e-Learning In Malaysia

3 Interesting Malaysian Learning Initiatives in a Swoosh!

2009-11-10T17:04:00.001+08:00

CerdikNet is the result of an effort made by teachers in Kuala Lumpur to assist primary and secondary students to explore their subjects through interactive and engaging online learning activities (e.g. English activities). Also, you can try out the online learning activities without needing to login. Thumbs up for that!

EDUWEBTV

Alright, if you can't speak or understand Malay, this site might be... but wait! Here, you will find more than 1400 short videos that give you a glimpse into the wonders of Malaysia and education, and of course free tuition to many subjects. Although, you might not understand the Malay language well, I am certain you will learn a lot by simply watching some of the videos here. If you are a Malaysian reading this (post), then just forget or ignore what I just wrote. In short, a great site to get some insight (at least visual!) into the Malaysian education system. Yes, we have a lot of bright and happy kids here, like anywhere else in the world.

iBoxX IPTV

Yes, now you can even get tutors at your command in your home TV. Alright, this one is not free. And I usually do not promote anything that cost anything in any of my blogs. So, the reason I am bringing it up here, is that Malaysia (and Singapore of course!) are kind of fanatic about after-school tuition, and believe it or not, it is a RM 5 Billion Ringgit (approx. 1.5 Billion US Dollars!) market here (in Malaysia).

So, no wonder some innovative dudes are trying to capitalize it using digital media, too. However, it would be wonderful if every single primary and secondary student in Malaysia got equal, fair and open access to quality online tuition for free, breaking down the barriers that favors too much the rich, or people that can afford it.

I HAVE A DREAM

Better yet, I have a dream! Let's improve our schools, our curriculum, our assessment approaches, and totally do away with any form of tuition beyond the taxing school hours. Yes, let's move away from memorizing everything from ants to pants, and empower our students with more time to think, discuss, and reflect together about whatever they are learning. Finally, let them play (games) more, so that they can nurture their competitive and creative abilities, without the exam-oriented roller-coaster stress ride.

Do you know what (no!), I never paid for any tuition, or went for any extra tuition (as much as I can remember) throughout my whole life, and to be honest I didn't turn out that bad after all (until now!). I had my primary and secondary school in Norway, so that probably explains a bit.

Yep, I got lousy memory, too! But, I do think and reflect a lot :)

iRadio - OUM's Official Internet Radio Station

2009-11-02T16:00:00.000+08:00

iRadio - OUM

Open University Malaysia's (OUM) official internet radio station, iRadio OUM broadcasts segments based on OUM's courses, blending entertainment and education at your fingertips! Interestingly, it is Malaysia's first Internet radio station to base its programmes on modules offered by a university.

Although, I have known about OUM's iRadio initiative for some time, it was first today I really explored it. Earlier today, we (IMU group) had actually visited OUM for some other matters, and during the process we got to learn more about iRadio behind the scenes. I was quite impressed with the energy and passion sparked into this initiative.

You can actually download some of their course module books in MP3 format (audio books!) for free (they are using text-to-speech tools to convert them). If you miss the daily live learning sessions, you can listen or download later from their iCast archive, conveniently organized according to faculty, schools and special segments.

Also, the iRadio team is using web 2.0 tools such as iTunes, Twitter and Facebook to simplify the access, spread the news, and communicate more effectively with their audience. Since launch (2007), they have had online visitors from more than a 100 countries.

Finally, I did manage to listen to some of their iCasts, and it was quite interesting. However, I would strongly recommend that they cut out the background music while people talk, especially when special guests are being interviewed. I was getting quite dizzy and distracted listening to cool music, while trying to grasp what the old Professor was trying to say.

I suppose I am getting too old to multitask my ears while learning. But, overall iOUM's iRadio is a wonderful knowledge and learning sharing initiative that we should encourage more Universities in Malaysia to explore :)

5th International Conference on e-Learning at USM (Malaysia)

2009-10-29T10:05:00.003+08:00

5th International Conference on e-Learning
Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia
12-13 July 2010

The International Conference on e-Learning (ICEL-2010) invites researchers, practitioners and academics to present their research findings, work in progress, case studies and conceptual advances in areas of work where education and technology intersect. The conference brings together varied groups of people with different perspectives, experiences and knowledge in one location. It aims to help practitioners find ways of putting research into practice and researchers to gain an understanding of real-world problems, needs and aspirations.

If you decide to take up the challenge, you will find Penang a fascinating place that embraces modernity while retaining its traditions and old world charm. Yes, besides stimulating our brain, we must not forget that Penang is regarded as the food capital of Malaysia, which means that we can also stimulate our eating desires and experience a complete hands-on learning experience.

Finally, you simply cannot find a more dynamic, engaging and entertaining double act than Rozhan M. Idrus (Conference Chair) and Issham Ismail (Programme Chair). These two giants will surely ensure that your learning experience is both enriching and entertaining.

I am not sure if I can present, but I will certainly try to make it there. The problem is that I have to sit down again and practice writing academic papers full of opinions disguised in objective mode using dry and boring academic language standards (You are wrong!).

Yes, that is a tough one (If I was Einstein, I suppose I could get away with it)! But, I am sure you can :)

Malaysian Sharein Tickles Real Potential!

2009-08-02T09:12:00.002+08:00

Sharein

“The goal is convenience, to make it easy for the user...It’s not a power tool, but for the average user who wants to share.”

- Colin Wong (CEO, Sharein)

SHAREIN?

Sharein is an easy-to-learn/use tool that allows you to bookmark, rate, share, and discuss your internet discoveries with your friends in an efficient manner. You can share your favorite content via email with your friends or you may post it to Twitter or Facebook being the latest features launched. They will also shorten your link (URL) using a URL Shortening Service at tr.my. Also, you can always bookmark a link for future reference and sharing to your friends.

Interestingly, Sharein enables you to get more insight into how people are consuming your discoveries. It tracks total views, reach, re-tweets, comments etc. to help you better understand how viral your discovery is. The Bookmarklet tool also enables you to personalize your discussions into different private groups, such as family, work friends, school friends or to your social network. You can have the satisfaction of knowing how your friends enjoyed your share through their votes and discussions.

All-In-One Idea (still not there, though!)
It combines the ability to bookmark, rate, share, discuss and track your internet discoveries all-in-one.
Tracking
It enables you to get more insight into how people are consuming your discoveries in textual and visual format. Really cool! Thumbs up to this feature. Other social bookmarking tools needs learn a few tricks from here!
Personalized Sharing
Enables you easily to share to who you want in an efficient manner (including groups and privacy), whether it is your work buddies or friends in where-not-know.
Speed-to-Share
Within 2-3 of clicks you have shared what you want, compared to 6-8 clicks using traditional e-mail. If you share a lot (please do!), then it makes a 'Ca-Wa-Banga' difference.

DON'T LIKE

Limited Sharing Options
Why only Twitter and Facebook! Please add more soon! At least to other widely used social bookmarking, social networking and blogging sites. Don't need to use tabs (as it will clutter and confuse the average user), but perhaps checkboxes or a drop-down menu would do the trick.
Bookmarking Tool
It is miles behind Delicious and Diigo, which is kind of expected. However, to avoid putting too much effort to compete (think win-win!), why not make it easier to directly post your discoveries to widely used social bookmarking sites, if the user wants (I want!). It only requires a few lines of code to make it happen, so I predict this will be available by the time you read this (Not you!).
One-Discovery Sharing
Although, I am not an average user and a hyper discovery sharer, I believe this tool should also provide us the option to share multiple discoveries in one-shot (Select checkbox or simply 'All') to multiple tools. Keep it real, keep it simple! One shot, bang!

FINAL VERDICT

Will I use it?
Nope (perhaps in the future)! If people are interested in what I share, they can always RSS whatever I share. Anyway, I can easily share to Twitter and Facebook using Delicious in one shot. The only thing that is missing, is Sharein's cool tracking feature. But then again with at least Twitter, we have enough tools to tell us A-Z about whether our discoveries, or tweets are making any impact.

Will I recommend Sharein to others?
Although, I will probably not use it, I would actually strongly recommend it to average users, or users that like to share links (URLs) to particular aliens or groups. Why waste time using traditional e-mail (like Gmail!), when Sharein makes it easier and faster. Though, they really need to get that multiple link sharing feature up and running soon.

The fact that I am writing about it on a Sunday morning (started 6.45 am!), should indicate that there is something special about Sharein. Also, this blog is about juicy stuff, and not constructed to slaughter every crappy tool out there. There are enough blogs doing that already.

In short, I am thrilled to see a Malaysian web 2.0 tool making waves, and I do hope that they really kick-off in the coming months. Also, we need to keep in mind, that the CEO (Colin Wong) used to work for Google, meaning he should know something about what makes people Google, and embed that Googleness into Sharein (in a original and innovative way!).

Sharein needs a bit tweaking and feature enhancements, but with Web 2.0 technologies that can be done within a blink-of-an-eye, and it wouldn't surprise me that by the time you read this, some of my dislikes have been crushed.

Finally...

Malaysia Boleh! Seriously, a Two Thumbs Up :)

Ruzaimi's Free Drawing Lessons Inspires Me to Sketch!

2009-05-09T09:47:00.001+08:00

WHO?

Ruzaimi Mat Rani is currently lecturing at the Faculty of Architecture and Environmental Design, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM). He has been interested in art and design ever since he was in primary school, and has over the years evolved into a master in pen and pencil sketching (especially landscapes) and has got his share of rewards and recognitions for it. Click here and here to know more about that.

WHAT?

