International Journal of Educational Management and Innovation

Vol.2, No.2, May 2021, pp. 153~163

e-ISSN: 2716-2338
DOI: 10.12928/ijemi.v2i2.3439
153

STUDENTS' PERCEPTIONS OF USING GOOGLE CLASSROOM DURING

THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
Annafi Annanda Oktaria1*, Laksmita Rohmayadevi2
1,2 Universitas Ahmad
Dahlan, Yogyakarta, Indonesia
[email protected]
1*

Article Info ABSTRACT

Article history Technology has impacted in most of the sectors, including
Received January 18, 2021 the education field. Nowadays, many schools have
Revised January 20, 2021 incorporated technology through Information and
Accepted February 9, 2021 Communication Technologies (ICT) into learning. This
research investigates students' perception of Google
Keywords: Covid-19; Classroom as a learning tool during the covid-19 pandemic.
Educational technology; English The method used in this research is quantitative descriptive
education; Online Learning through an online questionnaire and online deep interview
sessions with students from SMP Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta.
Twenty-eight students have been joining Google Classroom in
English learning for at least one term during the covid-19
pandemic. Five students also interviewed to seek more
information about their experiences using Google Classroom.
Findings showed that several factors influence the students'
online learning process in a covid-19 pandemic, namely,
usefulness, ease of use, ease of learning, and satisfaction. In
general, Google Classroom is very useful in improving
students' skills, abilities, discipline, and independent learning
through teaching materials.

1. INTRODUCTION
The world is shocked by the emerge of an epidemic caused by a virus called corona or
what is best known as Covid-19. It started to become epidemic on December 31, 2019, in
Wuhan, Hubei province, China. A few months later, or on March 11, 2020, the World Health
Organization (WHO) declared that these diseases had become a global pandemic; this
happened because thousands of people worldwide had been exposed, even thousands of
people had become victims.
According to Agung and Surtikanti (2020), the pandemic is a disease that is spreading
in multiple countries around the world at the same time. This disease is spreading rapidly, and
detecting people who have been exposed to the virus is very hard. It makes the numbers of
victims rise significantly. The complexity of this epidemic's handling has led world leaders to
implement a policy to break the chain of distribution of covid-19. This situation has affected
various sectors, despite the effect on economic, social distancing and a complete lockdown
becomes a tough choice for many countries to prevent the spread of covid-19. Education
also became a victim of the implementation of these policies. Since the enactment of social
distancing, teaching and learning activities in schools have also been abolished.

Journal homepage: http://journal2.uad.ac.id/index.php/ijemi

154 e-ISSN: 2716-2338

The policies taken by many countries, including Indonesia, by dismissing all direct
educational activities, make the government and related institutions must present alternative
educational processes for students and students who cannot carry out the educational
process in educational institutions. Based on UNESCO data, currently, a total of 39 countries
have implemented school closures, with the total number of students affected reaching
421,388,462 children.
The Indonesian Minister of Education and Culture, Nadiem Makarim, issued a Circular
Note for schools and other educational institutions, including higher education, to
temporarily stop the schools' conventional teaching and learning activities during pandemic
covid-19 and encourage lessons to be conducted from home through e-learning. He
recommended that teachers use various e-learning platforms such as Rumah Belajar,
Quipper School, Ruang Guru, Google Classroom, Zoom, and soon. Nowadays, those e-
learning platforms achieve popularity in Indonesia because they are widely used and
installed. Online learning becomes one of the most current and potential issues.
Technology-based learning is the choice during epidemics. Almost all schools
throughout the world implement online-based learning. Online-based learning is not a new
thing in this era. Educators are required to have skills in teaching and have skill in using
instructional media. In this era, several aspects must be mastered by educators, including
mastery of internet technology. The internet has become an effective and efficient part of
getting and exchanging data and information without looking at space and time
dimensions. The development of internet technology currently affects various aspects of life,
including aspects of government, economic, social, and education. The current educational
goals are inseparable from technological development demands as competencies that
teachers and students must provide.
Teachers use several learning applications to support online-based learning, such as
Google Classroom. Google Classroom as a free tool offers various features which encourage
student-teacher interaction through a virtual online class. It helps the teacher and also
students to learn during Pandemic Covid-19. However, based on the writer's observation,
some problems happened during the learning process using google classroom. Some
students did not join google classroom because of the lousy internet connection.
Moreover, some of the students did not know how to use google classroom. It is
needed to know students' perception of google classroom as a learning tool to evaluate the
learning process during pandemic covid-19. This paper describes students' perceptions of
google classrooms during the Covid-19 Pandemic, where students' perception was
presented based on their experiences.
Perception is the experience of object, event, and relationship acquired by resuming
information and interpreting a message. (Ridho et al., 2019) It explains perception, giving
meaning to stimulus-response in resuming information and predicting a message that

