Educafl 2022. Vol 5 No 2
Doi: 10.21776/ub.educafl.2022.005.02.04
What to Consider When Creating Digital-based Learning Materials for Creative Writing Class
Ali Imron Universitas Tidar [email protected]
Indonesia
Winda Candra Hantari Universitas Tidar [email protected]
Indonesia
Taufik Arochman Universitas Tidar [email protected]
Indonesia
Article Info ABSTRACT
Article history:
Received Oct 11, 2022 Revised Oct 17, 2022 Accepted Nov 29, 2022
This study aims to identify preferred aspects in creating digital-based learning materials for Creative Writing students in the COVID-19 pandemic situation. The lack of direct interaction with the lecturer and actual classroom causes them to be less enthusiastic about learning. Thus, a suitable composition of digital media is needed to solve the respective students' problems. Interactive, flexible, helpful, and easy to access are the key points of the composition. It may provide audio and video that help students to enhance their comprehension. The researchers use a descriptive qualitative approach regarding students' preferences to expose the actual data. The result shows that 89,7% of students prefer asynchronous, interactive, and flexible digital video available online as it allows them to get the virtual presence of the teacher and go through the material repeatedly. This particular media must be equipped with a microblogging platform for discussion, such as WhatsApp Group. The video- based media also provides a solution since internet connection has always been an obstacle for students holding classes with synchronized video conferencing.
Keywords:
Digital Learning Material, Creative Writing, Student’s Preference, Learning in a Disruptive Era
Corresponding Author:
Winda Candra Hantari Universitas Tidar
[email protected] Indonesia
1. INTRODUCTION
Teaching and learning activities are hardly conducted in the actual classroom by face-to-face meetings during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Learning materials must be available online so that students are still able to follow the process accordingly. The challenge comes when teachers have no complete control over students' participation in online teaching as in conventional classrooms, especially in Creative Writing. Because of the adversity of the interaction, learning does not take place optimally. The subject belongs to the skill-based cluster, which requires a comprehensive understanding of the material and sufficient exercises. Thus, choosing suitable media and creating digital-based effective learning materials must be conducted by teachers in the immediate situation.
A holistic understanding of the fundamental of creative writing and intensive practice is the core belief of the Creative Writing class, which is in line with the outcome of the course. The implementation of lectures must emphasize orientation on the ongoing process and the achievement of lecture targets. [1] mentions that adult education has always had a pragmatic focus, so this creative writing class must meet the understanding, which is to prepare higher education students to use the concepts and fundamentals they have learned in class in a practical context. Therefore, students' preferences must also be considered essential references for choosing learning methods and media because students' involvement in the choice of methods and media will naturally affect the course of learning. A pleasant learning experience and fulfilled expectations will contribute positively to the language learning classroom. Kim (2019), in the discussion on the lecturer, should also be a learner coin the necessity for a teacher to understand the fundamental needs needed by students, especially in welcoming the 21st-century education based on complex thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity.
In Creative Writing, the written language is formulated creatively; thus, it is considered artistic and entertaining. [2] argues that creative writing can significantly increase students' academic writing skills and learning motivation. By implementing poetry and short stories in this class, students are encouraged to shape their skills in writing. At the same time, [3] describes the importance of literature in English teaching as applicable to stimulating learners' interest and personal engagement with a literary text, enhancing learners' language skills, especially their reading and writing skills, and enhancing their reading and writing skills their critical thinking.
A comprehensive learning concept accompanied by high technology utilization to support learning in the 21st century, which is increasingly demanding, is a progressive idea. Along with complete infrastructure and classroom affordability, learning becomes meaningful. However, this ideal concept is challenging to apply in areas with no access to decent technology or internet connection, especially in mountainous ranges like in Magelang. Thus, the selection of learning media following students' conditions is something that must be considered. Through in-depth interviews and filling out questionnaires, the researcher explored students' learning preferences such as learning styles, their previous experiences, and their motivation to learn the subject matter [4]
This research reveals the important aspects that students choose and are interested in when taking an online Creative Writing class: (1) to analyze the problems faced by students during online Creative Writing class (2) to expose what kind of digital platform preferred by students as the learning media (3) to design a digital-based learning model for Creative Writing that incorporates the students' preference.
2. METHODS
This study applies the Descriptive Qualitative method, gaining a more profound understanding of specific participants by analyzing their opinions, preferences, and attitudes. A holistic approach to various data collection from various sources exposes the actual data. [5] explained that qualitative descriptive is used when explicit descriptions of phenomena are required.
