THE STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION OF THE TEACHER’S FACILITATION IN ONLINE GROUP WORK

This research examines the students’ perception of the teacher’s facilitation in online group work in English for Managers class at the Faculty of


INTRODUCTION
The COVID-19 pandemic has altered the teaching and learning process in education across the globe. Jordaan and Havenga (2021) study revealed that online teaching and learning was carried out in higher education despite existing challenges. This change also occurs in The Faculty of Business and Economics (FBE), Universitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta (UAJY). The faculty members of FBE UAJY decided that some of the classes were conducted online to minimize the spread of Covid-19. English for Managers was one of the selected subjects to be conducted online.
Fellow researchers also experienced online learning. Khan et al. (2021) discovered that students positively accepted e-learning. During the Covid-19 online learning, Edy et al. (2020) found disparities and advancements in the students' learning outcomes. Gamage et al. (2020) emphasized the significance of preserving academic integrity while learning online. At the same time, Rojabi (2020) stated that online interaction and learning environment motivated students to understand the learning materials.
This study uses the community of inquiry framework to achieve its goal (Garrison & Arbaugh, 2007). This framework is commonly used in online courses. It consists of three connected parts: social, teaching, and cognitive presence. The intersection of the three different presences is an essential component of the CoI, according to which learning occurs.  (Garrison & Arbaugh, 2007) Furthermore, Garrison et al. (2010) elicited that the ability of students to project their distinctive personalities to identify with and connect with the community and forge interpersonal connections is the first sort of presence or social presence. Teaching presence involves planning, facilitating, and managing social and cognitive activities to achieve the desired learning outcomes. The degree to which students can create and verify meaning through consistent speaking and thinking is known as cognitive presence.
The desire of students to take courses, engage in programs, and access resources online fundamentally alters the character of formal education. The severe adjustments imposed on numerous institutions and teachers caught them unprepared. Therefore, there is a critical need for research at FBE UAJY into effective teaching and learning strategies in an online environment. Roberts (2004) stated that collaborative learning is scarcely novel. For thousands of years, people have been learning informally in groups. Since students are still expected to learn on their own, especially at the university level, practically all formal education today still takes place in this setting. To help them learn, however, students frequently create informal study groups. Furthermore, Curtis and Lawson (2001) discovered that online collaborative learning might produce results similar to those attained in a face-to-face classroom. In a collaborative learning setting, students cooperate to achieve shared learning objectives, such as a standard comprehension of the topic or a solution to a problem. Therefore, collaborative learning techniques aid students in developing more sophisticated knowledge and higher-order thinking abilities through shared goals, investigations, and the process of meaning formation (Brindley et al., 2009). Communication and cooperation skills are employed in online group work.
This study uncovers students' perception of the teacher's facilitation of online group work in English for Managers class at FBE UAJY. In philosophy, psychology, and cognitive science, Qiong (2017) defines perception as becoming aware of or understanding sensory facts. The Latin root words perceptio and percipio, translated as receiving, gathering, taking possession of, and apprehension with the mind or senses, are the source of the word perception. Furthermore, Qiong (2017) states that three stages make up the perception process: selection, organization, and interpretation. In addition, researchers need to consider perception's physical and psychological aspects to comprehend how humans create structure, stability, and meanings for the chosen inputs or how perception occurs. These two dimensions interact with one another to produce humans' perceived results. Goldstone and Barsalou (1998) stated that much information from perception could be used to inform conceptualization so that the creation and application of concepts can alter perceptual processes. Goldstone et al. (2010) argued that using perceptually rich objects is advantageous if we consider education to be the training of perception. However, it is crucial to develop perceptual processes that can work over these problems.
English for Managers course at The Faculty of Business and Economics, Universitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta, is an English for Specific Purposes class. According to Johns (2013), English for specific purposes (ESP) is the name given to teaching and studying English as a second or foreign language when the students want to apply it in a specific field.
Furthermore, Johns (2013) explains that the fact that the course objectives and material are tailored to the unique needs of the students is a crucial component of an ESP course. The language, skills, and genres relevant to the particular English-language tasks the learners must complete are hence the focus of ESP courses. ESP students are primarily adult learners, though this is only sometimes the case. In terms of learning objectives, but not usually in terms of language competency, they are frequently a homogeneous group. Critical issues in the teaching of English for Specific Purposes include how to identify learner needs, the genres that students must be able to produce as well as participate in, how to evaluate whether or not our students have been able to do this successfully, and what we can do to support them if they have not.
Gonzales Ramirez (2015) conveyed that the definitions of ESP have changed, reflecting the shifting perspectives of theorists, researchers, and practitioners. The common characteristics frequently referred to as "absolute features" in all the definitions offered, however, embrace ESP's goal of fulfilling the exceptional needs of a specific group of learners. Considering that change is continuous in our globalized society, ESP will keep expanding on its past by charting its course in the upcoming years.
Reflecting on the previously mentioned studies, there is a need of further investigation into online learning in an ESP class. This research proposes new findings in students' perception of teacher's facilitation in online group work. Furthermore, this study aims to uncover the students' perception of the teacher's facilitation in online group work in English for Managers class at FBE UAJY.

RESEARCH METHOD
This study seeks to understand how students at FBE UAJY perceive the teacher's facilitation of online group work in the English for Managers class. A descriptive qualitative method was used for this study. The method investigated how well the participants understood the material and their attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs (Nassaji, 2015). It was determined that this method was appropriate because it aimed to analyze students' perceptions.

Research Design
This study employed an interactive model in qualitative research. According to Maxwell in Jones et al. (2021), the elements of a research study and how they could influence and be influenced by one another are included in an interactive model.

