In early 2020, there was a pandemic caused by the COVID-19 virus. That made the learning activities were done via online, especially in the Intermediate English Listening class in English Department at Mulawarman University. Therefore, the purposes of this research are to find out the third-semester students' difficulties and lecturer challenges in teaching listening comprehension through online learning. This research used qualitative research with an interview protocol for the instrument. The participants of this research were eight students of 2021/2022 of the English Department at Mulawarman University which were selected by using their scores in the Intermediate English Listening course. The data of this research were collected through interview and analyzed by using Thematic Analysis adopted from Braun & Clarke (2006).
The findings discovered that some students had difficulties in listening comprehension through online learning because of internal and external factors. In internal factors, there are: lack of vocabulary, less of concentration, lack of interaction between the lecturer and students. While in external factors there are: the devices and online applications that are used, internet connection and the condition of the environment. Meanwhile, the lecturer had some challenges because it is something new in teaching listening comprehension through online learning. The challenges encountered by the lecturer are: effective method, lack of interaction, internet connection and students’ participation. Because the purposes of this research are to find out the students’ difficulties and lecturers’ challenges in listening comprehension through online learning, it is recommended that future researcher find the strategy that lecturers and students use to make it easier for them in listening comprehension through online learning.