Bidikmisi Students' Perspectives on Online Distance Learning during Covid-19 Pandemic Lockdown at Sriwijaya State Polytechnic

During the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic, educational systems around the world had been disrupted, and as a result, lecturers and Bidikmisi students had to conduct teaching and learning processes from home. This study aimed to investigate the perspectives of Bidikmisi students on online distance learning during the lockdown at Sriwijaya State Polytechnic due to the Covid 19 pandemic. The study was carried out with the mixed method. The researchers asked 85 students from two different intensive English courses to complete a five-point Likert scale questionnaire on the Online Learning Environment Survey (OLES), and answer six open-ended questions distributed using google form. The sample comprised 85 bidikmisi students from nine departments- not only Engineers in civil, mechanical, chemical, computer, electrical and computer information systems, but also Business Administration, Accounting, Informatics Management, and English. The finding of this study revealed that some of bidikmisi students positively accepted this online distance learning, but most of them negatively revealed that bidikmisi students faced some challenges with online distance learning; they preferred face-to-face classes. The study concluded with a recommendation that the findings of this study can assist policymakers and lecturers in developing effective or efficient teaching strategies for overcoming tough situations or pandemics, particularly for bidikmisi students.