, including accessibility, device dimension, platform dimension, interface dimension, and network aspect. Both instruments’ contents were judged to ensure their validity and reliability through an expert judgment sheet and Gregory Formula, resulting in the instruments being valid and reliable to be used. The researcher employed Interactive Model Analysis (Miles & Huberman, 1994) to help analyze the data. The analysis model has four steps: data collection, display, reduction, and conclusion or drawing or verifying. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION Findings Challenges faced and strategies used by the EFL teacher Relating to the challenges faced by the teacher at SMA N 1 Baturiti, the results revealed that the challenges were mainly about the platform being used, the network, and the students’ efforts. These data were gathered from the results of the observation and interview. The results of the observation are presented in Table 1. Table 1. Teacher’s Observation Result Indicator Observation Result Platform’s accessibility The teacher could not open the video sent by the students directly to Google Classroom, which was caused by an unknown problem The platform could accommodate all the materials and tasks as it has a different tool to be used Network issues There were network issues that the teacher IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9 (1), 2022 107-119 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i1.22744 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license Indicator Observation Result experienced due to the weather condition and the living area Students’ motivation During the online learning meeting, the students were active in participating Several students did not respond to the teacher’s announcement and instruction Platform appeared as a challenge as the teacher reported that the students often could not send their assignments in the form of videos to Google Classroom as one of the platforms used by the teacher. Even when the students had uploaded the videos on the platform, they were often inaccessible. Further, like uploading videos to Google Classroom required a good, stable network connection, the teacher often received complaints from the students as they could not upload them. This certainly became a problem as the teacher needed the videos as a form of speaking assignment and for further assignments. The teacher could not let the students present their speaking assignments synchronously due to the time limitation and the number of students in a class. Thus, sending the assignment in the form of videos to Google Classroom was proposed as the way. However, due to this challenge, the process could not be run smoothly, which also affected the effectiveness of the online remote teaching and learning process. The interview result also indicated that the teacher found network issues during the implementation of the online remote teaching. The network issue became a challenge for the teacher due to the teacher’s limited internet data, which was the opposite of the large data consumption. It showed that the platforms used by the teacher consumed a lot of internet data, particularly WhatsApp and Google Classroom. It was because the two were used to send videos for the students or download the videos that the students sent through the platform. The actions required a lot amount of internet data due to the process of downloading and uploading videos. Further, good, stable network access was needed for the videos to be successfully downloaded or uploaded. The teacher also explained that Google Meet consumed the most internet data as it used audio and video in online virtual meetings. Further, regarding the cellular network generation type, the teacher stated that the platform required good network access as minimal as 4G. However, the surrounding area made it difficult to get a 4G network. As the IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9 (1), 2022 108-119 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i1.22744 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license teacher lived in a rural area, the need for a 4G network and good, stable internet access became a challenge. Besides, the teacher often experiences network issues while implementing online remote teaching and network issues caused by geographical effects. The results indicated that the network issue faced by the teacher was very challenging. It was because the teacher did not only have difficulties accessing a good, stable network in which signals often suddenly switched from 4G to 3G. Instead, the teacher could face the network issue for days due to the results of the network that was being cut off. Living in a rural, mountainous area was suspected to be the cause of such network issues. It also restricted the teacher from high-speed internet access. This certainly was not an ideal condition for conducting online remote teaching. The implementation of the online remote teaching also became challenging as the students’ effort in participating during the learning process was rather low. During the implementation of the online remote teaching, some of the students did not respond to their teacher’s announcement and questions posted on the platforms used in the online remote teaching and learning. The reason was to save their internet data. They did not want to spend a lot of internet data. Several students gave other reasons. The data were supported by the results of the observation that the researcher obtained as presented in Table 1 whereas some students did not respond to their teacher’s announcement. Those students also did not answer their teachers’ questions through WhatsApp, Google Classroom, and the other platforms that the teacher used. To cope with the challenges, the teacher performed several strategies during the implementation of the online remote teaching. The details of the strategies being used are presented in Table 2. Table 2. Teacher's Challenges and Strategies to Cope with the Challenges Factors Challenges Strategies Platform 1. Students could not send the task due to internet issues 2. The teacher could not open the video assignment on Google Classroom Change the assignment format Network 3. The platform consumes a Using Wi-Fi IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9 (1), 2022 109-119 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i1.22744 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license Factors Challenges Strategies lot of internet data 4. The platform requires 4G internet access 5. Network issues Students’ Effort 6. Lack of students’ participation Communicate and ask about the reason to the students As the platform challenge could affect the effectiveness of the learning activities, the EFL teacher asked the students