Now, he has gone one step further and has created a blog to share his sketching knowledge and skills to people around the world. He has entitled the blog, "FREE DRAWING LESSON(S)". Here you will find pictures of many of his sketches (samples mashed-up above), and videos illustrating the drawing process, or how he goes about sketching these drawings. These short (1-2 minute) videos are juicy learning nuggets to get a quick idea on how you can sketch stuff such as gardens, buildings, rooms, furniture, and so on. But...

HOW?

How does he create such videos?
He is uses the stop motion technique where he combines the scan processed pictures into a motion picture. He basically scans every step of the sketching process and then saves the scanned pictures into JPEG format (100+ pictures). Then, he uses Windows Movie Maker to combine the pictures together into a stop motion picture.

REFLECTION

Oh man, that is a lot of tedious work for a short learning nugget (you need real patience and passion to do such things). Let me just say this,

"I respect Ruzaimi for his excellent art work, but I admire him for sharing it to the world for free."

I hope more educators in Malaysia and Asia come out of the copyright closet and join the Copyleft and Creative Commons revolution, and engross the OER (Open Educational Resources) movement. Let's face it, most educators are not going to make much money doing the copyrighted stuff. And we will not become irrelevant if we do share our knowledge or content on the Internet (Hoarding knowledge is the old school! Sharing knowledge is power and the way to go!).

Actually, it makes more sense to share our ideas and knowledge to the world using the Internet and all the excellent free learning tools available to us today. It requires our additional time, but the potential fruits are amazing if we really think about it.

For example, by sharing our ideas and knowledge online, we could trigger unexpected connections and feedback from professionals (and learners), which will trigger us to reflect back what we have shared, and refine and improve further. That point alone is exciting enough for me!

If you are really good, you might even be invited to speak, or conduct workshops in places you perhaps have never heard of. Yes, you might even make more money than going down the copyright road.

There are many more benefits for sharing our knowledge and contents online, but if you ask me:

Educators should share their knowledge and content to the world for free (unless their livelihood depends on it), because it is the right thing to do.

With the Internet and easy-to-learn/use authoring tools we can potentially educate people all over the world (through the internet, mirror sites, or downloaded content), and help those that are not so fortunate out there.

Yes, you don't need to spend millions on a commercial LMS, or additional millions on developing courseware that includes flying ducks and dogs with bells and whistles. Why not simply start with a blog, just like Ruzaimi did.

Finally, let's spread stories like Ruzaimi's one to the world using our twitters, blogs, wikis, etc. It would be nice to see educators attract hits and viewing numbers like the Britney Spears and Jungle Jims'.

Besides creating content, let's promote the excellent work of our fellow educators :)

My E-Learning Talk at Wawasan Open University (WOU)

2009-05-05T23:40:00.001+08:00

WHY WOU?

I was invited to spend two days at Wawasan Open University (WOU) to meet some of the key people there and share ideas about e-learning and so on. It was a thrill to interact with everyone from the Vice Chancellor to the driver. After spending two days exploring WOU, its' slogan 'The people's University' is increasingly making sense ...about WOU

Besides having fun interacting and sharing ideas with the people of WOU, I am still amazed with WOU's unique campus buildings, which truly demonstrates the fusion of old and modern construction. The picture above should give you a good indication of what I mean.

In short, I enjoyed the learning adventure, and learned some valuable lessons on the way (hopefully vice versa) :)

E-LEARNING TALK

In addition, I gave a 90 minute full-steam e-learning talk exploring some of the e-learning 2.0 (or web 2.0 technologies) tools, and discussed how they could be used to infuse a more social, collaborative and dynamic online learning environment. Yes, we even explored connectivism, and how we can use a network of diverse technologies to facilitate online learning.

Why, bla, bla, bla, ... Here are the slides (on SlideShare):

E-Learning Talk

View more presentations from zaid.

REFLECTION
This time around, I slimmed down the participants' slide-intake from 100+ to 73, and was able to cover what I wanted to share (I am still learning!). We managed to even watch 4 short videos during the 90 minute e-learning roller coaster (which ended up with the '5-Minute University' video!). I am sure many were overwhelmed, but at least they got some idea what e-learning 2.0 is all about (before we have to deal with e-Learning 3.0! Don't we love such buzz words!).

Besides talking about e-learning 2.0, I promoted again my eBook and blog. If you look at the stats above, you will notice that Malaysia is not the top country visitor to my blog (sadly enough!), and can only muster a fifth place. However, we should be proud that we are higher positioned than Singapore at least (this time around!).

On a positive note, people from 185 countries, or 5,786 cities around the world have discovered ZaidLearn one way or the other (over the last 12 months). This just shows how interconnected the world is today. Amazing!

Yes, believe it or not, I have even connected with a remarkable guy from Gaza Strip (Palestine), who is exploring 'learning 2.0' with 12-15 year old kids. He is even planning to write a book about e-learning 2.0 in Arabic. Couldn't CNN or BCC cover such positive stories, besides the depressing ones. Again, amazing!

Oops, I need to pack, I am going on holiday to ... :)

Edunovice Offers Affordable Tutorial Services

2009-01-02T10:37:00.007+08:00

ONLINE LEARNING CENTER
Edunovice is a new online learning center for anyone who is fond to learn Math. Currently they are only distributing online Math exercises and reading materials for students who are in Form 1 to Form 3. Edunovice also plays its part to help local publishers, tutors and advertisers to benefits from our Math community.

VISION

Edunovice hopes to provide the best reading materials/notes to students and adults around the world.
Edunovice strive to provide the cheapest and Free Online resources to our community within years to come.
Building up a math community worldwide to have passion for math.

MISSION

Make it Cheap / Free For Everyone.
Build a community where everyone can contribute
Provides Online material for everyone from all ages.

OPPORTUNITIES

Edunovice also provides opportunity for home tutors, local/international books publisher to take advantage to promote products, conduct seminars and advertising in our websites. They are committed to bring the best to everyone.

INTERESTING!
If you register, they provide you for starters with some free maths and physics notes. Their learning concept is rather straight forward: Learn through examples and exercises.

Isn't that what we want! If you are interested in online tutoring services, why not check it out. Just click here :)

Coaching Critical Thinking to Think Creatively! (Zaid Alsagoff)

2008-03-13T15:28:00.002+08:00

Link to Printer Friendly Version

“We want the development of modal insan, students who can think critically and creatively, who are able to solve problems and have the ability to adapt themselves to an ever-changing global environment.” - Blueprint for Education Development, Malaysia (2006 – 2010)

ONCE UPON A TIME ….
A long time ago (early 2007) in a galaxy far away (Malaysia), there was a little boy (34 years old) who happened to be me. This little boy was suddenly entrusted to transform a dying course at the University entitled ‘Critical Thinking’. Here I was leading a Learning and Teaching Unit (in the Quality Assurance department) facilitating change and improvements to our e-learning approach, and managing a University wide ‘Thinking Skills Infusion Programme’ (TSIP). Although, I had trained many lecturers, senior lecturers and professors in using technology to facilitate learning, I had ironically never had any real experience in managing an actual course at the University.

Now, one of the leaders from our academic world figured rightly out that perhaps I needed some real experience to understand what it is like to be a lecturer, before having the right to lecture to lecturers on how to teach and facilitate effective learning (which makes perfect sense!). Also, since I had been managing the TSIP programme for over six (6) months, the “Critical Thinking’ course would be the perfect challenge and opportunity to test all my untested theories and suggestions on effective learning.

In a nutshell, I was asked to lead and transform the ‘Critical Thinking’ course, which is a requirement for all undergraduate students.

THE UNITAR WAY!
Although, Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR) is currently becoming a more conventional University, it used to adopt a blended learning model, which usually included courseware, online forums, online tutorials (OLT), and Face-to-Face (F2F) tutorials. Every course is led by a course leader supported by tutors who facilitate their own sections. The course leader is responsible for guiding the tutors, and preparing the course plan, course materials, assignments, quizzes and exams. In addition, the course leader is responsible for correcting the final exams (40% - 50% of the course assessment evaluation), and giving the students’ final grade for all sections. The tutor’s role is to communicate with the course leader, facilitate the course for their section(s), and grade the coursework (50% - 60%).

COURSE REENGINEERING NEEDED?
Based on my initial unscientific findings, students found the course difficult to understand and the overall students’ satisfaction rates were lower than in other courses for the undergraduate level. In addition, both students and tutors complained that the lecture notes were not sufficient.

Although, the past course leaders seemed to have a done a good job facilitating their own sections, they failed based on my understanding to communicate and facilitate consistent quality to all the sections. Overall, students and tutors seemed frustrated with ‘Critical Thinking’, and some even questioned the relevance of this course. They argued that this course focused too much on theory and memorization, and failed to actually help students develop fundamental thinking, reasoning and language abilities that are needed for academic success.

Although, UNITAR had developed a reasonably good page tuning critical thinking courseware, the existing curriculum of the critical thinking course seemed to be mostly (80-90%) based on John Chaffe’s famous book “Thinking Critically” (6th Edition, 2000). Even the course objectives and topic outline seemed to be paraphrased out of the book. As UNITAR’s self-developed courseware was structured very differently from the course outline, it was hardly reflected or used by either the educators, or the students.

So, I began to read John Chaffe’s famous book “Thinking Critically” to get better feel of what the students were learning. Strangely, I kept on falling asleep while reading this book, and although the content is relevant and useful, the writing style and design of that book (I suppose the later versions are more engaging!) did not appeal or inspire my thinking mind. So, if I am falling asleep reading this book, what about the students?

In addition to this book, the course also recommended students to read another book entitled ‘Critical Thinking: A Student's Introduction’ (G. Bassham & Co., 2007). So, I explored the book, and found it more activity-oriented, engaging, and inspiring. However, I still felt that something was missing to spark the ‘Critical Thinking’ course to life.

So, I explored our ‘Critical Thinking’ courseware again, and was actually positively surprised with the quality of the content. However, since it was structured very differently from the course outline and it did not have a search function, naturally students found it quite frustrating to use.

