One of the programs launched by the Minister of Education and Culture of the Republic of Indonesia related to the Independent Learning policy: Independent Campus is to provide students with the widest possible freedom and opportunity to choose the courses they are interested in both outside and on campus.
Independent Learning – Independent Campus was launched in order to prepare a superior generation of graduates who are able to face rapid social, cultural, work world and technological advances, so that student competencies must be prepared to be more responsive to the needs of the times.
As a form of implementation in supporting this policy, in the odd semester of the 2021/2022 academic year, FMIPA UI held a credit earning MOOCs based (Massive Open Online Course) through four study programs, namely the Mathematics Undergraduate Study Program, the Physics Undergraduate Study Program, the Chemistry Undergraduate Study Program, and the Biology Undergraduate Study Program.
Program credit earning (credit acquisition) is a program of following courses in a structured manner (structured form), where the number of credits obtained can be recognized and equated with the courses contained in the curriculum.
FMIPA UI Credit Earning Program receives high enthusiasm
FMIPA UI has opened a program credit earning since 2010, and the implementation of online learning with the Distance Education (PJJ) system has started in 2019.
Participants who take part in this program are students from outside UI, both from state and private universities, and the general public (not students). Student participants who pass will be given transcripts and electronic certificates.
Dr. Ratna Yuniati, M.Si. as the Education Manager of FMIPA UI said that this program is not provided for UI students. Because UI has provided a credit earning program with a cross-study program or faculty for UI students.
"UI students are not allowed to take MOOCs within UI. If you want to take courses in other study programs at UI, you can follow the MOOC Program credit earning with a cross-study program or faculty path. If you want to take credit earning "MOOCs-based courses can be taken outside UI," said Dr. Ratna to the UI FMIPA public relations team, Wednesday (09/15/2021) via the messaging application. whatsapp.
Since registration was opened on August 9-20, 254 students from 40 universities throughout Indonesia have registered and 194 students have had the opportunity to study at FMIPA UI through this credit learning program, 7 of whom even come from non-science fields.
The enthusiasm of the participants is very high. This can be seen from several participants who are known to choose more than one course. There are even participants who choose 5 courses at once.
"The enthusiasm of the participants is very high, it can be seen that one person can register for 2-5 courses," added the expert in Plant Physiology from the Department of Biology, FMIPA UI.
Courses offered by FMIPA UI in the program credit earning These are Logic and Set Theory, Calculus 1, Algorithms and Programming, Basic Physics 2, Introduction to Materials Science, Computational Physics, Hazardous Materials Chemistry, Basic Chemistry 1, Animal Diversity, and Plant Diversity. The quota for each course is 40 participants. The most popular course is Algorithms and Programming.
Then what are the activities of the participants in the program like? credit earning FMIPA UI?
After being declared accepted as a program participant credit earning FMIPA UI for the odd semester of 2021/2022, student participants are given a Student Identification Number (NPM) and a UI MOOCs account to attend lectures during the period from August 30 to December 21, 2021.
Dr. Ratna explained that in UI MOOCs there are 2 (two) modes determined by the lecturer in charge of the course, namely Self-paced learning and Instructor-led learning. On Self-paced learning Participants determine their own learning speed, the lecture schedule is also flexible but still refers to the start and end of the MOOCs academic calendar, in addition, all learning materials and activities are completely available and can be accessed from the beginning to the end of learning at Learning Management System (NGO) via the page idols@ui.ac.id
Meanwhile on Instructor-led learning, Lecturers control the flow and schedule of learning. The learning schedule is standard in accordance with the applicable academic calendar and standard learning activity deadlines (fixed date), in addition, lecturers can set the time of availability of materials or activities in the LMS; participants can access learning materials from the beginning to the end of the learning session or are scheduled to be presented in a certain order.
About MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course)
MOOCs are a technological development in distance learning (e-learning) with principles “open course, partisipatory, distribute and life-long networked learning", so that MOOCs enable a learning system in the form of lectures to be carried out remotely, online, openly, and on a large scale, accessible to anyone and wherever the participants are.
Through MOOCs, participants can take classes according to their interests without having to worry about increasing lecture time or study period. MOOCs also help employees and people who have retired but still want to learn.
