Academic Reading & Writing : Paraphrasing

In this unit, we will learn: Different forms of plagiarism The basic guide in paraphrasing Different techniques in paraphrasin

Milking the MOOCs : Blending it Right for Meaningful Flipped Learning

Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) has undergone tremendous changes within a short period of time. Its vast potentials in transforming learning and even the name itself have been scrutinised and debated by various researchers and educationists, so much so that it has created its own ecology for learning that Decker (2014) coined as “MOOCology”. In its humble yet impactful beginning in 2008, MOOC focused on its massiveness and openness. Massive refers to the capability of allowing thousands of students to enrol while open refers to free and open access to anyone regardless of their prior learning (Decker, 2014). Dave Cormier coined the term MOOC after seeing the success of George Siemens’ and Stephen Downes’ course on Connectivism and Connected Knowledge in 2008, luring 2,300 students who took the course for free (Downes, 2008). However, both Siemen and Downes credited the concept of free open online courses to David Wiley and Alec Couros who developed their wiki-based free courses in 2007. By 2012, various MOOCs mushroomed thanks to the introduction of MIT OpenCourseware, Coursera and edX

iTeaching for uLearning: Interactive Teaching Tools for Ubiquitous Learning in Higher Education

The shift of focus to learner-centred approaches in teaching and learning has intensified the increasing use of technological tools in the classrooms. Educators are no longer restricted to the use of traditional teaching resources or materials, but are showered with various technological advancements that enhance the learning experience. Such shift in technological development demands a change in the traditional pedagogy that used to be the epitome of teaching and learning. Hence, interactive teaching (iTeaching) methods are regarded as the much-needed boost for 21st century learning environments in which learners are given more autonomy in their learning process

ASPIRE Model for Academic Writing (Slideshow)

Writing academic essays can be rather difficult as it requires some necessary "skills" in ensuring a piece of work remains "academic"

Reflective Inquiry in the Virtual Brainstorming of Writing Tasks : The Case of Padlet and Facebook

Brainstorming of ideas is an important step in writing and it is usually done in the classroom through face-to-face group discussions. However, due to the time-dependent nature of such activity, the discussion is largely dominated by learners who are more proficient than the rest. This creates limited opportunities for healthy exchange of ideas among all group members. Hence, virtual platforms can reduce this constraint by permitting seamless brainstorming sessions to flourish beyond the classroom hours. It also increases the participations of all members since they are given ample time to reflect and respond. In this study, 320 students of a remedial English course were equally classified into Category P and Category F after they have formed groups of 5 students. The groups in Category P were told to brainstorm on a writing task via Padlet while those in Category F were required to brainstorm the same task through Facebook groups. The links for their Padlet walls and Facebook groups were compiled and their interactions were analysed based on the Practical Inquiry Model. The findings revealed that students in the Padlet groups were more frequently engaged in reflective thinking when providing their brainstorming responses as compared to those using Facebook groups. The post-course survey results indicated that the clean interface of Padlet allowed the students to stay focus during brainstorming and the extraneous features of Facebook usually caused distractions. Ultimately, this study has provided valuable insights on the potential use of Web 2.0 tools in the virtual brainstorming of writing activities

Luring the Lurkers: Increasing Participations in the Online Discussions of a Blended Learning Course

Despite the popularity of online discussion threads, there is a growing concern on the lack of participation among the learners. The number of responses in discussion threads is dropping and has discouraged healthy exchanges of ideas among the learners. Most learners tend to be online lurkers who rarely provide feedback although they are rather active in reading others’ posts. In this study, a few techniques were employed in the online discussion threads of a blended learning course on academic reading and writing in order to promote lurkers’ participations. Discussion topics were posted throughout the 14-week course offered at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) using different techniques in order to supplement the activities conducted in faceto- face classes. Based on the discourse analysis of responses posted by 122 participants, three techniques were noted to be successful in luring the lurkers to be more active in the discussion, which include the use of a comic strip as a topic starter, incorporation of social talks and instructor’s frequent intervention. At the end of the course, semi-structured interviews were conducted to ind out the lurkers’ overall perceptions on their behaviour in online discussion. The analysis revealed that the number of responses is not directly incremental to the mastery of the subject matter. However, it is the learner’s sense of belonging to the online community that persuaded them to be more active in sharing their ideas. Thus, cohesion and deeper scrutiny of the discussion topic are largely facilitated by the cultivation of social elements in each discussion

E-Learning and Cross-Border Higher Education: Post-Pandemic Potentials and Challenges

The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on higher education goes beyond campus closures and disruption in programme delivery. The crisis has indirectly allowed higher education institutions to re-examine their existing programme structure in order to be more flexible and accessible to students both locally and internationally. Such need has triggered a new interest in assessing the use of e-learning in enhancing cross-border higher education, which was traditionally restricted mainly to campus based physical experience. This chapter discusses the challenges and potentials of implementing cross-border higher education through e-learning mode in the context of post-pandemic higher education ecosystem. The transition to online learning during the pandemic as faced by higher education institutions has elevated the interest in maximizing the roles that e-learning could play in higher education. While e-learning has the potential to allow more cross-border programmes to be offered internationally via virtual mobility, issues surrounding quality assurance, infrastructure and diversity remain critical to be addressed. Higher education institutions should not emphasize solely on penetrating new markets without taking measures to deal with the issues mentioned. On the whole, this chapter would serve as a good reference to relevant stakeholders in uncovering the hidden potentials of e-learning in crossborder higher education and evaluating its challenges