IJEMI Vol.2, No.2, May 2021, pp. 153 ~163

IJEMI e-ISSN:2716-2338 155

involves attention, hope, motivation, and memory. Following it, (Agung & Surtikanti, 2020)
develops perception as a phase of the whole process of action, which allows us to adjust our
activities to the world we live in. Here, the students' perception can be described as the
developed opinion after having a specific experience that needs adjustment.
Knowing students' perception is very important because this also means for teachers or
lecturers to evaluate after knowing the results of student perceptions. As stated by
(Qudratullah et al., 2020), the student's perception is crucial for evaluating the teaching
effectiveness. After knowing students' perception, teachers can change what is not liked by
students and improve what has been liked by students, whether it is about how to teach or
how to deliver material to students. Thus, the student's perception is critical, especially for
teachers or lecturers.
In this research, the student's perception focused on the usefulness, ease of use, ease
of learning, satisfaction of using google classroom in online learning. Those factors are
necessary to bring the students' perception of online learning to be more contextual with this
research's needs.
Rozak and Albantani (2018) found that this application provides an opportunity for
lecturers or teachers to explore the scientific ideas they have for students. (Ocampo et al.,
2017) suggests that learning through Google classroom is a part of a strategy that uses
technology to facilitate faculty and students in the learning process. In Google Classroom,
lecturers can provide materials on the subject taught.
The lecturers can post some teaching materials, assign tasks for students, and upload
the students' grade to see the scores obtained in the course immediately. Besides, Google
Classroom can be an alternative to postpone meetings when the lecturers are outside the
city or are busy during class hours. Alim et al. (2019)) found that Google Classroom also
minimizes the costs incurred due to more affordable stationery and other materials and can
minimize time-released energy. In short, the time and energy spent by Google Classroom
users will be lesser than usual. However, one of the significant barriers to realizing the
effectiveness of learning from online classes is that not all students have an online account.
Some students do not have smartphones or a data plan for attending online discussion
sessions.
Ventayen et al. (2018) Google classroom is one of the free services by Google in the
Gsuite for Education plan. It promotes paperless instruction for streamlining assignments,
boosts collaboration and fosters seamless communication to make teaching more
productive and meaningful. This study aims to identify the usability of the Google Classroom
application as an online learning tool. This application can be used on a smartphone where
both lecturer and students can easily download it and log in. The lecturer only needs to
create a class and share the class code with the students to let them join the class created.
Students can submit their assignment easily through this application, revise their assignment,

Oktaria, Rohmayadevi (Students' Perceptions Of Using Google Classroom …..)

156 e-ISSN: 2716-2338

and check their scores given by the lecturer. It also has some benefits, such as paperless. It
can be accessed anywhere and everywhere as long as there is an internet connection and
from any devices, communicate between lecturer and students, give feedback to students,
and personalized learning. It has a learning feature that makes the lecturer create and
handle assignments actively and provide feedback to students. Google classroom
application makes it easier for lecturers to handle students' work. It is beneficial for both
lecturers and students because it is easy and straightforward to use.
Some research has been conducted related to the use of Google Classroom. Harjanto
and Sumarni (2019) presented the teacher’s perception towards Google Classroom as it is
only a facilitation tool, for example, for uploading the document and giving
announcements. Unfortunately, teachers still see this application as ineffective in terms of the
lack of user-friendliness.
Another research was conducted by Alim et al. (2019) at Daffodil International
University, which mainly emphasized teachers' and students' perceptions of using Google
Classroom. Generally, teachers use Google Classroom as the university requires it. The use of
Google Classroom creates a better interaction between teacher and students. In contrast,
students believe that this platform is helpful since they can quickly get the teachers' learning
materials uploaded. There are also several studies focus on the effectiveness of E-learning
Moodle, Google Classroom and Edmodo (Hakim, 2016), optimization of using Google
Classroom as a learning media (Soni et al., 2018)), Google classroom as an alternative way
to enhance learning quality (Sewang, 2017), and Google Classroom as a media for
Improving Attainment of Graduate Attributes (Madhavi et al., 2018).

