Critical analysis in proposing a conceptual design model of assistive courseware for low vision (AC4LV) learners

This paper reports on an ongoing study, which intends to propose a conceptual design model of Assistive Courseware(AC) that is particularly designed for low vision learners (LV) learners.Altogether, 15 conceptual design models of courseware were compared and analyzed exhaustively with the main objectives (i) to determine the research gaps in proposing a conceptual design model of AC4LV and (ii) to identify their common components.Through a systematic and critical analysis, this study discovers that all of the previous models do not suggest any specific conceptual design model of courseware that caters the visually-impaired (VI) particularly low vision (LV) learners in detail.It is noted that this is the research gap that should be the focal point for further study.Also, the previous literatures suggest that Instructional Design (ID) model, learning theories, and learning approach must be the basic component in designing the conceptual design model of courseware

Consumers’ perception on Islamic home financing: empirical evidences on Bai Bithaman Ajil (BBA) and diminishing partnership (DP) in Malaysia

The Bai Bithaman Ajil (BBA) or Deferred Installment Sales facility is the most predominant mode of home financing in Malaysia since the introduction of Islamic banking in 1983. It is based on the debt financing where the bank buys the property from the customer and sells it back to the customer inclusive of profit. Customers make repayments at end of each month. This research examines the impact of using the prevailing debt concept which is claimed to have caused high price, customers‟ dissatisfaction, injustice and criticism by international scholars. In order to address these issues an alternative concept known as Musharakah Mutanaqisah or the Diminishing Partnership (DP) is also examined. In DP, bank and customers purchase the house jointly. The bank leases the house to the customers and rental payments are shared between them based on profit sharing ratio. The customer redeems the bank‟s share on monthly basis until full settlement after which the house is transferred to the customer. The study investigates the perceptions of customers between BBA and DP home financing products. A survey questionnaire was conducted on 300 owners and potential house owners to gauge their features and operations. The result of paired t–test indicated significant differences between these two products. DP home financing is a viable alternative to BBA home financing measured from the descriptive results and hypothesis testing. The actual implementation of DP is a challenge for the banks and requires a paradigm shift from their present role as traditional financiers

Strategy to Improve English Vocabulary Achievement during Covid-19 Epidemic. Does Quizizz Help?

Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education is being increasingly recognized as needing vital emphasis at a national level. To enhance learning in Science and Mathematics, the repertoire of vocabularies plays a significant role. As the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues its spread across the world, people’s vocabulary learning has been limited. Responding to this situation with appropriate awareness, e-learning is being applied to teach the English language. The intent of this study is to utilize Quizizz to enhance the vocabulary achievement among primary English as Second Language (ESL) pupils in rural schools. The study’s research employed mixed methods with purposive sampling of 13 participants. The research site was a rural school located 60km from the nearest town. The data were collected both pre and post-test as designed by the researcher and Likert scale questionnaire. The data was analyzed using appropriate quantitative analysis. To shed more light on the implementation, a thematic analysis by use of a semi-structured interview was conducted. The study finds that 10 out of 13 participants have shown an increase in their post-test of filling in the blank scoring test. The data is strengthened by a moderately high mean score of a Likert scale questionnaire. Furthermore, the participants highlighted that the Quizizz’s leaderboard matched their favored learning style. In this way, this feature tends to evoke a positive learning atmosphere. Thus, it can be concluded that Quizizz could enhance vocabulary achievement among primary English as Secondary Language (ESL) pupils in rural schools

The Knowledge and Use of Speech Therapy Mobile Applications: Speech-Language Pathologists’ Perspectives in Malaysia

Technology incorporation in speech therapy has been growing over the years. Mobile applications are among the adoptions that facilitate delivering speech therapy services. The situation in Malaysia is discouraging because there are not enough speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to serve the growing number of populations. Despite the abundance of available speech therapy mobile applications in the market, there is a lack of information focusing on the SLP’s knowledge and usage perspectives, especially in Malaysia. The objectives of this study are to describe the knowledge and usage perspectives of speech therapy mobile applications among SLPs in Malaysia and to analyze the instructional features and functional features relationships within the perspectives of SLPs. Surveys are established in three parts, with demographic questions in Part A, Likert scale responses for statements in Part B, and open-ended questions in Part C. This study is co-designed to relate to the results from an initial study that adopted PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) and features analysis. The data from the initial study includes a review of 161 apps out of 1797 that have been identified. Five instructional features and nine functional features are presented. There are 35 SLPs participating in the survey. Their responses demonstrate evidence of SLPs’ knowledge and usage of speech therapy mobile applications. We will propose a conceptual framework for the features of speech therapy mobile applications, using people with aphasia as a point of reference for users with speech and language disorders

The Knowledge and Use of Speech Therapy Mobile Applications: Speech-Language Pathologists’ Perspectives in Malaysia

Technology incorporation in speech therapy has been growing over the years. Mobile applications are among the adoptions that facilitate delivering speech therapy services. The situation in Malaysia is discouraging because there are not enough speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to serve the growing number of populations. Despite the abundance of available speech therapy mobile applications in the market, there is a lack of information focusing on the SLP’s knowledge and usage perspectives, especially in Malaysia. The objectives of this study are to describe the knowledge and usage perspectives of speech therapy mobile applications among SLPs in Malaysia and to analyze the instructional features and functional features relationships within the perspectives of SLPs. Surveys are established in three parts, with demographic questions in Part A, Likert scale responses for statements in Part B, and open-ended questions in Part C. This study is co-designed to relate to the results from an initial study that adopted PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) and features analysis. The data from the initial study includes a review of 161 apps out of 1797 that have been identified. Five instructional features and nine functional features are presented. There are 35 SLPs participating in the survey. Their responses demonstrate evidence of SLPs’ knowledge and usage of speech therapy mobile applications. We will propose a conceptual framework for the features of speech therapy mobile applications, using people with aphasia as a point of reference for users with speech and language disorders