Based on these surface level reflections, I felt (based on my limited knowledge) that I needed to revamp the whole course to really make any difference. However, I also decided to take advantage and extract the learning juices from the three original main course resources just mentioned. Based on my understanding, the problem with this course was not so much the content, but the process on how it was facilitated. Based on my findings, and too little focus was given to engaging the student’s learning mind to question, analyze, synthesize, reason, problem solve, and make better decisions, which I believe is the essence of this course. Finally, and importantly for most of our students, English is their second language, and the student population consists of a colourful inter-religious/cultural/racial blend (Indian, Chinese, Malay, etc.), which especially the two recommended critical thinking books are not really tailored to.

Although, I was no master in ‘Critical Thinking’ (still the case!), I believed that I had enough reasons to take the risk to reengineer the course to make it more relevant and effective.

COURSE PLANNING & PREPARATION
Although, I was planning to reengineer the course, I felt that the original course objectives would remain the same, with just a minor twist. The role of the lecturer coaching ‘Critical Thinking’ is to:

Teach the fundamental thinking, reasoning and language abilities that a student needs for academic success.
Engage students in the active thinking process.
Integrate the development of thinking abilities with the four skills: Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening.

As students seemed to fear the word “Critical’ more than thinking (tough one, too!), I suggested to change the name of the course to just ‘Thinking Skills’, but that was firmly rejected. Then I had this crazy idea to simply develop the course outline (modules and topics) and learning objectives, and let the students discover, explore, organize, adapt and construct the course content based on existing materials available on the web (User-generated content). This idea was totally rejected. Finally, I suggested to include a ‘Creative Thinking’ topic, which I felt was missing from the course, but that was also rejected. Creative thinking is different! So, instead I decided to infuse creative thinking into every single module of the ‘Critical Thinking’ course.

In the end, just before the semester started we managed to agree upon the course outline, which was (Click on the links to view the modules in Slideshare):

Introduction to Critical Thinking
Thinking Tools
Arguments = Part I + Part II + Part III
Fallacies
Language
Decision Making
Problem Solving

Due to limited time, I constructed the content for each module during the 15-week semester, usually a week or two ahead of schedule. As our University was increasingly becoming more conventional, we were required to conduct a 2-hour F2F tutorial every week with our students. Although, we could use OLT, I decided not to, due to the nature of the course (real-time activity-based), number of students (300+), students status (mostly full-time), lack of broadband Internet access (for some), and that the group of tutors facilitating this course were reasonably experienced (more than me, actually!) and were fully capable of managing their own section(s) without my interference. As a course leader, I was also assigned to manage three (3) sections (90+ students).

However, to improve the possibility of consistent quality, I did prepare lesson plans (and student activity sheets) for the tutors, which gave them some idea on how I would conduct my tutorials. The lesson plans also included answers (if any), tips, and resource links to some of the puzzles, questions, and videos (YouTube) discussed in the presentation slides. In short, I provided them with some ideas on how I would facilitate the tutorials, but empowered them the freedom to think and do it their own way, as long as they covered the syllabus.

COURSE CONTENT
The main focus of the revamped course would be on students’ practicing, reflecting and improving their thinking skills, and less emphasize would be given to exploring critical thinking theories, concepts and the endless definitions associated with it. What is critical thinking anyway?

With this in mind, the course content was constructed focused on engaging the students to reflect and improve their ability to question, analyze, synthesize, reason, problem solve, and make constructive decisions.

To deal with the students fear and motivation to think critically, I decided to put Aristotle, Plato and Socrates on the bench, and introduce my new dream thinking support team led by Master Yoda, Mr. Bean and Inspector Gadget. They play a critical role in relaxing the learners’ mind to laugh, think, discuss and reflect their own thinking. If Mr. Bean can think critically, why can’t I?

Finally, to engage students to think, the content or presentation slides included a lot of thought provoking questions, puzzles, cartoons, pictures, quotes, and group activities to continuously spark the desire to explore the content further.

In short, I extracted and mashed up past learning references, added my flavour, and brought in assistance from another galaxy (e.g. Master Yoda) and Earth (e.g. Mr. Bean) to reengineer the content.

F2F TUTORIALS
I made it a point from day one that students will have to think-out-loud in this class, and no one will be able to escape this. Of course to loosen up the overall fear, I would first gently force the most nervous or scared looking student in the class to answer an open-ended question with their own opinion. By giving this person encouragement and support to whatever the answer may be, the other students in the class might feel safer to participate. It actually works, even in Malaysia were students are often scared to talk and share their ideas in class.

Every F2F tutorial is broken down into four (4) sessions:

Warm Up (5 – 15 minutes) – To awaken the students’ minds and bring the class to life, I would begin each class with a few brain stimulating activities, which could be a/an puzzle, question, picture, issue, or a quote.
Lecture & Discussion (30– 40 minutes) – This session is very much like an interactive lecture, whereby I would explain, reflect and discuss together with the students the ‘Thinking Menu’ of the day.
Group Activities (45 - 55 minutes) – In this session students are broken up into small groups (4- 6 participants) to collaborate on some relevant thinking activities. Each group have to choose their leader, and are given specific time frames to complete particular tasks (or using specific thinking tools), and then they need to summarize their answers or findings in writing, and finally one (or more) of the group representatives have to present and discuss the group’s output with the class.
Sum Up (5-10 minutes) – Summarize the module and synthesize/evaluate/reflect the group activity findings.

Students are also required to share and rotate task duties, which will ensure that all students at least once or twice will have the pleasure to present the output to the class during the semester. By having such group activities in each class, students also get to practice their teamwork, time management, communication, listening, writing, and presentation skills while collectively thinking about important issues.

To make the group activities relevant to their learning, I tried to select interesting and meaningful discussion topics. For example, during the first F2F class group activity, students were asked to reflect what it means to be an excellent student and lecturer. They were asked to discuss, identify and rank the “Top 10” characteristics/traits/behaviours of an excellent lecturer and student. By the end of the class we together had actually negotiated what to expect from one another throughout the semester. I told them that I will try my level best to be an excellent lecturer according to their terms (caring, punctual, open minded, effective teaching, etc.), and that I hoped that they could be an excellent student accordingly (hard working, self-disciplined, active participation, honest, etc.).

By the end of the semester we had managed to discuss and reflect collectively a lot of interesting and relevant topics including global warming, great thinkers and inventions, whether entrepreneurship is genetic or can be learned, the essence of beauty, whether all-star wrestling is real or not, and much more. During the learning process students had also managed to explore several useful thinking tools including mind mapping, six thinking hats, CoRT, and SWOT Analysis.

ONLINE FORUMS
Students were required to participate in two (2) online forums scheduled during the semester. Each forum carried 2.5 percent (total = 5%) of the course assessment evaluation. Assessment scheme for each forum was:

1.0 % - For your reflective response to the forum issue.
1.0 % - for reflecting, adding value or challenging at least one of your classmates’ responses.
0.5 % - for submitting your 1st response within the first week of the forum.

The assessment scheme was set to encourage early participation and threaded discussions (not just a list of short essay answers!).

In the first online forum, students were asked to argue who they thought was the greatest thinker of the 20th century, and in the second forum students were asked to discuss an invention (and the thinking process behind it) that had an influential impact on mankind.

Both forums turned out to be informative and dynamic. Especially, the first forum, where approximately 300 students joined one mega discussion, was a huge challenge beyond the capability of our in-house developed learning management system (LMS), and my browser. After having several mega headaches trying to manage and reflect hundreds of posts, I made sure in the second forum to chunk the discussion into groups based on the course sections, which were facilitated and marked by each individual tutor.

The good thing we can take from the online forums is that most students know about Wikipedia. The not so good thing was that many of the students simply copy/pasted from it without giving much thought, or any reference or credit to the source. Interestingly, a few students managed to copy/paste Aristotle, Plato and Socrates from Wikipedia (No comment!). There was even one case of a student copying another students’ excellent reflective answer from the forum itself, and then pasting it as his own answer with a minor change to the introduction and conclusion. Luckily, the student being plagiarised informed me about it, and I did the necessary to teach the plagiarizer a lesson he probably won’t forget.

Overall, it was a thrill to engage and discuss about great thinkers and inventions (and the struggles they went through) with the students, and many of them took these forums quite seriously, and some of their reflections and arguments were quite impressive. I was also impressed with some of the students’ reflective arguments for why they should get a better grade.

ONLINE QUIZ
Students had to take three small quizzes, each carrying five (5) percent of the course assessment evaluation. One (1) quiz was conducted during a F2F class and two (2) quizzes were conducted online. I gave the students the opportunity to do each online quiz (multiple-choice) from any place within a one week period.

In the first online quiz, I used randomization of questions (from a question pool) and shuffling of questions/answers, and I had deliberately created a tough one to awaken and challenge the students to think early on in the course. Interestingly, only 3 out of 272 who took the first online quiz got 100%.

The second online quiz was based on the module 4 (Fallacies). This time around I did not use randomization of questions, but I did continue with shuffling of questions/answers. 60 out of 285 managed to get 100%, which was an astonishing result (and perhaps a much easier quiz!). Interestingly, I had constructed a ‘Two Wrongs Make a Right’ fallacy in module 4 which says,

“I don’t feel guilty about cheating on Zaid’s online quiz. Half the class cheats on his quiz.”

Strangely enough, in one section a whopping 20 out of 42 got 100% correct. The results were impressive, but something was not right. Then I discovered that 17 out of these 20 with full marks had completed the quiz in less than 3 minutes. Other students who did the quiz took on the average more than 10 minutes to complete. Also, one of the students had come to my office during the quiz period with a friend (in a giggling mood!), claiming that someone else had logged in as her, and done her quiz (and gotten only 90%!). She asked me to reset her quiz. So, to give her a second chance, I reset her quiz. She took less than 2 minutes to get 100%.