2. METHODS
The method used in this research is quantitative descriptive through an online
questionnaire and online deep interview sessions with students from SMP Muhammadiyah
Yogyakarta. This study included 28 students who have been joining Google Classroom in
English learning for at least one term during the covid-19 pandemic. The survey was given to
students to know their perception while using google classroom (Asnawi, 2018).
This study collected data through the analysis of students' perceptions based on their
personal experience during online learning. The survey made in google form then shared
with the students. A further interview conducted to get more profound answers from the
students. According to Creswell and Clark (2007), the data were collected through an in-
depth interview phase to know more about students’ perception while using Google
Classroom in the online learning process. This interview was conducted with the student's
consent.
In this study, the researchers shared the instruments with the students and interviewed
some students. From the result of the instrument and the interview, the researchers analyzed

IJEMI Vol.2, No.2, May 2021, pp. 153 ~163

IJEMI e-ISSN:2716-2338 157

the data. Furthermore, the obtained data were analyzed to describe the information
collected so that the information can be understood not only by the researchers but also by
those who seek the results of this research. The data were thematically analyzed to develop
a communication effectiveness framework to understand the phenomenon investigated.
Glaser and Strauss (2017) stated that Data analysis conducted after the interviews
completed, and the researchers analyzed thematically to explain the findings according to
the framework.

3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

RESULT
3.1. Student’s Perception
Table 1. Recapitulation of students’ survey

Factors RD D A RA
(%) (%) (%) (%)

Usefulness 0 9.0 60.5 30.5

Ease of Use 0 14.03 65.25 20.72

Ease of Learning 0 9.1 55.05 35.85

Satisfaction 0 18.48 54.82 26.70

The table above shows that 60.5% of participants agreed that this Google Classroom is
helpful within the factor of usefulness. While the easiness experience when using, 65,25% of
them agree that the application is easy to use. The next factor also agrees that to learn to
use the app, 55,05% of the students went through easiness. Lastly, the level of satisfaction,
54,82% of the students’ experience that they are satisfied.

3.2. Usefulness
The finding showed that 60,5% of students agree that this Google Classroom is helpful
within the factor of usefulness. Students can use Google Classroom as a resource to store the
document materials. Besides, after the lesson, some teachers also liked to post the materials
presented in the class as a review to access them once the classroom learning session
ended. Students can learn to follow up on exercises and projects from their teachers.
Another finding showed that when the teacher shared materials before the class, it
intended to be pre-reading materials to further students understand the lesson's topic. It is
beneficial to activate their background knowledge before they come into the classroom
discussion. Besides, after the lesson, some teachers also liked to post the materials presented
in the class as a review, so students can access them once the classroom learning session
ended.

Oktaria, Rohmayadevi (Students' Perceptions Of Using Google Classroom …..)

158 e-ISSN: 2716-2338

For the productivity of learning the students, google classrooms make very much
convenient and appropriate for the learning process. Based on the interview results, some
students agreed that feedback they got via Google Classroom helped them improve their
works; however, another student disagreed since they said that some feedback only focuses
on surface-level, which did not improve their works. Some students also said that in an EFL
environment where English not used for everyday conversation, having Google Classroom as
supporting media to learn is very useful.

3.3. Ease of Use

Students' experience of easiness when using 65,25% of them agree that the application
is easy to use. It means, in general, students agreed that this platform is substantially
ubiquitous in regards to their learning activities since this application is accessible through
their laptops or smartphones with different kinds of operating systems (OS). To operate
Google Classroom is easy for them; they do not have any essential difficulties operating the
features.
Based on the results from the interview, some students said that google classroom is
easy to use. Besides, all materials, students' tasks and quizzes can record well. So students
can quickly check previous material that they have learnt. They can also see their score
when they do some practice in google classroom. It can be interpreted as students feel that
the Google classroom helps them submit the assignment because of the Google classroom,
which can save time and effort while doing and submitting the assignment electronically.
Students also can interact with others on the discussion board, which encourages them to
have better collaboration. They can discuss the task or project online.

