UMY Launched Three IT-Based Community Services in 2021
The Covid-19 pandemic had a profound impact on every aspect of life, including education. One of the main problems is the school closure throughout the country, thus the educators had to move to remote teaching. While many educators have been using blended learning for several years, plenty of other teachers are new to the process. This abrupt transition to emergency remote teaching has become a burden to the educators since not all schools have adequate resources and infrastructure to face a sudden transition. This problem worsened for the schools located in rural areas with a limited internet connection. Responding to this issue, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta (UMY), through the Office for Research, Publication, and Community Service (LP3M) launched IT-Based Community Service. The launching ceremony, which was attended online by 2500 students, was conducted on Saturday (16/1).
UMY community service (KKN) 2021 has three program schemes, including Regular IT-Based Community Service, which is fully utilizing online. Also, Muhammadiyah Teaching Community Radio Empowerment Bases in Muhammadiyah School, and Muhammadiyah Orphanage Empowerment Community Service. Rector UMY, Dr. Ir. Gunawan Budiyanto, MP., IPM, emphasized that one of the main aims of the KKN Muhammadiyah teaching scheme for radio community empowerment helps the process of teaching and learning in Kulon Progo, which has an unstable internet connection. Also, he stated that “pandemic is not an excuse to postpone the teaching-learning process. Therefore, although admits pandemic situation, KKN is still carried out following a strict health protocol.
Besides, the KKN program also focuses on empowering entrepreneurship for society. According to Ahmad Syauqi Soeratno, Deputy Chair of Central Board of Muhammadiyah, Economic and Entrepreneurship Council, said that Muhammdiyah organization’s concern in the entrepreneurship sector is the same as community service program
related to empowering business in the creative economy. “The task of KKN students is to ensure that the benefits of entrepreneurship will continue to bring progress to the community who are accompanied by Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (UMKM) students, as well as benefit the community and nation.”