Developing A MOOC Based Professional

Development Program
for Teachers at the Computer Science Dept.
BINUS University Jakarta

Wishnoebroto

1. Explain what you know adult professional development to

be in best practice, how you justify that, and what this
would look like in the workplace.

The best professional development, in my opinion, is the one who

brings positive impact for the participants and his or her surroundings.
It has to be concise, focused and has an achievable target. A good PD
has to cover three main points: It has to be relevant to the participant's
needs, it has to be well planned and designed, and the result has to be
measurable. In the context of shared vision, a PD has to explicitly
target to the goal of the organization. What skills need to improve, and
how to achieve it. More importantly, a good PD must have a clear
objective that also matters for the participant, which will bring benefit
to the individual as well as the organization.

A PD is considered needed if there is a gap between the vision and

mission of the company and the personnel competency. And the most
common way to justify this need is through a formative and summative
assessment. My experience conducting PD for learning English, for
example, requires me to use TOEFL or IELTS standard to justify the
need to conduct certain training skill. However, I see that a score or
grade of a test is only one of the indicators. The most crucial moment
in a PD is what happened after the PD is over. So, I always created a
follow-up activity for monitoring the result of the PD and its impact
towards the individual and the organization.

In an organization, a PD is commonly seen in the form of training or

workshops. However, with the technology, a PD can be in the form of
online learning, a MOOC (Massive open online course) or even a part of
structured learning using a mobile app. I did conducted an English
language improvement program for teachers by implementing a
system called DynEd where learners were encouraged to use the
mobile app to monitor and access their learning content. So, unlike
conventional learning, this method does not require many logistics
such as room and facilitators.

2. Explain a process and best practice for developing a shared

vision.
As mentioned by ISTE, a shared vision is the power that drives the
implementation of technology in an education institution as a part of a
collaboration between the stakeholder's such educators, support staff,
students, parents and community members within the system. My
experience conducting a PD for improving English started from the
shared vision from my teaching colleagues who visualize themselves
as the member of the international intellectual community. Their dream
is also aligned with the vision of the university that provides them with
infrastructure and financial support for those who are interested in
taking part in international conferences.

This need to be internationally recognized drove these teachers to

contact the Language Center, the unit that I manage, to develop a
professional development program. Considering this need and the
scope of the learning, I then divided the development process into four
segments.

The first segment is the need analysis. In this stage, I did an empirical
data from observation and gathering information through a
questionnaire. Here, I need the data that covers issues of learning
background and preferences, their short term and long term goals,
problems and concerned, and targets and expectation. These needs
analysis is crucial to determine the scope and the topic of the PD that I
developed.

The type of PD is the second segment that needs to be considered

seriously. In this case, I have to determine what skills need to improve:
speaking, listening, reading and writing because each skill need
different treatment. From the data that I gather, I could determine the
specific subject, how to conduct it, the length, and the coverage of the
materials. And during the process, I involved the learners and course
developers in designing a learning system that could accommodate
those needs. Video conferencing and podcasting, for example, can be
used to foster the communicative skills of the learners. Whereas,
interactive e-book or online language games can be used to improve
learners reading and grammar competencies.

The next segment is the implementation of the vision, which was

commonly seen as a workshop, or training. Although it is not always
the case, a workshop or training can be conducted differently. I once
conducted a long term professional development for English
language improvement program. This six-month language
improvement program was conducted specifically for teachers
assigned to deliver his or her class in English. This PD was a
combination of face-to-face, peer reviews; sit-ins, bi-weekly lunch
discussion, and online learning and evaluation activities. This kind of
activity ensures that the vision shared by the member of the
organization was conducted properly.

Besides transforming it into a workable teaching-learning activity, a

shared vision should be able to be seen and felt by all stakeholders.
Some companies and universities put their written vision and mission
in the corners of the offices to remind everyone within the organization
about the common goal. In my case, since it is a skill-oriented
program, I focused on how the skill was implemented in the workplace.
The indicators were seen from the frequency of English conducted in
the workplace such as the frequency of the emails written in English,
how often the language was used during the conversation, numbers of
international journal published or how many international conferences
attended. Therefore, a successful shared vision activity, in my opinion,
is not only useful for the individual who has the vision, but it is also has
a positive impact for the organization and the larger community.

