Forum Title: Online Learning (Group 3)

Chairperson

: Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the night forum of today. First of all, I would like to thank to all of the audience in front of me. Thank you very much for attending the forum for today. Our issue for tonight is Online Learning. First of all, I would like to introduce our panels for tonight. Right on my left is Noor Hajah Sanita, a student from UPSI, next to her is our specially invited parent, Pn Nor Awaathif Bt Mohd Ghazali Lee. For your information, she is the winner of the best mother for the year 2009. A big claps for her and congratulation for the award. How are you doing Pn Nor Awaathif? Im good, and glad to be here this evening. Beside her is Professor Norharyan Erdayu from the Department of Modern Language University of Malaya. How are you today professor? Im doing Great. Thank you. At the end of the corner is the very experience counselor, Dr Salmiza Zainal Abidin. Welcome to our forum for today, Dr. Thank You. Ladies and gentlemen, As we all know, online learning is also known as web based learning. Online learning can also be define as a specific mode to attend a course or program of study where the students rarely or never meet face-to-face, nor access on-campus educational facilities, because they use to study online. For further detail about this topic, I would like to seek an information from the first panel next to me, Noor Hajah Sanita. As one of theUPSIl student, when do u know about online learning and why you choose online learning as one of your way to study?

Student

: Thank you miss chairperson. Assalamualaikum w.b.t and a very good evening to all the panelist and the audience. Im so glad to be one of the guests here. As what miss Eliana has said just now, Im a first year student at UPSI and Im taking science education. I knew this kind of learning since i was in secondary school. However it is not widely used as we must depends only on text book and teachers guide. The reason why i choose online

learning is firstly it is a flexible way. Why? It is because it work when it make sense for me. I can use it whenever either at night, evening or morning. With the online learning I am not tied to the class schedule. Sometimes, the class timetable is too pack that make students feel so stressed about it. The pack and tight schedule can cause the student cannot perform well in their study due to fatigue condition. So by using the online website learning for an addition, I can lessen my work load. Besides going to campus, I also used to surf internet to study. I can go for it whenever I want to and at any place I like as long as there is internet connection. Furthermore I can improve my time management. It is because I dont have to wait for a bus to go to the campus in order to see my lecturers. I also can communicate directly with my lecturers through the web cam although at home. I can even ask questions and opinions to them. It is really a convenient way to study as long as we have good intention and passions to succeed. I also can save money because at university I also get the wireless connections. So I dont have to use broadband at my hostel. Aside from time management aspects, I become more control of my learning process with some online courses. I can even learn on my own page and also choosing the subjects that I want to learn. Other than that by having this kind of technologies, I can make friends all over the world. I can share ideas and informations with my friends from other universities of other countries. By doing this my knowledge will be widen and get to know their country too. From this, I also can learn more learning skills and improving my communication skills. Chairperson : Next we move to our counselor, Dr Salmiza Zainal Abidin, may be she would like to share her precious experience with all of us. Based on your experienced, what are the positive about online learning? Counselor : Online learning or with other word is E-learning mean is a term that encompasses all form of technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) or very specific types of TEL such as online or web-based learning. In my opinion, online learning is the other ways of student to study or to get the information if they cant attend the class. From this, student can attend a course at

anytime from anyway. That mean, the student can attend the class from anywhere in the world that has internet access. So, they can still get the information about courses. Beside that, online classrooms also provide chat rooms and newsgroups for meetings and joint work. From this, it helps the student to share information and give opinion in certain topic. For example, when student have a problem in study or misunderstands in some topic in the class, they can get the information from this online group discussion. Student also fined the course material that may not be available in the library or from their reading. So, at the same time students can get more information and knowledge about the topic they found. Advantage of online learning is the course material is accessible 24 hour a day 7 days a week. From this material, students have the ability to read, discussion, explanation and comment. Using the internet to attend class, research information and communication with other students teaches skills in using technologies that will be critical to workers in the 21st century business community that works with colleagues globally and across time zones. Chairperson Mother : Next we move to Pn Nor Awaathif, as a mother to 7 children, how far do you agree with online learning Pn Nor Awaathif? : I do agree with the online learning because it did not require any specific time and place. So it made my life easier by reducing the cost of sending my children to the tuition that sometimes might be so far. Instead of reducing the cost, I also can have a look on my children progression in front of my eyes. This also could avoid them from creating a reason to loafing and so on. Besides that, from what I know the online instructors come with practical knowledge and may be from any location across the globe. This allows students to be exposed to knowledge that cant be learned in books and see how class concepts are applied in real business. Chairperson : We have listened to student, counselor and mothers opinion about online learning, now, I would like to post next question to professor Norharyan Erdayu. Professor Norharyan, may you share with all the audience for tonight, why you s trongly recommended your students to do online learning?