to send their voice records rather than sending a video as the assignment. Sending a voice record did not require a lot of internet data because the size of the file was smaller than the size of a video. Thus, it became easier for the teacher and students to send the assignment and download it through the platform. Further, to overcome the network issues, the teacher used public WiFi near the teacher’s house to get good internet access. It also helped the teacher to save more internet data than usual. The teacher revealed this through the interview, which is presented as follows. Finally, to deal with the challenge related to the students’ effort, the results indicated that the teacher went through several steps to cope with the challenge. Firstly, the teacher checked the students’ activeness through the presence list. After that, the teacher contacted the students personally. The teacher asked the students the reason for their absence and also why they did not collect their task or assignment through the platform. This way, the teacher tried to make the students realize their ignorant behavior so that they would be more careful with an important assignment and would not miss any submissions. If it still did not enough, the teacher then asks the class leader to contact their friends. Challenges faced and strategies used by the students As for the challenges that the students faced, the findings indicated that the students at a public school in Tabanan also faced challenges relating to the platform being used and the network during the implementation of online remote learning. S1 revealed that accessing Google Classroom and sending videos through certain platforms was challenging due to the internet access issue. Besides that, S1 also experienced difficulty in sending video through WhatsApp as the platform did not support video that was more than 2 minutes. On the other hand, S2 revealed that it was difficult to use Google Classroom as it did not IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9 (1), 2022 110-119 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i1.22744 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license support uploading more than 100 MB of files. S3 and S4 shared similar experiences about the challenge related to the platform, in which the materials could not be easily accessed on the platform as it required a good, stable internet. S3 stated that WhatsApp and Google Classroom needed good internet access to be used. Besides the network trouble, S4 also revealed that the existence of many WhatsApp Groups for each subject also caused challenges and confusion as too many groups were to be paid attention to. S4 also further emphasized the platform's limitation as to the result of large internet data requirements, as Google Classroom consumed a lot of internet data. The students needed to download the learning materials through the platform. The students also needed to submit their tasks through the platform. S5, on the other hand, also admitted the platform's limitation, which in this case was Google Classroom. S5 stated that it was challenging to upload videos or large files. However, S5 argued that when the video assignment was sent as a link from Google Drive, it became easier to upload and access. The interview result showed that S7 experienced a challenge in terms of the platform limitation. It revealed that S7 could not send a large-size video through Google Classroom. The video needed to be changed in the form of links if S7 wanted to send or submit it to Google Classroom. Besides the platform limitation, the interview results showed that all the students experienced network issues during the online remote teaching implementation. S1, S2, S3, and S4 all agreed that sending and downloading videos from Google Classroom and WhatsApp was troublesome because it required a good, stable internet connection and a lot of internet data. On the other hand, S5 stated that all learning platforms used required a lot of internet data. The requirement of large internet data became a challenge as it was expensive. Further, the internet data network was also often unstable, creating inefficiency in online remote learning. They also all agreed that to access the platforms, they need a proper network in 4G. The rationale for using 4G was because 3G internet accesses were slower than 4G internet access. Unfortunately, it was rather difficult for them to always have 4G networks due to their location. Further, the students faced a more challenging situation in the rainy season. The network signal during the season became more unstable and IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9 (1), 2022 111-119 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i1.22744 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license difficult to get. S1 and S3 stated that the internet access dropped on rainy days. Then, S2 and S4 provided the reason for such a condition. The geographical factors were because they lived in a rural, mountainous area. S2, who lived in a village, often got low internet access, while S4, who lived in a mountainous area, also experienced the same. The geographical factor played a big role in determining the kind of network connection the students could get. S5, on the other hand, revealed that the network issue often appeared when connecting to an online video conference platform. S5 stated that the network access was insufficient to accommodate the video conference the student joined. To overcome the challenges, the students found their strategies or solution while implementing online remote teaching. The details are presented in Table 3. Table 3. EFL Students' Challenges and Strategies to Cope with the Challenges Factors Challenges Strategies Platform 1. Require good internet access (S1, S2) 2. Could not access the materials due to slow internet access (S3, S4, S5)  Using Wi-Fi to access the learning materials and send the link of the assignment (S1)  Send the link form of the task to Google Classroom (S2, S5)  Buy bigger internet data (S4) Network 1. The platform consumes a lot of internet data (all of the students) 2. Network requirement (all of the students) 3. Network issues 4. Slow internet access due to the rainy season (S1, S3) 5. Demographic factor (S2, S4) 6. During the virtual meeting(S5)  Using Wi-Fi (S1, S2)  Using another network provider (S4)  Went to a place that had better internet access (S5) S1 claimed that he searched for free WiFi to access the platforms, send videos to Google Drive, and then send the link to WhatsApp to cope with the platform challenge. S1 reported that he also sent the video in shorter parts in some cases. S2 and S5 also did the same thing. However, the link was often preferred to be sent through Google Classroom. Thus, the