Manuscript received January 29, 2023; revised February 27, 2023; accepted April 20, 2023.
Abstract—The rapid development of communication and
information technology is capable of supporting the learning
and teaching process in higher education. This leads to the
consideration of self-evaluation by the course team teaching
“Extension Science and Communication of Innovation”.
Therefore, the research aimed to develop the course best
suitable to equip Gen-Z (Z Generation) students with future
change agents’ skills. In this development process, the teaching
team engaged in a competitive learning innovation known as
Hibah Kompetitif Inovasi Pembelajaran (Competitive Grant
for Learning Innovation) at Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB)
University, also known as Bogor Agricultural University,
through an experiential approach modified with an action
research model. In addition to face-to-face meetings, the team
uses Learning Management System (LMS) to plan, monitor and
assess student performance. Several data were also obtained
from the course, including curricula, learning contents, and
students’ projects. Moreover, the context, input, process, and
product evaluation models were used for the analysis. The
results showed that the learning and teaching transformation
adjusted from course content fulfilment to strengthening the
students’ competencies. Based on the HKIP-based evaluation,
the score for course performance also improved from 75/93 to
85/93. To strengthen students’ competencies, the teaching team
updated learning outcomes, completed course regulations and
documents, documented academic experiences, and co-operated
with technical staff for more effective use of LMS. From the
results, the teaching team also implemented additional
approaches to develop the skills of students, including (1)
practicing collaborative learning, (2) learning from real-world
situations, (3) group projects based on problem-solving, and (4)
mixed media for extension education. In this case, the regular
adjustment of the course to present and future challenges
assisted the students in meeting the learning outcomes.
Index Terms—Agricultural extension, change agents,
learning innovations, skills
Siti Amanah, Dwi Sadono, Anna Fatchiya, Asri Sulistiawati, Titania
Aulia, and Annisa Utami Seminar are with the Department of
Communication Science and Community Development, Faculty of Human
Ecology, Institut Pertanian Bogor (IPB University), Bogor 16680, West Java,
Indonesia.
*Correspondence: siti_amanah@apps.ipb.ac.id (S.A.)
Cite: Siti Amanah*, Dwi Sadono, Anna Fatchiya, Asri Sulistiawati, Titania Aulia, and Annisa Utami Seminar, "Strengthening the Competencies of Gen-Z Students as Future Change Agents: Learning from Extension Science and Communication of Innovation Course (KPM121C)," International Journal of Information and Education Technology vol. 13, no. 10, pp. 1646-1655, 2023.
Copyright © 2023 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).