Teaching in the time of COVID-19: the challenges faced by teachers in initiating online class sessions

The severity of COVID-19 has called the education world to transition into cyberspace education to support the continuity of teaching and learning. The stages of Movement Control Order (MCO), Conditional MCO, and Restricted MCO have resulted in prolonged closure of schools within affected areas. In the Guidelines of Teaching and Learning (T&L) during MCO,’ the Ministry of Education, Malaysia (MoE) has come up with several initiatives for the continuation of education, which include adopting the synchronous and asynchronous modes of online T&L. Nevertheless, they will not be successful if there are any barriers in the process of implementation. As teachers are the key players in preparing online classes, this research looks into the challenges that arose before they conducted the sessions. One hundred ninety-two public secondary school teachers responded to this research through open-ended questions. Teachers were asked what the challenges are that they face in preparing, planning, and designing the online lessons. Eight themes emerged in this research; namely, time, environment, technological access, interest, knowledge, technological skills, course design, and communication self-efficacy. This study proposes problems that can be further researched for better online T&L processes

Factors affecting students' learning strategies at school

English language is spoken, written, read, and understood widely in most parts of the world. The significance of English language today underlines the significance of its vocabulary learning strategies. The aim of this study is, therefore, to examine factors affecting vocabulary learning strategies (VLS) among Saudi students studying Saudi School in Malaysia (SSM). To achieve the objective of the paper, two different tools of data collection have been adopted by the researcher. The study employs both semi-structured interview, where a total of seven students participated, as well as class observation which complement the findings of the interview. The study generated three themes from the interviews as the factors affecting vocabulary learning of students: language learning environment, attitude and beliefs, and Motivation. The findings of the study show that vocabulary-learning strategies (VLS) in SSM is affected by three major factors: language learning environment, attitude and beliefs of students, and motivation

Barriers Faced by Teachers in Acclimatizing to Online Teaching

Centered on the transformation of the norm of education from face-to-face teaching to online platforms, this article explores the intrinsic and extrinsic factors that contribute to the challenges teachers faced in delivering online lessons during the pandemic. The study adapts thematic deductive qualitative analysis approaches by using an open-ended questionnaire where the data were collected via Internet survey. The results portrayed intrinsic factors to exhibit the biggest barriers in comparison to extrinsic factors. Hence, teachers’ pedagogical needs should be considered, with priority given to teachers’ technological access by the education authority to improve the quality of the online teaching. This study provides insights for education authorities in addressing the challenges of online teaching, especially in terms of technological access

Modeling of Students Online Social Presence on Social Networking Sites and Academic Performance

Social Presence is a vital component of learning experience. This study develops a predictive model of students’ online social presence on social networking sites “SNS”. This study used SmartPLS software in the model development process. The study explored five facets of SP and its relationship with students’ academic performance. The model is based on the survey data that collected from 181 post-graduate students in one of Malaysian public universities. The findings of this study showed that there is a significant relationship between all five facets of online social presence and students’ academic performance. SNS is appropriate tools that supports students’ sense of social presence which contributes to better learning and academic performance. Consequently, the developed model can be used by instructional designers, instructors, and researchers to measure students’ online social presence and its effect on students’ academic performance

Vocabulary learning strategies through secondary students at Saudi school in Malaysia

This study is dedicated to the research of vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) employed by a group of Saudi Arabian learners in an EFL (English as a foreign language) context. The rationale for the study is to clarify a pronounced lack of research on the EFL context in Saudi Schools Abroad (SSA), and a dearth of prior research into VLSs in this context. In particular, this research intends to explore how do students at Saudi School Malaysia (SSM) employ VLSs in their actual learning process. Therefore, this study is conducted on cognitive theory of learning studies, the mental processes involved in the learning process. Moreover, this study conducted an analysis of studies dedicated to VLSs through secondary students at Saudi school in Malaysia based on previous research problems of models and theories. In addition, this study applied quantitative approach, and the questionnaire was conducted using 105 students. The results of this study revealed the percentage and frequency have further underscored this role and the significance of vocabulary learning in both students and teachers. Also, the results show that students at SSM have employed the five categories of VLSs at a medium level and almost at a close range