Teaching and Learning Strategy

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2.4. Teaching and Learning Strategy

Every course is accompanied by Learning Program Outlines GBPP and a plan for teaching and learning activities SAP. It consists of identity and description of the course, instructional analysis, course learning objectives, teaching and learning methods, outlines of course content, course schedule, assignments, list of supporting literatures, evaluation and evaluation criteria. GBPP and SAP are informed to the students at the beginning of every course. Most of courses use lecturing methods in front of a class followed by questions and answers. Besides lecturing method, Student Centered Learning SCL is increasingly adopted by many courses at the Dept. of AGH. This system allows students to do an independent learning and a number of activities in learning. Courses with SCL methods are listed in Table 2.4.1. Table 2.4.1. Courses with SCL method No Since Year 2008 2009 2010 1 Plant Production Management AGH441 Post Harvest of Crops AGH440 Principles of Seed Science and Technology AGH 250 2 Food Crops AGH340 Principles of Horticulture AGH240 Ornamental Plant and Floriculture AGH 343 3 Beverage, Medicinal and Aromatic Plant AGH443 Water and Plant Nutrition Management AGH322 4 Beverage, Medicinal and Aromatic Plant AGH443- Practice Estate Crops AGH341 5 Applied Plant Breeding 410-Practice Vegetable Crops AGH342 6 Pomology AGH442 7 Scientific Writing AGH398 20 SCL method requires students to be more responsible in learning and developed a new habit of studying. With SCL: 1 students are required to be more active by himherself and in team work; 2 Lecturer will focus more on promoting learning and being person who facilitates of learning process; 3 The students will be the independent learner, whereas lecturers act mostly to create learning environment that can motivated students to be more active in searching course material. Some students have the opportunity to participate in a student exchangemobility program. In the year of 2010, three students of SP-AGH participated in MIT Malaysia Indonesia Thailand Credit Earning Transfer CET Program, where two students went to Kasetsart University, Thailand, and one student went to UPM, Malaysia. In 2011, by the same program three students of SP- AGH went to Kasetsart University. The Dept. of AGH also recieves eight exchangemobility students from UPM in even semester 20112012 and seven exchangemobility students in odd semester 20122013. By CET program, courses that earned in host university could be transfered in the home university. SP-AGH students also have to take courses from other departments, i.e. inter- departmental courses, minor courses andor supporting courses. In general, the learning process held outside the Dept of AGH is well managed. Possibly, this is because all of the departments in IPB has a national accreditation and use the IPB standard procedures. Therefore, the learning process already met the established standard. The acdemic information in SP-AGH is well organized. All the institutional information can be easily delivered to students through the department’s website http:agrohort.ipb.ac.id that is well managed. The website also earned the Best Department Website award in IPB for the year 2011 and 2012. SP- AGH organize an effective class size, which is around 60 students per class for course and 30 students per practice group. Seminar is held two days in one week which accommodate 6 students per seminar day. This seminar schedule facilitate smoother study completion. Seminar involves the supervising lecturer, moderator, student reviewers and active audience. The seminar material is based on the research or internship result, where its implementation is related on the thesis subject. Supervision of the 21 final project is done intensively by Thesis Final Project Supervisor and recorded in the academic consultation book. All of the learning process is set in Standard Operating Prosedure Prosedure Operasional Baku POB IPB. Additionally Dept of AGH has obtained ISO 9001-2008 certification since 2010 in the area of teaching and learning process. Some of the POB have been developed at the SP-AGH level and had been effectively implemented. All of courses in SP-AGH is delivered using LCD and other supporting facilities. Some courses also uses e-learning facilitated by P3EL Pusat Pengembangan Pembelajaran e-Learning, Center for e-Learning Development IPB. The e-learning facility has been used to deliver course materials, practice, task and even exam. Some courses that won grant in Competitive Program on implementing Information and Communication Technology are displayed in Table 2.4.2. By this competitive grant, delivery methods on teaching and learning of the courses is considerably improved. Table 2.4.2. Courses that won in Competitive Program on Information and Communication Technology Course Lecture Practice Principles of Agronomy √ Genetic for Plant Breeding √ Agricultural Ecology √ Principles of Plant Biotechnology √ Weed Control √ √ Integrated Agriculture √ Applied Plant Breeding √ Principles of Seed Science and Technology √ √ Ornamental Plant and Floriculture √ Principles of Plant Breeding √ 22 The teaching and learning strategy is evaluated through GBPP and SAP review. GBPP and SAP review is carried out in course level by the lecturer in charge and in the study program level by division where as homebase of the courses. Feedback for improvement on the teaching strategy is obtained from the evaluation process of the course Appendix 2.4.1. Teaching evaluation is also done based on the scores given by the students through EPBM Evaluation on Teaching and Learning Process form at the end of each semester for every course. The evaluation comprise of implementation of course in general, and lecturers performance, compliance with teaching plan, correspondence between the exam and the course material, the availability of adequate facilities. In general EPBM can describe the achievement of course objectives. EPBM value is one of the indicator of success of the courses as well as indicator for every lecturer in implementing the learning process. EPBM value of courses and lecturers in PS-AGH has reached an average of 3.15 and 3.33 scoring 1 to 4, respectively see Table 2.13.1 and 2.13.2. SP-AGH always use EPBM value as consideration to improve the learning process every semester. In general, there are no obstacles in the implementation the learning process. The number of students per class room is adjustable with maximum limit of 70 students, therefore courses with large number of students has to be provided in several parallel classes. IPB give opportunity to study program to do so. The academic staffs of SP-AGH are high qualification lectures and have capability for preparing learning materials and enrich it with the results of recent research and literature. Air conditioned lecture hall, LCD, laptops and loudspeakers are available in every class room. For the completion of the study, the students have to do final projects, which can be chosen through research or internship program in an agriculture company. Students who take research as their final project should prepare research proposal which in line with assigment in Scientific Writing course. The Scientific Writing course is carry out at 6th semester. The topics of final project are announce at the 5th semester. The students shall choose one among the list of topics and supervisors provided by Head of SP-AGH. Students that have interest in certain topic can also 23 consult the relevant lecturer. The lecturers that have research project usually offer the students to join the research team for their final project. There is a close relationship between education and research. Almost all of the courses related to commodities provide knowledge about cultivation, so students who going to work with certain commodity as their final project have already met with their requirement. The Experimental Design course is meant to prepare students on how to design research in the field as well as in labs in order to obtain a representative data and to analyze the data properly. Students are also provided knowledge and practice for preparing a research proposal, presenting research data and overview discussion of the report in Scientific Writing course see Table 2.3.2. The results of the students research and internship are presented in thesis. In addition each student must present their thesis at a seminar attended by the lecturer and students, weight as 1 credit. Since odd semester 2012, students are required to write a seminar paper in a journal format. Dept of AGH facilitates the publication at Indonesian Jurnal of Agronomi, which is a nationally accredited scientific journal, or on-line journal, Bulletin Agrohorti, which will be launched in near future. Agricultural Business Practice, a course with 1 credit, provides opportunity for the students to learn specific aspects of crop cultivation of a particular commodity of their interest. The prerequisite of this course is all courses related to cultivation techniques. The students will practice to manage a farm business unit model, including of vegetable crops, ornamental plants, fruit trees, seed production, food crops, estate crops, and spices and medicinal plants. This activities facilitate the students to practice on entrepreneurship. However, implementation of practical training is constrained by limited funding derived from students tuition fee and time only 14 weeks. Supervising is conducted by appointed lecturers in accordance with their competence. Assessment is based on successful entrepreneurship activities.

2.5 Student Assesment