Lecturer

: Thank you to miss chairperson. Online learning is other option for students to improve their knowledge. As a lecturer, I also encourage my students to learn English by online. For instance, I suggest them to surf MyLinE website. For your information, this website provides additional resources for learning in English for academic and professional purposes. Besides that, it does also provide a platform for self-access interactive learning. The learning process will be more attractive and interesting instead of learning in class. There are many activities provided in this website. The most attracted me is the student forum site. This is a place for sharing of experience and ideas as students in a university. They can express their views and opinions on academic and non-academic issues, seek assistance or they can communicate with other fellow students. The other one is Correct My English site. This is a platform where students can post a short text that has written and other users could help correct the text. I believe that this is one of the affective ways of learning but yes, there will be pro and cons. It depends on the students to decide.

Chairperson

: Well, from what Prof Norharyan mentioned just now, for every good thing there must be a bad thing on it. The same thing goes for online learning. What do you think about the negative impact of Online Learning Dr.?

Counselor

: The disadvantage of online learning is lack of interaction you will get with classmates and instructor. For example, in the class, students have a change to speaking in class presentation and discussion and give their own opinion clearly. But in online learning, student just can sit at the front of the laptop, type their opinion and wait the answer. The second disadvantage is missing out non-verbal communication. As we know, non-verbal communication is very important than verbal communication. Non-verbal communication is also know as body language which refer to, among other things, gestures people make while speaking, eye contacts and the way they stands. In online learning students just can communicate as actual words. Lastly, In order to succeed at online learning, you have to have some specific skills. You have to

be self-motivated, responsible for your own learning and have good time management skills. If you don't have those skills, traditional classes may be a better choice for you. Chairperson : Back to Pn Nor Awaathif, what do you think the benefit that your children can get from the online learning?
Mother : The online learning that my children join was very interesting one. I did not

mean to over promoting this online learning but this is the real thing that my children told me. One of my children said that she got what she did not get in class. She added more that in this program she could test her understanding whether by discussion or a short quiz provided there. Furthermore, over 75% of colleges and universities in the U.S offer online degree programs, with online degrees respected as on the ground degrees. (Lewis). If this program is not conventional, why the big country willing to take the risk? There must be a reason of success behind it. Just think about it. Chairperson : Prof Norharyan, could you please tell us what is the different between student who practice online learning and who are not? Lecturer : There are different between the students who practice online learning and who are not. For my students who are practice online learning, they have improved a lot. Thats why I ask all of my students practice online learning. This is compulsory for them and extra credits will be given. I would like to advise all of the students to take this opportunity to improve their knowledge not only in English but in all fields of study. Please use the technology for good purposes that will give benefits to you, especially in your study Chairperson : Back to Hajah Sanita, where do you heard about this online learning and how it give impacts to your academic achievement? Student : In the university I become more interested in online learning since i realised there are plenty of advantages for me. I was introduced to online learning

through my friends. They shared with me all the online websites learning such as wikipedia, portal pendidikan utusan, myline online resources for learning in English and many more. Furthermore, my lecturers also advised us to find additional informations through the websites that are linked to our subjects. Since the lecturers also are using technology so they give the links where we should refer to. The websites help us to gain more knowledge by surfing internet. This additional information is important because the contents I get from the reference books, lecture notes and text book are not enough. There are too many assignments I have to do. However all of them are grouping activities. Sometimes, my friends and I share the online web learning whenever and wherever we want to. In this group discussion, we will discuss what we find and we gathered all together. We will make hard copy for each of us. Finally we can use it as our references in our preparation towards final examination. My parent and family also supported me in this way of learning. As I cannot access internet at home due to no wireless connection, my parents bought a broadband for me. So from the sources, now I can easily continue using online learning. Thats all from me. Thank you. Chairperson : Congratulation, Hajah Sanita. Now we know that online learning is proven to boost everyone knowledge. Finally we have come to the end of our forum for tonight where we have shared a lot of knowledge which we dont even know before. Online learning is build up with the modern technology nowadays. Besides the good things there is also bad thing. So it is everyone right to choose. For the last word from me, I would like to thank again to all ladies and gentlemen for tonight and also to our panels. A billion thank I dedicate to everyone for cheering up this forum for tonight. See you again for next week on the other issue.