results indicated that S1, S2, and S5 had the same strategies to cope with the problems in terms of videos. IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9 (1), 2022 112-119 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i1.22744 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license On the other hand, S4 bought a bigger internet data package. S4 also set a reminder for the announcement the teacher sent through the platform so that S4 would never miss any announcements and information. Regarding the network issue, the interview result showed that S1 and S2 had similar strategies to overcome it. They both used Wi-Fi to overcome the network issues that occurred during the implementation of online remote teaching by going to a place with Wi-Fi access. However, S2 did not always use Wi-Fi as he tended to wait for the network access to return to normal. On the other hand, regarding the issue with the network during the rainy season, S4 used another network provider to overcome the network issues. S4 used more than one network provider so that he had a higher chance of getting a better connection as he could change the network if the first network provider gave low internet access. S5, on the other hand, went to a place with better internet access, which was usually geographically higher. Discussion The EFL teacher at a public school in Tabanan experienced three different challenges while implementing online remote teaching: platform, network, and students’ effort. First of all, the platform challenge that the EFL teacher experience at a public school in Tabanan affected the effectiveness of the learning activities, which made the students unable to send their tasks in the form of videos to the platform as a result of low internet access. Mahyoob (2020) also found that issues in accessing online material can happen during remote learning due to low internet access. Mahyoob (2020) also states that the platform issues were the most issues that have been reported during the implementation of online remote teaching in his research. Research by Nugroho et al. (2021) also found that teacher tends to send the learning materials through WhatsApp group due to low internet access and to make the task more accessible to the students. The second challenge the EFL teacher experienced was the network challenge, as large internet data were required to conduct the remote learning, particularly to access video conference applications. The platform consumes a lot of internet data to stabilize the audio and video quality. The platform should also be accessed using 4G internet access to maintain the stability of the audio and video quality. These data were in line with the study by Budiman (2021), who found that 600 megabytes are needed to access video IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9 (1), 2022 113-119 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i1.22744 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license conference applications for sixty minutes. Relating to the 4G internet access, the geographic area surrounding the teacher is suspected as the culprit. It was because the teacher lived in a mountainous, rural area which often experienced network issues. Then, the rainy season also worsens the network issues, and the teacher could not use the network for several days. Nugroho et al. (2021) also found similar results in their research, whereas teachers often struggle with network issues, making the learning activities ineffective. The EFL teacher at a public school in Tabanan used public Wi-Fi to cope with the network challenge. The public Wi-Fi near the teacher’s house helped the teacher get good internet access. The teacher also stated that using public Wi-Fi could help the teacher save more internet data during the online remote teaching. The teacher also did not need to spend a lot of money to buy continuous internet data because there was already public Wi-Fi near the teacher’s house, and it was also free to use anytime. Finally, the last challenge was related to the students’ efforts, whereas some students did not respond to the teacher’s instruction. Nugroho et al. (2021) also found similar results, whereas students’ motivations during the online remote teaching were decreased. The students also could not understand their teacher's instruction as only several students paid attention and joined the discussion session that the teacher held on the platform. It shows the importance of building the students’ motivation to make them enjoy and actively join the online remote teaching process. The teacher tended to communicate with the students and ask them why they were absent during the remote learning. To cope with this challenge, the teacher checks the students’ present lists and task submissions. Then, the teacher contacted the students who did not join the online remote teaching. The teacher also contacted the students who did not submit their tasks on the platform. It could help the teacher know why the students are absent during the learning activities. If the students do not answer or respond after the teacher contacts them, the teacher then asks the class leader to contact their friends and ask them about their absence. The teacher needs to know the reason for their students’ absence, so the teacher can determine to give guidance and assess their students’ tasks. The result of this research was different from the result of the research by Nugroho et al. (2021). The data IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9 (1), 2022 114-119 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i1.22744 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license found by Nugroho et al. (2021) shows that the teacher tends to revise the teaching method used. One of the teachers said that the teaching method that is being used seems not attractive to the students. The teaching method also seems not too interesting for the students, and that was the reason evaluate and revising the strategy that the teacher used (Nugroho et al., 2021). The most challenging that the students experienced based on the observation result was Google Classroom. The students were worried because the teacher could not open their video assignment as the file size was not supported by the platform. This could make the students not get any score for their assignment if the teacher could not access it. Almegren (2015) also found the challenges of technology. Almegren (2015) stated that access to technology had become a challenge in Arab Saudi. Many of the students do not have any access to technology during online learning. Students’ ability to master also becomes a challenge during online learning. The network quality and also stability become the challenges that happened. Most of them complain