On site challenges for the construction of 16-storey condominium: as observed by a young civil engineering technologist

The difference between an engineer and an engineering technologist is that, an engineer would mainly focus and produce structural designs based on engineering calculations, while the job of an engineering technologist is to execute the design in the real working environment by adopting flexible and critical technical ideas on-site. The challenges can be divided into two categories, namely design challenges faced by an engineer and the construction challenges faced by an engineering technologist. Thus, the job scope of an engineering technologist is relatively wider when compared to that of an engineer, as the engineering technologist would be dealing with the consultant, contractors and suppliers on site, while handling the in situ construction challenges. This requires basic understanding of engineering principles and technology, critical thinking and problem-solving skills, modern tools competency in software applications, designs and construction calculations, as well as communication and leadership skills all rolled into one. I have recorded my experience as a junior civil engineering technologist engaged in the construction works of a 16-storey condominium at Langkawi, Kedah. Included in the descriptions are in situ technical problems encountered, potentially unsafe working conditions, foundations, scheduling and housekeeping on site, among others. I hope that the information shared in this entry would make a good introduction and induction for juniors entering the work site, where my personal undertakings could serve as a guide and reminder for them

Engaging the Open Distance Learners: A Strategy to Increase Retention and Improve Graduation Rates

This paper investigates the impact of various interventions implemented by Open University Malaysia on learners’ level of Engagement in the Online Community developed through interaction between the various participants; learners, instructors and management of the university. The intensity of the Online Community as the result of the interventions was measured using four variables: Learner-Learner, Learner-Tutor, Learner-Staff and Learner-Content interaction. The learners’ level of Engagement and Commitment to stay in their programmes were also measured and a correlation was then established. Data for the research were collected from 1,500 undergraduate learners of Open University Malaysia throughout Malaysia using self-administered questionnaires. Results obtained from 1,116 respondents showed that there was a strong correlation between Learner-Learner, Learner-Instructor, Learner-Staff, Learner-Content, Engagement and Commitment to stay. Multiple regression analysis carried out showed that the learners’ Engagement explains 72 percent of the variance of their Commitment to stay. This study is important as it will help future researchers to develop a tool to measure engagement of learners in the Online Community. [ABSTRACT BY AUTHOR

Acceptance and usage, social influences, instructor’s presence and performance among learners in an ODL institution

Open Distance Learning (ODL) has been implemented in Malaysia for several decades to widen access to education while enriching the quality of learner's experience. Building from previous literature, this article aims to examine the relationship between independent variables of learner acceptance and usage of e-learning and instructor presence and learner performance, as the dependent variable, while social influences act as the mediation variable among learners in a distance learning (ODL) environment. Working adults enrolled for business programmes in one of the ODL institutions in Malaysia were surveyed. A total of 148 participants completed a survey questionnaire measuring their responses on the said variables. The study found that there was a positive relationship between the two independent constructs and learner performance. Social influences fully mediated between the independent and dependent variables. This indicates that peer influence is important during the learning process and the delivery of the teaching will enhance the learner’s competencies and knowledge. These findings indicate that these variables can be included in ODL learning environment. However, other constructs should also be explored. Suggestions and recommendations on the strength and influence of these variables to working adults are discussed and their applicability in other cultures and ODL institutions are elaborated upon. (Abstract by authors

ASEAN 4 KIDS: AN INTERACTIVE APPLICATION FOR LEARNING ASEAN CULTURE

With three years to the implementation of ASEAN Community in 2015, knowledge about ASEAN is the basic fundamental building block to the success of the ASEAN Community. A research has revealed that currently there is still a significant knowledge gap about ASEAN among young generation. Therefore, this project aims to fulfill this gap by designing and developing an interactive application for learning ASEAN culture named “ASEAN 4 KIDS”. Objective of this project are to develop an interactive application that encourages young children especially primary school students to learn some basic knowledge about ASEAN and culture of each member countries. The project also aims to raise awareness and understanding of ASEAN, its people and cultures to the target users through ICT. Additionally, the objectives are to explore the use of game-based approach in promoting culture learning as well as to evaluate the effectiveness of the application in learning ASEAN culture. Currently in the market, there are limited numbers of culture teaching applications that integrate various aspects of culture. Furthermore, the products that actually focus on teaching ASEAN Culture are very scarce. Using Flash and Augmented Reality, the system exposes the young children to the technology while they learn from the animation lessons and play the interactive games which are the mechanism to teach about ASEAN and deliver the educational content. Besides, the proposed system, this project also involves the study of how culture is being taught in school and the study of young children nature. As a result, the lessons and games are age-appropriate and match the abilities of the children. As a consequence the system is not only creating a joyful learning for the children but also help create awareness and understanding about ASEAN among them. The prototype system was tested with 5 primary school children aged between nine to twelve years old under the instruction of the developer and parents. The result of the testing showed the excitement of the children towards the system which is a good sign for the implementation in the real learning environment later on

Managing Retention in ODL Institutions: A Case Study on Open University Malaysia and Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University

Retaining learners has always been an ongoing challenge for open and distance learning (ODL) institutions worldwide. There is no exception for Open University Malaysia (OUM) and Sukhothai Thammathirat Open University (STOU). In both institutions, it was found that the attrition rate is highest in the early part of a learner’s study programme. This represents a huge loss in revenue for the institutions and a lost opportunity for learners in terms of enhancing their level of personal and career development. Both OUM and STOU have undertaken various interventions to mitigate early attrition. This paper reviews the major retention initiatives at both institutions so that they can learn from each other’s experiences. The reasons for learner drop-outs as well as the interventions at both institutions are found to be quite similar. Despite differences in size and age, the two institutions believe they should collaborate in order to further enhance the effectiveness of their retention efforts. Several issues and challenges peculiar to each institution were identified to determine the best areas in which both institutions could collaborate in. (Authors' abstract