3.4. Ease of Learning

55,05% of the students went through easiness when using google classroom. Dealing
with google application is not something new for the students. They have kept in touch with
a g-mail account, google drive and other features for many years. It is the same thing as
using Google Classroom, where they do not find any significant difficulty even though this
platform is considered new. They can use google classroom as a tool for learning quickly.
Based on the results from the interview, students said accessing Google Classroom is
very simple. They can access all the Google Classroom features in any forms of gadgets,
such as a personal computer or smartphone. It is integrated with a Gmail account which
connects everything to it. Meanwhile, Google Classroom was relatively simple because it
gave several options on accessibility. If the students failed to install the application, it could
still access through email and a web browser. If they had no signal or electricity, all the given
explanation, material, and quiz were within their reach when they had a chance to access
it.

IJEMI Vol.2, No.2, May 2021, pp. 153 ~163

IJEMI e-ISSN:2716-2338 159

3.5. Satisfaction
For the level of satisfaction, 54,82% of the students experience that they are satisfied.
Google Classroom gets immediate feedback indeed a great platform as an effective tool
for learning because of its features and benefits such as active participation in online class
activities, easy to use features in submitting online tasks, easy to access reference materials
and an increase in student motivation because of online activities and discussions. The results
from the questionnaire were also by the results of the interview. The majority of interviewees
agreed that Google Classroom is beneficial for them to learn English outside the classroom.
They said that they had an English environment even though they were not at school.
The material and assignments delivery in online learning was relatively good. The
students thought that the delivered material and assignment were relevant to the course.
The teachers also provided discussion sessions to answer the students’ questions. However,
several students said they could hardly understand the direction and materials provided in
the assignments; conventional learning seemed more interesting. They argued that through
the face to face meeting, they could listen and watch the lecturer's explanation easily. In
line with this, Rosenblit (2006) says that humans' need to socialize is essential. It explains why
most students prefer to study in classrooms.

DISCUSSION
The implementation of the utilization of Google Classroom itself ran successfully
because of three reasons. Firstly, the policies taken by many countries, including Indonesia,
by dismissing all direct educational activities, make the government and related institutions
must present alternative educational processes for students and students who cannot carry
out the educational process in educational institutions. It makes many schools hold an online
learning class for students. The students must study from home using media online like google
classroom. Google classroom becomes one of the media online learning that is chosen
because of the usefulness. Google Classroom app is handy for online teaching and learning
and can be obtained for free of charge and used on any device. One of the sophistications
of this application is that it can be used collaboratively with other groups. (Izenstark & Leahy,
2015) found that there are so many advantages of using Google Classroom as one of the
Learning Management Systems (LMS).
Secondly, teachers have attended the professional development program in which
they acquired knowledge and practices on using Google Classroom at the beginning of the
academic year. Teachers were invited to attend the workshop, which started with the
introduction of Google Classroom, benefits, and operating it to support the learning process.
From that program, teachers obtained a deeper understanding of the application; hence,
they could maximize its operation. (Mizell, 2014) emphasizes that professional development
becomes a school's effort to upgrade the educators' skills to accommodate students' needs.

Oktaria, Rohmayadevi (Students' Perceptions Of Using Google Classroom …..)

160 e-ISSN: 2716-2338

As it expected that students would fully achieve their satisfying results because teachers
provide them with the best method to suit their interest.
Finally, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the government advised children to study at
home. Nevertheless, that does not mean schools are closed. Instead, the learning process
that is usually done face-to-face is replaced online. Since that school held an online learning
class, the students must join google classrooms to get material and do the teacher's task. In
this case, parents must accompany their children while studying. Their parents have an
essential role in accompanying students learning using google classroom.

