iRadio OUM - The Development of Educational Internet Radio to Enhance Open and Distance Learning

iRadio OUM is Open University Malaysia's (OUM) official internet station, with segments based on courses offered by OUM as well as general infotainment segments broadcasted only via the World Wide Web. Established to enhance and add value to the open and distance learning experience of OUM learners, iRadio OUM combines education and entertainment into a balanced and interactive package. The segments aired over iRadio OUM is also made available for downloads in the form of podcasts that learners can listen to at any time, at any place. Bridging the concept of blended learning methods with a practical approach, iRadio OUM is OUM's testimony of our continuous improvement efforts. This paper focuses on iRadio OUM's progress through the years in the world of open and distance learning by making full use of current innovation in educational internet radio to deliver meaningful learning materials and engaging learners in the continuous process of learning. (Authors' abstact

The impact of pair programming on students logical thinking : a case study on higher academic institution / Mahfudzah Othman … [et al.]

Pair Programming (PP) is a well-known agile software development technique that has been widely implemented in programming classes. Through PP, students are able to share knowledge and expertise that will contribute to better programming solutions. Nevertheless, how PP can help to improve students’ cognitive abilities has yet to be explored. Therefore, this study’s aim was to investigate the impacts of implementing Pair Programming (PP) on students’ logical thinking. Logical thinking is part of the cognitive ability claimed to be one of the crucial factors that determine the success or failure of novice programmers. To achieve this, 60 students who enrolled in Diploma in Computer Science programme in Universiti Teknologi MARA Perlis Branch, Malaysia, were asked to take the pre-test and post-test of Group Assessment Logical Thinking (GALT) Test in the beginning and at the end of the semester. These students were divided into two main groups; Control and Test in the Test Group, students with low logical ability will be paired with their high logical thinking friends. Meanwhile, in the Control Group, no pair programming or collaborative technique took place. Five programming tasks were assigned to both groups to solve either collaboratively or individually. The results obtained via paired sample t-tests statistical analysis shows significant improvements in students’ logical thinking with p-value <0.05 in the Test Grou

Interactive mathematical learning courseware 2.0 using mental arithmetic for preschool children / Siti Zulaiha Ahmad ... [et al.]

Interactive Mathematical Learning Courseware 2.0 (iMLc 2.0) is an enhanced version of multimedia application which the aim is to expose the pre-school children in mental arithmetic technique. Unlike other form of conventional application which are using traditional methods, iMLc 2.0 display highly efficient technique to users who are at early stage of learning mathematics. The application integrates multimedia elements and mental arithmetic technique in an interactive and supportive way that is suitable for pre-school children level. Six multimedia principles have been adapted into the application in order to enhance the interface design. The application is divided into three modules, addition, subtraction, and quizzes. The addition operation has been designed to apply the finger-brain approach which is part of mental arithmetic technique while, mental-imagery approach is adapted for subtraction operation. In order to evaluate the application, it goes through a series of testing which are experimental test and user acceptance test. Mathematical courseware application can be used as additional learning and teaching tools since it is interesting, user friendly, enjoyable, valuable, and supportive. The implementation of iMLc 2.0 using interactive multimedia environment can motivate the preschooler to be prepared for future mathematical learning

Classification of breast cancer microarray data using radial basis function network

Breast cancer is the number one killer disease among women worldwide. Although this disease may affect women and men but the rate of incidence and the number of death is high among women compared to men. Early detection of breast cancer will help to increase the chance of survival since the early treatment can be decided for the patients who suffer this disease. The advent of the microarray technology has been applied to the medical area in term of classification of cancer and diseases. By using the microarray, thousands of genes expression can be determined simultaneously. However, this microarray suffers several drawbacks such as high dimensionality and contains irrelevant genes. Therefore, various techniques of feature selection have been developed in order to reduce the dimensionality of the microarray and also to select only the appropriate genes. For this study, the microarray breast cancer data, which is obtained from the Centre for Computational Intelligence will be used in the experiment. The Relief-F algorithm has been chosen as the method of the feature selection. As the comparison, another two methods of feature selection which are Information Gain and Chi-Square will also be used in the experiment. The Radial Basis Function, RBF network will be used as the classifier to distinguish between the cancerous and non-cancerous cells. The accuracy of the classification will be evaluated by using the chosen metric namely Receiver Operating Characteristic, ROC

The growth of iRadio OUM as a quality audio learning material provider

Purpose : The purpose of this paper is to discuss the progress of iRadio OUM over the years, the evolution of technology used and its overall significance to OUM’s continual growth and development. Design/methodology/approach : Reports the results from web analytic data from previous years in terms of listening and downloading habits and trends. Reviews of how other institutions and/or organisations use podcasting or audio learning material in the teaching and learning process are also included. Findings : Outlines the progress of iRadio OUM through the years in terms of content development, listening and downloading trends as well as research and development carried out. This paper summarises the changes in how segments are structured, produced and delivered. It also outlines the evolution of the technology used, mainly in terms of how content is delivered to the audience. Research limitations/implications: The scope of the paper is such that it only highlights the experiences of iRadio OUM alone. Practical implications: Offers practical advice in terms of the planning, development and implementation of an educational internet radio for higher learning institutions. Originality/value : This paper is written by key team members of iRadio OUM itself and highlights the experiences and ultimately the best practices discovered by actual web-broadcast practitioners and audio learning materials instructional designers. [Abstract by authors