I told the students in the next class that some of them had cheated on the online quiz, and asked those who had done it to come forward and admit their wrongdoing. I also told them about the quiz completion time discovery, and that I had a list of all those that are likely to be guilty, and that this was also a test of integrity and character. After the class, the guilty came forward one by one to apologize for their wrongdoing. Although, they did something wrong, they showed great character to come forward and admit their mistake. To my astonishment, one student made it clear to me that they did not cheat, but instead argued that they had collaborated together to succeed. Now, that got me to think that perhaps we could also conduct online group quizzes in the future, which could be useful to facilitate collaborative learning in a quiz competitive mode. I suppose we all learned a few lessons from this incident.

Finally, if you are planning to conduct online quizzes, keep in mind that you will never know who is actually doing the online quiz, unless you have a witness (proctored exam), or it is done in a computer lab with surveillance, so that you can verify who is actually doing it. But then again if students really want to cheat, they will find a way. Besides minimizing the possibility of cheating, it is perhaps more useful to encourage and practice good values and behaviours during the learning process. In short, we need to practice good values and behaviours ourselves first, before we can expect such things from our students. Look who’s talking!

GROUP PROJECT & PRESENTATION
In addition to three (3) quizzes, two (2) online forums, and group activities in each F2F session, students were required to work on a group project, which would be presented to the class some time during the last four (4) weeks of the course. They were required to research a problem or issue of their choice, and then write a recommendation report with constructive suggestions on how to deal with it. Interestingly, I made it compulsory that everyone in the group had to present some portion of their project during the group project presentation. While all shared the same grade for the group project (15%), each student was evaluated individually for the presentation session (10%).

Although, there were many interesting projects and engaging presentations, I suppose the video showed by one of the groups of a person dying from AIDS (last moments!), is something that until today still lingers in my head. Overall, it was good to see that most of the students were confident enough to present and not chicken out. Although, many of the presenters perhaps faced the slides and notes more than the audience, we have to give them credit, because they were also presenting and articulating their findings in English, which is their second language. I suppose with more practice and encouragement, they can master the ability to present confidently with less supporting aids.

FINAL EXAM
The final exams (50% of the total course evaluation) are conducted F2F at the students’ respective study centres. The ‘Critical Thinking’ course exam included a mixture of short essay and discussion type of questions. The final exam was divided into two sections:

Section A (20%) – They were given five (5) questions (answer all) to check their understanding on the core concepts learned in this course. They were required to (depending upon the question) identify, describe, differentiate, and give examples.
Section B (30%) - They were asked to identify the purpose (or main-point), analyze, evaluate and/or give their opinions/reasons/suggestions on an article, advertisement and a quote.

Having punished the students mentally to think-out-loud throughout the course, I suppose I made the final exam reasonably easy to pass (including juicy examination tips!), testing all the six (6) levels of Bloom’s taxonomy.

To be honest, I have never been a fan of final exams. If I had the choice I would instead add at least 30% of these marks for class participation (Currently only 5%). If I was to take any of those final exams I took during my undergraduate and graduate studies, I would surely fail this time around (Even if I got ‘A’ previously!). So, what are final exams measuring anyway? Then again, we cannot blame it on the final exam mode, but instead we should question those asking the questions.

RESULTS
Were students satisfied? It was encouraging to know that I averaged approximately 90% (you need at least 85% to me nominated for best lecturer award!) in the teaching/course evaluation survey over three (3) sections. However, it was more encouraging to learn that the total average for this course was around 85% (including the tutors’ results).

However, did learning take place? It is difficult to verify this one, but I know for sure that 92.9% of all the students taking this course (316) managed to pass it. I do have some positive and constructive comments to share here from a few students and tutors.

“(Student)…Thank you for your guidance and not forgetting your lively classes. It's been a month since the exam and I must say all the fallacies learnt remain and is being applied in everyday reading materials and at workplace with…”
”(Student)…Last but not least I would like to thank you for being "the teacher that inspires". I truly enjoyed myself in your class and would really look forward to being your student again (No.no.. I don't want to repeat Critical Thinking ..maybe for other subject)…”
"(Student)…Thank you very much for your quick reply. You are certainly a very good, efficient and helpful lecturer. From my experience, you are the second lecturer who have answered my questions during the holiday but for this semester the only one. They should be more lecturers like you…”
”(Student)… honestly I have learned a lot from this course, not only in thinking, but more than what I could describe here. Really enjoyed your class and the way you teach has definitely changed the way I looked at learning myself...”
“(Tutor)…Your Forum 2 question is very interesting and the rules and regulations suggested are good. That will make the students send in their answers earlier…It’s nice having you as the course leader. You are so efficient and informative.”
“(Tutor)…I must let you know that I am very happy with your approach to the critical thinking course. It has such a fresh and imaginative look. The slides are so attractive and I like the F2F Lesson Plan. It keeps us aware on how you (as a course leader) look at things. Please keep that up…”

Now this is pleasing to my ego! As for Kirkpatrick’s levels of evaluation 3 and 4, it is difficult to provide any concrete evidence, except for comments such as the ones above. But let’s hope that students can apply some the thinking skills learned during the course and gain some positive results in their studies, work and life. Actually, I should track these 316 students down and find out!

AREAS TO IMPROVE?
One year has passed since I revamped the ‘Critical Thinking’ course. I only managed to facilitate this course for one semester, and then the top management argued that I could be more effective to the University doing other things than actually teaching students. Luckily, the course is still being taught and that they are still using my little contribution to ‘Critical Thinking’ at the undergraduate level.

However, having become one year wiser (or dumber!) and discovered through reading what is needed to survive in places like Microsoft or Google, I believe this ‘Critical Thinking’ course needs to be constructively destroyed and reengineered.

Here are a few things that I would do, if I had the chance to revamp it again:

Challenging Puzzles/Exercises – I would add new puzzles and thinking exercises to challenge the students’ analytical, imaginative and problem solving skills to the level they can expect from a Microsoft or Google interview. Give them a taste of it, which might actually accelerate their motivation to learn.
Leaner Modules - Streamline the modules to consist of fewer topics and concepts, and instead spend more time on each element, enabling students to have more time to learn, practice and reflect before moving on. Especially, the 'Arguments' module would be totally revamped (simplify and focus), which was too much based on the book (Critical Thinking: A Student's Introduction’), due to my lack of knowledge in this area.
Online Tools - Would use more tools such as online surveys/polls (to gather students' opinions and collectively reflect) and perhaps LAMS (Learning Activity Management System), which could be useful for sequencing and managing thinking activities such as Six Thinking hats. Also, I would request students to use wikis to work on their group projects, enabling me to follow the progress of the project. In addition, it would be interesting to explore 3D virtual worlds like Second Life and examine how it can nurture and motivate students to think-out-loud in such environments. In short, I would use more online learning tools to facilitate thinking beyond the physical classroom.
More Videos – Although, I did use a few YouTube videos to stimulate thinking during the first round, I would probably embed more short videos this time around to engage the mind and bring the class to life.
New Dream Thinking Team – Although, I would probably keep Master Yoda and Mr. Bean in my team, I would try to include local cartoons, such as LAT (if possible).

To improve my coaching or facilitation skills I would explore, study and reflect videos of well-known educators in formal and informal education around the world, which can today be easily accessed for free through YouTube channels (Stanford, MIT, Berkeley, etc.) or other video sharing sites (e.g. VIDEOLECTURES.net). In short, the only thing stopping us from becoming a good educator is our reluctance to learn, explore and challenge ourselves continuously (and a good Internet connection!).

In short, the ‘Critical Thinking’ course would be revamped again to meet the challenges of the 21st century.

CONCLUSION
Oh man, you are still reading! Alright, I will have to say a few more things before I take off to my next learning adventure. First, if you ask me, I would not get so obsessed in trying to differentiate critical, creative, innovative or inventive thinking (learning and thinking prefers no human constructed borders!) during class, but instead focus increasingly on finding new ways to nurture and infuse more thinking into the students’ learning process for all courses, so that when they graduate it has become a habit for life.

Also, I would strongly recommend that we continue to have at least one or two courses that explore thinking and thinking tools intensively, enabling us to flex our imaginative, creative and analytical thinking muscles (e.g. using six thinking hats, SWOT, Disney Creativity Strategy, and ‘Five Ws and H’). In addition, we could always use our analytical imagination to create new thinking tools.

If you ask me, I would argue that the essence of all thinking boils down to asking QUESTIONS. And we all can do that, and therefore we all have the ability to think. Which fallacy did I just commit?

If we can encourage students to ask more questions, going beyond the compartments of their disciplines, and increasingly nurture the courage in them to explore new ideas, we are probably on the right track.

I remember way back in 1992, I had just finished my college degree (similar to A-Levels) at Ullern Gymnas (Oslo, Norway), and had just managed to scrape through. I was so sick of formal education that I made a promise to myself to never study again.

Here I am in 2008, sharing my experiences on facilitating “Critical Thinking’ to undergraduate students at UNITAR, in Malaysia. You just never know :)

UNISEL Shares Their Vision, Mission and T&L Framework!

2008-02-20T15:04:00.011+08:00

Link to UNISEL Knowledge Sharing Presentations

UNISEL?
"Universiti Industri Selangor (UNISEL) was established on 23 August 1999 with the aim of providing world-class tertiary education and opportunities for research and development (R&D) within the broad sphere of industrial technology, management as well as information and communications technology (ICT). UNISEL provides an educational system which has extensive synergistic links with the industry and community in developing new innovative activities and research and development work (Source)."

