Boosting Malaysian Tourism – The Food Way!

Malaysia‟s aim to become a developed nation has spurred growth in many areas of the economy including tourism. Malaysian tourism destinations have been well promoted along with the uniqueness of the Malaysian culture which is an exciting blend of the Malay, Chinese, Indian and other native subcultures. However, one of the reasons tourists repeatedly come back to the country has been neglected. This paper focuses on this – how food can be used as a strategy to boost Malaysian tourism. A comparative study is done on how Hong Kong and Singapore has capitalized on food in their tourism initiatives. Based on this, a comparison is then made on what has been done in Malaysia and what is still missing. Five key strategies are proposed to boost Malaysian tourism including food trails, on-line promotions, quality certification, culinary classes and packages and community involvement. These will contribute to the number of tourist arrivals, regional development, tourist pattern of dispersion and community development. (Abstract by authors

Motivation of Postgraduate Learners in Pursuing Their Doctoral Degree Through Collaborative Learning

This paper explored the idea of what motivates part time postgraduate learners to stay engaged in a collective e-learning environment of a private university in Malaysia. Findings indicate that the respondents felt that collaborative learning could cultivate motivation among peers

Challenges and Strategies in Engaging Adult Learners in the face-to-face facilitation in ODL

Engaging students in the classroom have become more crucial in education as the attention span of students remain the same despite the increase in learning hours. Many studies have been done on this especially at the primary and secondary level. However, there are less studies being done at the tertiary level of education. With the advancement of technology and the recent increase in distance learning and on-line learning, the number of hours dedicated to face-to-face teaching has been reduced. This means that learners have to absorb the same amount of knowledge in lesser number of hours. This study is a conceptual paper based on a literature review which focuses on how academicians can engage learners through various creative and innovative solutions. It identifies the challenges faced by academicians in teaching adult learners and explores avenues that can be pursued to engage these learners. At the end of the paper, strategies that have been successfully implemented in OUM Business School are documented as a basis for future research efforts. It was concluded that all tutors and facilitators should be committed to the development of innovation and creativity in the learning environment in order to engage learners in the classroom. This would ensure that quality in teaching and learning is achieved

Study on Postgraduate Student Preferred / Dislike Teaching/Learning Techniques: A Case Study of a Private University in Malaysia

This paper examine preferred / dislike teaching/learning techniques among postgraduate student at a Malaysian university. Past studies had indicated the promotion of students’ “graduateness”, responsibility lies in the hand of teachers who need to know what are in the mind of student with regards to their most preferred or non preferred learning and teaching style. 57 returned questionnaires were accepted and coded, and subject to further analysis with a response rate of 73 percent from the private university. The result revealed that the highest ranked technique most preferred by the students was “interactive lecture by instructor and the most dislike technique was formal lecture by instructor. Significant finding was that though there were some differences within the different disciplines, some commonalities seem to be present. Future study should consider alternative modes of enquires such as employing the longitudinal method of data collection design and a nationwide survey covering samples from the whole population of the higher institutions of learning in Malaysia that would be more significant in making generalizations

The learning styles amongst lifelong learners in Sekolah Pondok according to KOLB learning style inventory (KLSI) in Penang, Malaysia

Lifelong learning and experiential learning, two separate terms but relatively having the same meaning. The nature of the learners in lifelong learning is well received as enjoying the journey towards the pursuit of knowledge for both personal and professional purposes. Experiential learning involves experiences in the learning process supported by reflection. At OUM, most of the learners are working adults. Lifelong learning is well connected with experiential learning regarding the learning process. This study intends to observe the views of lifelong learners from the perspective of experiential learning by Kolb (2017). The study aims to determine the types of learning styles practiced by lifelong learners in Sekolah Pondok Sg. Bakap, Seberang Prai. The views from the lifelong learners in Sekolah Pondok Pondok Tuan Guru Haji Yusoff, Sg. Bakap, Seberang Prai are gathered and fit in the Nine Learning Styles of the Kolb Learning Style Inventory Version 4.0 (KLSI 4.0). Qualitative approaches are used by triangulation techniques to ensure that the information obtained is more accurate, valid and reliable, then measured through the determiners adapted from Kolb & Kolb (2017). The findings based on the qualitative data shows that the learning styles have fulfilled most of the KLSI, some of the evidence seems to be unique due to the nature of the programme. It enables us to understand the process of learning and their unique method of learning. By strengthening the realisation of how they learn will create insights on the level of metacognitive control of their learning process, hence will enable us to create the rubric as a guide in designing the lesson on online learning at OUM. (Abstract by authors

Motivation of postgraduate learners in pursuing their doctoral degree through collaborative learning

