The Influence of Religious Education through a Digital Learning Based Outcome Based Education (OBE) Approach on Students' Religious Moderation Attitudes in Higher Education

Abstract

This study examines the influence of Outcome Based Education (OBE) based Islamic Education implemented through digital learning on the attitude of religious moderation of students in Higher Education. This research is motivated by the increasing religious intolerance and digital radicalism, which demands a reorientation of the Religious Education curriculum towards critical religious literacy and tolerance by integrating OBE which targets cognitive, affective, and psychomotor outcomes with Learning Management Systems (LMS), online discussions, and collaborative projects. A quasi-experimental two-group pretest-posttest design was used, involving an intervention group (n=41, Islamic Education OBE digital) and a control group (n=54, conventional learning) drawn from approximately 500 semester 3–5 students through targeted sampling. Data were collected using a Likert scale questionnaire (Cronbach's alpha >0.80), observation, and digital task documentation, and were analyzed with SPSS 26 using descriptive statistics, Levene test, and independent and dependent t-test. The findings showed a significant improvement in the intervention group from an average pretest score of 72.68 to a posttest score of 84.39 (a difference of 11.71 points), with higher scores on the moderation dimension national commitment, tolerance, non-violence, and respect for local culture compared to the control group's average of 77.44.. These results show that OBE based digital Religious Education is effective in strengthening students' religious moderation and supporting its use as a model to reorient the PAI curriculum, accompanied by lecturer capacity building and authentic assessments to foster religious harmony in the Industrial Revolution era.