KNOWLEDGE SHARING?
UNISEL's Vision is ‘Meeting Industrial Needs…’, and if you are wondering how this Learning University is planning to do that, you can get a taste of it from this excellent collection shared (source):

Easier said than done, but let's hope that they can achieve the success that they inspire to do!

FAQ FROM STUDENTS
As for my own learning, I kind of got stuck on a few critical learning questions that Prof. Madya Dr. Sharifah Meriam pointed out in her presentation (Source).

"If teachers or lecturers can answer these questions (below), they are on the way towards developing effective outcome-based approach and promoting a learning organization.

What do I have to learn?
Why do I have to learn it?
What will I be doing while I am learning?
Will it be interesting and useful?
How will I know that I am learning what I should be learning?
Will I have any say in what I learn?
How will I be assessed?"

These are really basic questions that we sometimes overlook. Perhaps, if we are able to answer these questions to our students, they will be more eager to learn the stuff we are teaching/facilitating :)

eLearning .....? I've had E-Nough!! (Rozhan Idrus)

2008-02-13T18:05:00.017+08:00

NEW BLOG?
"I can't stand it anymore .. I have to do this. Call me what you like .. but looks like I have to jump on the bandwagon as well ... so here goes another blog about e-learning ..my version, of course... Sometimes I find it absolutely comical when I hear people complaining about the 'quality' of education on the Internet, when no one ever bothered to scrutinise the 'quality' of face to face teaching .. We are so bothered whether students actually log online to view our notes when we don't even recognise the 200-odd students in our lecture (face to face) ... such dichotomy .. The funniest thing is that .. it is as though there is someone else to be blamed for what is not working with elearning or whatever learning you care to mention!! Who is to be blamed ?? If a lecture is boring - who made it boring?? If a lecture or teaching experience is captivation, who made it so?? YOU!!"

THE ART OF LEARNING!
Anyone who has witnessed one of Prof. Rozhan M. Idrus talks, had discussions with him, or read his articles and papers, would have surely enjoyed his unique style of making sense using humour, illustrations, cartoons (like the one above!), striking examples, and mind stimulating reflections and thoughts. Yes, he has this great ability to stimulate both the cognitive and affective mind when making a point.

I suppose his 22 years experience in distance learning, and his background in instructional design has powered him with a few tricks and stories to strike a point, and facilitate effective learning.

Yeah, he is also the mastermind behind Technogogy, which is currently defined as "the convergence of technology, pedagogy and content in the transformative use of technology to foster learning."

It will be interesting to see how Rozhan's new e-Learning blog evolves. The only thing to worry about is his amazing 'right brain' habit of easily getting bored and too-many-tasking (Been there, done that!), and then suddenly moving on to a new learning adventure (and galaxy!). However, I believe he has hit a juicy learning nail with this blog (including the title!), and it will hopefully inspire him to continue to share his vast experience in distance learning, e-learning and education.

Yeah, wherever this BROTHER is reflecting and sharing his learning ideas and experiences, I will also be eagerly following, reading, reflecting and learning. Hopefully, in the future we can meet more often and have virtual and face-to-face tea-break discussions. Oh, I forgot I don't drink tea! I suppose I will drink pure water to clear my mind, so that I can absorb and reflect his ramblings of learning wisdom :)

UCiTV - University Campus Interactive TV (UTHM)

2008-02-01T11:56:00.000+08:00

Today, I discovered (by a great accident) that Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) has a University Campus Interactive TV portal, which you might want to check out. Here are some of the features you can enjoy here:

I didn't find any write-up about what their mission, purpose and plans are, so I don't have much to share here. The portal seems kind of new, and the learning content available here I believe is free to access (based on a bit of exploration!). It will be interesting the see how this project evolves under the leadership of Hj. Mohd Nor Bin Ihkasan.

In short, have fun exploring video and e-Learning on demand at UTHM :)

LearnTech Asia '08 Conference and Exhibition (18-19 March)

2008-01-31T09:11:00.000+08:00

WHAT?
LearnTech Asia '08 Conference and Exhibition is set to be Asia’s first and only platform for learning technologies for organizational learning and performance improvement. It gathers practitioners from leading companies around the world to share their knowledge, experience and best practices for sourcing, content development and implementing learning technologies. LearnTech Asia Exhibition is the place where all the major vendors of learning services, systems, technology and delivery methods will meet learning and development decision makers.

VENUE?
LEARNTECH ASIA ’08 Congress” will be held on 18th-19th March 2008 at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre (KLCC), Malaysia.

SPEAKERS?
Some of the TOP LEADING practitioners who will be sharing their knowledge and success:

Kamal Nawawi – Senior VP, Talent Management & Retention, Khazanah Nasional Berhad
Dr. Ali Azizan - Head, Learning & Knowledge Management, Maybank Learning Centre
M. Emil Salim Bahari - CEO & Head of Business Development, PETRONAS e-Learning
Linda Al Ansari - Training & Development e-Learning & IT , Emirates Airlines (UAE)
S V Shiv Shanker - Head of Organisational Learning, Asia Standard Chartered Bank (SPORE)
Sujaya Banarjee - Chief Learning Officer , Essar Group (INDIA)
Murali Padmanabhan - Head IRM &Technology L&D, TATA Consultancy Services ( INDIA)
Gary Grant - National Training Manager , CHUBB Fire Safety (AUS)
Deepak Pillai - Partner, Haryati Deepak (MSIA)
John Clifford - Director, TELSTAR Learning Academy (AUS)

To be honest, I have never heard of (or read articles from) any of these top practitioners in Asia, which actually reflects how ignorant I am in corporate learning. Therefore, I believe this conference is of tremendous value, as we can learn more about them and importantly learn from their vast experiences in managing and facilitating corporate learning using innovative, effective and efficient practices, methodologies and technologies.

Yeah, if we can pick some good advice and perhaps 'teleport' it into our Higher Learning worlds (if we are in Higher Education) that would be great, too! Anyway, the bottom-line is LEARNING (which eventually leads to performance improvement), and how to nurture it effectively throughout the organization, which can take place anywhere, anytime, by anyone! Interestingly, with a bit of collaboration we will increasingly be empowered with innovative and effective collaborative virtual (and conventional) learning environments blending and mashing-up corporate and higher learning using both formal and informal approaches and technologies (Ning, Facebook, WiZiQ, Skype, etc.). It sounds wonderful, but can we do it? Got any suggestions? :)

Christopher's Corner - A New Learning Blog in Town!

2008-01-30T14:33:00.000+08:00

Link to 'Christopher's Corner'

"I am putting down in my blog what I learnt in my 10 years as a trainer. I have delivered courses in classroom, created web based courses, coached via face to face, email and other means. Now I believe I have acquired new ideas and skills that will enhance the way I deliver training programs. But what I put down here is not something that is perfect and I know if I put it down here and there are people who can comment, I will learn more." - Christopher Chew

Christopher Chew (from Maxis) has recently set up his own learning blog, where he will be sharing his learning discoveries, knowledge, and experiences in facilitating training and e-learning in Malaysia. Here is his first experience sharing advice: How to Develop, Design and Deliver a Learning Course (Part 1)

I have been fortunate to meet and interact with Christopher a couple of times recently during e-learning workshops (Stephen Downes & Brian Chapman). And based on our interactions and discussions, I believe he will be one of the prominent e-Learning experts (in Malaysia) in the coming years, especially in the corporate learning sector. If you haven't heard of him yet, I suppose you will!

Hopefully, he keeps himself motivated to continue posting regularly in his learning blog (as people begin to discover his learning adventure!). It is always hard in the beginning, but when it becomes a habit, you can't stop! If you are good, sooner or later people will notice your contributions and spread the word (Already doing it!). Christopher, good luck on your learning adventure! :)

Malaysian e-Learning Stories?

2008-01-25T18:46:00.000+08:00

Link to Malaysian e-Learning Stories

Besides reading the latest research papers and news about in e-learning in Malaysia, it is also critical that we reflect past e-learning adventures, implementations, experiences and findings, so that we can learn from them. I have just started (yesterday) compiling interesting Malaysian e-Learning stories (research papers, reports, articles, etc.) that I have discovered. The discovered e-Learning stories have been organized according to chronological order, starting with the latest year first (e.g. 2007).

Currently, I am simply using Google Docs to create this compilation list. Perhaps in the future I will use a more dynamic tool, if necessary. However, sometimes using simply web pages can actually produce better results. Let's see how it goes!

At the moment there is not much there, but give it a week or two; I believe I will have discovered many more interesting e-learning stories that are scattered all over the Web. We just need to find them, and that is what I am doing now. If you have a Malaysian e-Learning story to share, please post it in the 'Comments' section, and I will add it to this growing list.

If you are doing research, or want to know more about e-learning in Malaysia, this compilation might be a good starting point (and evolve into a Gold mine!). Have fun discovering e-learning in Malaysia!

Click here to begin :)

A Comparative Study of E-Learning Practices at Malaysian Private Universities

2008-01-22T08:00:00.000+08:00

Link to article
Private Universities (Case Studies) - UNITAR, MMU and OUM

AUTHORS

Marlia Puteh, Ph.D. College of Science and Technology, UTM
Supyan Hussin, Ph.D., Institute of the Malay World and Civilization, UKM

ABSTRACT
"This paper analyses the development of the e-learning strategies that have been introduced into Malaysian private universities. Using three case studies of Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR), Multimedia University (MMU) and the Open University of Malaysia (OUM), this paper examines how Malaysian private universities have introduced e-learning strategies into their undergraduate programs. It also analyses the policies that UNITAR, MMU and OUM developed to promote IT teaching and learning strategies. A critical view of the problems that these universities face in implementing their vision statements is presented. The conclusion comments on the mixed experience of e-learning at these private learning institutions: UNITAR, MMU and OUM."

