Collaboration Between Telkom University and Indonesian Creative Class in Improving the Quality of Education

COVID-19 has indeed widened the education gap in Indonesia. The results of research conducted by the UNICEF (2021) showed that by 2020, the pandemic have caused at least 530,000 schools to be closed and 68 million students are required to immediately switch to online learning. Online learning presents challenges in monitoring learning performance. Limitations in monitoring students while studying from home brings impact in the decline of learning outcomes and even make students to drop out of school. In 2020, many students and parents stated that they received no feedback from teachers about assignments or exams. With limited digital skills, teachers cannot monitor student learning or communicate effectively. In the end, this condition will have an impact on the decline in the quality of education and learning. Therefore, the quality of education during online learning is an important issue to be addressed immediately.

Through community service programs (Abdimas), the School of Industrial Engineering (SIE) Telkom University act in efforts to improve the quality of online learning. This time, lecturers and students of SIE collaborates with Kelas Kreatif Indonesia (KKI), a Personal Learning Community (PLC) established in 2008 to conduct a community service reaching English teachers across Indonesia. One of the visions of this community is to provide an informal, collaborative-based professional development facility for educators to share, discuss, learn and develop together. KKI members include lecturers, teachers (kindergarten, elementary schools, junior high schools, and senior high schools), course instructors and education observers spread across several Indonesian provinces on the islands of Sumatra, Java, Bali, Nusa Tenggara, Kalimantan and Sulawesi. The community service is held in the form of 32-hour workshop consisting webinar, coaching sessions, and reflection. The theme of the workshop is “Educational Digital Tools for Alternative Assessments in EFL Classes”.

The community service activities are held in the form of 32-hour certification workshop which is divided into 3 (three) main sessions, namely a webinar session held on March 19, 2022, followed by coaching sessions on March 20-24 2022 and closed with an evaluation and reflection session on March 25, 2022. The first session is a webinar divided into 5 sessions delivering (1) “Educational Digital Tools for Assessments”, (2) “Alternative Assessments in EFL Classes”, (3) “Incorporating Alternative Assessments & Digital Tools into EFL Lesson Plans”, (4) “A Digital Tool for Video-Based Learning: Teacher’s Experience”, and (5) “A Digital Tool for Speaking Class: Students’ Experience for Teacher’s Troubleshooting”. At the end of the webinar, participants were given individual assignments as requirement to receive the 32-hour certificate. Furthermore, in the coaching sessions, participants received feedback from the presenters regarding their individual tasks. Then, the community service activities were closed with an evaluation and reflection session. During the session, the 3 best participants were announced, followed by sharing experiences that can be used as lessons from the best participants for other participants. In addition, there were 6 participants who received door prizes due to their active participations and contribution to learning development. There were 152 participants attending the webinar session, and 53 participants who continued with the coaching sessions and successfully completed all assignments and were eligible to receive the 32 hours workshop certificates. The 152 participants consisted of 47.37% teachers of SMP/MTs, 39.47% teachers of SMA/MA/SMK, 9.87% university lecturers, and 3.29% language course teachers from all over Indonesia. Presenters, moderators, and committees are the representatives of Telkom University and the KKI community. Representatives of Telkom University are Ima Normalia Kusmayanti, M.Pd. as the chairman of the community service, Dr. Ir. Agus Achmad Suhendra and Sari Wulandari, M.T. as the lecturers of SIE. There are also students of SIE namely  Adiyatma Pratama Wibisono, Ayu Maharani and Aulia Halimatussyifa. In addition, representatives of the KKI community are Dadan, M.Pd. as the President of the KKI community, Dra. Atti Herawati, M.Pd., Nusratunnisa Zafar, S.S., Tintin Sri Suprihatin, S.Pd., and Trisnendi Syahrizal, M.Hum. Representatives of Telkom University and the KKI community hope that the collaboration will continue as an effort to improve the quality of online learning in Indonesia.

Kontributor : Ima Normalia Kusmayanti, Agus Achmad Suhendra, dan Sari Wulandari