An Outcome-based Approach Analysis of a Mathematical Engineering Course using K-Means Clustering Techniques

AbstractThe purpose of this study is to identify the pattern of the programme outcomes on engineering mathematics subjects. A direct assessment method was used in evaluating the achievement of the PO. The direct assessments involved in this study were data marks from final exams, tests, quizzes, assignments or projects. The subject of this study was the first semester students from two engineering departments, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering and Department of Civil Engineering. Suitable measurement tools based on Course Outcomes and Programme Outcomes techniques were then identified, as the main analysis tool and the attainment targets, or the performance criteria was set. The relevant data was then collected, analysed and compared to the other attainment target. If the target value is not attained, suggestions for improvement were made and implemented. Finally, a clustering technique called the “k-means clustering technique” was used in identifying the pattern that exists between POs. it was found the criterion of each cluster based on the mean value could produce a great indicator in identify the different types of student in achieving the PO value, while reducing the need to carry out too much data collection and analysis

Challenges Faced by Vocational Teachers in Public Skills Training Institutions: A Reality in Malaysia

Teachers in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) play a pivotal role in ensuring skilled graduates with excellent personality. However, some TVET teachers in developing world face challenges in fulfilling this role. Thus, this study explored the challenges that are faced by vocational teachers (who are assigned to teach skills courses) from public skills training institutions in Malaysia. Using qualitative research design, this study conducted semi-structured interviews on 13 purposively selected participants from the Department of Skills Development and personnel under the Ministry of Human Resources and Ministry of Youth and Sports, which included six management staff and seven vocational teachers. Following the analysis using nVIVO, this study identified six core challenges faced by  vocational teachers: (1) disinterest and lack of motivation in teaching the assigned skills subjects; (2) lack of skills qualifications and industrial experiences (which are necessary as vocational teachers; (3) meeting the needs of students with low academic grades which require  extra teaching effort with high emotional intelligence; (4) difficulty in attending professional courses due to limited budget allocation, rotation system, and heavy workload; (5) difficulty in article writing task; and (6) difficulty in using English as the medium of instruction. These findings demonstrate the strong need to address the challenges faced by these vocational teachers, particularly for the teaching of programmes based on the National Occupational Skills Standard (NOSS), in the public skills training institutions  to enhance the teaching and learning process in TVET

Investigation on environmental care towards sustatainable solid waste management using exploratary factor analysis at UiTM Tapah Campus

The objective of this research is to study the environmental care among UiTM Tapah Campus towards sustainable solid waste management. A set of questionnaire comprised of two parts, which are background of respondent and environmental care components and were distributed among 185 students. The statistical technique exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was implemented to classify the components. As a result, the research revealed that there are five main components which are knowledge, practice, attitude, perception and awareness can be classified by 21 questions. The result led to formulate a new set of questionnaire. This new set of questionnaire will be distributed for further research which to investigate the level of environmental care among the UiTM Tapah Campus student

Technical Competency Among Vocational Teachers in Malaysian Public Skills Training Institutions: Measurement Model Validation Using Pls-Sem

It is important for vocational teachers in Malaysian Public Skills Training Institutions (MPSTI) based on the National Occupational Skills Standard (NOSS) modules to be technically competence. This study aimed to validate the measurement model for technical competency (knowledge and skills) consisting of eight constructs: material and application; work planning; handling, maintenance, and inventory of machines and hand tools; handling students at the workshop; practical instructional strategies; practical assessment; theoretical instructional strategies; specific knowledge; and general knowledge. This study is a quantitative research collected data through simple random sampling of vocational teachers from several technical programmes. A total of 1,186 respondents from 31 public skills training institutions were involved in this study. Measurement assessments were used to conduct a Partial Least Squares (PLS) analysis with SmartPLS 3.0 software to assess and validate the eight constructs of technical competency using a reflective model. The results revealed that 36 items on the eight constructs of technical competency had fulfilled the criteria for the validity assessment of the reflective measurement model through convergent validity and discriminant validity. For convergent validity, the value of loadings exceeded 0.708, the AVE values exceeded 0.5, and the CR values were between 0.7 to 0.9 (satisfactory). The discriminant validity of the model was assessed, and fulfilled the criteria of Fornell and Larcker (square root of AVE is larger than the correlations for all reflective constructs) by comparing the cross-loadings between the constructs, and using the HTMT0.9 technique. The finding of this study contributes to the knowledge on technical competency for vocational teachers in the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programme. A proposed model, and newly developed technical competency items were employed in this study. &nbsp

