By: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Siti Suriawati Isa
SERDANG – A total of 40 Year 3 students of Bachelor of Park and Recreation Science (BSTR) from the Faculty of Forestry and Environment (FPAS), Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), participated in an international exhibition online via Instagram recently.
The international exhibition was conducted online for the very first time. Five other universities which took part in the event include the Islamic University of Riau and Bina Nusantara University, Indonesia, Hitra Leirskole, Norway and the Union of Youth of Uzbekistan, Uzbekistan. The exhibition was organised by the Faculty of Business and Management and Faculty of Art and Design, Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Shah Alam.
The exhibition could be visited until December 31, 2021, through the Instagram acount, ‘innovativeescape’.
The exhibition of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) comprised of 17 subtopics introduced by the United Nations (UN) in 2015.
BSTR students submitted 11 posters based on the SDG subtopics, such as healthy lifestyles, poverty eradication, quality education, as well as responsible consumption and production.
The issues chosen by the BSTR students showed the application of what they had learned during study at UPM, particularly in the Department of Nature Parks and Recreation.
Overall, the students were able to discuss the issues related to SDG properly and creatively. Although they were not students with Information Technology (IT) background, their delivery of the said issues were comparable to the participation from other universities.
They had also prepared a short video of less than 3 minutes related to the selected SDG subtopics. Student participation was done in groups with a máximum of five members or individual.
The online exhibition is considered a new virtual teaching and learning method (PdP) ever since the Covid-19 pandemic started last year.
Before this, students were exposed to PdP through Zoom, Google Meet, Webex, Streamyard and others. However, this time around, Instagram was used as the online exhibition platform to showcase the student assignments.
This approach is not only convenient and cheaper to organise the exhibition, but it can also be accessed by more visitors who have internet connection all around the world. The exhibition duration can also be extended until the end of 2021 without incurring extra cost to the organisers as the cost is low.
Students who took part in the ‘innovativeescape’ exhibition will gain lifelong knowledge. It also provides hands-on experience to the BSTR students as one of their main job scopes after graduation is event management.
The online exhibition experience was the first for these BSTR students, and the exhibition is one of the new norm alternatives introduced in event management in the world.
More opportunities as such should be extended to other students at various higher learning institutions (IPT) and schools. – UPM
