LAMPIRAN 1

PEMARKAHAN

KOD & NAMA KURSUS

Semester 1 Sesi 2021/2022

KPT 60404: Pembelajaran Berasaskan Elektronik dan Web

TAJUK

WEB-BASED LEARNING OPTIMIZES THE TEACHING AND LEARNING

EXPERIENCE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY LEARNERS : THE MALAYSIAN
STORY

DISEDIAKAN OLEH

NAMA NO. MATRIK PROGRAM

IRNI HAFIZAN BINTI IBRAHIM BEY M20211000212 TEKNOLOGI

INSTRUKSIONAL

PENSYARAH: PROF. MADYA TS. DR. MAHIZER BIN HAMZAH

Tarikh :____________________________________

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 WEB-BASED LEARNING OPTIMIZES THE TEACHING AND LEARNING
EXPERIENCE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY LEARNERS : THE MALAYSIAN STORY

Introduction

Education in Malaysia is overseen by the Ministry of Education where each state and
federal territory has an education department to co-ordinate educational matters.
Currently, the process of teaching and learning more to the traditional with verbal
educational method and it is not necessarily effective. The past studies have shown
that student who received verbal method is very difficult to understand and to solve
the problem compared than the explanation in verbal and visual method. In fact,
many of educational institution still use the ineffective method to deliver their lectures
which will cause the lack of student interest. To measure the effectiveness of
learning, retention (remember presented information) and transfer (able to use
information to solve the problem) are the factors that can help students understand
what they have learned. Thus, educators have to find the appropriate method in
order to deliver the teaching to the student and to give better approaches to improve
their learning experiences.

Web-based learning (WBL), also

known as
electronic learning (e-learning), refers
to Internet
technologies used to deliver a broad
array of
solutions that enhance the instructional
process.
WBL combines online and knowledge
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management attributes (Rosenberg,
2001)
Web-based learning (WBL), also
known as
electronic learning (e-learning), refers
to Internet
technologies used to deliver a broad
array of
solutions that enhance the instructional
process.
WBL combines online and knowledge
management attributes (Rosenberg,
2001)
Web-based learning (WBL), also
known as
electronic learning (e-learning), refers
to Internet
technologies used to deliver a broad
array of
solutions that enhance the instructional
process.
3
WBL combines online and knowledge
management attributes (Rosenberg,
2001)
Web-based learning (WBL), also known as electronic learning (e-learning), refers to
Internet technologies used to deliver a broad array of solutions that enhance the
instructional process. Technological tools have been used for transferring the
information. However, if we use technology to build and share knowledge,
technology will be more useful (Dinc, 2017). In the past ten years of Malaysian
education, Ministry of Education (MoE) has introduced the web-based teaching
learning approach (WBTLA) and it has increasingly become dominant in the
educational landscape, be it at schools or at higher education institutions. It provides
teachers, lecturers and students with a new and wide range of teaching-learning
experience such as accessing information at any time and place, online presentation
of information, interactive task-based activities, effective dissemination of
information, and long distance education that is less possible in traditional
classrooms (Nam & Smith-Jackson, 2007).

In education, websites occupy a significant place, and web-based learning is an

important example. The Internet today has several critical roles in education, such as
providing information, fostering communication, providing an environment for
creativity, and delivering instruction. Thanks to the Internet, learners can
communicate with other learners and teachers. Online communities can share their
documents and improve and build their knowledge together. In addition with the
outbreak of Coronavirus in March 2020, the advancement of WBL has been
accelerated five years in advance especially in Malaysia education landscape.

Background of Web-Based Learning in Malaysia

In today's world, everyone is familiar with computers. With the advent of the
Internet, computers gained additional importance. People now communicate

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online, work online, and more importantly educate themselves online. Therefore,
the importance of websites in our lives cannot be ignored. In this century, websites
are being used as tools to reach people for various purposes, such as business,
education, marketing, advertisement, health, and as platforms to produce
appropriate software and applications.

