Zaidatun Tasir

E-Learning Readiness: A Literature Review

E-learning is one of the most used technologies in this modern time. E-learning is basically a learning platform that applies the utilization of electronic media and information and communication technologies (ICT). E-learning can be implied as other alternative terms such as online education, computer-based training, technology-enhanced learning and others. The implementation of e-learning has been carried out in multiple education departments and learning institutional levels. The usage has also broaden within some corporate and professional companies, in informing their staffs and customers on any related developement occurs within their business world. The importance of e-learning has led to the need in assessing the mental and physical preparation of the users before using the elearning environment. Therefore, e-learning readiness is required in making sure the users are capable of using the elearning environment technology in the best way possible. Technically speaking, e-learning readiness is the capability of prospect e-learning users in using a new learning environment as well as the usage of alternative technology. The results attained from this particular assessment can be used as some sort of guidelines perhaps for further developement of e-learning environment towards any enhancement that are seemed required. This paper will review a number of studies that have been carried out in assessing the users readiness before using the e-learning environment. Each study will be distinguished based on different assessment methods, types of respondents as well as the type of e-learning technology used.

A Framework of Metacognitive Scaffolding in Learning Authoring System through Facebook.

Scaffolding refers to a guidance that helps students during their learning sessions whereby it makes learning easier for them. This study aims to develop a framework of metacognitive scaffolding (MS) to guide students in learning Authoring System through Facebook. Thirty-seven master degree students who were enrolled in Authoring System course from three different cohorts of study were selected as respondents. The study identified the dominant mechanism of MS prompted by the instructor, along with the dominant types of online interaction triggered by the students in a Facebook discussion. The data were analyzed by using content analysis technique. Data were collected from the observation through Facebook discussions. Results indicate that the dominant mechanisms of MS prompted by the instructors include guiding the students to focus on their learning processes, providing the students with an instant feedback, and also asking or presenting the rationale of the tasks and activities involved. The dominant types of online interactions include acknowledgment of opinion, evaluating own or other’s understanding, and clarifying and elaborating own understanding. Based on these findings, the proposed framework recommends a series of rules that serves as a guideline for the instructor to produce meaningful learning among the students through MS.

Trainee teachers' mental effort in learning spreadsheet through self-instructional module based on Cognitive Load Theory

A printed module should consist of media elements, namely text and pictures, which are self-instructional and could cater to the needs of the user. However, the typical platform of such visualization frequently overloads the limited working memory causing split attention and redundancy effects. The purpose of this study is to design and develop a printed self-instructional module based on Cognitive Load Theory in learning. Media elements are presented with minimal cognitive demands with an action- and task-oriented approach. Utilizing a modified Solomon Group design on 113 trainee teachers selected using purposive sampling, the effectiveness of the developed module was compared to the conventional module. Independent sample t-tests conducted to compare the time of completion in performance between the Control Group working on the conventional module and Group 2 working on the developed module show significant statistical differences in pre- and post-activities. Group 2 reported lower cognitive load scores on the rating scale and graphical plots using computational approach showed higher instructional efficiency. Thus, results show that trainees working on the developed printed module were able to perform faster and better with lower mental effort and had higher performance.

Examining the motivation level of students in e-learning in higher education institution in Thailand: A case study

The rapid growth of Internet technology has resulted in the development of e-learning in higher education institution with the purpose of enhancing students’ performance in their learning practice. In this regard, motivation is one of the important predictors of intention to use e-learning that can in turn make impact on students’ learning practice. By knowing the motivation level of students, instructors can provide suitable teaching materials in e-learning for students to make them more engaged in e-learning activities. Nonetheless, based on the recent review studies result, there is limited research on investigating motivation level of students in e-learning in higher education institution in Thailand. Hence, this study aims to explore the motivation level of students in e-learning in higher education institutions in Thailand, using the Instructional Materials Motivation Survey and interview as the research instruments. A total of 174 students from higher education institutions in Thailand were involved in this study. SPSS software was used to analyse the data to investigate the motivation level of students, and also to compare the different motivation level of students between gender, degree level of study, branch of study and year of study. The result shows that most of the students had upper medium level of motivation level in e-learning, and there was a statistically significant difference in motivation level between the different degree levels of students. Also, the ways to enhance motivation suggested by the respondents were also discussed in this paper as a reference for the future use.

Programming Skills and the Relation in Fostering Students’ Higher Order Thinking

Programming skills (PS) refer to coding and debugging that are required for those who write a program in any programming language. Coding can be described as the implementation aspect of programming, whereas debugging can broadly be defined as fixing any incorrect code that is found after running the programming test. Higher-order thinking skills (HOTs) refer to the top three levels of Bloom’s taxonomy which are Analysis, Synthesis, and Evaluation. This study aims to determine the relationship between PS and HOTs among secondary students. Many studies indicate that students who attend programming courses for first time have low levels of performance in PS. Coding and debugging skills reflect higher-order thinking levels. Therefore, an objective of this study was to investigate the effect of coding and debugging skills on their HOTs. The benefits of having PS among learners are that they are able to achieve HOTs. Indeed, these relationships may be explained by programmers need to apply all these HOTs throughout the three phases of the programming process. Students who have low levels of PS are able to achieve the analysis level, while students who have moderate levels of PS able to achieve the synthesis level, and finally, students with high levels of PS are able to achieve the evaluation level.

Mathematical problem solving skills among high achiever students

This study aims to examine the problem solving skills among form four high achievers in a boarding school. 52 students from two classes were purposively chosen based on their mathematics achievement in mid-year examination and PT3 results. As this study was to test students’ problem solving skills with the daily life problem, the Mathematical Problem Solving Skills Test (UKPMM) was created for this purpose. The items in this test were adapted from PISA mathematics questions and consists of ten multiple answer questions and eight openended questions. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results showed that high achiever students have problems in solving mathematics questions especially in real life context. Most of the students managed to extract important information from the questions but possess limited ability to utilize and manipulate the information to solve the problem given. The students have tendency towards finding the correct solution rather than processing the information during the thinking process. Therefore, there is a need to introduce an alternative way of teaching approach to enhance problem solving skills among high achievers.

Assessing research performance based on publication output: Case of science technology and social science faculty

The major concern by universities now days are research contribution of academician. This paper describes the study of research performance based on publication output of Science Technology and Social Science researchers for Research University in Malaysia. Publication output include both those in impact factor publication, namely ISI publication and publications not covered by impact factor publication, namely non-ISI publication which include (cited publications, non-cited publications, proceedings, other articles and books) will be compared. Performances of each researcher (n=1014) from 7 faculties of Science Technology and 6 faculties of Social Science in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia will be studied. Followed by their subsequent impact factor publications track as detailed on The Web of Science databases for impact factor journal and monitor the number of non-ISI publication track as detailed on Scopus and Google Scholar database. Moreover, followed by extraction and clustering of the researchers details and publications output. The results show there is a significant relationship, between research performances based publication output and categories of researchers.