Mohamed Amin Embi

Patterns of discourse in online interaction: seeking evidence of the collaborative learning process

Asynchronous communication by means of discussion forums plays an essential role in supporting collaborative learning. Online forums allow learners to ask questions, express their thoughts, share resources, and justify their opinions beyond the four walls of the classroom. Proponents of collaborative learning claim that this type of learning can lead to enhanced educational outcomes for students. This article examines data from an online discussion forum involving a group of students from Malaysia and the Middle East, who are working toward masters degrees at a tertiary institution in Malaysia. The purpose of the study is to understand how the students interact and collaborate in the process of learning topics that had previously been discussed in a face-to-face mode. The findings identify collaborative learning behavior among the students, including contributing, exploring, providing information, and giving feedback. Additional findings indicate that even with minimal intervention from the lecturer, the students participated actively in the online forum.

Evaluation of introduction to UNU-Casemix grouper & IT in Casemix system workshop for health staff in Indonesia

Implementation of Casemix system needs a well-organized and computerized system with well-trained and oriented staff, otherwise the system will fail. Improving knowledge and understanding of the funding system among staff and managers in hospitals and health systems can provide the groundwork for service improvements. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of Introduction to UNU-Casemix Grouper & IT in Casemix System workshop which was conducted in Indonesia.

English language teachers’ professional uses of email

In terms of education, e‐mail has cemented its importance, as well as its status, as the overarching Internet tool. Specifically in the research of teacher education and teacher development, e‐mails have been found to be empowering teachers’ collaborative and networking practices. Such use of e‐mails stimulates and refreshes teachers’ professional development. Intrigued by Bowman et al.’s findings and also realizing the potentials of e‐mail in proliferating knowledge relating to teachers’ professional development, the authors carried out a study to determine Malaysian English language teachers’ professional uses of e‐mail and the effects or contributions to the their professional learning, development and lives. Both quantitative and qualitative data are reported and compared to Bowman’s findings to see the relevance of the use of e‐mail in enhancing teachers’ professional learning and development.

Ethical and Unethical Methods of Plagiarism Prevention in Academic Writing

This paper discusses plagiarism origins, and the ethical solutions to prevent it. It also reviews some unethical approaches, which may be used to decrease the plagiarism rate in academic writings. We propose eight ethical techniques to avoid unconscious and accidental plagiarism in manuscripts without using online systems such as Turnitin and/or iThenticate for cross checking and plagiarism detection. The efficiency of the proposed techniques is evaluated on five different texts using students individually. After application of the techniques on the texts, they were checked by Turnitin to produce the plagiarism and similarity report. At the end, the “effective factor” of each method has been compared with each other; and the best result went to a hybrid combination of all techniques to avoid plagiarism. The hybrid of ethical methods decreased the plagiarism rate reported by Turnitin from nearly 100% to the average of 8.4% on 5 manuscripts.

A Historical Review of Mobile Learning Research in Malaysia and Its Implications for Malaysia and the Asia-Pacific Region

Mobile technologies have rapidly grown over the past decade and have become ubiquitous in all sectors of education. This scenario has enabled mobile learning to grow – providing learners with more mobility to learn anywhere, anytime in a connected learning environment. Together with this growth, research in this field has expanded worldwide. This growth has also impacted Malaysia – with the upward trend of mobile learning research conducted by Malaysian researchers and educators. To illustrate the history of this research trend, the chapter reviews mobile learning research in Malaysia in four research waves: (1) the emergence of mobile learning research (year 2003–2006), (2) mobile learning early research (2007–2010), (3) growth of mobile learning research (2010–2013) and (4) mobile learning research extension (2014–2016). The chapter ends with implications and future directions for Malaysia and the Asia-Pacific for educators and researchers interested in the field of mobile learning in Malaysia and its potential application in the Asia-Pacific context.

Workplace Writing in L2 Experiences Among Millennial Workforce: Learning to Write in English

