The Thematic Digital Quran: New Media for Understanding the Basics of Islam

Religious blogs have been the only learning media for Islamic Religious Education (IRE) for students. The advantage is that students can quickly find out the meanings of religion. The disadvantage is that students only understand the meaning of religion in the perspective of religious leaders in their chosen blog. Though the main reference to Islam is the Quran. With the presence of the digital Quran students can understand the meaning of the basics of religion directly from the Quran. Unfortunately, students only use the digital Quran to search for arguments to justify their religious views. How can the Quran be the main reference in IRE for students? The study aims to examine the effectiveness of the thematic digital Quran learning media in IRE to improve students’ understanding of the basics of Islam. The research method used was a quasi-experimental. The experimental class uses the thematic digital Quran learning media while the control class uses religious blog media. Each class comprises 100 students. Before and after the lecture, they tested each class with a pre and post test. The result, before the lecture’s respondents in both classes had a wrong understanding of the meaning of the pillars of faith and pillars of Islam. However, after the lecture, the experimental class had a more precise understanding than the control class. Thus the thematic digital Quran learning media is more effective in increasing students’ understanding of the basics of Islam. The implication is that IRE needs to use the thematic digital Quran.