REFLECTION
This article provides some useful information and reflections about UNITAR, MMU and OUM's e-learning delivery, experiences and implementation problems. Though, I would have liked to know a bit more about the demographics of the participants in this qualitative research study. Also, I found that the authors should have cited from more relevant research references with quantitative research data (found in other research papers like this one about OLT. It is not a great paper, but it provides some concrete data to work with.) to support their views and findings from the qualitative research.

Actually, some of the information about UNITAR (e.g. 60% online, 40% face-to-face learning) is inaccurate. In reality, UNITAR has adopted several different e-learning approaches throughout the years to improve and cater to the students' learning needs (e.g. more face-to-face classes for 1st year undergraduate students). The amount of Face-to-Face (F2F) learning hours per course (42 hours) has varied from 8 - 28 hours (19% - 67% F2F). In other words, UNITAR has never had a fixed blended (or hybrid) learning strategy, which was adopted by all courses, programs and faculties. One can argue that it was messy (and not always clear to the students and educators), but it was not a one-size fits all kind of approach.

Interestingly, UNITAR is now increasingly becoming more conventional (3 hours F2F classes per week, per course), especially for the undergraduate level. This is probably partly due to the fact that most of our undergraduate students (90%+) are full-time students.

Also, some of the reflections about UNITAR, MMU, and OUM in this paper are rather confusing. For example:

"The UNITAR case indicates that the online learning approach might not have achieved its goal, and implies that the change from virtual to online learning (conventional to online learning?) may not have been a good idea after all. Perhaps, in UNITAR’s case, it would have been better to have selected a more stable technology (teaching and learning approach?), rather than investing so heavily in virtual learning, which at the time was a largely untried technology (learning approach?)..."

Having said that, you should read this paper (if not, I would not have posted something about it here!), because it provides some useful information about UNITAR, MMU and OUM's e-learning or blended learning approaches, which we can learn from. Though, if you are looking for an in-depth and constructive case study about any of these Universities, you might need to look elsewhere.

Finally, I believe one of the toughest challenges in implementing e-learning in Malaysia (and beyond) today, is finding a cost-effective blend that motivates the educators, and meets the learning needs of the students. I would argue that there are plenty of excellent easy-to-use/learn e-learning tools (free and commercial) and tons of open/free educational resources easily available, and the Internet infrastructure is improving, so the real challenge will increasingly boil down to the human and pedagogical factors. Perhaps, the main e-learning implementation challenge today would be to convince and motivate educators to participate and explore full-heartedly the fruits of e-learning (especially those that are not IT-savvy), and equip them through training and support with the necessary skills to facilitate effective learning. If you are looking for some tips, I could always share a few :)

Knowledge Management International Conference 2008 (UUM)

2008-01-21T18:28:00.000+08:00

Transferring, Managing and Maintaining Knowledge for Nation Capacity Development

The Knowledge Management International Conference (KMICe) provides a platform for international presentation of research findings as well as discussions and sharing of recent advances in the field. This conference will bring together leading researchers and developers in a wide variety of areas, with a common interest in improving the state of the art of knowledge management (KM). This conference will also bring together people from the academia and industry to establish closer cooperation and ties, and creation of K-based society. As a management university, Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) has initiated the platform in organizing a conference of this nature ...more

TOPICS?
KMICe'08 invites full-paper submissions, which may address theoretical, methodological or practical aspects related to Knowledge Management and should revolve around the conference theme. Topics include (full list):

Knowledge Management Strategy
Tools and Technology for Knowledge Management
E-Learning, E-Training and Executive Training
Current Trend of Knowledge Management
Content Management
Intelligent Information System
Knowledge Workers
The Issue of Culture Variety and Cross-culture
K-Economy, K-Community and K-Enterprise

This looks like an interesting conference! Are you presenting a paper or participating? Full Paper Submission Deadline: 29 February 2008 :)

E-Learning in Malaysian Public Universities - Case Studies of UKM and UTM

2008-01-18T17:36:00.000+08:00

Author: Marlia Puteh, Ph.D, College of Science and Technology, UTM

ABSTRACT
"This paper analyses the development of the e-learning strategies that have been introduced into Malaysian public universities since 1996. Using two case studies of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), the research examines how Malaysian public universities planned to introduce e-learning strategies into their undergraduate programs. This analysis uses some 25 interviews with the teaching and administrative staff at UKM and UTM. A critical view of the problems that these universities face in implementing their vision statements is also presented. However, testing the vision statements against the experience and opinions of teaching staff is a significant task, because ultimately it is the teachers who will drive the e-learning strategies. If teachers are not supportive of these programs, e-learning will struggle to become established...

...CONCLUSION
Public universities have some fundamental problems when it comes to implementing e-learning and IT teaching strategies. Most of the difficulties in implementing e-learning strategies in the public universities are similar to that of other public universities attempting to adopt IT strategies university-wide. Malaysian public universities have not been successful at generating senior leadership capable of integrating the various university plans and strategies. These leadership issues are exacerbated by the working environments that are characterised by lack of encouragement, fear of intellectual piracy, inadequate technical training, insufficient equipment and no incentives for innovation. International comparisons can help and should be encouraged. Such benchmarking can provide Malaysian universities with a measure of how well they are doing and whether and what can be learnt from external examples."

Not sure what to say! I suppose you can make up your mind when (or if) you read the whole article. With today's disruptive technologies and increasing arsenal of free and hosted learning tools available (LectureShare, WiZiQ (Virtual Classroom), Wikispaces, Wordpress (Blogging), etc.), anyone can implement e-learning as long as they and their students (or learners) have computer devices and Internet connections. If we have the passion, we will find the time to implement e-learning (if necessary!). Yes, we need time, encouragement, training, support and incentives, but if e-learning can facilitate a more effective learning environment for our students, that should be good incentive to do it (if we really have the passion for education!). But then again, it would be great to have support from the senior management, and be equipped with great learning tools and technical support. In short, I suppose to really make e-learning work, everyone involved must role up their sleeves and try harder.

As for intellectual piracy, the moment your content is digitized, the pirates out there will steal it if it is of any value to them (If there is a will, there is a way!). Anyway, should a pirate steal my content I would be really proud (I am the chosen one!) and probably discover their location through Google (or some other search tools), and applaud them for stealing my content and not giving me recognition for my great work. Then I will write an article about them in my blog (or a Newspaper), and put them into more shame. Perhaps we should just use the Creative Commons license, and get on with life! Anyway, with all the free Open Educational Resources (OER) available on the WWW, the pirate must be an idiot to steal our content, when they can probably find better free content out there (though cannot use for commercial purposes). I suppose there are many ignorant pirates out there!

If you are one of those pirates (I suspect you are not!), I strongly recommend that you visit my other blog ZaidLearn, and you will discover many World Class OER repositories with oceans of great content. I suppose you will need some time to find the right juice, but you will feel better once you do.

Hmm, where am I going! Just read the article :)

e-Learning 2.0 Workshop (Stephen Downes)

2008-01-16T16:20:00.000+08:00

Web 1.0 = Read
Web 2.0 = Read -Write
Web 3.0 = Read -Write - Research
Web 4.0 = Read -Write - Research - Rambo!

At last I got to meet Stephen Downes in person and attend one of his workshops. Better yet, due to a secret arrangement (Not telling!) I got to become his personal bodyguard (I mean assistant) during this 2-day workshop in Kuala Lumpur (14th - 15th January). You can see me on the picture happily holding tightly to the handheld laser gun (I mean camera!).

In this e-Learning 2.0 workshop facilitated by Stephen (who actually entitled it ' Web 2.0 in Learning'), participants explored a full range of web 2.0 tools, and discussed (including group activities) how these tools could facilitate more effective communication, collaboration and learning. The intention was to explore the underlying technologies and to develop a sense of what to expect in the future.

NEW DISCOVERIES?
The thing about attending workshops facilitated by people like Stephen is that you can be sure of discovering a lot of new learning stuff on the way. Here are new learning tools and sites that I discovered during this great workshop:

Gliffy - A free web-based diagram editor.
Zoho - Offers a suite of online web applications geared towards increasing your productivity and offering easy collaboration.
LiveJournal - A free service for your journaling and blogging.
Bebo - Allows users to share photos with music, and blogs, and draw on members' White Boards.
Pixer - Lets you manipulate, edit, enhance and apply filters to your digital pictures using only your web browser.
Ustream.tv - You can broadcast your own live video show for free. You only need a computer device, camera and solid Internet connection. Not bad!
Worldbridges - A community of communities that use 'homegrown webcasting' and other new media technologies to help people connect, learn, & collaborate.
EdTechTalk - A community of educators interested in discussing and learning about the uses of educational technology. They webcast several live shows each week.

In addition, we discussed many other web 2.0 learning tools such Ning (Social Networking), Second Life ( 3D virtual world) and Wikispaces, which I have already explored, but are worth mentioning here (Check out the slides to discover the rest!).

Not only did we discover new tools from Stephen, he also discovered a few new learning tools from us, including:

WiZiQ - Free Hosted Virtual Classroom platform.
CamStudio - Free Screen Recording Software.
eSnips - Get 5GB of free space to upload and share your files, photos, videos and music.

In other words, no matter how brilliant we are, we can always learn and discover stuff from others. Therefore, I would argue that Stephen Downes is brilliant, because he knows this and practices it all the time (Any logic here!).

