VIRTUAL STUDENT EXCHANGE PROGRAM - NATIONAL CENTRAL UNIVERSITY, TAIWAN

I am writing this is about to share my experience of joining virtual student exchange program in National Central University (NCU), Taiwan.  I choose this university as it is located in Taiwan and we all know how well their economic structure is. This one may be a good opportunity for me as I hope before that I can feel living in Taiwan, but unfortunately it was done virtually because of the higher pandemic covid-19 cases and the condition is getting worst. Even its prevents us as student exchange participant to meet personally, I still have a great exposure in completing that program. This essay will tell you how do I get into the course, how this program ran well and ended by my personal feeling of being this program participant.

In the beginning we all get a buddy to accompany us in filling the form requirements till everything is well settled and we are ready to take course. While in selecting course, they offer some courses taught in English and we are free to choose even if it is dedicated for master or even doctoral program and we are given the contact of the professor so we can discuss before about the course and getting some syllabus to make sure we are ready for it. Personally, I was confused at that time and I discussed it to my head of program in IPIEF and he gave me some recommendations. After considering somethings, I contacted the professor there who has been charge of teaching the “Financial Institutions and Markets” course. He is very friendly and welcome us warmly as student exchange, we can discuss anything through the email and I didn’t find any hard things to get into this course. 

Back then to my first meet as the class was done virtually via zoom, in my first experience I am a little bit amazed because there are more than 70 students in one class. It such a big deal even if I can’t know all the students individually. This class system is different, it has 3 credits with the duration of 3 hours class. The absence is in the first the zoom open so everyone has to type in chat room for instance “shafira annisa sign in @campus, Indonesia” and something like that. Even if we are in the coffee shop we had to write where are we for attending the class and it also applied for after-class absence. In this class, there are 3 parts of class, first is about group reflection. The group reflection is giving charge of each divided group to deliver the lessons we had in previous meeting, the group is making PPT and having 5 minutes to present. Second part is 5 mins challenge. This part is that we have been divided to do this 5mins challenge and we can know the topic from student portal, the professor gives a random topic and references than the students have to present it. One thing that I like is that the student exchange is given the different topic as to compare how that discussed topic in our country, so everyone will get a new insight about how it has done in Indonesia for example. And the last part is the presentation of professor and all completed within 3 hours and obviously the professor gives some breaks during the class. There are no any exams but all group have to complete the research project based on the topic given. That class was very nice for me as the professor can interact well to the students. Other than that, he exemplifies how to deliver well in front of audiences. He always criticizes and give some suggestions for each student after their presentation, and that make us better. Beside the class session, this course also offers a TA (teaching assistant) session that help each group to discuss about the progress of research project. 

From this program, I found a lot of new things and obviously it broadens my knowledge also experiences. Even there are difficult things to face for example, how hard we finish the project because the different time zone and distances, and maybe some bad connection we have while attending the class and many others. Through all those things I finally complete this virtual student exchange. Hope I’ll give any hard effort in joining such this program and can meet them personally in their country. Aamiin.