Critical Thinking and Digital Literacy

The Graduate School Application Preparation Mini Intensive Course was designed to support Indonesian applicants for MBA, MA, and PhD programs offered by universities in the United States. The online course aimed to improve the critical thinking and digital literacy skills and covered how to improve critical thinking to create strong arguments, assess evidence, and demonstrate clarity of thought and maturity, as well as strengthen digital literacy skills such as determining source credibility, recognizing fallacies, and discovering what is needed instead of only what is available – all essential for academic success.

Creating these online courses involved extensive, time-consuming research to source the most reliable and current information available. Each session, life or offline, was meticulously crafted using up-to-date strategies and methodologies, ensuring relevance and effectiveness. With every iteration (11 in total), the courses were refined and improved based on feedback and the latest advancements in the field, guaranteeing a continually evolving and high-quality learning experience.

Watch an example of live session

Each live session included interactive tasks to engage participants in speaking or writing during the 90 minutes: for example, break out rooms, idea sharing via chat, timed shout outs, and collaboration on shared docs, spreadsheets or slides.

Watch an example
offline session

Each GRASP offline session (undergraduate) included interactive tasks to engage participants in speaking or writing during the approx. 90 minutes of self-accessed website, using various IT apps: EdPuzzle, Google tools (docs, slides, forms), Quizlet, or Flip.

Examine sample student work

Participants practiced speaking or writing, individually, in pairs or groups, applying critical thinking strategies to their work. Tasks included emulating a sequence, sharing knowledge/ideas, collaborating to correlate elements of an argument.

Watch sample student reflections

Participants looked back upon their achievements in live task debriefs, in their final reflective essay or at the certification ceremony. Satisfaction level was very high. "Life-altering" in fact, as many participants of the GRASP course confessed.