However, of all the things I discovered, learned and explored during the workshop, I personally found the reading resources shared the most valuable to my learning mind. I suppose it is easier to find a new tool or site (at least for me!), than discover a great article or paper among millions. Anyway, here is a list of a few of those relevant and mind enriching writings, which Stephen recommended us to explore further (Check out the slides to discover the rest! 2nd time!):

The Cluetrain Manifesto - Markets are about conversations (an e-Book by several authors). If you are lazy, at least read the 95 theses to get some idea.
E-Learning 2.0 - (Stephen Downes)
What is Web 2.0 - The web as platform. Design patterns and business models for the next generation of software (Tim O'Reilly).
Educational Blogging - (Stephen Downes)
How to Be Heard - (Stephen Downes)
The Long Tail - Why the future of business is selling less of more (Clay Shirky/Chris Anderson).
MySpace is My Identity Space - (Danah Boyd)
Wisdom of Crowds - (James Surowiecki)

And the juicy list of excellent reading resources (especially about blogging and social networks) goes on and on (Check out the slides to discover the rest! 3rd time lucky!). As I had not read many of these recommended reading resources before, it was a thrill to discover them.

LESSONS LEARNED

Since, I was his personal assistant and camera man during the 2-day workshop, I really got to zoom in on Stephen Downes and discover more about him (I am not sure if the video recordings I took are up to mark, though! First time!). I suppose I can go on here (until the break of dawn!), writing about all the things I observed and learned from him, but I will only highlight a few important lessons I learned here, which we all can take note and actually do something about.

Even Stephen Downes does not know everything about e-learning, and he does not see that as a weakness either (opportunity to learn more!). Instead, he gets excited when someone in the crowd knows something he doesn't (a challenge, too!), and wants to learn about it straight away. Since we have a computer and Internet connection, let's explore the possibilities together using Google, right now (Why wait!).

In other words, it is alright to say 'I don't know', when a participant or student asks a question, which we don't know the answer to. If no one participating in the session knows, we can always explore it together using Google, or whatever search tool we find relevant for the task (or get back to the question later, when we have an answer). If we take that kind of attitude and approach into our learning environments, we will not fear questions (essence of creative and critical thinking!), and students will eventually not fear to ask questions (mind of inquiry). Both the educators and student will benefit! You will learn more (about the content, students and yourself!), and students will not only learn more, but be more active in the learning process, taking responsibility and improving their ability to ask questions. Even before we discover a problem, or conceptualize a great idea (which might lead to an invention or innovation), we need to ask questions (Zooming in on the right or AHA ones!). Questions might seem like a threat first, but if you learn how to love them, and deal with them head-on, the rest is a ball :)

In terms of conducting a workshop (lecture, tutorial, etc.), I learned that you must always be able to quickly adapt the sessions (or classes) to the learning expectations and needs of the participants, and be able to revise and reform your workshop activities on-the-fly to ensure a more effective and relevant learning experience. Sometimes, participants might not even know what they really want, but you still have to explore through relevant questions early on, and by using your emotional, observational, and analytical intelligence (e.g. What do you know about____? What are your past experiences with ____? What do you want to learn? ) . Even if you fail to satisfy their learning expectations and needs, they will most likely appreciate your efforts to tailor and customize the learning event. I suppose the main challenge will be to meet all the participants learning expectations and needs. But that is a challenge we have to deal with, if we want to be an effective educator. And by using web 2.0 technologies like blogs, wikis, social networking sites, virtual worlds, etc. appropriately, and getting participants involved in creating, remixing, mashing-up and sharing knowledge, we are probably moving forward.

In short, we need to get everyone involved in exploring, discovering, learning, doing, reflecting, creating, and sharing knowledge and ideas. By doing so, we are nurturing their ability to learn (how to learn!). If you are able to spark, participants or students will take care of the rest.

FUTURE LEARNING DIRECTIONS?
Stephen identifies five (5) main future directions of learning (and e-learning) in his slides. I have added some of my thoughts to these five directions.

Learning as Creation - We increasingly learn by creating/remixing knowledge, products and services during the learning process (not only consuming), with the assistance of increasingly more powerful and user-friendly learning tools.
Social Learning - We learn by interacting with others locally and around the world, which is increasingly being enabled more efficiently and effectively with the assistance of technology (Global Collective Intelligence). Imagine participating in global learning communities and getting access to some of the greatest minds on this planet with just a few clicks. Here I am talking to Jay Cross, Jane Knight, Joseph Hart, Stephen Downes and Clayton Wright on Skype. The only cost is basically our time.
Personal Learning Environment - People will increasingly be able to construct their own customized and convenient learning spaces, which integrates all their informal and formal learning tools. In other words, we might soon say goodbye to LMS, LCMS, portals, etc., sooner than we realize. They will probably exist, but we will hardly visit them, and mostly read their news feeds from our all-to-one learning dashboards. One User ID and Password! One Learning Space! Tons of Learning Tools! All are communicating with one another! We can get all our relevant updates from one learning space, and we can update all our learning tools with one update (Create once, publish many). WOW! That is cool!
Immersive Learning - Augmented reality and 3D virtual worlds with fully immersive tools enabling every sense of our body to engage in the learning process. It also reflects that we will increasingly be able to construct cost-effective simulated learning environments that are close to the real thing. We are able to do and practice things in safe virtual learning environments that we could only dream about in the past (e.g. manage Google, build spaceships, teleport to Mars, discuss global warming with Al Gore, and engage in past civilizations). In short, we can stimulate all our senses to fully immerse ourselves in safe virtual learning environments that are similar, or close replications of the real ones. Practice without getting physically hurt (though, we might get a bit of mental stress!).
The Living Arts (Things You Really Need to Learn) - We don't follow strictly the requirements and needs of PhD, Masters, Bachelor and Diploma programs, programs are instead tailored to our relevant learning needs, and we are empowered to construct our own learning opportunities and environments that enable and motivate us to find and fulfill our learning potential. Why learn something that we never use, or want to know?

In addition to learning a lot of stuff from Stephen, I learned a lot from more than 40 participants both from the corporate and the education (mostly Higher Education) sectors in Malaysia (picture below). Interestingly, we are also planning to start an official e-Learning community (whereby we physically meet on regular occasions) in Malaysia, and if you are interested to find out more about that, please join or visit our new Malaysian e-Learning Community in Facebook (you need a Facebook account to join).

Finally, I would like to thank FIK International for organizing a great workshop.

Oh, I forgot (this post is getting long!)! You might be wondering why Stephen and the 'Myau' picture. Well, during the first day of the workshop we all suddenly heard the sound of cat ('Myau'), and Stephen probably thought he was going a bit nutty, or the jet lag was really getting to him (which it was, I suppose!). However, it was only a ringtone to one of the participants, and we all had a great laugh! So, the picture is in memory of this funny informal learning incident. Myau!!!

In conclusion, I am glad that I attended the workshop (and become Stephen's workshop assistant), and got to know Stephen better. These are the kind of learning experiences that spark our motivation to learn and explore more. Yeah, now I am also a certified e-Learning 2.0 specialist (by attendance). If you are interested to learn more, please give me a buzz :)

CMEAD Projects (Multimedia University)

2008-01-11T19:10:00.000+08:00

CMEAD?
Centre for Multimedia Education and Applications Development (CMEAD) is a one-stop centre dedicated to providing highly technical and specialized multimedia applications and services. It was established by Multimedia University to deal with the new demands in Multimedia, which is reshaping businesses, media, entertainment, and society in increasingly new and innovative ways. CMEAD is led by the super active and respected Mr. David Asirvatham (Director).

I have met him a few times, and I have always enjoyed our discussions. I am not sure if SCORM is on his discussion menu now days, but a few years back it certainly was.

CMEAD Projects?
In this post, I just want to highlight some of their ongoing juicy projects (I suppose some of them are completed by now!), which are:

Multimedia Learning System (MMLS)
Is a web-based Learning Management System, with built-in intelligence that delivers content according to the abilities of the learners. The system captures and analyses students' learning patters in a digital learning environment.
Smart Card
The MMU Smart Card is the first multi-purpose card of its kind in South East Asia. Smart Card holds various type of information in electronic form with sophisticated security mechanisms in it. It combines financial and non-financial applications in one card. There are three technologies embedded into a single smart card such as contact chip, contactless chip and magnetic strip.
Integrated Computerised Education Management System (ICEMS)
Is an internally developed enterprise information system to manage the operation of an educational institute. It comprises of three main modules namely Students, Financials, and Administration.
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
An auto attendant, Interactive Voice Response (IVR) System called MMU Info Line. This system is aimed at providing information about MMU via telephone. The system is available 24 hours a day for the convenience of MMU students, staff and the public. A caller can dial up the system at any time and choose one of the many options available, to get the required information.

In addition to these projects, they are also working on a few others, including a e-Procurement System (EPS) and a Document Management System (DMS). If you want to know more about these projects and their services you can check out the presentation slides for each project.

It is always fun to explore what others are up to, and CMEAD are working on some interesting projects, which I wish I could explore in an easy manner with a few clicks (I suppose I will contact them for a demo one day!).

Having said that, I would have loved to see more screenshots of their products, and perhaps some simulated screen recordings/tutorials (why not use Wink, which is a free Tutorial and Presentation creation software) walking through the features, especially the Multimedia Learning Management System (MMLS). Yes, why not have a demo version, where we can login and explore the different type of users (e.g. Lecturer, student, and administrator). I suppose we have a lot to learn in promoting our projects and services in a more interactive and engaging way. However, the presentation slides are a good start.

Wouldn't it be cool to explore MMLS in Second Life. Hmm, that is perhaps too much to ask for, but it would be fun to play around with MMLS using a free online demo version (If can, please share it with us!). The more we taste it, the more we might like it. Just like Moodle :)

TECHNOGOGY - A Convergence of Content, Pedagogy & Technology

2008-01-09T09:30:00.000+08:00

Link to Technogogy Homepage
The Latest Paper (2008) on Technogogy (URL coming soon)
Technogogy Paper (2005 Version. 592 KB, PDF)
Prof Rozhan's website

"Technogogy is now defined as the convergence of technology, pedagogy and content in the transformative use of technology to foster learning."
- Idrus, 2008

This is Prof. Rozhan M. Idrus latest definition on Technogogy, which is discussed in his latest paper entitled, 'Technogogy – A convergence of technology, pedagogy and content'. It will be published in the the new International Journal of Excellence in e-learning that will be launched at the Excellence in e-learning in the Middle East 2008 , which will be held next week in Dubai, UAE (January 14 - 17). Interestingly, he has been appointed as the Chief Editor of this new journal and is of course one of the Keynote Speakers at that Conference.

