The idea illustration of Pemuda Peduli Sekolah Daring (PAPER) Community

ITS Campus, ITS News – The online learning due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, certainly has encountered many obstacles. Departing from this, a team of students from the Department of Statistics, Faculty of Science and Data Analytics, Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember (ITS) initiated an idea in the form of an online school assistant named Komunitas Pemuda Peduli Sekolah Daring or PAPER.

This idea won third place in the National Level Online Student Scientific Writing Competition 2020 of Universitas Brawijaya (LKTIM-OTN UB). It was initiated by Zulfani Alfasanah, Dede Yusuf P Kuntaritas, and Andrea Ernest.

The team leader Zulfani Alfasanah revealed that many students complained about more assignments than in the offline one during online learning. The facilities and infrastructure are also inadequate, especially the internet connection and devices for some students, not to mention the internet network constraints in certain areas.

Zulfani Alfasanah, leader of the ITS student team who initiated the PAPER Community, illustrates the Online School Assistant Based on Application

While the students already have difficulty adapting to the new learning system, parents also complain that they are inadequate in operating gadgets to help their children learn. From this problem, she and her two friends formed the PAPER Community in collaboration with several parties. “This collaboration is to carry out two work programs; Online Home and Online School Assistant Based on Application,” explained the student called Fani.

Fani continued, the online home program is an accommodating school while still implementing health protocols and will facilitate and provide online school support such as electronic devices and wi-fi. “In addition, we have also created an Online School Assistant Based on Application that can help students control and monitor the progress of their assignments at home,” she explained.

Dede Yusuf P Kuntaritas, one of the team members, said the work also aims to support the government’s online school policy in the Political and Social Humanities category by minimizing and providing solutions to students’ problems.

Dede Yusuf P Kuntaritas showing an illustration of the PAPER Community

Yusuf admitted that the idea sparked because they were less productive at home during the pandemic and did nothing. When there was information about the competition, they began to put their ideas together and make it passable to be contested. “Also supported by a theme that is very appropriate to the current situation, we hope this idea will be useful if it can be implemented,” said Yusuf.

He added that his team, which Dr Dra Kartika Fithriasari M Si guided, also encountered many obstacles. Because they did this project online, the problem was finding books and references such as theses and journals.

“In addition, presentations and discussions that are conducted online sometimes have some disturbances, both caused by the internet network and the time difference for each different team,” he explained.

Andrea Ernest, one of the team members, shows an illustration of the Online School Assistant’s design Based on Application for the PAPER Community

The team’s last member, Andrea Ernest, continued that to make the idea work they discussed it via existing online platforms and social media. Then for the execution, the tasks are divided to be done by each team member.

After each member has finished working on their part, the other members will correct and improve each feature. “After that, we did the presentation online indirectly, in the form of a video recording and evaluated by the jury afterwards,” said Andrea.

This idea is planned to be spread throughout Indonesia. She also hopes that their vision can be realized and work together with local governments to succeed. “We believe that the idea of PAPER Community can be implemented during the current pandemic,” concluded Andrea optimistically. (zar/sel/ITS Public Relations)

Illustration of School Assistant Based on Application, one of the PAPER Community main programs