BINUS ADOPTS SOCIAL DISTANCING THROUGH ONLINE LEARNING METHOD

Jakarta, March 17, 2020 – The Coronavirus COVID-19 has now spread to at least 140 countries in the world with the number of cases reaching more than 179,300 people worldwide (The New York Times, 2020). In Indonesia alone, currently, the number of positive cases of COVID-19 has reached 134 cases (merdeka.com, 2020). Seeing the increase in positive cases of COVID-19 in Indonesia, Indonesia’s President, Joko Widodo, also urged Indonesian people to work from home, learn from home, and worship at home as much as possible (CNN Indonesia, 2020). As members of the community, to align with the call to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, we should adopt social distancing policy.

Social distancing itself is defined as a routine of avoiding crowds, public gatherings, or meeting places with large numbers of people. Doing social distancing means maintaining social distance, including maintaining sufficient distance between one person and another to  help prevent spreading the virus to others (Putsanra, 2020). Bina Nusantara University (BINUS) has also adopted the social distancing policy in its commitment to protect students, the academic community, and the general public at large from the spread of COVID-19. The social distancing step taken by BINUS is to implement online learning with the Guided Self Learning Course (GSLC) method. The application of online learning aims to keep the teaching and learning process running without increasing the risk of COVID-19 exposure.

BINUS implemented an online learning policy from 18 March 2020 until the end of the even semester 2019/2020 (July 2020). In addition to teaching and learning activities, other academic and non-academic activities are also carried out remotely. These activities include midterm and final exams conducted with take-home or project models as well as thesis/dissertation/dissertation guidance  activities, Enrichment Program guidance, student activities, and academic services which are all held online. With the implementation of social distancing through online lecture activities, it is expected that the spread of the COVID-19 virus can be inhibited and reduced, that no Binusian is exposed to the virus, and Binusians can also keep accumulating experience, skills, expertise, and new knowledge through online learning.