4. CONCLUSION
The pandemic of COVID-19 has created a big tide of the paradigm shift in Indonesia's
education system: physical to internet-based classrooms. The digital classroom appears to be
the perfect answer for the sake of people's health. This condition forces teachers and
students to work and study from home. In reality, the shift presents a significant challenge,
especially for those who are in the least-developed regions. The current study concludes that
Google Classroom is an effective tool for learning because it can help students improve their
learning through active participation in online discussion and tasks. The findings showed that
most participants responded positively and accepted Google Classroom as a meaningful
and straightforward learning platform that enabled them to learn anywhere and anytime
without face-to-face interaction with teachers and other classmates. Google Classroom is
easy to use because students can take the assignment, submit the assignment, quiz, and do
tasks online. Students like to use it due to its simplicity in supporting their learning.
Furthermore, most participants agreed that Google Classroom is a good learning tool
to supplement face to face discussions and a good collaboration platform for students and
teachers. In conclusion, Google Classroom is very useful to improve every student's abilities
and competencies. Students should learn on their own, except through instruction. Students
can discover new stuff by needing active learning from Google School. This application is
used effectively. However, many technological restrictions, such as the students of any group
who cannot access the lecturers' account, also have limited access to smartphones. Besides,
Wifi availability on campus is still limited. Some students do not have a suitable data plan for
taking part in online discussions, and some students even submit their assignments from their
friend's account. To summarise, students see Google Application in the classroom optimistic,
and that Brings good learning. The recommendation to use Google Classroom is not all
about the valuable Utility resource, but it also allows students to use the features more
creatively to create effective learning. Finally, this study confirms that Google Classroom is
very useful in improving students' skills, abilities, discipline, and independent learning through
teaching materials.

IJEMI Vol.2, No.2, May 2021, pp. 153 ~163

IJEMI e-ISSN:2716-2338 161

5. REFERENCES:
Agung, A. S. N., & Surtikanti, M. W. (2020). Students’ Perception of Online Learning during
COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study on the English Students of STKIP Pamane Talino.
SOSHUM : Jurnal Sosial Dan Humaniora, 10(2), 225–235.
https://doi.org/10.31940/soshum.v10i2.1316
Alim, N., Linda, W., Gunawan, F., & Saad, M. S. M. (2019). The effectiveness of Google
classroom as an instructional media: A case of state Islamic institute of Kendari,
Indonesia. Humanities and Social Sciences Reviews, 7(2), 240–246.
https://doi.org/10.18510/hssr.2019.7227
Asnawi, N. (2018). Pengukuran Usability Aplikasi Google Classroom Sebagai E-learning
Menggunakan USE Questionnaire (Studi Kasus: Prodi Sistem Informasi UNIPMA).
RESEARCH : Computer, Information System & Technology Management, 1(1), 17.
https://doi.org/10.25273/research.v1i1.2451
Chen, Y. & Hoshower, L.B. (2003). Student Evaluation of teaching effectiveness: An
Assessment of student's perception and motivation. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher
Education, 28 (1), 71-88.
Creswell, J. W., & Clark, V. L. P. (2007). Designing and Conducting Mixed Methods Research.
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 31(4), 388–388.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1753-6405.2007.00096.x
Etherington, D., 2017. Google Classroom now lets anyone school anyone else | TechCrunch.
Retrieved November 20, 2019, from https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/27/google-
classroomnow-lets-anyone-school-anyone-else/.
Glaser, B.G. and Strauss, A.L. (2017) Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative
Research. Routledge, New York.
Hakim, A. B. (2016). Efektifitas Penggunaan E-Learning Moodle, Google Classroom Dan
Edmodo. I-STATEMENT, 2(1).
Harjanto, A. S., & Sumarni, S. (2019). Teacher’s Experiences on The Use of Google Classroom.
3rd English Language and Literature International Conference (Ellis), 3, 172–178.
Hausammann, P.B. (2017). Beginning Google Classroom and the Paperless Classroom.
Retrieved from https://www.fetc.org/materials/W01 3.pdf
Inoue, M., & Pengnate, W. (2018, May). Belief in foreign language learning and satisfaction
with using Google classroom to submit online homework of undergraduate students. In
2018 5th International Conference on Business and Industrial Research (ICBIR) (pp. 618-
621). IEEE.
Izenstark, A., & Leahy, K. L. (2015). Google classroom for librarians: features and opportunities.
Library Hi Tech News, 32(9), 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1108/LHTN-05-2015-0039
Madhavi, B. K., Mohan, V., & Nalla, D. (2018). Improving attainment of graduate attributes
using google classroom. Journal of Engineering Education Transformations, 31(3), 200–

Oktaria, Rohmayadevi (Students' Perceptions Of Using Google Classroom …..)

