Two lecturers of Universitas Muhammadiyah Lampung (UML) qualified to be awarded by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Kemendikbud Ristek) to apply for the Tri Dharma of Higher Education Institutions, Tuesday (26/07). The team leader, Ratna Tri Utami, M.Pd. explained that the proposal submission to receive learning innovation assistance should follow the Ministry’s guidelines.

“In proposal submission, we ask for suggestions and inputs from lecturers and experts who have experience in this specific field. It aimed to support the implementation of the Independent Learning Independent Campus (MBKM) program in UML,” she said.

Together with Rianti Nopitasari, M.Pd, both awardees passed the Assistive Technology Funding program for students with disability in Higher Education institutions. With this assistance, it was expected to enlarge educational access and learning, especially for children with disabilities (ABK). Also, to reach the Key Performance Indicators (IKU) UML and the Education for Exceptional Children department.

“The other purpose is to develop an application named Brainly Learning in higher education to be implemented to ABK students,” she continued. Furthermore, she also mentioned that UML has students with disabilities, so it was expected to be tested on UML students and other students in similar conditions.

“Assistive technology is a term for supportive, adaptive, and rehabilitative equipment for persons with disabilities,” she concluded. The learning design can show the novelty of producing a solution and ideas the outside of conservative/conventional frame.

The design of brainly learning applications contains varied equipment/tools, including the lesson plan (RPP), syllabus, learning materials, and tests. It was expected to be applied by the students with disabilities so it can support the learning process. The application can be used for Cerebral Palsy, Physically Disabled, and Hearing Impaired students. The three kinds of ABK meet the difficulties in the learning process, so we tried to create an application to support them to comprehend the materials,” she added.

Moreover, the Rector of UML, Dr Mardiana, MPd hoped that in the future, UML would be ready to have more students with disabilities because of the application prepared, especially the Education for Exceptional Children department (PLB). As additional information, the application that would be developed could be accessed in OS Android and Windows. The Innovative Learning Model becomes a learning design that provides students with disabilities to construct their knowledge and actively participate in the learning process.