Subjects
The subjects of this study were 24 fifth-semester students participating in the English for Managers class of The Faculty of Business and Economics, Universitas Atma Jaya Yogyakarta. The students experienced online learning and group work in the English for Managers class.

Instruments
The online questionnaire was utilized to collect data from participants who already have experience participating in online group work in English for Managers class. The link to the questionnaire was distributed to English for Managers Microsoft Teams class. Based on the results, four participants were selected for interviews. The researchers asked four One of the participants stated that the lecturer asked the students to use Microsoft Teams. However, the students were free to use other online communication platforms.
"The lecturer asked the students to use Microsoft Teams to do online group work. In Microsoft Teams, each group has its channels. By using those channels, the students could collaborate during online group work. However, other online communication platforms such as WhatsApp or Google Doc could also be used during the discussions." (Tata, interview) Another participant, Tati, also noticed flexibility and stated that the lecturer allowed students to use other online communication platforms.
"The lecturer already made the class in Microsoft Teams. The lecturer also provided channels for the students to collaborate in online group work. Since the signal was not stable for all students, the lecturer let the students use other online communication platforms, such as WhatsApp, to support the discussion in Microsoft Teams." (Tati, interview) Tata and Tati demonstrated that the lecturer had set up a platform to encourage student discussion. However, the lecturer would let the students select an online communication platform that would work best for all the group members regarding engagement outside class. The choice was made based on UAJY's recommendation and the viability and accessibility of Microsoft Teams.

Figure 4. Groupings
When inquired about the lecturer's grouping method, most students had a positive perception of the method. According to the students, the grouping method helped and encouraged them to complete the project.
"The groupings method was excellent. However, online group work had its challenges, such as a lousy internet connection. Luckily, all the members of the online group work participated in the discussion." (Titu, interview) "The lecturer's method of making the group was good. I remember well that I know the members of my group well so that we could work together well." (Dani, interview) Figure 5 shows the students' perception of the projects completed in online group work. Most of the students stated that the online group work projects provided by the lecturer could enhance their English skills. Moreover, the students also felt that their public speaking, communication, and collaboration skills improved. "I enjoyed conducting the online group work projects provided by the lecturers because the projects were essential and related to my work life later." (Tata, interview) "I think the online group work projects were good so that we could practice public speaking and our pronunciation." (Titu, interview)

Figure 6. Provision of Clear Instructions
From figure 6, most students perceived that the lecturer provided explicit instruction for every group project. The students were happy that the instructions were orally presented during online class and provided in the Learning Management System in kuliah.uajy.ac.id. The interview showed similar results. According to Tata, Tati, Titu, and Dani's statements from the interviews, the instructions for every online group work were clearly explained to the students in both written and oral form. "The lecturer provided consultation time for each group using Microsoft Teams' channels." (Dani, interview) "The lecturer always replied to the students' chats. Moreover, the reply was quick and could answer the students' questions to complete the project." (Tata, interview)

DISCUSSION
In an ESP class that implemented the CoI, the intersection of cognitive, social, and teaching presence was crucial. Based on the findings, the students in EFM class at FBE UAJY positively perceived how cognitive presence took place through the learning models design facilitated by the lecturer. The learning models led students to active learning in an English for Specific Purposes class, such as project-based learning. It supports a study by Kaczkó and Ostendorf (2022), which discovered that a criteria-guided, self-correcting, and context-sensitive inquiry could assist critical thinking when carried out with the necessary thinking abilities. However, in order to further develop cognitive presence in EFM class at FBE UAJY, the lecturer needs to find activities that drive the students to produce new ideas.
Since the lecturer facilitated them to converse and work together in online groups, the students positively perceived social presence. This result supports the study by Lachner et al., (2022) which hypothesized that social presence is one of the potential fundamental mechanisms of learning by teaching. Due to their familiarity with one another, the pupils felt at ease working together. According to Ribosa and Duran's study (2022), feelings of social presence may lead to elaboration. In online group projects, the students collaborate, talk to one another, and assist one another to finish the projects. Mohammad et al. (2023) stated that students and teachers could reinforce their interactions by including the CoI components in the classroom context, increasing the learning process's quality.
Furthermore, the results also show that students positively perceived the use of various facilitation tactics as a realization of the teacher's presence. When there were discussions, and all the students were encouraged to participate by the lecturer, students in an online learning environment experienced a more profound feeling of community. Suharno et al. (2022) stated that clarity of instruction, encouragement, reinforcement of a sense of community, comfort in conversing and student-student interaction, online discussion, combining new information, learning activities, and reflection were high in CoI-facilitated classes. The lecturer offered the students a variety of communications platforms to use for interaction, including private and group chats on social media. It has also been possible to communicate synchronously using Microsoft Teams. It was anticipated that the students would be able to maintain their interest in the course, their classmates, and the course material. The data corroborates the finding by Huizinga et al., (2022) that the efficient use of technology is anticipated to encourage greater interconnectedness among students.

CONCLUSION
Despite the challenges and complexities in online group work in EFM class at FBE UAJY, this study has demonstrated how the students perceived the teacher's facilitation. The students possess positive perception towards cognitive presence's facilitation, although, the lecturer needs to find activities that drive the students to produce new ideas. The participants possess positive perceptions since the lecturer encourages them to communicate and collaborate in online group work to facilitate social presence. The participants possess a positive perception since the lecturer provides explicit materials and instruction to facilitate teaching presence. Thus, it can be concluded that most participants have positively perceived the teacher's facilitation in online group work in EFM class at FBE UAJY. The limitation of the study is that assigning online group work among students in EFM class seems challenging, particularly in monitoring the collaboration and communication process.