In education, the technology of the internet is very important for economic

development in the future because a high standard of education can facilitate the
development of a country. However, communities have believed that the internet
technology provides more harm than benefit to teenagers. Therefore, teachers
should try to demonstrate that the internet technology is useful in education. To
adopt this technology, teachers can utilise web-based learning approaches as
effective methods of learning for students.

Various learning strategies can be used to enhance the learning process. However,
because educators have a responsibility to assist countries in achieving a high level
of education, they should use methods that not only convey knowledge but also
encourage students to think at higher levels. The learning strategies that can be
used for teaching and learning (T&L) purposes include active learning, collaborative
learning, cooperative, problem-based learning, and inquiry. All these methods are
capable of providing a positive impact on students’ thinking skills

The implementation of conventional learning has faced many problems, especially in

terms of implementation, the static learning environment, and limited learning
resources. Learning via the web is said to help in reducing the constraints and is
able to provide a more flexible and efficient collaborative learning environment. A
web-based learning environment is one of the distance learning strategies in which
the internet technology becomes the primary medium for delivering the T&L courses
quickly. A web-based learning environment is not only suitable for distance
education but able to support the twenty-first-century learning because it can
improve the skills needed by students especially in higher education. Therefore, a
web-based learning is very suitable to emphasise student-centeredness because it
does not depend merely on the instructor.

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According to Baharuddin (2001), learning through the website should have the
following characteristics:
i. Ability to produce genuine learning context and involve solving real
problems
ii. Students are responsible and have initiative to learn independently in a
skill
iii. Teachers act as facilitators and guides, not as a source of information
iv. Active discussion between students and teachers
v. The learning in a group-collaborative and cooperative learning
vi. Authentic learning assessment strategies to evaluate the actual skill.

According to Siti Fatimah Petra, Jainatul Halida Jaidin and Perera (2016), a web-
based learning offers the potential to support the development of the struggle in the
twenty-first century skills, which contributes to autonomous learning. These skills
include communication skills, numeracy, ICT skills, critical thinking skills, and
problem-solving.

To keep pace with the growth of e-learning education, the Malaysian government
has embarked on a nationwide project to connect schools where student and
teachers teach and learn in a virtual learning environment. This project was
implemented in 2011 which is known as 1BestariNet. Massive resources have been
channelled into equipping over 10,000 primary and secondary government schools
nationwide with 4G internet connectivity and a cloud-based virtual learning
environment known as FROG VLE (Campbell, Al Harthi, & Karimi, 2015).

The 1BestariNet project is to replace Schoolnet which was launched in 2004.

Schoolnet fell short of expectations, especially in terms of speed (only 1Mbps),
capacity and lack of specifications and integration. 1BestariNet on the other hand is
an ambitious technology-in-education project which will cost Malaysian taxpayers
RM1.5 billion (nearly US$500 million) and its implementation is expected to run over
13 years. 1BestariNet IDs has been made available to all students, parents and
teachers in all the schools nationwide, where they now have single-sign-on access to
the Frog Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), Google Apps for Education and the
FrogStore. Content and educational tools are integrated from Khan Academy and
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Google Apps (Razak & Yusop, 2013). Through the Frog VLE, teachers are able to
digitize their teaching content and explore new ways of bringing the best resources
and teaching methods to be shared across the 10,000 schools. Learning anytime,
anywhere is now possible with high-capacity wireless Internet access to all 10 million
teachers, students and parents in Malaysia.

The Frog Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) is a cloud-based learning environment

that emulates the traditional face-to-face teaching and learning. It not only supports
e-learning activities such as presenting information, managing course materials, and
running assessments but it also provides a rich media environment with numerous
graphics, video, animation, sound, and hyperlinks (Berns, Gonzalez-Pardo, &
Camacho, 2013). It also offers teachers a number of benefits, such as having the
course management tools, group chat and discussion, assignment submission,
course assessments, educational resource management and also tracking of
student’s participation. Besides increasing interest among the teachers and learners,
it also enhances teaching effectiveness and is cost-saving.

