Building Empathy: Exploring Digital Native Characteristic to Create Learning Instruction for Learning Computer Graphic Design

Abstract

Technology leading to massive changes, include the way of learning. As the digital natives, students have different ways of learning, especially in courses that use technological devices, such as computers graphic design. Exploring information by building empathy from a student's perspective, can give more authentic information and find opportunities for designing better learning instructional that more needed-based. The purpose of this study is to explore student’s characteristics, and find criteria of learning instructional that needed-based and future-orientated. This is qualitative research, using case-study through interviews, focus group discussion, and an instrument of empathy map, with qualitative descriptive analysis techniques. The study showed that students have no difficulty in accessing and using complex technology, this is in accordance with their characteristics as digital native. Students not only need to develop computer graphics capabilities technically, but also need to develop ability operating software in design practice. This is where other study skills related as designer and creating learning environment that suits for students are needed. Empathy framework bring positive impact to find new learning objectives and creating learning instruction. This finding suggests following future research on instructional learning that stimulate student’s ability that concentrate on designer's skills in their future.