Digitalization of Online Schooling

Kompas

Raynanda Gunawan

Beginning with a college final project, Raynanda Gunawan, 28, has created an application, Qualitiva.id. This application facilitates school learning and teaching without in-person attendance. During the pandemic, the application has been used by hundreds of schools, even as far as the eastern tip of Indonesia.

In 2016, Raynanda, studying in the Informatics System Department of the Informatics and Computer Management College (STMIK) of Palcomtech Palembang, was required to complete a final assignment. He got the idea of creating an application to facilitate student examinations.

Raynanda was inspired by a number of websites that existed in several countries. With the knowledge derived from his studies, within about three months, Raynanda managed to create his website, named Adaquiz.com. “In other countries there are applications for online examinations. Why not in Indonesia?” said Raynanda in Palembang, South Sumatra on Wednesday (7/4/2021).

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The application makes it easier for students to take online examinations. The first trial location was none other than his own campus. His invention turned out to be beneficial for internal campus use. Interested in his creation, the campus asked Raynanda to develop the application further.

Assisted by his peers and lecturers and with funds from some circles, including Palcomtech, Raynanda developed the application not only for exams, but also as a means of online school management. “In addition to learning material, the application contains features for school management in general and in detail,” said Raynanda.

The application makes it easier for students to take online examinations.

Inputs from various parties, including school management personnel, served as the basis for developing the online school system. Finally, in 2018, Qualitiva.id was complete.

KOMPAS/RHAMA PURNA JATI

One of the staff at Qualitiva.id is explaining the use of this application, Wednesday (7/4/2021). This application has a feature to facilitate online learning activities.

The application has diverse features, including the management of schools, students, teachers, supervision, contributors, classes, teaching subjects and parents. With these features, schools, teachers, students and parents can monitor each other and carry out learning and teaching activities without having to be present face to face. “All activity is executed through the digital system,” added Raynanda.

The program was also designed for the preparation of online exams, student attendance lists and for gauging the degree of difficulty of study material given to students.

“In this way, teachers can judge whether the material taught can be understood by students or not,” he said.

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In addition, school principals can also notice how effective the learning and teaching activity in their schools is. This will certainly make their policy making easier because all the data is already measured.

The application also makes available a question bank with 100,000 questions of different subjects and levels. The questions were formulated by a team of experts in their respective fields of study.

In this way, teachers can judge whether the material taught can be understood by students or not.

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Raynanda displayed the application to the public at several technological exhibitions. “What’s funny is when it was once demonstrated, people thought we were selling laptops,” he said.

Qualitiva.id was also offered by Raynanda to the Directorate General of Higher Education for use in the National Selection of State Higher Learning Institute Enrollments (SNMPTN). However, the offer was turned down.

Much enthusiasm

Nonetheless, Raynanda was undaunted. He tried again to offer it to other markets. His next targets were primary schools and universities. As a result, many schools have been interested in it. Before the pandemic, a limited number of schools were ready to be partners. “Only 25 schools were prepared to use this facility,” he noted.

But when the pandemic broke out in early 2020, he said, the number of partner schools kept rising and had now reached 600 with around 160,000 individual users. “This surge occurred when the government started applying distance learning,” he said.

KOMPAS/RHAMA PURNA JATI

A student uses the qualitiva.id application to participate in online learning activities, Wednesday (7/4/2021). This application is used to facilitate teaching and learning activities during the pandemic.

His partners today are not only in South Sumatra. They have also spread to Jakarta, Lampung, Medan, Pekanbaru, Samarinda, some parts of West Java and as far as Papua.

It’s not easy to introduce this application to the public. Various constraints have been faced, ranging from schools’ struggles to adapt to a new application to the signal restrictions in certain regions. The riskiest thing is holding simultaneous exams. “Therefore, a stable server is needed so that when simultaneously used there will be no constraint,” he said.

Apart from that, said Raynanda, he keeps improving this program according to input from schools. Moreover, not all teachers can use it because prior training is needed. “Many teachers still rely on WhatsApp to teach as they consider it easier. In terms of completeness, our application is far more comprehensive,” he said.

Many teachers still rely on WhatsApp to teach as they consider it easier.

For its complete features, the application offers a paid program from Rp 300,000 to Rp 1.5 million, depending on the number of students. “Each student pays only Rp 1,000 per month,” he said. But schools with students totaling less than 100 are given free service.

“This is meant to help schools with limited budgets,” said Raynanda, indicating that of the 600 schools in partnerships, around 25 percent continued to enjoy free service.

Noverika Kriswanto, chief operating officer (COO) of Qualitiva.id, said it was difficult to provide free service for all partners because of the high cost of server management. Furthermore, for its security system, the application uses Amazon Web Services, the most comprehensive cloud platform in the world, with a high level of security.

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“This is intended to ensure all systems of the schools in partnerships remain secure,” said Noverika.

Noverika is optimistic that the application will help schools manage their educational institutions more efficiently. The program is not just for schools, as it can be used by education offices in a number of regions to monitor the development of learning and teaching activity.

“Through this program, students’ achievements based on evaluations of the exams they have taken can also be monitored,” added Noverika.

Raynanda hopes the application will keep running to support the process of education, especially during the pandemic. “The pandemic must not hamper students in their pursuit of knowledge,” he said.

Raynanda Gunawan

Born: Bandar Lampung, March 6, 1993

Education:

- Taman Siswa Primary School Lampung

- Bina Bangsa Junior High School Palembang

- Nurul Iman Vocational High School Palembang

- First degree in Informatics System, Palcomtech Palembang

- Master’s degree in Informatics, Bina Darma University Palembang

This article was translated by Aris Prawira.