With the end of the 1BestariNet project in 30th June 2019 and Frog VLE no longer
available to education community in Malaysia, MoE announced a new digital learning
platform in June 2020. This new platform is known as DELIMa or Digital Educational
Learning Initiative Malaysia, the platform is a culmination of several years of efforts
from the ministry along with Google, Microsoft and Apple.

The DELIMa platform offers all the applications and services required by teachers
and students within the Malaysian school system, including digital learning enabling
technologies and resources such as Google Classroom, Microsoft O365 and Apple
Teacher Learning Center. DELIMa, accessible via moe-dl.edu.my, was envisioned
with the following guiding tenets:

1. Platform democratization — digital learning accessible to all, supporting a

multi-technology ecosystem.
2. Lifelong learning — student-centric experience so learning can take place any
time.
3. Digital transformation — MOE’s commitment to the country’s future needs.

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The platform is averaging 1.7M monthly active users to-date, making it one of the
largest national deployments in the world. With 10,000 schools, 370,000 teachers
and 2.5 million students in the system, Malaysia is making huge strides in its digital
transformation and future readiness. As of today, research data is unavailable to
further comment on the implementation and impact of DELIMa as a tool for web-
based learning in Malaysia environment.

Issues and Challenges of Implementing Web-Based Learning

Web-Based learning is face with some challenges which slow the pace of its
acceptability and usage. The challenges of Web-Based learning can be categorized
as user factor, design factor, institutional factor and security factor with the various
elements contributing to these factors.

i) User factor
E-learning platforms offer many advantages to learners such as control over the
content, control over the time spent learning, and thus the process can be adapted
according to the learner needs and objectives of learning. This might contribute to
better communication with the students to enhance the learning process for
students. However, when using E-learning platforms there are also some elements
that might be considered obstacles in students’ process of learning, such as
decreased motivation in students, delayed feedback or help due to the fact that
teachers are not always available at the time students may need help while learning,
or feelings of isolation due to lack of physical presence of classmates.

The educator’s or instructor’s role is another user factor that contributes toward the
effectiveness of online learning. Generally, an online facilitator plays three roles : a
motivator, content expert and technology resource person.

The implementation objectives of 1BestariNet Phase 2 were not achieved based on

low key performance indicators (KPIs) of Frog VLE (Virtual Learning Environment)
usage among pupils and learning sites preparation by teachers in 2018. In addition,
the Frog VLE usage among teachers was also very low, between 11.5% and 31.3%

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of the entire population of teachers as revealed in Auditor-General’s Report 2018
Series 1.(The Edge Financial Daily, 2019).

Many students, teachers and parents are still struggling with e-learning methods.
Low device ownership makes the implementation of e-learning quite challenging.
The results of the MOE survey involving almost 900,000 students showed a number
or 37

percent has no device. Only six percent of students have a personal computer;
tablets (9 percent) and smartphones (46 percent). Even if some families own the
device, most still need to share it with other family members for work or study
purposes. (Bih, H. L., et al, 2021)

The instructor’s role is another factor

that
contributes toward the effectiveness of
online
learning. Generally, an online
facilitator plays three
roles: a motivator, content expert and
technology
resource person. Instructors need to
spend time on
planning. They must also ensure that
learners are
actively engaged in the learning
process.
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ii) Design factor
Elements pertaining this factor are content design, page design and site design.
 Content design - ease in accessing and reading the content uploaded.
 Page design - ease in the use of pages and associated figures, multimedia
elements, logo, and illustrations.
 Site design - ease in accessing menus and navigate through the links of the web-
based learning materials.

iii) Institutional factor

Ministry of Education (MoE) as the key element of this factor has to provide a holistic
environment for the success of WBL implementation. From its curricular, digital
platform, infrastructure and personnel training. Moving from the concept of Smart
school project to the 1BestariNet project and now the DELIMa project, MoE has
ample data and findings on how to tackle the issues that rise from their end.

