Addressing the Independent Learning Curriculum (Kurikulum Merdeka Belajar) as a Form of Positive Disruption to Empower the Community

The emergence of COVID-19 in early 2020 demands strategic policies to accelerate. The strategic policy in education was responded to by the Independent Learning Curriculum (Kurikulum Merdeka Belajar), which is commonly known as virtual learning. Virtual learning has become a challenge to implement community service as one of the threefold missions of higher education. Rumah Langit is a learning house that serves the pre-prosperous children in Rusunawa Urip Sumoharjo Surabaya. This object is the pilot project to study the implementation of community service with Independent Learning Curriculum for final project students of interior design programs. The research was conducted in a qualitative method to learn the implementation of the design thinking method used in design development. The study showed that high flexibility in the final project stage may not be any different to previous final projects in older curriculum. However, this curriculum forces students to sharpen soft skills ra ther than mere design skills. The output not only focuses on solving the interior problems but also to equip the community. Therefore, the Independent Learning Curriculum can be said as a positive disruption that offers acceleration and bridging the needs of education and industry that has been requested for a long time.