Work in progress: germinal requirement in implementing an android, inquiry-based application in science education (AIBASE)

Inquiry-based learning is a teaching and learning method that support an active learning environment by enhancing the students’ capabilities to solve problems using critical thinking skills. Recently, information technology verifiably widely spreading learning model in the 21st -century education by contributing in enhancing students’ learning motivation. This study aims at initializing requirements for developing an android application based on the inquiry-based method in terms of the most suitable inquiry-based method that can be embedded into the application, based on inquiry components. This research draws upon literature review and screening of ten educational android applications. This research will provide valuable information regarding the suitable inquiry-based method that can be embedded through the implementation of educational android applicatio

Creative criteria to develop product design in life skills classroom

In the era of 21 st century, creative students are the national asset that can contribute to the development of society, nation and economic growth. Applying creative criteria in life skills subject, help in preparing students with skilled workforce, professionals, entrepreneurs and product designers that in line with the demand of the current technology. There is a gap where students try to copy or replicate the product design available around them, and these restricted them to think creatively in producing innovative product design. Therefore this study is to investigate problems faced by students in developing product design in life skills subject and secondly is to investigate how the process of developing the product design will contribute to student's creativity in producing a product. To date, this study will employ interview and observation method in order to gather rich input from the participants. In this study, experts who have more than five years of experiences in product design in Vocational Colleges involved for the interview sessions. In addition, the observation sessions also proceeded with students who took the life skills subject by monitoring their design project progress as to identify criteria that contribute to the discrepancy in developing product design in the classroom. At this stage, at about ten participants involved in this study and most of the participants were students from Vocational Colleges. Findings showed that, there were student self factors that restricted the students to be creative in designing a product in life skills subject. In addition by having conducive classroom environment and supported by guidance from the teachers, intensive discussions, active brainstorming sessions, and interactive interactions were among the activities that help students to be creative and eventually nurturing the students to innovate their product design in the classroom

Ontologies for a university web portal

The advancement of Web technologies provide diverse means to support learning in a flexible and a personalized manner.Semantic Web is an extension of the current web in which information is given in a well-defined meaning, enabling computers and people to work closely.One of the standard components in Semantic Web is Ontology, which is the center of focus in this study.List of phrases were gathered from the university’s web portal s and then examined and content-analyzed before being categorized. The study uncovers phrases commonly used by web designers other than the portal’s information infrastructure used in Malaysian universities’ web portals. It is hoped that findings from this study will contribute to the standard ontology used to update university’s web sites in Malaysia

Question-led approach in designing Dijkstra algorithm game-based learning: A pilot study

Dijkstra algorithm is important to be understood because of its many uses. However, understanding it is challenging. Various methods to teach and learn had been researched, with mixed results. The study proposes questionled approach of the algorithm in a game-based learning context. The game designed based on an existing game model, developed and tested by students. Pre- and post-game tests compared and game feedback survey analysed. Results showed that students’ performance in graph data structure Dijkstra algorithm improved after playing the game where post-test mark was higher than pre-test. Game feedback were mostly positive, with areas of improvement. Students may use the game as a learning tool for self-regulated learning. Educators may get some ideas on how to design teaching tool using question-led approach

Cyberbullying among youth in Malaysia

The purpose of this research was to survey the current situation concerning cyberbullying among youth in Malaysia. Specifically, this research aimed at finding out the prevalence of cyberbullying among youth based on demographic data and the common types of cyberbullying tactic. The survey method was adopted as the research design in which a set of questionnaire was developed to collect the data. A total of 1406 respondents were selected in this research. In general, the research findings reveal that majority of the respondents had been cyberbullied before. The Malays community yielded the highest percentage of cyberbullied victims. In addition, the result also shows that female cyber users were usually targeted as the cyberbully victim. The most common type of cyberbully tactic was through receiving offensive/ pornographic materials. Effective and pragmatic steps have to be taken in order to mitigate the cyberbullying problem among Malaysian youth

Integrating Green Skills into TVET Curricula in Polytechnics Malaysia

Green skills are very much needed by green industry. Nevertheless, many TVET institutions have not yet embedded green skill elements into the programme’s curriculum because it is still unclear concerning the types of green skills demanded by the green industry. Therefore, this research was conducted to identify the green skills that should be integrated into TVET curricula from the perspective of engineering lecturers in Polytechnics. The nature of this research was descriptive in which the date were collected using self-developed questionnaire. Four Polytechnics located in the East Coast, Northern, Central, and Southern of Malaysia were involved. A total of 332 engineering lecturers from three departments of engineering (Civil, Electrical, and Mechanical Engineering) were invited to participate in this research. The findings revealed that the TVET curricular should contains some of these green skills: problem solving skill related to environmental pollution,  interpretative skill on environmental phenomena, research skill on environmental issues, data collection skill, analytical skill, exploitation skill on green technology, management skill on natural resources, design skill, controlling skill on environment pollution, raw material management skill, energy saving skill, recycling skill, and reuse skill. It is suggested that Polytechnics should embed these green skills into their programme curricula in order to produce graduates who are able to meet the needs of green industry

Cognitive task analysis method for system interface design

Poor perception from human interpretation on system interface design may deviate human critical judgment about state of a system. As a result accidents may occur due to misinterpretation on displayed information available on the screen. In relation to that, this paper describes designing scenarios for system interface design which reflects with user’s working context. System interface design that familiar with working context will help to increase user’s satisfaction and the ease of use of a particular system. Moreover, through the process in designing scenarios also leads to the identification of problems and how experts deal with challenging tasks in using the system. Human abstract thinking which could not be gather in a quantitative way motivate authors to employ Cognitive Task Analysis method in collecting system interface design requirements from the experts as to design task scenarios. In general experts involve in this study are from the manufacturing industries where their daily scope of work is in system maintenance tasks. There are five phases involve in Cognitive Task Analysis; define tasks, select participants, task observation, task diagram and knowledge audit. Results from the interview and observation session will give an essential clue in designing scenarios for system interface design. This is because in knowing a correct problem to solve and provide cues at a needed point in time will help users to interpret information on system interface design

Inquiry-Based Education: Innovation in Participatory Inquiry Paradigm

Inquiry-based learning is fundamental for the development of higher order thinking skills that guides learners to inquire meaningful questions that led to relevant answers, therefore awaken learners’ curiosity and wonder. Re-cent ameliorations in technology have captivated the enthusiasm of both educators and researchers to develop inquiry-based classroom activities that emphasize the application of educational technology in the domain of school science education. Thus, we have designed a learning application “AIBASE”, which assists primary school students in generating hypotheses during Science experiments. The instructional framework was used to scru-tinize the effectiveness of using “AIBASE” in aiding the learning process. The results implied improvements in students’ performance level. In addi-tion, this paper also highlights the main criteria for inquiry-based learning

Cognitive Interface System Design usability testing

Lack of human cognitive criteria incorporated in Interface System Design (ISD) may affect user’s performance in system control. Perhaps, user’s level of awareness is needed in dealing with constant system control in the production industries. By analyzing design principles, cognitive theories, models and understand user’s cognitive limitations, helps the researcher to identify Cognitive ISD criteria which will be embedded in the development of system design. To date, in order to enhance human performance in using the system it is hope that by filling the gaps with the Cognitive ISD criteria in the system design will help users to increase the ease of use of the system. Seventeen participants involved in this study and they are required to complete the task scenarios by using the system which has been developed for the purpose of this study. Usability questionnaires will be given to the participants and will be further analyzed based on Situational Awareness categories