From November 12th until 14th, the third week of International Virtual Course 2021 was held. There were three topics being presented in three days. The first topic was about “Gender Sensitive Education” presented by Hani Yulindrasari, Ph.D., the second was about “Motivational Interviewing Technique as Strategy in Improving Students’ Motivation” by Dr. Anne Hafina, M.Pd., while the third topic was “Mental Health and Well-Being of University Students during Pandemic Covid-19” by Dr. Fonny Dameaty Hutagalung.
The first class with Hani Yulindrasari, Ph.D. was held on Friday. The material presented explained how gender equality has not been implemented well in the educational context. Participants were thought to be more aware of gender equality. Some foreign participants shared the current issue of gender inequality in their country. Furthermore, they also discuss the strategy to overcome this issue in the educational context.
The second class of this week was held on Saturday. The topic related to motivation was presented by Dr. Anne Hafina. Before the class started, the participants were asked about what they have known about the motivation and what strategy they had used to improve motivation. Further explanation by Dr. Anne explained about motivation types and the steps of motivation cultivation. It is also comprehensively explained that motivational interviewing is one of the strategies that could be implemented to improve students’ motivation.
The last class presented by Dr. Fonny Dameaty Hutagalung was held on Sunday. The topic being presented was related to mental health during this pandemic. It was explained how the covid-19 pandemic gave affected people psychologically thus creating anxiety and stress. During the discussion session, participants discussed the strategies to deal with stress during the pandemic which included the role of the spiritual aspect. Related to this topic, one of the participants commented that we must be aware of our and students’ well-being because mental health is important in this current situation.
These classes were the last of the IVC 2021 classes’ series. After this, participants were going to have a final project assignment. The participant would be divided into some groups and asked to present their group discussion results related to the topics that have been presented.
Ayu Ulivia (2020)