Learning Community for Postgraduate Learners in the Final Year Project Course of Open University Malaysia

The learning community approach offers a promising way to facilitate the learning process of postgraduate learners in their final year project course at the Open University Malaysia. This is important because the final project requires a substantial amount of commitment and needs to be carried out independently. Moreover, students often experience challenges that delay or prevent them from completing their projects. Therefore, integrating a learning community into the course to address administrative or academic matters with peers and faculty members assists progression and completion. The purpose of this study was to gain insight into the learning community used by postgraduate learners for the final year project course. A survey was administered to 52 postgraduate learners and observation of the community site was conducted. The results were positive and encouraging, especially when learners tried to make sense of the learning community in order to be connected and motivated, to receive continuous support and to learn the required knowledge for the course. (Abstract by author

Redressing disadvantage and ensuring social cohesion: the role of distance education and elearning policies in the European Union 1957-2007

This paper analyses the development and implementation of the European Union's policies in distance higher education and elearning since the 1957 Treaty of Rome. Distance education emerged in the 1960s and 70s as an instrument at national level to redress disadvantage, and to provide flexible, high-quality and cost-effective access to higher education to adults who were unable, for geographical, employment or personal reasons, to attend on-campus. Analysis of EU policy documents and interviews with key individuals indicates that the support of influential policy entrepreneurs and networks brought distance education to the centre stage in EU education and training policy for a brief period in the early 1990s, culminating in the Maastricht Treaty on European Union (1992), which committed the EU to ‘encouraging the development of distance education’. Since then, distance learning has been superceded by elearning, and is linked in EU rhetoric to social cohesion in the context of making Europe the most competitive economy in the world. Yet, despite the great potential of elearning, this paper outlines the challenges to its wider adoption. These include the persistence of the digital divide in Europe; student resistance to elearning approaches; and the problem of achieving cost-effectiveness in elearning. Much remains to be done to ensure the flexibility in terms of time, place, pace, and indeed accessibility, which would enable adult students to participate in lifelong learning on a truly democratic basis

Widening Cross-border Participation: Building ODL Communities Through Internationalisation at Open University Malaysia

With the new challenges of a global knowledge-based economy, it is essential to strengthen a nation’s workforce. A knowledgeable, productive and competent workforce is a pre-requisite for the elevation of the country’s human resources in order to meet the challenges of information and communication technology and knowledge explosions. Continuous upgrading through education and training guarantees the successful development of the workforce and the nation’s knowledge-based economy in a global environment. Flexibility and accessibility of technology-based learning simplifies cross-border education among countries. Learning has now become mobile and more accessible, at a reasonable cost. This paper reports how Open University Malaysia (OUM) employs open and distance learning (ODL) as an approach to provide and expand education, capacity building and human resource development opportunities through cross-border education. This paper has resulted in additional insight relating to the effectiveness of the ODL techniques used. It analyses OUM’s networking strategies and collaborative efforts from an international perspective. (Authors' abstract

ESTABLISHING REQUIREMENT IN TEACHING NEW AND RENEWABLE ENERGY

The distinctive shortage in the availability of skilled labor in new and renewable energy sector becomes the issue that has been prevented this country in achieving the national energy mix in 2015 and 2050. Although both formal and non-formal education initiatives already exist to foster new and renewable energy education, the number of graduates cannot outpace the number of required labor. The number of graduates and their competencies must be considered because local labors are facing intense competition with foreign labors due to ASEAN Economic Community policy. This research aims to find a solution to address the educational issue in new and renewable energy education. This research is using iterative methodology from the software engineering domain to identify issues and problems in new and renewable energy education in Indonesia and suggested alternatives to address it. Combination of techniques (questionnaire, interview, studying documentation, and research a similar product) is used in requirement elicitation stage in order to provide multiple perspectives

FACEBOOK-BASED WRITING INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL IN ENGLISH CLASS: LECTURERS’ PERCEPTION

The study attempted to explore lecturers’ perceptions on the use of Facebook-based writing material in English class at STKIP Muhammadiyah Rappang, South Sulawesi, Indonesia. The present study was a part of research and development (R&D). There were two writing lecturers of the English Education Department in 2016/ 2017 as the subject of the study. The data gained from the questionnaires of the lecturers’ perception on the implementation of Facebook-based instructional material in English writing class using the Likert scale. The scoring system was done positive and negative statement score. The data have been analysed descriptively by using the frequency and percentage. It aimed to measure the lecturers’ opinion. To interpret the lecturers’ responds, the researchers used the interval estimation. The interval estimation was applied to measure the parameter of population based on the score of interval rates which ranged to 4 categories level. The results found that the lecturers agree that the content of learning English writing by using Facebook-based instructional materials are suitable for the students’ level, their need for learning and their daily lives. The average score of lecturers’ perceptions is 3.4 which indicates that from the four components of the product (content, language, presentation and graphic) overall shows suitability to the writing English material and to the students. It means that the implementation of Facebook-based instruction in teaching writing is interesting for the lecturers. It was proved by the results of the lecturers’ perceptio