about the poor quality of the networks (Almegren, 2015). There were also the strategies that the students took to overcome the challenge during the online remote teaching implementation. S1 used Wi-Fi to overcome the platform's challenge and Google Drive to send the video to the platform in the form of a link. Similarly, S2 and S5 also used Google Drive and sent the links to the platform, which could reduce the file size. S4, on the other hand, bought a bigger internet data package as he struggled with large internet data consumption. The data differed from the study by Almegren (2015), which only focused on the challenge of online learning. It did not explore any strategies for the students to cope with the challenge. The other challenge faced was network challenge, which included large internet data usage and unstable, low, and slow internet access, particularly during the rainy season. The data showed that the factors that made the students experience the network issues were weather changes and the geographic area. Setlhako (2014) also found network and internet issues in the research. Setlhako (2014) found that students should access the materials anywhere and anytime, but they should have internet access. Setlhako (2014) also found that the students could not access the materials due to continuous extension from the extension period on the platform. That could make the students could not learn effectively during the online learning. IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9 (1), 2022 115-119 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i1.22744 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license To cope with the challenge, the students used Wi-Fi for better internet access or other internet providers. Based on the findings, it can be seen that the main issue of the challenges faced by both the teachers and the students in the two different schools was caused by the internet connection issue. This finding is in line with the results of the research conducted by Hussaini et al. (2020). It was found that as a platform, Google Classroom was perceived positively by the students. However, as the students lived in rural areas with difficult internet access, the use of the platform became not maximal. This is also the case that happened in this research. It can be seen from the results of the observation that all of the platforms were perceived positively by both the teachers and the students. They found the platforms to be unique and easy to use. However, as they required a good internet connection to access them, the teachers and the students found them to be challenging. The problem with the internet connection happened as not all of the students had a stable internet connection in their homes (Gilbert, 2015). Studies by Aboderin (2015), Coman et al., (2020), Gilbert (2015), and Ismail et al., (2020) indicated that the issue of internet connection has been a classic challenge in the implementation of online learning as it is the basic infrastructure needed to support the online learning process. Further, regarding the issue of large internet data consumption which was not economical for the students and the teacher, a study by Ro'fah et al., (2020) has addressed the affordable internet data program provided by the Government of Indonesia during the pandemic is still not enough. This is in line with the findings of this research which showed that the teachers and the students also experienced this challenge in their classroom since the students often had problems with their internet data connection. This challenge certainly affects the practice of online remote teaching and learning at the two schools. Hamid et al. (2020) suggest that the success of online learning practice in the online learning process is strongly tied to the availability of supporting learning infrastructure, one of which is the availability of stable internet access. Besides, relating to the challenge of the platform, it can be seen that both the students and the teachers were struggling as the platforms did not support files that had big sizes. This finding is similar to Octaberlina and Muslimin's (2020) findings that investigated EFL students’ perspectives toward online learning barriers in the IJEE (Indonesian Journal of English Education), 9 (1), 2022 116-119 http://journal.uinjkt.ac.id/index.php/ijee | DOI: http://doi.org/10.15408/ijee.v9i1.22744 P-ISSN: 2356-1777, E-ISSN: 2443-0390 | This is an open access article under CC-BY-SA license context of Google Classroom. Octaberlina and Muslimin (2020) found that besides a slow internet connection, students were also unfamiliar with online learning, including the platforms used. The study also underlined that the unfamiliar online learning led to the need for several pieces of training that could train the students to use the platform properly. The training included converting high-definition or big-size files into smaller ones and giving breaks during the online class. The results of this study indicated that there were still many challenges in implementing online remote teaching and learning, mainly related to the infrastructure, such as network connection and platform being used. Thus, this alarms the government about the need and emergency to build more proper infrastructure to support the online remote teaching and learning process. It also further suggests the need for the teachers to find the best solution to cope with the challenges. Besides that, teachers also need to communicate well with the students about what they should do and how to do it to cope with the challenges. On the other hand, even though the teachers are there to help them, the students also could not be just surrendered to the challenges. Students could know how to cope with the challenges by reflecting and actively asking their friends who might have experienced similar challenges. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTION In conclusion, several challenges were faced by the teacher and the students at a public school in Tabanan during the online remote teaching implementation. The challenges faced were mainly related to the platform being used and the network due to the geographical factor as they were living in the mountainous, rural area. Besides that, the weather also proved to be an influential factor in the stability of the network. However, the EFL teacher also faced challenges regarding the students’ effort in learning as some did not want to respond to the instructions. To cope with the challenges, the issue relating to the network was solved first by using WiFi, bigger internet data, or other network providers. On the other hand, relating to the students’ efforts, the teacher communicated with the students. 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