Since the latest paper on Technogogy has not been published yet, I will not reveal some of its' learning juice. But I will make the URL soon available, and then you can discover Technogogy on your own :)

ORIGIN?
To undcover the origin of this innovative term 'Technogogy' we need to 'teleport' back to 2005. "At the 5th International Educational Technology Conference (with the theme, Distance Education) held in Sakarya, Turkey from 21-23 September 2005, Prof. Rozhan M. Idrus delivered one of the Keynote Addresses and presented the definition of technogogy. In this respect, he was working with Karen McComas who is an Associate Professor of Communication Disorders at Marshall University. She is also an ASHA-certified Speech-Language Pathologist and Audiologist (Source). "

TECHNOGOGY is defined as the transformative
use of technology to foster learning
- Idrus & McComas, 2005

Click here to read the first paper on Technogogy (2005) entitled, 'From Facilitation to the Transformation of Learning: From Pedagogy to Technogogy' (592 KB, PDF).

If I am not mistaken, we can also expect a book about Technogogy from Prof. Rozhan M. Idrus and Karen McComas soon. Perhaps it is already out! if so, I am certainly going to buy it. I have met Prof. Rozhan M. Idrus a few times, and I have always enjoyed our discussions. To me, he is one of the most interesting and engaging e-Learning Professionals in Higher Education in Malaysia today (that I have met!). Explore his ideas about learning and technology (Yeah, why not contact him, too!), and you might think likewise :)

International Conference on Learning and Teaching (TARC)

2008-01-09T08:47:00.000+08:00

"Tunku Abdul Rahman College (TARC) is organising an International Conference on Learning and Teaching (TIC 2008). This 2-day conference (4th - 5th August, Putrajaya Marriott Hotel, Malaysia) is aimed at establishing a platform to share research findings and initiatives to enhance learning and teaching approaches. It will provide an avenue for intellectual discourse among conference participants in Malaysia and abroad to promote discussions and share knowledge, experiences and expertise on developments in learning and teaching as well as best practices in higher education.

Participants will be drawn from the USA, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and other countries besides Malaysia. About 300 participants are expected to participate in this conference.

The theme of the Learning and Teaching Conference is “Enhancing Learning and Teaching in Higher Education”. In line with the theme, they are inviting theoretical and empirical papers on all aspects of learning and teaching to be presented. They particularly welcome papers that focus on issues pertaining to new developments, innovations, and technology in learning and teaching, as well as on lifelong learning, policies and governance in education in a range of areas."

For more details regarding the sub themes of the conference, please visit the conference homepage.

KPerak eLearning Cluster (Goes Moodle)

2008-01-08T17:38:00.000+08:00

"The KPEC (KPerak eLearning Cluster) project is a school-based programme designed to provide professional development for teachers in the cluster of 5 selected schools:

SK Sri Adika Raja
SMK Matang
SK Seri Bayu
SK Seri Ampang
SMK Raja Perempuan Kelsom

The main focus is on developing teacher capability in the use of ICTs within their teaching and learning programmes. Teachers are supported by facilitators working in schools, and by specialist online support and links to existing content made available from the iNZed team through this website.

Key elements of the KPEC programme are online forum conversations, virtual field trips, student participation and collaboration both between the cluster schools, and with schools in New Zealand."

MOODLE?
Interestingly, they are using Moodle (Open Source/Free Course Management System) as their main online learning platform to facilitate this KPEC project. New Zealand OER project is also using Moodle. Coming to think of it, several Universities in Malaysia are using Moodle as their main online teaching and learning platform (Explore the 'Higher Education' links and you might stumble on a few). Actually, there are thousands of educational institutions, communities and companies using Moodle all over the world.

What makes Moodle so attractive, besides being Open Source and Free?
I suppose it is because it is easy to install, manage, maintain, scalable, and has an amazing free support community. Yeah, Moodle also has tons of useful tools and features (and 200+ additional plugins) to facilitate effective learning. Oh, I forgot to mention that Moodle is really easy-to-learn and use.

In other words, if you are looking for a course management system or an online platform to manage and facilitate your learning, perhaps you should explore Moodle first, before investing loads of money in commercial systems. You never know, it just might be the solution you are looking for. Yes, then you will also have more money left to invest in training and support. You certainly do not want to run out of funds after software, hardware and network infrastructure expenses. Moodle here I come :)

Maxis MDS Second Life Learning Lab

2008-01-07T11:22:00.000+08:00

"A Second Life video showing a learning lab coaching session- used for the Maxis Academy Launch on July 31, 2007"

Congratulations Maxis for launching your own little learning space in Second Life. Hopefully, it can facilitate a more effective learning, collaboration, and meeting environment when needed. Not sure if all involved will be thrilled, though! Anway, change and innovation is always difficult, but if you take no calculated risks, you are guaranteed to fail in today's competitive global village driven by learning, creativity and continuous innovation.

Yeah, use Second life also as an alternative channel to promote your products, services, customer service, etc. Anyway, Maxis is not the first company to explore Second Life (e.g. IBM, Havard University) as an alternative tool to learn, communicate, collaborate, demonstrate, experiment. etc., and it is certainly not the last one.

Are the any other companies or educational institutions in Malaysia that have invested and established their own little learning spaces in Second Life (or in another Virtual World)? Is it working? Are you facing any problems? Do people enjoy learning in Second Life?

Perhaps it is time to explore learning and communicating in a virtual world, too! It is a research project worth exploring :)

Malaysian E-Learning Community (in Facebook)

2008-01-06T22:59:00.000+08:00

Link to the community

GOAL?
"The aim of this group is to create an online community of practice for anyone involved in e-learning in Malaysia and beyond."

The mastermind (or initiator) of this community, is my good old 'Knowledge Rangers' buddy Lee Yik Sheng. Currently, there are only 11 members here. However, with a bit of promotion and infusion of juicy news, resources and discussions, I am pretty sure we can at least add one or more digits to this number.

In other words, come and join us! If you are not on Facebook, perhaps it's time to join. You need to be a Facebook user to access and participate in this community.

OTHER FACEBOOK E-LEARNING COMMUNITIES?
Besides this potentially great e-Learning community, there are many other interesting e-Learning communities here, including:

Facebook is certainly becoming a global space for online communities to evolve, network, communicate, collaborate and share :)

Welcome to e-Learning in Malaysia!

2008-01-03T15:45:00.002+08:00

If you want to find relevant information about
e-Learning in Malaysia, where do you go?

Hi All,
Welcome to this new blog exploring e-learning in Malaysia. Since I am working and living in Malaysia (Married to a Malaysian, too!), coaching myself to become a Learning Strategist, and will hopefully do my PhD in Education over the coming years, it is critical that I also truly understand and know what is going on here from every singly angle possible. So, I hope this blog will be a useful online space to manage this learning adventure, and hopefully encourage others to share their own Malaysian e-Learning stories and experiences here (Yeah, later if this works, we should perhaps add a Wiki, too!).

So, if you have a story or link (URL) to share, you are more than welcome. Since my language skills in Bahasa Malaysia is quite poor, I would especially appreciate summaries and findings (or extracted juice) of Malaysian e-learning stories, projects, articles and papers written in Bahasa Malaysia, or any other language for that sake (as long as we are talking about Malaysia and e-learning).

E-LEARNING?
What do you mean by e-learning? There are tons of e-learning definitions (e-Learning and eLearning) out there, but for the sake of it, this is what I mean in this blog:

"The utilization of ICT to facilitate and support LEARNING."

(ICT: Information and Communications Technology)

There is a lot of other jargons such as M(obile)-Learning that can often confuse people, but I reckon all these one letter jargons can be swept under the umbrella word e(lectronic)-Learning (which again can be swept under the word 'learning').

WHY THIS BLOG?

e-Learning or online learning (formally and informally!) is booming all over the world, and this is also the case in Malaysia. However, to find relevant information regarding e-learning here is often a nightmare (based on my experience!). Unless I am wrong (If so, please share with us a good starting point?), there is no one-stop up-to-date news and resource site about e-learning in Malaysia.

GOALS?

I hope this blog will eventually evolve into a good starting point to discover e-learning things going on in Malaysia (that is accessible to the public). This learning adventure will try to mash-up the juiciest e-learning stuff going on in Malaysia (past, present, future), including:

Higher Education (Universities & Colleges)
Schools (Primary & Secondary)
Corporate Learning
Communities
Projects
Solution Providers
Research Papers & Articles
People
Conferences
Blogs
Etc.

In short, the main goal for setting up this blog, is to discover, learn, share, discuss, network, and reflect about e-learning in Malaysia.

ANOTHER E-LEARNING BLOG?
If you are looking for free eLearning tools, open educational resources (OER), and stuff about online learning pedagogy (going on around the world), I suppose you might want to check out my other blog: ZaidLearn.

Finally, I hope you enjoy and engage in both of these learning adventures!

Always Learning!

Warm Regards,

Zaid

P.S. I would have loved to call this blog simply 'Learning in Malaysia' cutting out the 'e', but I suppose the term 'e-learning' is still widely used (also learning might seem too general). Perhaps in a year or two, when the 'e' (technology!) is totally immersed in all forms of learning, we might as well give up the 'e', and simply call it learning. I am still learning :)