This research was conducted at English Education Department, Universitas Tidar, Magelang.
Participants are 78 Creative Writing students from 3 different classes. These participants come from various areas in Magelang and its surroundings; 76,9% live in a challenging signal area (see figure.
1). Of the fourteen meetings in total, participants joined seven synchronous learning via Zoom, three meetings by using asynchronous learning through the E-LEARNING UNTIDAR (ELITA), a Moodle- based Learning Management System (LMS), and four meetings with mixed learning between Synchronous and Asynchronous strategies. Participants are asked to contribute in each class with a duration of 100 minutes per meeting. By the end of the semester, they are asked to assess the learning process that has been taken and provide input in the questionnaire given.
The data were explored and collected through interviews by conducting an online survey through a questionnaire mapping specific aspects of the research question. It investigates the participants' opinions, preferences, and attitudes related to teaching-learning activities in the COVID-19 Pandemic by answering a questionnaire related to the digital media implemented and online activities. Possible obstacles during classes are also asked.
Chart 1. Students' Signal Coverage during the Online Learning
Students face three main problems in participating in online creative writing classes during the Pandemic. As many as 92% of students say they have difficulties following the lecturer's explanation, difficulties in applying Creative writing concepts and sets of rules, and technical problems caused by signal strength. (see chart 2).
Chart 2. Students' Problem in Learning Creative Writing: Poetry and Short Story with Digital Media.
Researchers carried out two processes to document students' preferences for creative writing classes that must be carried out online. They are classifying and analyzing the types of items written by students in the domains taken from Bloom's Taxonomy (1956) and considering adding social aspects due to the shift from conventional classroom to virtual online class due to the Pandemic in general (as in table 1). The items that have been classified into four domains are arranged according to the highest number at the top. According to the data, fruitful and direct answers from an expert, attain goals, sufficient access to equipment or signal, and communicate well with other students are in the first place of each domain. These various aspects are vital and must be considered by lecturers when carrying out online classes.
Table 1. Students' Preference in Online Learning Cognitive Domain Affective Domain Psychomotor
Domain
Social Domain Have fruitful and
direct answer from expert
Attain goals Sufficient access to equipment or signal
Communicate well with other students
Process new
information and remember previous learning
Openly receive feedbacks from other students
Adequate energy level
Peer-close
interaction while solving problems Think critically Have a sense of
belonging
According to the desired time
Grow with other students
Create new product of knowledge
Nurture positive attitude towards other
Comfortable learning environment
Constructive support to other students Synthesize learning
materials
Have opportunity to do self-reflection
Enough Sleep Manage tasks well
The second process is sorting out the aspects that support skill improvement in learning creative writing in particular and rank them based on the total number. In this process, the researcher clusters the answers that have been written by the students into five aspects based on the interpretation of the written explanations given by the students (see figure 3). The aspects are imagination, critical thinking, vocabulary building, figurative language, and syntax and systematics. In students' opinion, these five aspects are essential when learning creative writing.
Chart 3. Aspects in Creative Writing: Poetry and Short Story that Can Improve Students' Writing Skill
Based on the analysis of the data collected from the questionnaire regarding the implementation of online creative writing classes, the implementation of online creative writing classes should at least provide fruitful and direct answer from the lecturer, invite students to hone their imagination, attain goals of mastering critical thinking; vocabulary building; figurative language; and syntax, easy access, and enable students to communicate well with peers. Then interactive, flexible, helpful, and easy to access are the key points of the composition. Naturally, the whole thing must always be linked with context and understanding that signals problem is a nuisance constraint.
3. RESULTS/FINDINGS
This study finds that 70 students prefer interactive video-based material as YouTube or Zoom meeting recording as the solution since it provides flexibility for students to watch and repeat
material if needed (see figure 4). About 76,9% of the students live in a challenging signal area;
therefore, suitable learning media is mandatory. In learning Creative Writing through an online class, most of the students (89,7%) prefer having mix both synchronous and asynchronous learning using video-based media or zoom meeting recording made by the lecturer and accompanied by a discussion room.
Table 2. Result Summary of Students' Preference for Digital Media
The internet connection problem is crucial since it might disrupt when the lecturer is explaining the material. It leads to other essential problems in the following process, such as in completing the projects. Therefore, easy-to-download digital media is necessary.