Film policy and the emergence of the cross-cultural: exploring crossover cinema in Flanders (Belgium)

With several films taking on a cross-cultural character, a certain ‘crossover trend’ may be observed within the recent upswing of Flemish cinema (a subdivision of Belgian cinema). This trend is characterized by two major strands: first, migrant and diasporic filmmakers finally seem to be emerging, and second, several filmmakers tend to cross the globe to make their films, hereby minimizing links with Flemish indigenous culture. While paying special attention to the crucial role of film policy in this context, this contribution further investigates the crossover trend by focusing on Turquaze (2010, Kadir Balci) and Altiplano (2009, Peter Brosens & Jessica Woodworth)

Hazard level of vehicle smoke by fuzzy multiple attribute decision making with simple additive weighting method

Clean air is a necessity for human. Human needs clean and healthy air without being contaminated by vehicle smoke that can endanger human health. vehicle smoke contains harmful substances for human including carbon dioxide (CO2), carbon monoxide (CO), nitrogen oxides (NOx) and lead metal (Pb). This can make air quality worse and can cause human be suffered of diseases including ARI (Acute Respiratory Infection), shortness of breath, sore eyes, coughing, brain damage and mental disability in children. Decision Support System (DSS) is a system to support Managerial decision makers in semi-structured decision situations and in this research author made a study of the DSS model to determine the level of danger of vehicle smoke, this study uses the Fuzzy Multiple Attribute Decision Making method (FMADM) where this method is a way to find optimal alternative from a number of alternatives with certain criteria, from very low things that was from 0-0.25, medium from 0.3-0.50, to the most dangerous thing that was from 0.8-1. Hopefully with the existence of this research later it can be useful for the community, especially for public health

Bahasa Melayu (BM) Screen Reader for Visually Impaired Internet Users

Currently, the Internet usage is rising at a frenzied rate as knowledge and information sharing becomes easy and is time-saving. Regrettably, the visually impaired do not enjoy this liberty and they are facing difficulties in using computer and the Internet to seize any shared and available information. This difficulty is faced especially among the visually impaired Malay language medium Internet user. Specifically, existing screen reader cannot fully cater for users who need to browse the Malay language web pages. The inability of screen reader narration to enunciate Malay words correctly has become a restriction for the visually impaired to acquire any information in the Malay language. Narration of the words are done by non-Malay speakers and the enunciation of those words confuses and at times, do not help users. Thus, this project addresses this issue by investigating the difficulties for visually impaired Internet user to understand what is spoken when using screen readers without a native Malay narrator or speaker. This project aims to reduce the time needed for the visually impaired to understand the information in the Malay language read by the narrator of the screen reader. This project also strives to develop a screen reader prototype, which is able to read in Bahasa Melayu (BM) using local accent. To achieve all the objectives, preliminary interviews and testing session were conducted to collect data to test the hypothesis made. The findings are then will be used as main source of data to develop a prototype of the screen reader. From the built prototype, user testing will be conducted with a sample group of visually impaired to test the functionalities and evaluate the effectiveness of the software. The results and recommendations will be shared by the end of the project as a key milestone for future enhancement

Linguistic complexity of arabic language: a semantic analysis of antonymous homonyms in the holy Qur'ān

Homonymy, is one of the two main sub-divisions of lexical ambiguity that represents the complex nature of form and context of the Qur'anic Arabic which presents a challenge in the translation process. Since Qur'anic discourse abounds with homonymic expressions whose meaning is derived from the context, the translators of the Qur'an should undertake a demanding task decoding the intended meanings. The present paper aims at clarifying some linguistic complexities in some verses of the Qur'ān which may pose difficulty to translators of the holy book most especially those who are not familiar with antonymous homonyms in Arabic language. The reason is that antonymous homonyms are special features of the Qurʾanic Arabic language. It may be viewed as one of the stylistic feature of the Qur'an. Therefore, classification of these linguistic complexity is offered and the samples of these classifications from the Holy Qur'ān are mentioned in relation to antonymous homonyms. Samples of translated Qur'an are compared in order to ascertain the qualities of translations and English translation strategies of the stated verses

Determination of the best quail eggs using simple additive weighting

Eggs are livestock products contributed greatly to the achievement of the nutritional adequacy of the public; the egg is a food that is very good for children who are growing because it contains nutrients such as a complete protein, fat, vitamins and minerals that are easy to digest. One of the eggs are much in demand by children are quail eggs. The nutritional value of quail eggs is not less than the nutritional value of eggs containing 12.8% protein and 11.5% fat. Quail eggs are good quality will have good nutritional value anyway. To determine the quality of a good quail eggs will require an expert system. The method used in determining the quality of a good quail eggs using Simple Additive weighting method. The criteria in this research that egg size, style/color of the shell, the shell thickness, shell texture, shape and cleanliness of quail eggs. With the expert system is expected to assist farmers in determining the quail eggs quail egg quality so that the people can consume quail eggs that have good nutritional value. The results of this study showed an alternative ranking first in C with a value of 0.95, ranking second D with a value of 0.7208, ranking third E with a value of 0675, ranking the fourth A with a value of 0.4542 and ranking last in the B with a value of 0.4541