Language translation from english to Malay in solid waste engineering

Engineering translations are dense with technical jargon and terms that necessitate linguistic and field expertise. The challenges arise from the requirement that the target texts be idiomatic and retain the same phrasing order, meaning, and nuances as the source text, which a layperson cannot translate directly. The Malay language is Malaysia’s official language. Because Malay is the official language in the governing and executive constitutions, the research instrument should be available in Malay. The purpose of this research is to translate from English to Malay a qualitative risk framework for solid waste engineering. On three psychometric scales, 26 items were translated using a back-translation method involving eight linguistic experts. The Malaysian Institute of Translation and Books (ITBM) provided the primary translation, which was then reviewed by a panel of experts as a secondary translation. Next, content validation on a 5-point Likert scale was conducted with five civil engineering field experts to assess instrument structure and reliability agreement. To represent the expert validation process, a descriptive analysis of mean score agreement was performed. The studies discovered deviation losses in forward (8.98%) and backward (17.95%) translation. The results also revealed experts produce accurate translations, particularly the equivalents of engineering expressions, acronyms, measurements, and terminology. Eventually, expert consensus on six aspects was achieved for 27.8/30 (92.7%) and affirmed that the framework is valid and thus applicable. This paper recommends that translation requires quality control, which comprises three processes: conversion to the target language, comparison, and reconciliation by subject matter experts

The analysis of initial probability distribution in Markov Chain model for lifetime estimation

Fatigue crack growth is a stochastic phenomenon due to the uncertainties factors such as material properties, environmental conditions and geometry of the component. These random factors give an appropriate framework for modelling and predicting a lifetime of the structure. In this paper, an approach of calculating the initial probability distribution is introduced based on the statistical distribution of initial crack length. The fatigue crack growth is modelled and predicted by a Markov Chain associated with a classical deterministic crack Paris law. It has been used in calculating the transition probabilities matrix to represent the physical meaning of fatigue crack growth problem. The equation of Paris law provides information regarding the stress intensity factor and material properties in predicting the crack growth rate. The data from the experimental work under constant amplitude loading was analyzed using the Markov Chain model. The results provide a reliable prediction and show excellent agreement between proposed model and experimental result. The reliability of the model can be an effective tool for safety analysis of structure

Fatigue Failure Assessment of Metallic Specimens using the Acoustic Emission Technique.

This paper presents a process to determine the relationship between acoustic emission (AE) signals and the strain signal pattern for estimating material fatigue life. In addition, it establishes the usefulness of AE in predicting the fatigue life of metallic components. This study was carried out to investigate the relationship between the strain and AE signals to ensure that AE can also be used as a tool to predict the fatigue life of metallic specimens. Two types of sensors, i. e., the AE piezoelectric transducer and the strain gauge, were attached to SAE 1045 steel specimens during the fatigue cyclic test when the specimens were under constant loading. Two types of signals were obtained at three different applied loads (6.0 kN, 6.4 kN and 6.8 kN). Both signal types were then analyzed using a statistical model, and the results were used to correlate the fatigue life and AE signals. The fatigue life values were calculated using strain-life models. The correlation between the experimental and predicted values of fatigue life was then established. The results showed that the correlation between the r.m.s. AE values and the calculated fatigue life ranged from 74.0 % to 98.5 %, while the correlation between the kurtosis AE values and the predicted values was found to be between 95.0 % and 99.9 %. These correlation values showed that the AE technique can be used to predict the fatigue life of metallic specimens

A survey on perceptions of legal and non-legal factors affecting sustainable solid waste management in Malaysia

