“Alhamdulilah” [ read : thanks God ] . Finally, this semester was ended.  You know this semester is my first debut as a lecturer at Information System Dept.  ITS.  I am still remembering, Hows the things in the beginning of this semester. I was so afraid, fear not confident, not sure whether I can deliver two courses that actually I do not really understand while finishing my own MSc studies, preparing my oral defense for my thesis viva in different country with where I pointed to teach this course. But, the adagium “There is Nothing To Fear, But The Fear Its Self” should be correct on me.  I passed my thesis defense for my MSc. and Now finally, I can end this course successfully. Thanks God.

Is it beautiful ending? I am not sure actually, because I do not know how to measure , how to judge that I can say this course is ended beautifuly. Does It depend on my students or depend on me. If  It depends on my students, I am sure They will judge that It is a beautiful ending if I give all of them A mark. Ha ha… It should be not fair  isn’t it. But, to tell you the truth, I am feeling happy with this semester.

Are my courses Successful? Once more, I am not sure How to measure the success of a course. Is It merely depends on the final mark of the student. I thinks It is also not fair. Because how a lecturer examinate and evaluate  the students is also very relative. There are some lecturers with very high , high, moderate or even low expectation to the students. The lecturer with very high expectation will make a very difficult question for student examination,  then, merely no student will pass. In other hand, the lecturer with low expectation will make a easy question for student examination,  then, merely no student will fail.

The above-depicted picture is the final result for two courses I taught this semester. It is not so bad isn’t it? For the first course, Science Management, the average grade is  62.28 (BC) . There are only 6 students (10.7%) got A and There are only 3 students (5.36%) failed this course. However, There are  17 students (30.4%) are barely passed this course with grade D ( D is considered Pass for this course). For the second course, Intelligent System, the average grade is 63.92 (BC). It is a little bit better than the prior one. But, there only 1 student (2.3%) got A for this course, hows bad isn’t it? Fortunately, there are only 4 students (9.1%) failed this course.

Basically, I can make each student happy with the end of this course by making each student passed this course. I think some other lecturers did it. But, I am very sorry I can do it. So some students must be unsatisfied, even disappointed with my courses. In one side, I want to make my student happy, but in other side I should be fair. I am sure, my student concern much more on how they grasp the material of my courses than concern on hows their mark is. If They failed my course, they can retake it in other semester. May They will be lucky in the future time. Pass and Fail is something very ordinary.  It is not a taboo thing.

I realize I have yet to be a good, I have not done my best, as a lecturer for my students. I am very sorry to this matter. But I am sure, although it is only a little bit. I have given those a little bit contribution for their studies, for their future. Hopefully, it will be a useful things for their future, Insya Allah. Good Luck and all the best for my student.

Thank you, I have learned many things from you, from the processes and from the time. I really realize I should learn and learn much better in the future time to be a good a lecturer. I will share many things, lessons learned from this one semester lecture in the next post. Insya Allah.

Above-depicted is an email I got from my student. 3rd year student in my University.as you can see there.  Hows bad isn’t it? No greeting, No opening, and no closing greeting. Straight to the point, in which I do not really understood what did he mean actually. It is only one example, that I want to show you. Hows very bad the student soft skill in my university. My University is one of the best and leading University in Indonesia.  That’s why I am sure, the worse condition easily can be found in other Universities in this country. It is a serious problem for this country, in which the future of this country is depended much on their ( the young of this country) shoulder.

Actually, it has been a old story. But, I just realized it when I studied in My Neighbor  country, Malaysia. I wonder, what make Malaysia much more developed country than Indonesia. When I was student there.  Firstly, I felt disappointed  because I can not find a lecturer with a good technical skill  there. But, why Malaysians are well known their education is better than Indonesians. Finally, I found the answer. They much well known better than Indonesians because of their good soft skill. Although, technically Indonesians is better than Malaysians. But, to be honest. I have to acknowledge Malaysians for their good soft skill. Their communication and presentation skill (in English especially) is very good.  Their writing, negotiation, and management skill is very good as well.

Now, I am lecturer In My prior University in Indonesia. I teach 3rd and 4th year student here. Here, I just realized hows bad their soft skill. Once time, I ask my student to present their project assignment [conduct in english] in front of class. You know what happen then? To be honest, I can tell you They clothed very unwell for presentation (T-shirt and jeans you know), they present very-very unconfident and ’stage-fever’ ly. Their english is very-very bad, either grammatically or prounounciationly. Their ppt (power point) files are also not so good.

Another time, I ask them to write a paper from their experiment. As you can bet hows the result is very-very bad. They did not know how to write should to be. How to present a table and figure the did not know. How to write their ideas is also very bad. As well as their analytical part is also very bad. Even, they just present the result without analyze it at all. In the end of my lecture, I ask them to communicate to me via email if they get problem. As you can bet and see, they also can not communicate well via email.

I keep trying to comment not only their ability in technical aspect, but also comment their softskill aspect. I really acknowledge their hard skill (especially their very good programming skill). But I am sad knowing their bad softskill. Because I know, and surveys also have shown that softskill is more important when they work. If they can have a good hardskill,why they can not have a good softskill as well? I concluded that this bad condition is because not many lecturers aware about it. Supposed to be all lecturer not improve their hardskill only, but also can improve their skill. I think it is very important to add subject that can improve their softskill such as: communication and inter personal skill, business communication, corporate ethics, analytical and critical thingking subject.

I am little bit happy with my new college curricula that give more attention in soft skill improvement. I do hope once day, My University graduate is not only excellent in their hard skill but also very excellent in their soft skill.