EMI Pathfinder Project
-Dissemination Report-
Name of institution
Name of the local coordinator
and facilitators
Activity Title:
Activity Start Date and End Date:
Brief Description:
Describe the activity (who, what,
where, when) – what did
participants learn, how was the
activity conducted, including the
purpose, the outcome, and feedback
from participants and facilitators,
etc.
Universitas Islam Negeri (UIN) Ar-Raniry
Jalan Syeikh Abdur Rauf, Kopelma, Darussalam
Banda Aceh, INDONESIA, 23111
Faishal Zakaria, Ph.D.
Aulia Syarif Aziz, M.Sc.
contact: faishalzakaria.ftk@ar-raniry.ac.id
English Medium Instruction (EMI) Pathfinder
Dissemination
February 14-15, 2023
This dissemination workshop aims to enable UIN Ar-
Raniry lecturers to use English effectively as a medium
of instruction across a variety of situations and contexts
at the university, including lectures, tutorials and giving
spoken and written feedback; deliver practical subject-
specific lectures and classes in English
The workshop lasted two days (February 14-15),
involving 21 lecturers from all faculties within UIN Ar-
Raniry. It took place at the university’s Graduate
School building.
Ibu Soulaya Lestary from the University of Indonesia
and Will Nash from the University of Sheffield
contributed much to the workshop as the two external
facilitators. We are very grateful for the fact that Ibu
Soulaya was able to fly to Banda Aceh to facilitate the
workshop in person, and Will Nash was able to deliver
his presentation through Zoom. With their support, the
participants were involved in communicative and
interactive activities as they learned to effectively use

Activity Significance:
Why did you do this? What was the
value of the activity? What are the
expected outcomes?
Participants:
English in their lessons.
The local coordinators, Faishal Zakaria and Aulia
Syarif, shared their experiences learning and using
English in their classrooms. They also led a
brainstorming activity where the participants
brainstormed the kinds of EMI challenges and
opportunities for UIN Ar-Raniry (its Graduate School
in particular), as the institution is planning to open its
first international degree program (i.e., Islamic studies
program).
In addition to involving in various interactive workshop
activities, the participants also managed to participate in
two micro-teaching sessions. The workshop facilitators
and participants then provided their feedback following
the micro-teaching.
In general, the participants found the workshop to be
very useful. In particular, they believe the workshop
provided them with ideas and tools to deliver lessons in
English in a more effective and interactive manner.
As the dissemination activity correlates with the
Graduate School’s immediate goal - to offer an
international degree program, this dissemination served
as the starting point for the university’s action to
develop quality international programs (i.e., by
preparing qualified faculty members for the program,
maximizing opportunities, or mitigating potential
problems and challenges). Finally, the dissemination
activity helped the Graduate School identify potential
faculty members for the planned international
program(s).
In addition to conducting this dissemination workshop,
the Director of UIN Ar-Raniry’s Graduate School has
recently issued a decree to assign a special team to
develop a proposal for opening an international doctoral
program in Islamic studies. This marks the institution’s
serious intention to develop its first international
program.
The Graduate School invited 22 lecturers with some

Number, percentage of attendance,
novice/experienced, institutions of
the participants, level of English
proficiency, requirement for
choosing the participants of the
training
Where the activity was held:
City, institution,
online/offline/hybrid
Who you collaborated with:
People, institutions
Funding:
The source of funding for the
dissemination
Comments:
Things that worked well during the
dissemination; benefits and impacts
for the institution
English proficiency from different departments within
the UIN Ar-Raniry. Because the participants’ English
ability varies, the facilitators allowed them to use
Indonesian when necessary to enable them to
participate actively in the workshop.
All participants attended the first day of the workshop.
However, a few participants, who had additional
administrative duties, had to miss the second day of the
workshop because the university’s Rector ordered them
to attend a university-wide assembly on quality
assurance. The workshop committee was unprepared
for this because the call for a university-wide meeting
was rather abrupt. Had they known earlier, the
committee would have invited all lecturers who do not
hold additional administrative duties to participate in
the workshop. This was part of the reason we could
only have two micro-teaching sessions.
This was a hybrid workshop where participants and
some facilitators met in-person and Will Nash, from the
University of Sheffield, participated through Zoom.
The participants and facilitators met in the Director’s
Meeting Room of the UIN Ar-Raniry’s Graduate
School Building in Darussalam, Banda Aceh.
This dissemination workshop resulted from the
collaboration between local facilitators and UIN Ar-
Raniry’s Graduate School. The University of Indonesia
and the University of Sheffield also contributed
significantly to help make this workshop successful.
UIN Ar-Raniry’s Graduate School provided some
funding to help cover the logistics of the workshop in
Banda Aceh. The University of Indonesia provided
funding for its facilitator to attend the workshop in-
person. The local facilitators very much appreciate the
kind financial contribution provided by these two
institutions.
Despite challenges, we believe the workshop was
successful. The participants were introduced to more
effective and interactive EMI lessons. On an
institutional note, the workshop helped cement UIN Ar-
Raniry’s Graduate School’s intention to pursue its
 Challenges during the
dissemination and suggestion for
similar program in the future
Reflection of the training from the
facilitators
Pictures:
3-4 pictures with clear captions describing the pictures
dream of running a quality international degree
program.
The facilitators’ interactive and interesting approaches
to delivering the workshop enabled the participants to
participate more actively. Also, the fact that the
participants have some basic English skills ensures the
workshop’s success. Great institutional support was
also a determining factor.
As already mentioned, participants’ full participation
was disrupted on the second day of the workshop. Only
about 50%-60% of the participants were present. Their
absence was not entirely personal. The Rector was
ordering them to attend another meeting.
This challenge served as a lesson-learned for the local
facilitators and the workshop committee. Participants
without additional administrative duties should be the
focus of the future workshop. And perhaps, the
workshop dates need to be shared with everyone should
no two important events run on the same day.
The participants talked about the fact that the workshop
was rather short. Therefore, a future workshop could
perhaps be extended to four workshop days.
Some participants pose with the facilitators in front of the workshop banner
The participants were paying attention to a presentation delivered by Will Nash from Sheffield.
The participants worked in groups while participating in Ibu Soulaya’s workshop on content vs.
language
Participants engaged in a micro-teaching session
Participants worked in pairs during a micro-teaching session

Link of micro-teaching recordings:

The committee did video-record the micro-teaching sessions. Nonetheless, the video audio
quality was pretty bad; the audio was unintelligible due to some technical glitches. This was
quite saddening as the video looks professional, but the audio is just incomprehensible.