The challenges confronted by the Millennial workforce across the transition from higher education to workplaces are well acknowledged globally. Institutions of higher learning (IHLs) have a responsibility to prepare graduates to become a functional workforce. Among the real-world skills to be taught is workplace writing, which is fundamental in work organizations. This paper aims to explore learning to write in English for the workplace as experienced by millennial workforces. A descriptive phenomenological research design was employed in order to gain an in-depth understanding of the Millennial workforce’s lived experiences in workplace writing. Seven of them were selected based on a set of criteria. A two-tiered method of interviews was employed to establish the context, relay specific details of the participants’ experience and contemplate the meaning of their experiences. In addition, self-portrait descriptions were used to triangulate the data. The findings revealed that the millennials experienced both learning for and about workplace writing in both settings: IHLs and workplaces. They further revealed the practicality of English writing and business writing courses they had taken at IHLs. They have also experienced learning at their workplace through participating in trainings, social interaction, first-hand experiences and intrinsic motivation. These findings can be used as an instructional guideline for ESL workplace writing courses in IHLs. The appropriate instructions and contents could be convenient not only to improve teaching and learning but also promote a more meaningful learning to the graduating students which in turn, creates a powerful workforce who is able to command by today’s workplace standards. Keywords: workplace writing English; millennials; phenomenology; learning about work; learning at work

A Preliminary Study of a Project-Based Learning (PjBL) into the Electronic Portfolio System

This paper presents the adoption of Project-based Learning (PjBL) into the development of e-Portfolio assessment for higher education institution. The purpose of the study was to examine the adoption of PjBL as a learning strategy into the development of e-Portfolio. Initially, this paper was conducted as a preliminary study with a total number of 30 students who undergoing Bachelor of Art and Design Education and then practicing project-based in their coursework. The pilot study was conducted and showed the reliability coefficient with Cronbach’s alpha (α) is 0.9. The instrument was divided into five components which involved (1) student responsibility (2) instructor support (3) instructional methodology (4) course and instructor and (5) student interaction and collaboration, to measured the learners work preferences. The findings were reported that learners are positively accepted the learning styles as an approach in developing their metacognitive process. This project-based learning will give learner’s an opportunity to face authentic and real-life situation. Therefore, project-based learning was focuses on the developmental process involving higher order thinking (HOT) to generate new ideas, solutions of problems, and self-actualization of individuals. At the end of the day, the project-based learning will not only benefit the instructor but the learners as a key referral of a competency and performance.

Towards Envisioning the Future of Learning in Malaysia: Development of a Malaysia MOOC Based on the Iterative ADDIE Instructional Design Framework

A new phenomenon that is receiving much attention on the global higher education landscape is the emergence of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The vision behind MOOCs is for knowledge to be disseminated to a global set of learners in an open learning environment. In line with this vision, Malaysia has recently launched the Malaysia MOOCs initiative, a joint collaboration between the Ministry of Education Malaysia and four public universities. As one of the collaborators, we have developed a MOOC for Ethnic Relation course. The MOOC was developed using a modified version of the ADDIE (analysis, design, develop, implement, and evaluate) framework which we term as the ‘Iterative ADDIE Instructional Design Framework’. The chapter discusses our experiences that were faced in the MOOC development process. The chapter also touches on students’ perception of MOOCs in terms of attitude, self-efficacy, and anxiety. Implications and future directions are also discussed.

Science Teachers perceptions on the use of computer-based materials.

Malaysia embarked on the use of English as a medium of instruction for the teaching of Science (and also Mathematics) in January 2003. One of the aims was to upgrade the English language proficiency of Malaysian students. Several problems and challenges have been encountered by implementers and educators since then. One of the problems is the use of the existing computer-based science materials. Apart from the obvious and great need for more science materials, new materials need to be designed to fulfill the needs of the science students who are not competent in the English language and also the needs of the science teachers who are also lacking in the knowledge of the English language. This study examined the perceptions of the science teachers in Malaysia concerning the use of computer-based materials provided by the Ministry of Education. The findings were presented in terms of the clarity and suitability of the content, English language used, presentation of content materials, and adequacy of materials and facilities. Based on the results, several suggestions are put forward so that a more systematic approach could be employed in designing better computer-based materials for the teachers and students.

The Application of Learning Theories to the Design of Course Management Systems

Abstract Course management systems (CMSs) are increasingly used by institutions of higher learning to spearhead their institution-wide forays into the world of e-learning, so much so that the ‘face’ of e-learning in these institutions is represented by such systems. But how much ‘learning’ is there in these systems? Although scholarship in this area is still in its infancy, one good question that should be asked is who decides what makes up the systems and how. If the vendors are the ones deciding things, are we allowing ourselves to be led by people whose primary consideration is financial gain? Should educators take comfort in vendors’ assertions that they are ‘merely providing the platform’ and that we should just pour content into these platforms? That would merely result in accidental pedagogy as educators scramble to fit their content into the platforms. By contrast, this paper discusses what we know of human learning, viewed through the three major theories of learning, and how we could apply the principles from these theories to the design of a CMS. The learning-driven approach to the design of CMSs would hopefully be more beneficial to the students and teachers using such systems.