On the other hand, students still need the lecturer's presence during the learning process; students think that the interaction with the lecturer is limited during online learning through synchronized video conferencing, making them bored and sleepy. The lack of interaction with the lecturer also causes them to be less enthusiastic about learning. Thus, a suitable composition of digital media is needed to solve the respective students' problems
Interactive, flexible, helpful, and easy to access are the key points of the composition. It may provide audio and video that help students to enhance their comprehension.
Synchronous, Asynchronous or Combination
In a pandemic situation, synchronous meetings using free or paid online platforms, Zoom or GoogleMeet, appear to be the stand-out solution. Using them in the classroom may provide real-time classroom interactions like regular classes.
Among the various benefits of this platform, synchronous classes are considered to arouse students' feelings of being social, scheduled, and together in a typical community as other members of the platform. Nevertheless, it is detrimental to some students, including those with a physical challenge or less-equipped infrastructure, ultimately making the classless effective. Meanwhile, asynchronous classes usually rely on self-contained concepts, where students learn through videos, readings, and other media. Media, materials, and other learning aids may be made available to some or all students through an online download or streaming. However, asynchronous learning requires reliable control
from its learner because of its liberating nature.
Chart 5. Students' Perception of Online Learning Types during Pandemic in Term of Its Effectiveness
In creating productive, effective, and efficient online learning, three essential things need to be highlighted: cognitive, teaching-learning, and social factors. Cognitive factors that emphasize a deep understanding of the material and the ability to synthesize and process information become important in preparing effective and efficient learning media. Meanwhile, teaching and learning processes that take place in two directions and are constructive are also essential factors that must be maintained so that students do not lose the concept of learning despite the Pandemic. Meanwhile, social factors that tend to change drastically should be realized in online learning so that students feel close interaction, togetherness, and friendship, especially in an online context with limited access to the meeting.
Although it is difficult to put together a framework that can cover everything completely, these three factors need to be maintained in online learning even when the signal is not strong.
In completing the Creative Writing online class project, students expect fruitful discussions with their lecturer to find inspiration and develop the ideas for their writing. Meanwhile, when creating a poem or short story, they face difficulties applying the elements taught to their writing (fig 2). The digital media moderately offer a solution as supported by the microblogging platform as WhatsApp group discussion or the discussion forum provided by ELITA as the compulsory platform implemented by the university.
4. DISCUSSION
Thus, online classes conducted with a combination of synchronous and asynchronous are the most desirable by students in the pandemic situation because they provide opportunities to learn and, at the
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
COGNITIVE
TEACHING - LEARNING
PROCESS SOCIAL FACTOR 40
68
66 38
10
12
Synchronous learning Asynchronous learning
45
60
76
45
70
60
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Easy to follow since you can adjust the
speed
Easy to access Play-back feature
Spend less quota than synchronized
meeting
According to students' desired time
Effective because there
is no wasted study time
Students' Perception on Video-based Media
Students' Perception on Video-based Media
same time, overcome the fundamental problems they have.
Lite Audio-Visual Media
Video has become an essential part of higher education. It is integrated as part of traditional courses, serves as a cornerstone of many blended courses, and is often the primary information-delivery mechanism in online courses [6] The use of video in context as a teaching medium needs to consider whether the video can convey high-order thinking cognitive material well, maximize student involvement in the use of video, and prioritize student-center learning perspectives (see figure 6).
However, in the context of difficult-to-access signals and limited infrastructure, video needs to be appropriately customized to reach the optimum result.
Chart 4. Students' Perception on Video-based Media WhatsApp Group Chat
The presence of lecturers in online classes for students in difficult signal areas is overcome by communication via chat. [7] says synchronous e-learning, commonly supported by media such as videoconferencing and chat, can support e-learners in the development of learning communities.
WhatsApp has features to support two-way interaction with easy access and is very light. This nature supports the implementation of online classes in challenging areas. A recent study by [8] finds that students in higher education have developed alternative communication systems using academic WhatsApp groups in virtual tutoring.
5. CONCLUSION
It is concluded that interactive digital platforms such as Zoom Meetings and YouTube recordings created by the lecturer were preferred by 89,7% of the students. Students face problems related to the internet connection and facilities at home; therefore, any materials with less signal strength will be encouraged. However, the lack of interaction with the lecturer makes the virtual presence is still
needed. Discussion forum using WhatsApp Group Chat is also essential to keep them on track with the process. Furthermore, the learning process that is interactive, flexible, and allows them to explore the material, such as the lite informative and expository video, is preferable by maintaining the minimal aspects required in an online learning context.
6. REFERENCES
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