Solid waste needs to be sustainably managed in order to mitigate its adverse impacts on the environment and human well-being. Sustainable solid waste management contributes to three important aspects of sustainable development, that is, environment, economic and social. It is clear that Malaysia aims to establish a sustainable solid waste management which is evident with the passing of the Solid Waste and Public Cleansing Management Act 2007 (Act 672). Act 672 introduces federalization and privatization of solid waste management in Peninsular Malaysia and Federal Territories of Putrajaya and Labuan. Nevertheless, various issues related with solid waste management in Malaysia give an indication that sustainable solid waste management is yet to be fully achievable in Malaysia. This study was conducted to examine level of perceptions of relevant authorities/ agencies of legal and non-legal factors affecting sustainable solid waste management in Malaysia. Collection of data for this study was conducted through face to face interview by using questionnaire and the circulation of the questionnaire form. The study finds that as the average of agreement percentage for six positive statements on legal factors affecting solid waste management in Malaysia is high, all the legal factors are important to facilitate the practice of sustainable solid waste management in Malaysia. Besides, the non-legal factors are also important considerations in facilitating sustainable solid waste management in Malaysia though by comparison, the percentage of agreement for legal factors is higher than non-legal factors

Kajian persepsi arkitek terhadap pelaksanaan bumbung hijau di Malaysia: faedah, halangan dan cadangan

Pelaksanaan bumbung hijau sebagai kaedah mampan untuk menangani kesan pulau haba bandar masih baru di Malaysia. Walaupun bumbung hijau belum diuji pada skala bandar, beberapa kajian telah menunjukkan bahawa bumbung hijau dapat mengurangkan impak perbandaran dan meningkatkan kualiti alam sekitar. Pelaksanaannya yang rendah di Malaysia adalah disebabkan oleh pelbagai faktor seperti faktor kos dan kekurangan kesedaran di kalangan penggiat industri pembinaan. Kajian ini bertujuan untuk mengenal pasti persepsi arkitek tempatan terhadap pelaksanaan bumbung hijau dan mengenal pasti faedah, halangan dan cadangan untuk menangani halangan pelaksanaan bumbung hijau. Kaedah soal selidik telah digunakan untuk menilai pandangan arkitek tempatan terhadap sepuluh faedah, sembilan halangan pelaksanaan bumbung hijau dan lapan cadangan untuk menangani halangan bumbung hijau. Keputusan yang didapati menunjukkan bahawa faedah bumbung hijau yang paling penting adalah untuk mengurangkan kesan pulau haba bandar (N = 8.14), manakala faedah bumbung hijau yang paling lemah adalah untuk meningkatkan penebat haba bumbung (N = 3.73). Halangan untuk melaksanakan bumbung hijau yang paling penting adalah kekangan pelaksanaan daripada pelanggan (N = 4.22), manakala halangan untuk melaksanakan bumbung hijau yang paling lemah adalah kerana arkitek kurang yakin dengan faedah bumbung hijau (N = 2.62). Cadangan untuk menangani halangan pelaksanaannya yang paling penting adalah melalui memperbanyakan insentif kepada penggiat bumbung hijau (N = 4.37), manakala cadangan yang paling lemah merupakan membawa masuk kepakaran luar dan pertukaran teknologi (N = 3.65). Hasil kajian ini dapat membantu mempromosikan pelaksanaan bumbung hijau di Malaysia dan meningkatkan penyumbangan bumbung hijau kepada persekitaran dalaman dan luaran bangunan

Dynamical integrated framework development of solid waste management in Malaysia

The paper is an illustrated of the framework development on dynamical integrated solid waste management in Malaysia. The framework is consisted of four stages. First stage is an essential study done by authors for understanding the solid waste management process and identifying the related issues by engaging an expert of the field and previous studies. Second stage is highlighted the important of predicting an adequate quantity of the waste generation in Malaysia. The prediction process applied a multilinear regression analysis. Third stage presented a development of integrated dynamical solid waste management model using system dynamics simulation. In the final stage, a user interface is constructed for assisting an operational level to monitor the progression of their performance on strategic plan. This summary conceptual framework represents the holistic framework which significantly assist the operational department for monitoring the solid waste management process efficiently and comprehensively