162 e-ISSN: 2716-2338

205. https://doi.org/10.16920/jeet/2018/v31i3/120792
Michotte, A. (2019). The Perception of Causality (1st ed). London: Routledge.
Mizell, H. (2014). Why Professional Development Matters. Journal of Contemporary Criminal
Justice, 30(4), 360–361. http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1043986214541602
Ocampo, J. F. G., Quevedo, M. C. J. A. C., Perez, C. A. O., & Castillo, B. Y. M. (2017). Analysis
of the use of Google Classroom in the students of System Engineering of the Instituto
Tecnologico de Mexicali. European Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 6(2), 60.
https://doi.org/10.26417/ejms.v6i2.p60-62
Qudratullah, Q., Aswinda, N., & Najamuddin, N. (2020). Communication Patterns Of Coaches
And Students In Cultivating Discipline Of Memorizing The Qur'an. INJECT
(Interdisciplinary Journal of Communication), 5(1), 25–40.
https://doi.org/10.18326/inject.v5i1.25-40
Ridho, D. M., Sawitri, I. D., & Amatulloh, N. A. (2019). Students ' Perception Toward Google
Classroom Application in EFL Classroom. Seminar Nasional Pendidikan, 1325–1332.
Rozak, A., & Albantani, A. M. (2018). Desain Perkuliahan Bahasa Arab Melalui Google
Classroom. Arabiyat : Jurnal Pendidikan Bahasa Arab Dan Kebahasaaraban, 5(1), 83–
102. https://doi.org/10.15408/a.v5i1.7481
Roxby, P. (2020, March 11). Coronavirus Confirmed as Pandemic by World Health
Organization. BBC News. [United Kingdom]. Retrieved from
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-51839944.
Sewang, A. (2017). Keberterimaan Google Classroom sebagai alternatif Peningkatan Mutu di
IAI DDI Polewali Mandar. JPPI: Jurnal Pendidikan Islam Pendekatan Interdisipliner, 2(1),
35-46.
Soni, S., Hafid, A., Hayami, R., Fatma, Y., Wenando, F. A., Amien, J. Al, Fuad, E., Unik, M.,
Mukhtar, H., & Hasanuddin, H. (2018). Optimalisasi Penggunaan Google Classroom, E-
Learning & Blended Learning sebagai Media Pembelajaran Bagi Guru dan Siswa di
SMK Negeri 1 Bangkinang. Jurnal Pengabdian UntukMu NegeRI, 2(1), 17–20.
https://doi.org/10.37859/jpumri.v2i1.361
Ventayen, R. J. M., Estira, K. L., De Guzman, M. J., Cabaluna, C. M., & Espinosa, N. N. (2018).
Usability Evaluation of Google Classroom: Basis for the Adaptation of GSuite E-Learning
Platform. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, Arts and Sciences, 5(1), 47–51.

IJEMI Vol.2, No.2, May 2021, pp. 153 ~163

IJEMI e-ISSN:2716-2338 163

Appendix
Table 2. The instrument

Factor Questions Scoring

RD D A RA

1) Does this application help you become

more effective?

2) Does this application help you become

more productive?
Usefulness
3) Is this application useful?

4) Does this application save time when you

use it?

5) Is this application easy?

6) Is this application simple when it is used?

7) Is this application user-friendly?

Ease of Use
8) Do you use this application without written
instructions?

9) Can you use it to recover instantly when

making a mistake?

10) Do you learn how to use it fast?

Ease of 11) Do you easily remember how to use it?

Learning

12) Are you satisfied with this application?

13) Is this application fun to use?

Satisfaction 14) Does this application work as expected?

15) Is this application great?

16) Is it convenient to use?

Note :
RD : Really Disagree
D : Disagree
A : Agree
RA : Really Agree

Oktaria, Rohmayadevi (Students' Perceptions Of Using Google Classroom …..)