MMU discovered Gadgets to change ways of learning

The increase of mobile technology, which has become widely available at cheaper prices, has changed the way students are learning today.

Erwin Pramana, 22, a student of Multimedia University, said that his lecturer provided him video tutorials on developing online games and links to online discussion groups so that he could learn from the video, anytime and anywhere.

“With the video tutorial, I do not have to go to my lecturer whenever I face problems. I can also replay the video if I do not understand it the first time,” he said.

He said that if the video did not give him a sufficient answer, he would log on to the online forum and ask questions directly to the game development community.

Elisa Christine and Agatha Massie, Erwin’s classmates, have also learned by using their portable computers and the Internet. The three were final year students majoring in Game Development. The last year of their study does not require them to be on campus as often as before.

“The mobile learning system encourages me to be active in finding solutions. After all, it is us who must understand the problems,” Elisa said.

Multimedia Nusantara University Digital Cinematography Study Program lecturer Ina Listyani Riyanto said that the mobile learning system would be the right decision for teaching a subject because everybody now had cell phones.

“We encourage students to be active in checking the university’s online system and their emails everyday,” she said.

Yusup Sigit Martyastiadi, a lecturer at the university’s Animation Study Program, said the university had put learning materials in an online system. He said that he would send the materials to the students’ emails. Therefore, he added, students could not use the excuse that they had forgotten to bring their materials.

“Unfortunately, rather than checking their email accounts regularly, the students have a tendency to log on to social media such as Facebook,” he said.

He said the video tutorials helped his students complete their work because he himself could not be present all the time.

“Sometimes the students contact me through messages at odd hours. I once got buzzed at four in the morning,” he said. 

The Indonesian university held a joint research seminar with Multimedia University of Malaysia via video conference on Tuesday. During the video conference, the universities shared thoughts on how the mobile learning system helped students.

Mislina binti Atan from the Malaysian university’s Mobile and Ubiquitous Learning Program, said that students with the mobile learning system applied to their smartphones had a better understanding of the subjects.