Hantaran Bahasa Melayu yang Tular di Facebook: Analisis dari Aspek Kandungan dan Atribut Linguistik

Pertambahan pengguna Facebook yang terdiri daripada pelbagai lapisan masyarakat telah menjadikan Facebook salah satu medium sumber maklumat utama dalam media sosial. Hantaran yang mendapat banyak perhatian dalam kalangan pengguna Facebook ini telah mencipta fenomena yang dikenali sebagai penularan, iaitu hantaran yang dikongsikan dengan puluhan ribu pengguna dalam tempoh masa yang singkat dan dengan cara yang lebih cepat berbanding media arus perdana. Kajian lepas telah meneliti hantaran yang tular dalam bidang perniagaan dan kebanyakan hantaran tersebut ditulis dalam bahasa Inggeris. Kajian ini pula bertujuan untuk menganalisis hantaran bahasa Melayu di Facebook yang tular dari aspek kandungan dan struktur linguistik. Melalui kaedah analisis teks, kajian ini melibatkan 100 hantaran Facebook merangkumi pelbagai topik yang telah tular dengan saiz korpus kira-kira 10,000 patah perkataan. Kajian ini merakamkan kandungan dan atribut bahasa setiap hantaran dalam jadual. Dapatan kajian menunjukkan bahawa tema utama kandungan hantaran yang tular berunsur nasihat yang berkaitan dengan topik keluarga. Bagi atribut linguistik pula, kekerapan penggunaan kata ganti nama diri adalah sangat tinggi dan dari segi gaya penulisan didapati bahawa penghujahan dan penceritaan ialah gaya penulisan yang paling popular dalam hantaran yang tular. Oleh itu, kajian ini memberikan input kepada penyedia kandungan yang bergiat aktif di media sosial untuk menghasilkan kandungan yang boleh menjangkau lebih ramai pengguna

E-Learning: Global Perspectives, Challenges and Educational Implications

As the world recovers from the unprecedented outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the field of education continues to cushion the impacts of school closures and teaching disruption through various measures. E-learning, while not new, has taken a greater role in mitigating the effects of the pandemic. This book is not only a collection of chapters shared by researchers and academics but also a manifestation of the dedication of those involved in the pursuit of providing equitable and quality education through the support of e-learning tools and platforms. The book begins with an outlook on the post-pandemic potentials and challenges of utilising e-learning for cross-border education. The chapter by Donnie Adams and Chuah Kee Man focuses on the necessary measures that can be taken to fully maximise the use of e-learning in promoting cross-border education in higher education institutions. It is indeed timely for higher education institutions to re-examine the concept of cross-border education through the lens of e-learning and virtual mobility especially when physical presence is costly or not feasible. Several innovative pedagogical approaches and ideas are also presented in enhancing learning experience via e-learning. In Chapter 2, Zainun Mustafa and colleagues offered their perspectives on using creative pedagogy through e-learning for the purpose of science education. They explain the distinctive components of creative pedagogy that can be incorporated through various e-learning tools in order to foster meaningful learning in science classrooms. In Chapter 3, Vinothini Vasodavan and colleagues focus on developing students’ attitude domain via online collaborative learning tools. They propose a framework which was derived through the fuzzy Delphi method. Their model serves as a guide in selecting the most suitable collaborative learning tools to develop the attitude domain of the students. In the next chapter, Selvakumar Selvarajan and colleagues introduce the concept of interactive digital storytelling assignment in online teaching and learning that could help teachers foster higher order thinking skills among their students. In addition, studies that measure the impact of online learning in different settings are also included in this book. In Chapter 5, Mustaji and colleagues reported the outcomes from their study on online learning engagement among Indonesian university students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using Rasch model analysis, their study highlighted the Indonesian students’ level of engagement and readiness in coping with online learning. In Chapter 6, Muhammad Mujtaba Asad and colleagues shared their findings on a study conducted on university students in Pakistan, which examined the challenges that they faced dealing with online learning during the pandemic. Finally, in Chapter 7, Riccardo Corrado and Audrey Liwan described massive open online courses (MOOCs) implementation in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, specifically on the barriers faced by the member states. They also offered their review of issues to be addressed in creating a homogeneous ecosystem for MOOCs in ASEAN

Artificial Intelligence-Based Tools in Research Writing : Current Trends and Future Potentials

Questions begin to arise around to what extent research writing and training can be supported electronically. The emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies have triggered a tremendous interest among educational technologists. One area that has received much attention is AI-based tools, developed to assist researchers in the writing process. AI-powered writing tools aim to not only ease the process of research writing but also to enhance the quality of critical analysis particularly in the aspect of literature review and language style. Despite the trends in adopting AI components within research writing, there are still-limited efforts to examine its implementation, strengths and weaknesses. This chapter reviews some of the key studies concerning AI in research writing as well as an extensive review of existing tools by covering their AI-based features, affordances and constraints. The chapter also includes a discussion on the future potentials of AI implementation with regard to research writing. This chapter would serve as a good reference to uncover the hidden potentials of AI-based tools in assisting students to produce high-quality research writing