FOREWARD and CONTENTS

Abstract

By the grace of Allah, it is a great pleasure to introduce this issue of:The International Journal on Islamic Applications inComputer Science and Technology During the 11th year of the publication of this Journal, this issue is the 45th of this journal. We thank Allah for enabling us to continue all through these years. With the wide specialization of this Journal, it attracted contributions from researchers from all over the world. We pray to Allah to put his “Baraka” in the contents of the Journal and spread the fruits of its contents in the future. This issue contains two papers. The first one is entitled: A Conceptual Masjidcast Business Model: Enhancing Digital Skills of Masjid Community and Nurturing B40s as Balanced Digital-preneurs The objective of this paper is to conceptualise the business model of MasjidCast which aims to redefine and maximise the mosque’s functions revolving sharing of knowledge, skills and values including building and enhancing digital competencies among B40s (referring to the community of low-income category in Malaysia) and masjid community to nurture them becoming digitally competent content creators and entrepreneurs. This paper adapts the design thinking methodology which encompasses empathising and defining the problem; as well as ideating, prototyping and testing the viable solution. To tackle these problems, MasjidCast will challenge the status quo of social media in order to provide interactive forms of knowledge and skills. Conceptually, MasjidCast will provide: (a) open access video-on- demand (VOD) and live streaming lectures and hands-on courses, (b) lectures that consist knowledge of individual obligation (fardu ayn) and communal obligation (fardu kifayah), (c) interactive discussions through forums among the Muslim community, and (d) acts as a smart education hub to be integrated with educators’ classrooms syllabus. MasjidCast will reach out to learners and educators that are in the pursuit of knowledge, the B40 group that are looking for re-&up-skilling lectures, and advertisers that will be able to promote Muslim products. MasjidCast will also implement revenue sharing and waqf-fund to benefit the mosques in Malaysia. The second paper is entitled: Cognates Arabic-Indonesian Computer-Assisted Language Learning This study aims to (1) determine the feasibility of cognates Arabic Indonesian Computer Assisted Learning Language (AICALL), (2) find out the response or response of Al-Islam teachers after using AICALL for elementary-level learning. The research method used in this study adopts the Research and Development model from Borg and Gall, namely: 1) research and information collection, 2) planning, 3) develop a preliminary form of product, 4) preliminary field testing, 5) main product revision, 6) main field testing, 7) operational product revision, 8) final product revision, 9) dissemination, and 10) implementation. Given that this research was designed for two years, the first year only reached the fifth stage, namely the revision of limited field test results (main product revision), and stages 8, 9, and 10 are planned in the next stage of research. The data collection technique used by questionnaires, then the data is analyzed by qualitative and quantitative descriptive analysis. The results showed that expert assessment of the guide and AICALL could be used, the percentage of users responded that AICALL is very useful for elementary learners (65.2%) and is highly recommended for learners at that level (52.2%).