Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL) in developing second language learners’ understanding of grammar / Rozina Abdul Ghani [Et. al]...

This paper presents findings to a case study on the use of ‘Throw Back Time’ (TBT), a digital game aimed at teaching grammar tenses and aspects via Mobile Assisted Language Learning (MALL). A quantitative study by means of a time series pre-test/post-tests single group design and survey were used as to see whether the game could improve learners’ understanding and knowledge of grammar tenses and aspects and also at gauging the learners’ perceptions towards MALL in learning grammar. The game is specially designed according to the Theory of Variation (Marton & Booth, 1997) that emphasizes that students understand, experience and think differently in a specific aspect of the world. As variations in the learning outcome are necessary, the game provides a variety of combinations and structures of grammatical aspects to expose students to different aspects from the object of learning. The application of this strategy in the digital game is part of a major research which aims at presenting empirical evidence of an innovative way to teach grammar. A digital board game suited to the students’ level of English can be an intriguing practice in the process of learning as the teaching and learning of grammar can be a daunting experience for learners and teachers alike. Thus, traditional methods must inevitably be on par with the advent of technology to complement the teaching of grammar and enhance the development of students’ knowledge of grammar

Innovation Model in Human Resources Capacity Development in Supporting Universitas Terbuka as A Cyber University

Cyber University is a generic term used by several higher-education institutions, including Universitas Terbuka (UT), which contribute to reinforcing higher-education systems by the means of Internetbased distance learning. UT has provided fully-online programs at postgraduate degrees since 2013 and at undergraduate degrees since 2016. The success of UT as a cyber university is heavily reliant on a strategic model in increasingly important areas of capacity building for employees and teachers to develop and sustain an adequate supply of skilled professionals, qualified staffs and adept technical resources. This study aims to shed light on this model, i.e., a model to foster continuous innovation development of human resources capacity (based on the notion of leadership and mindset, work culture and learning organization) with specific reference to its impact on work performance as a means to promote UT as a cyber university. We choose a questionnaire that deals with 50 respondents of employees and lecturers at UT for data collection. The data is described and explained, in terms of the relationship between a dependent variable and independent variables, using multiple linear regression. Our result indicates that human resources capacity development (e.g., leadership and mindset, work culture and learning organization) within innovation model has both partial and simultaneous effect on employee performance in ways that foster an environment where cyber university is constantly adaptable and evolving within UT. We have attested that innovation model can be attributed to factors that emphasize the positive and significant link between cyber university sustainability and human resources capacity development specifically in areas of leadership and mindset, work culture and learning organizatio

A SURVEY OF ACADEMIC NEEDS OF ESP LEARNERS ACROSS DIFFERENT MAJOR

English for Specific Purposes (ESP) is one of the predominant approaches to language teaching in tertiary education, since it is directed towards the specific needs of the particular specialty students. The aim of the present study is to report the results of an academic English needs analysis carried out at the State Islamic University, Malang (SIUM) Indonesia through two different majors, Islamic banking and management department. Through the implementation of a needs analysis questionnaire in ESP classes the felt academic needs of learners in terms of skills and sub-skills are specified. The results of the survey revealed that 24 (60%) respondents needed English for higher education. Twenty respondents (50%) claimed that they needed speaking as the priority for their future career. In addition, the students’ preferred learning indicated that pair work/group work, games and projects were more innovative learning. The paper concluded with some pedagogical implications to improve and develop ESP course material and methodology

Individual Education Program (IEP) Paperwork : A Narrative Review

The Individual Education Program (IEP) is a statement of a set of educational goals for students with special needs, which contains description of the support services obtained by the students to achieve their educational goals. Although teachers understand the benefits of IEP, teachers consider the preparation of IEP as a burden of administrative duties. The purpose of this narrative review is to illustrate how long the teacher completed the IEP administrative tasks, to explain why the compilation and implementation of IEP is viewed by the teacher as a burden, and to describe the strategies to minimize obstacles related to the administrative burden of IEP. The narrative review procedure includes several stages. First, journals reviewed in this paper are traced through e-journal databases, using the certain keywords. Secondly, the journals used in this review are based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Then, the authors searched and selected relevant studies on the topic, i.e. studies on the administrative burden of IEP paperwork. The result of this review shows that special needs teachers spend more time doing IEP administrative tasks than assessing students’ assignments, communicating with parents, sharing and discussing with colleagues. IEP paperwork takes up more than 10% of working time. The reasons why teachers perceive the IEP paperwork as burdens, are because of the large number of IEP forms and details, the multiple IEP service lines, the lack of knowledge and skills of the personnels relating to the preparation or implementation of IEPs, the lack of assistance of administrative staff to complete the IEP paperwork, and the short / limited deadlines for administrative duties of IEP. The proposed strategies to minimize the administrative burden of IEP are improving appropriate technology, streamlining the contents of IEP forms, group IEP and increase the IEP administrative skills of the teachers

A professional agenda: An initial step toward enhancing the quality of teaching in University Malaysia Sarawak.

