The Role of Creative Thinking In Virtual Practicum

During the pandemic, the virtual practicum is essential for learning. The purpose of this study is to describe the role of virtual practicum in improving creative thinking. This study is a descriptive study with a systematic literature review approach combined with a needs analysis to identify, assess and interpret all findings related to the research topic. Preliminary data of the needs analysis are collected through creative thinking questions with 49 biology education students from Riau University’s Faculty of Teacher Training and Education (hereinafter referred to as FKIP UNRI) as respondents. Virtual Laboratory design using Ispring software on the topic of cell metabolism and the structure and function of animal tissues; the virtual design is still in the design stage at this time. Data from a creative thinking test with four indicators: Fluency, Flexibility, Originality, and Elaboration. The average percentage of creative thinking is 31.14%. These findings highlight the importance of efforts to promote creative thinking by providing learning resources in the form of a Virtual Laboratory. The media that will be created can be used as a form of independent learning for undergraduate biology education students. Created a virtual laboratory with interactive text, images, sounds, and animation. The resulting Virtual Laboratory is expected to stimulate students’ creative thinking to meet the demands of 21st century learning.