KSF 11 Highlighted Quality Assurance Innovation

A series of Knowledge Sharing Forum (KSF) activities organized by Indonesia Open University or Universitas Terbuka (UT) continue. After taking a one-week break, the 11^th KSF was held on-line through Microsoft Teams platform and broadcast through Youtube UT TV Channel, on Wednesday (12/8/2020). This KSF brought up the theme of “Quality Assurance Innovation for Technology-Based Education in Post Covid-19” by inviting a number of both local and international experts, namely Prof. Bambang Brodjonegoro, Ph.D., Minister of Research and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, Dr. Zaid Majeed of Allama Iqbal Open University, and Aminudin Zuhairi, Ph.D., of Indonesia Open University, as well as Dr. Mohamad Yunus, S.S., M.A., as the moderator.

UT’s Rector, Prof. Ojat Darojat, M.Bus., Ph.D. officially opened the 11^th KSF. In his speech, Prof Ojat hopes that this activity can boost the finest innovation in education. According to him, UT is currently developing online proctoring technology for its grading or assessment system. UT continues to reach out various levels of the society so they can have access to higher education. Until today, UT also continues to make innovations as well as has cooperated with various institutions which support the open and distance higher education (ODHE) in Indonesia.

The first presented was Aminudin Zuhairi, Ph.D. who explained the quality assurance that UT has made. He emphasized that the quality is the main priority in education, including the development of open and distance education in order to create competent and quality graduates. On-line based learning and digital platform technology have become the instruments for the implementation of ODHE.

In the meantime, Prof. Bambang Brodjonegoro, Ph.D., as the second resource person or presenter, stated that the Covid-19 pandemic is the moment for accelerating digital transformation since face-to-face interactions in person are so restricted.

Bambang appreciated the UT’s accomplishment in the development of ODHE in Indonesia and he hopes that UT would be able to support the curricula applied in Indonesia. Through technology transformation, artificial intelligence is expected to become the media to improve effectiveness and efficiency of business processes in UT which are in aligned to the increase of the number of its students. UT can facilitate it students in organizing higher education at home and to facilitate long-term learning.

Dr. Zaid Majeed, the third presenter, shared his experience in the development of technology-based education at Allama Iqbal Open University. Quality assurance which has been done would include, among others, the accreditation of the institutions and universities, internal quality assurance processes, as well as the educational achievements. In dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic, Zaid explained some possible scenarios that may be sought, which are the availability of portable and easily recognizable qualifications, as well as internal quality assurance that is focused on the metrics and the external quality assurance, in order to verify the metrics.