This paper was originally written as a proposal to the management of the Faculty of Cognitive Sciences and Human Development, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) in the bid to enhance the quality of teaching on a university-wide basis. The recent quality assurance movement on teaching in UNIMAS is an important step to foster excellence in teaching and to eventually meet one of Malaysia’s visions of being a center for quality education by year 2020. Although teaching is one of the core businesses in institutions of higher learning, it is ironic that academics in many universities are not required to possess preparatory training in teaching, unlike schoolteachers. As a forwardlooking university, one of the initial mechanisms suggested in this paper is to conduct a workshop series to all UNIMAS academics. The workshop series comprise topics such as Introduction to University Teaching, How Humans Learn? Assessment, Instructional Design, Instructional Technology, and Learning from the Teaching Practice. The aims of the workshop series are to train the UNIMAS academics in teaching on a short-term basis, to initiate a long-term commitment toward excellence in teaching, and to develop a collaborative academic community that places special commitment to excellence in teaching. The required institutional commitment, the success factors, and the long-term plans for enhancing teaching at UNIMAS are also discussed in this paper

Availability of literature on social entreprenureship for sustainable wealth creation in internet

Social entrepreneurship has been the key discussed issue for the last few decades. This paper examines relative availability of materials related to social entreprenureship for sustainable wealth creation in order to develop hands-on, professional, ethical, which is promoted by the various organizations around the world. The main objective of this study was to examine the relative frequency of social entreprenureship and sustainable wealth creation by the organizations and other related concepts that are available in the Internet search engines. The study attempted to assess the availability of materials on social entreprenureship for sustainable wealth creation on the Internet. The Internet was accessed on 03 April 2012 from 11:05 a.m. – 13:05 p.m.; 2.30 p.m. – 4:30 pm. Duration: 240 minutes, [Gombak Time] and 04 April 2012 from 9:30 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.; 11:30 p.m. – 1:00 p.m. Duration: 180 minutes [Hulu Langat Time]. Ratios are expected to reflect more statistically meaningful indices. The study is very significant for theoretical development of social entreprenureship in sustainable wealth creation for companies in Malaysia. The Internet search engine provides instant information on social entreprenureship for sustainable wealth creation that can developed further

Prevention of human trafficking: a study on Malaysia’s anti-trafficking in persons and anti-smuggling of Migrants Act 2007

United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights 1948 and Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children are the two core international conventions that have found the inclusion of human trafficking issue into international relations. Both of the international written documents have provided excellent guidelines to their state members in combating the heinous crime. In that context, the later has outlined “3P” paradigm to combat human trafficking where the major concern is given to prevent the crime, protect the victims and prosecute the perpetrators. Among the three, the prevention of human trafficking becomes the key component of the paradigm which practically is conducted through various public awareness campaigns, strengthening corporation between government and non-governmental organizations and implementation of laws. The campaign will acknowledge the issue, educate public to identify the vulnerable victims for trafficking and warn the migrant about the risk of their migration to the foreign countries. Then, a strong corporation between the parties will enhance the success. However, nobody can deny the power of laws, which can restrain an individual from committing any offence. Therefore, this paper provides legal analyses to determine whether the Malaysia‟s legal response through its AntiTrafficking in Persons and Anti-Smuggling of Migrants Act 2007 is in compliance with the international paradigm. This paper discloses that the Act has shown its capability in preventing the crime. However, an extensive effort could be taken in order to strengthen the paradigm of prevention in the Act where a greater priority should be given to the protection of the victim and enforcement of the Act itself

A tool to measure engineering students' design strategies and abilities

Malaysia is moving from service-based industries to knowledge-based industries to achieve Vision 2020. This is also in line with innovation-led economy and globalization. Hence, there is a pressing need to transform the current engineering education system to meet the ever-growing roles and responsibilities of contemporary engineers. Design is central to engineering activity because students can apply the theoretical knowledge into practice. Students' engineering design knowledge and abilities are unknown when they enroll into the engineering programs. These engineering programs are either too low or too advanced for the students' design abilities. Hence, dropout rates in the engineering programs escalate each year. The invention is an online questionnaire which will assist in determining students' engineering design knowledge and abilities. It will guide engineering faculties in identifying suitable candidates for their engineering program through the scores obtained by the students. The scores will determine the students' level of engineering design knowledge. This will function as a mechanism for the faculties to filter the candidates' knowledge of engineering design and reduce the number of dropouts from the engineering program

The Role of Team Building in Minimizing the Effect of Conflict on Employee Resistance to Change at Universitas Terbuka

In an organizational setting, employees may demonstrate resistance toward organizational changes as a result of workplace conflicts. Such resistance may become a barrier to understanding and implementing change management that may affect from a single particular work unit to the entire organization depending on the scope of the changes. Conflicts following organizational changes are generally linked to employee resistance, and addressing different types of conflicts can help understand ways in reducing employee resistance. The central focus of this study is the decrease in group-related conflicts, i.e., task conflict and affective conflict, which can explain resolution mechanisms of employee resistance through team building strategies and activities. Our key objectives are 1) to understand the true nature of the relationship between these two types of conflicts and employee resistance to change and 2) to advance knowledge regarding the role of team building in minimizing these two types of conflicts to further address the employee resistance and mitigate it. This study provides associative hypotheses that represent the addition of a moderator variable that may influence the relationship between a predictor variable and outcome variable. We take up simple random sampling technique through which 60 staffs and lecturers of Universitas Terbuka are selected. We settle on data collection from a questionnaire designed based on an explicit theory or theoretical framework. The hypotheses are tested using multiple linear regression model. Our data indicate that; 1) task conflict and affective conflict are of statistical significance in their simultaneous and partial relationship with employee resistance to change; and 2) team building can be a definitive guide to reduce the impact of these conflicts on employee resistance to change-guiding employees to be less resistant and to incorporate teamwork in organizational culture. Based on findings, we propose an empirical implementation that ideal organizational culture sees employees as members of interdependent teams rather than individual personnels, which helps address the magnitude and intensify of group-related conflicts and how they contribute to employee resistance to change. Our results indicate that 1) task conflict and affective conflict have simultaneous effect on resistance to change.2) that task conflict and affective conflict have partial effect on resistance to change. From these results, the suggested empirical implementation is to form a team building when there is employee resistance as a result of conflict from organizational chang