E-learning Portal for Student Teachers of Universitas Terbuka and Teachers in Indonesia

Zuhairi, Aminudin and Andayani, and Sekarwinahyu, Mestika and Rustam, (2011) E-learning Portal for Student Teachers of Universitas Terbuka and Teachers in Indonesia. International Conference on e-Learning. pp. 413-420.

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Abstract

Universitas Terbuka (UT) is Indonesia’s Open University established in 1984 to cater for the higher education needs of high school graduates, working adults and in-service teachers. Using open and distance education system, UT currently has four Faculties, i.e., Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Faculty of Economics, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Faculty of Teacher Training and Educational Sciences, and a Graduate School. The Faculty of Teacher Training and Educational Sciences is the largest Faculty, accommodating 546,153 (85%) out of a total of 646,467 students. UT offers diplomas, undergraduate as well as graduate degrees in 1,065 courses, 571 of which are supported with online tutorial services. This paper presents UT experience in the development of e-learning portal for student teachers and in-service teachers in Indonesia, its uses by teachers and its roles in continuous professional development of teachers through the use of Open Educational Resources (OER). In response to the growing needs of teachers’ continuous professional development and as part of UT spirit to make OER available to 2.7 million teachers in Indonesia, since 2008 the Faculty of Teacher Training and Educational Sciences has introduced an e-learning portal called Guru Pintar Online, which literally means Smart Teacher Online. The purpose of the development of this e-learning portal is to continually develop and enhance the knowledge and competencies of teachers through the provision of updated online open educational resources on good practices in teaching and learning at schools. The Guru Pintar Online has two major content categories, namely instructional laboratory and teachers’ discussion forum. The Guru Pintar Online serves as a forum for teachers to share knowledge and good practices in teaching, such as managing a big classroom, evaluating the process of learning, teaching mathematics in primary school, and teaching in kindergarten. The content for the Guru Pintar Online portal is developed based on teaching cases of teachers in early childhood, primary as well as secondary schools. These teaching cases are documented in video streaming format for a maximum duration of 5 minutes. Besides, teachers are also invited to add content to the e-learning portal. This e-learning portal has been designed in such a way that teachers can easily use and share teaching cases, upload and download, as well as view the materials online. The content, variety of teaching cases and accessibility of these OERs for teachers continue to be developed to benefit teachers. It is expected that teachers will make use of these OERs to improve their daily teaching practices. This e-learning portal is expected to enrich UT program for teachers at degree levels and continuing professional development. This portal will in the future serve as virtual teaching 2 clinics for teachers who wish to learn from good practices in teaching in different contexts throughout Indonesia.

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