Abstract:

In 2020, the world has declared an emergency, namely a global pandemic, transforming the way individuals undertake activities and learn. Many industries have been impacted by the pandemic, resulting in no industrial outcomes, rising inflation, severe job loss/unemployment, and deteriorating living conditions, with a few million more people expected to fall into poverty. During these times, the Indonesian government looked to accelerate the improvement of conditions, especially in health, economy, and education. Innovation, technological advancement, and widespread acceptance of these disruptions were initiated to support these transitions. Amidst all this instability and uncertainty, there are many changes, particularly in the education system. Regardless of the circumstances, students need to have critical thinking skills and graduate with useful life skill sets for them to find work. It was imperative to integrate these outcomes and teaching methods to achieve both. Research has shown that, for the time being, the most significant problem in educational institutions has been ensuring a smooth educational process without creating excessive disruptions to students and teachers.Research has also shown that design students need to have critical thinking skills and graduate with useful life skill sets which can increase their employability, especially in post-pandemic situations.

Therefore this study sought to investigate the impact of assessing student learning skills using the Revised Community of Inquiry (RCOI) theoretical framework by Shea et. al (2012) for a Project Managerial Class for undergraduate design students in Indonesia. According to this framework, the three components of the Community of Inquiry, namely social presence, cognitive presence, and teaching presence, are all interconnected. The lecturer’s presence is critical because they must guarantee that the entire learning process is relevant and purposeful. Following the learners' engagement with the activities and practices, the link between cognitive presence and teaching presence becomes obvious. Furthermore, once learner engagement is achieved, lecturer presence has a direct impact on students' learning processes. Cognitive Presence is the knowledge that involves critical and creative thinking skills. Social Presence is encouraging collegial relationships. Teaching Presence is an instructional role in a learning environment. Learner Presence is co-regulation and self-learning.

As such, this study used a mixed-method research design to investigate the development of effective learning content on 49 design students in an Indonesian University. A 7-point Likert scale questionnaire was administered to them to gauge their attitudes and perceptions towards four elements of the RCOI, namely Cognitive Presence, Social Presence, Teaching Presence, and Learner Presence. This study also investigated to what extent this framework could be applied to the design learning process to create an engaging learning experience for design students. Findings from the study showed that Indonesian students were very positive towards these four elements of the RCOI learning environment. These results provide strong positive encouragement to the use of RCOI’s characteristics in the design learning process during the rapidly emerging digital era.

Keywords:

RCOI, Indonesia, e-learning, critical and creative thinking skills, design students.