Strategies for Health College Students to Gain Academic Achievement in the Era of Blended Learning

Introduction: The pandemic has forced most activities from offline to switch to online systems, including in education. In the post-Covid-19 period, educational institutions began to develop a blended learning system. The aim of this study is to explore the learning strategies of outstanding students in a health college during the blended learning period. Method: The study used a qualitative descriptive approach in 4 focus group discussions with those who were outstanding students in the 2020/2021 academic year. The total students in this research are 29 people aged 21-25 years old. Result: The research found 5 themes, including 1) perception of learning achievement; 2) learning objective for outstanding students; 3) learning methods for outstanding students; 4) time management to study of outstanding students; and 5) motivator for outstanding students. Conclusion: Achievement strategies for students are they should take hard efforts in the learning process such as studying regularly, learning by repeating materials, making personal notes, verbalizing what is learned in front of others, mirror, and even talking to themself. The student also felt difficult to capture the learning properly when the study runs online. The strategy they took is to adapt the accessibility of the internet network by using adequate devices with good operator providers. Unfortunately, the lesser interaction process with other students and lecturers they do, the lesser interest they felt to follow that classes. Online classes brought so many distractions that make students could not concentrate well in class. The findings show in order to become an outstanding student, strong self-motivation is needed to learn and be supported by the closest people such as parents.