STUDENTS’ PROBLEMS OF ACADEMIC WRITING COMPETENCIES, CHALLENGES IN ONLINE THESIS SUPERVISION, AND THE SOLUTIONS: THESIS SUPERVISORS’ PERSPECTIVES

The COVID-19 outbreak has brought about the offline-to-online transformation of EFL undergraduate thesis supervision along with its challenging complexities. Anchored in a combination realistic and constructivist epistemologies, this explanatory sequential design mixed-method research aimed to investigate students’ problems academic writing competencies, challenges online supervision, solutions according supervisors’ perspectives. Data was first gathered using closed-ended questionnaire involving fifty supervisors from Central Java Papua universities as respondents. Descriptive statistical analyses were conducted process data. Twenty-three respondents then purposively selected for interviews focus group discussions, data which analyzed interactive model-driven analyses. This study revealed competencies covering dimensions elements performances. Subsequently, multiple unraveled pertaining issues technological time management, complexities field research, unstable motivation. proposed contextual those demonstrating their interventions improving metacognition, self-efficacy, growth mindsets writing. Further studies are expected work on more in-depth investigations that examine interactions motivational strategic constructs predicting dive deeply into problems, challenges, concerning