Indonesia
English
In an effort to achieve educational quality and enhance faculty competence, Politeknik Negeri Ketapang (Ketapang State Polytechnic), through the Center for Learning Development and Quality Assurance (P4MP), held the First Textbook Writing Training for Politap Lecturers in 2020 virtually. This event took place over one day and was divided into two sessions. The first session was held from 09:00 to 12:00 WIB covering the material: “Textbook Writing Techniques”, followed by the second session covering: “Technical Review of Textbook Manuscripts/Drafts”. The event was attended by Vice Directors, Heads of Departments, Study Program Coordinators, and lecturers from each study program within Politap, with a total of 49 internal faculty participants. In addition, five lecturer participants from outside institutions enthusiastically joined the event, representing Politeknik Negeri Pontianak and Universitas Muhammadiyah Pontianak.
The event featured a highly competent speaker with extensive experience having authored hundreds of books, Dr. Hj. Rani Siti Fitriani, S.S., M. Hum (Director of Semiotika Publishing IKAPI West Java) and Chair of KODEPENA (Community of Indonesian Lecturers, Writers, and Researchers). The Textbook Writing Training was officially opened by Endang Kusmana, Director of Politeknik Negeri Ketapang. The objective of this event was to motivate and encourage lecturers across Politap to actively write textbooks, which is an obligation for every lecturer, as well as to train and improve the ability of lecturers and teaching staff to write high-quality books through this activity.
In his opening remarks, the Director of Politap stated that this activity was part of the Productive and High-Performing Work from Home program during the COVID-19 pandemic. During this pandemic period, besides completing all Semester Learning Plans (RPS), lecturers were encouraged to compile textbooks. His administration planned that this initiative would not conclude merely with textbook training, but continue through to publication and printing. The Director warmly welcomed that 48 textbooks had already been collected during this training to be reviewed and prepared for print.
Head of the Center for Learning Development and Quality Assurance (P4MP), Sy. Indra Septiansyah, accompanied by Learning Development Coordinator Alfath Desita Juniar, explained that this textbook writing activity was held for the first time as an effort to boost faculty interest in writing and creating books. This initiative arose because some lecturers still did not fully understand proper instructional writing procedures. To compile a good textbook, a lecturer must draw upon various relevant, up-to-date, and reliable references. Therefore, to produce quality books, lecturers must understand proper writing techniques and organization of instructional materials so that they are capable of writing not just one, but multiple textbooks in the future, making this training activity essential, he noted.
In the first session, Dr. Rani explained that a textbook is a course handbook authored and compiled directly by experts in the relevant field that complies with standard textbook conventions so it can be officially published and widely distributed. On this occasion, she also presented topics ranging from criteria for good textbooks, textbook formats, book anatomy, cover design, introductory sections, and main contents to concluding sections. According to her, writing should simply be allowed to flow (let it flow), beginning with the easiest components first without overthinking whether the writing is good or bad, emphasizing that what matters most is the genuine effort to write. When writing, materials can be sourced from PowerPoint slides and RPS taught in each lecture, using spare time to elaborate on the prepared materials or explain them in detail over one or more pages, which, when pursued consistently, will culminate into a book, she remarked.
In the second session, she conducted a technical review of raw textbook drafts previously assigned by the speaker and prepared by Politap lecturers. Dr. Rani reviewed the textbook drafts of several lecturers, discussing them in detail and offering recommendations spanning writing conventions compliant with PUBEI, TBBBI, and scientific paper standards, the use of effective, efficient, and easily understood language, as well as the inclusion of figures, tables, and other elements aligned with learning objectives and competencies. Overall, the presentation was engaging and highly motivating for participants to write actively. It is hoped that following this training, many lecturers will be motivated to write textbooks that can be utilized in Politap students' learning process, with the primary target of publishing faculty textbooks that obtain an ISBN.