3. Provide a plan and explanation of effective communication

for and internal to your vision for learning.

My vision for learning in general is to empower teachers through an

affordable education program specifically for the Computer science
department in my university. The Department of Computer Science
(CS) is the biggest in numbers compared to other departments in the
university. So, if this project is successful, the impact will be very
significant to the university. I will focus my PD plan on two things: to
understand and to tackle the core problem in teachers development
and to design a comprehensive and affordable professional
development program for them. So my plan will cover three steps:
Academic preparation, system implementation, and the monitoring
evaluation.

Academic preparation is considered the foundation of my plan in

developing a comprehensive learning. The computer science
department is the biggest department in the university. The
department has a specific goal of sending more students to work or
pursue further degree abroad. Therefore, mastery of foreign language
such as English is a must for the teachers. I focused on the teachers
because I saw that teachers now have to cope with many challenges.

If the academic preparation develops the foundation of a house, then

the system implementation is the building together with its contents.
A system ensures that every element required in the PD system work
in accordance with its functions. In the digital era, the communication
between the units involved in the system can be interconnected in a
real time basis. In my organization, for example, the Center for
Learning Development is working closely with the Human Resources
(HR) Department and they share similar data about any employees
who needs improvement. On the other hand, the Human Resources
Department relies the information from the Language Center in terms
of Foreign Language Competency. This interdependency of information
and the application of a good knowledge management system made
communication within the organization effective and efficient.
However, this style of communication is not without risk. With so many
information is uploaded online; the level of security also needs to be
improved. Knowledge about online ethics and information privacy and
security are some of the issues that need to be seriously considered.

And the last part is the monitoring and evaluation, a part that ensures
all the elements inside system worked properly and accordingly. In
terms of developing effective internal communication, I would suggest
that monitoring should be done through sets of activities both through
online and face-to-face activity. Online monitoring in my opinion is the
most preferred method because it is short and less time consuming
than the face to face. Monitoring can be done through video
conferencing, online questionnaire or online assessment. However,
considering the culture, I still feel that the learner is still need the face-
to-face monitoring session. For most Asian learners such as Indonesia,
the social nuances created in a traditional classroom cannot be
replaced by any virtual environment. Moreover, the socio-cultural
interaction between the instructors and the learners strengthened the
level of engagement of the program proposed.

4. Outline and provide justification for your implementation

plan for teaching and learning to support digital-age
education.

This project will focus on developing a PD to improve English

competency of the Computer Science teachers at BINUS University
Jakarta. This Department is chosen because the teachers are more
prepared to change and they are already familiar with the computer
and online learning. This pilot project can be used as an example for
the other department and hopefully the implementation of the
program could motivate the other to duplicate and do the same PD.

For the teaching learning method, Im using the MOOC approach

combined with Face to face session because most Indonesians are not
ready to learn in a fully online or virtual learning course. It may look
like a MOOC course but with at least three actual meetings during the
program where the facilitator can meet the participants to discuss in
person. I think this is where culture interferes with the development of
the digital age education. As mentioned by Halverson, learners
nowadays are learning differently because of the technology. However,
in another part of the world such as Indonesia, people still cannot
move from the traditional method of learning into a completely
different method just because of the technology. Indonesia has long
been considered as prominent online users in the world. However,
many education practitioners and administrators still do not consider
online learning equal to traditional learning because of the missing
classroom, building or lacking the face-to-face interaction. MOOC
model, in my opinion, is the most efficient and effective online learning
method today because it consists all elements of a teaching-learning
process such as interactivity, peer-to-peer discussion, ongoing
evaluation and even personalization.

To link between the PD and the professional goal of the participant, I

would directly connect the result of the PD with the assessment and
promotional system applied in my university. Since the content of the
PD is relevant to the vision and mission of the organization, and the
outcomes are measurable and commonly standardized measurement,
it will be easy for the HR department to develop the upcoming learning
plan and to make policies regarding any professional development
required by any individual in the organization.