Huge investments in both the public and private universities are made mainly to attract learners, yet how do we keep them engaged and retained them. On the other hand, how do these universities motivate their part time postgraduate learners to further continue their education? The implication of these learners’ withdrawals will be costly to the learners’ potential success in their career. It will also have repercussion on the universities’ reputation, operational and manpower costs and the upmost loss of all will be in terms of potential knowledgeable workers to the nation. Therefore, it will be imperative that owners and stakeholders of these universities find ways on how to retain its learners. This study thus, focuses on collaborative learning among part time postgraduate learners who are pursuing their doctoral degree at a private open university in Malaysia. A semi-structured face-to-face interview was used to gain more insight on their experience that have an impact on their motivation to continuously work towards achieving their ambition. The finding indicated that through collaborative learning, it had lead to high level of engagement and motivation among learners. Future study should consider alternative modes of enquires such as employing a cross sectional research design and a nationwide survey covering samples from the whole population of the higher institutions of learning in Malaysia that would be more significant in making generalisation

Challenges and Strategies in Engaging Adult Learners in the Face-to-Face Facilitation in ODL

Engaging students in the classroom have become more crucial in education as the attention span of students remain the same despite the increase in learning hours. Many studies have been done on this especially at the primary and secondary level. However, there are less studies being done at the tertiary level of education. With the advancement of technology and the recent increase in distance learning and on-line learning, the number of hours dedicated to face-to-face teaching has been reduced. This means that learners have to absorb the same amount of knowledge in lesser number of hours. This study is a conceptual paper based on a literature review which focuses on how academicians can engage learners through various creative and innovative solutions. It identifies the challenges faced by academicians in teaching adult learners and explores avenues that can be pursued to engage these learners. At the end of the paper, strategies that have been successfully implemented in OUM Business School are documented as a basis for future research efforts. It was concluded that all tutors and facilitators should be committed to the development of innovation and creativity in the learning environment in order to engage learners in the classroom. This would ensure that quality in teaching and learning is achieved

Study on Postgraduate Student Preferred / Dislike Teaching/Learning Techniques: A Case Study of a Private University in Malaysia

This paper examine preferred / dislike teaching/learning techniques among postgraduate student at a Malaysian university. Past studies had indicated the promotion of students’ “graduateness”, responsibility lies in the hand of teachers who need to know what are in the mind of student with regards to their most preferred or non preferred learning and teaching style. 57 returned questionnaires were accepted and coded, and subject to further analysis with a response rate of 73 percent from the private university. The result revealed that the highest ranked technique most preferred by the students was “interactive lecture by instructor and the most dislike technique was formal lecture by instructor. Significant finding was that though there were some differences within the different disciplines, some commonalities seem to be present. Future study should consider alternative modes of enquires such as employing the longitudinal method of data collection design and a nationwide survey covering samples from the whole population of the higher institutions of learning in Malaysia that would be more significant in making generalizations

Acceptance and usage, social influences, instructor’s presence and performance among learners in an ODL institution

Open Distance Learning (ODL) has been implemented in Malaysia for several decades to widen access to education while enriching the quality of learner's experience. Building from previous literature, this article aims to examine the relationship between independent variables of learner acceptance and usage of e-learning and instructor presence and learner performance, as the dependent variable, while social influences act as the mediation variable among learners in a distance learning (ODL) environment. Working adults enrolled for business programmes in one of the ODL institutions in Malaysia were surveyed. A total of 148 participants completed a survey questionnaire measuring their responses on the said variables. The study found that there was a positive relationship between the two independent constructs and learner performance. Social influences fully mediated between the independent and dependent variables. This indicates that peer influence is important during the learning process and the delivery of the teaching will enhance the learner’s competencies and knowledge. These findings indicate that these variables can be included in ODL learning environment. However, other constructs should also be explored. Suggestions and recommendations on the strength and influence of these variables to working adults are discussed and their applicability in other cultures and ODL institutions are elaborated upon. (Abstract by authors

Factors Influencing Intention to Adopt Internet Technology among Rural Homestay Operators in Malaysia

The purpose of this study is to develop a direct effect understanding of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trust, and attitude on homestay operators’ intention to adopt internet technology in their homestay business in Malaysia. The Structural Equation Model (SEM) was used to analyse the casual relationships between independent variables and dependent variables. The model was developed and later tested by adopting the Partial Least Square (PLS) procedure on data collected from a survey that yielded 307 usable questionnaires. The findings showed that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and trust have a significant and positive influence on homestay operators’ attitude. Attitude, then found to positively and significantly influence the homestay operators’ intention to adopt internet technology in their homestay business. The findings imply that the relationship amongst perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trust, and attitude on homestay operators’ intention to adopt internet technology will lead to the increase of their homestay guests. This study uses Smartpls 3.0 and SPSS 18.0 to test the hypothesis and analyse respondents’ profile, respectively. (Abstract by authors