Education institution for example the schools, colleges, universities etc has limited
budget in order to provide and maintain the necessary environment especially
pertaining the infrastructures of their institution for an effective WBL, however they
have to make do with what they have.

A study has been carried out Mei, CL, et al in 2017 shows a number of pertinent
aspects about e-learning implementation in Malaysian schools nationwide. The first
most obvious was that most schools are not well-equipped. Poor Internet connection
made it quite challenging for teachers to carry out online learning. The second
finding points to the critical lack of training and support for teachers. There was a
unanimous plea to provide teachers with the necessary ICT qualifications to enable
them to effectively engage students in using ICT to enhance their learning.
Technological infrastructure and technical training are important aspects of
successful e-learning. In addition, without sufficient technical support and assistance
in the school, teachers cannot be expected to overcome the struggles preventing
them from fully utilizing the system (Lewis, 2003).

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A smooth internet connection is very important for the e-learning process to be
effective. Although mobile broadband penetration is high at 120 percent, fixed line
broadband penetration speeds are higher and stable at only about eight percent.
Internet access still has many constraints in terms of coverage and speed due to
lack of fiber optic network. Efforts to implement the National Optical Fiber and
Connectivity Plan (NFCP) need to be redoubled so that high-speed and affordable
internet access can be enjoyed by the community (Hawati, 2020).

iv) Security factor

Internet is one of a very important tools to implement WBL among other thing. The
prevalence of Internet use brings about the risk associated with Internet frauds,
online bullying and fake news. Nations struggle to strike the right balance between
preserving online privacy and providing online safety and security from online
criminal behaviours. Improper device updates, lack of efficient and robust security
protocols, user unawareness, and famous active device monitoring are among the
challenges that contribute to this factor.

Research has been done on five types of cyber security threats, malware, password,
phishing, social engineering and online scam. From the findings, the respondents’
behaviour in all aspects are considerably vulnerable and their behaviour would
certainly expose them to cyber security threats. (Muniandy, L, et al, 2017)

Below is the findings from Internet User Survey Report for the year 2020 carried out
by Malaysian Communications And Multimedia Commission, MCMC.
 User ID and password
Majority of Internet users were aware of the importance of Internet security.
Based on their online activities, 68.0% of Internet users did not use the same
user ID and password to access their accounts. In addition, 68.7% have two or
more user IDs and passwords. Among those who have more than one user ID
and password, more than half (57.1%) had trouble recalling their user IDs and
passwords and had to reset them.

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 Familiarity with the concept of digital identity
When asked about their familiarity with digital identity, a staggering 62.5% of
Internet users were not familiar with this concept. On the other hand, 19.6% were
familiar, while 17.8% were quite familiar. Most of them associated digital identity
with biometrics (42.3%), followed by 36.8% who associated it with different sets
of user IDs and passwords. A little over a quarter of the users related digital
identity with both logging in to social media accounts (27.8%) and email (25.7%).
Only a minority of Internet users (28.3%) did not associate a digital identity with
those mentioned above. This suggests that while most of them said that they
were not familiar with digital identity, they had some understanding of the term.

Overcoming the Challenges

Blended learning combines concepts from both e-learning and the face-to-face
learning environment (Azizan, 2010). Blended learning is critical to distance and
open education mostly during the emergence of the pandemic, as it is especially
useful for teaching and learning processes in the rural areas. A good example would
be the State of Sarawak, Malaysia where almost half of its population lives in rural
areas. Thus, the unanticipated transition to blended learning nicely fits into the
context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is suddenly of utmost importance to education.
Therefore, teachers and educators need to keep up with the evolving learning and
tools theories to support learners' needs. As a result, online cloud-based platforms
such as ZOOM Cloud Meeting and Google Drive are presently essential to support
diverse and geographically disperse learners from all four corners of the globe. The
educators’ role has changed from the “sage on the stage” to “the guide on the side”.
Various teaching and learning modes like media social (Facebook, Whatsapp,
Telegram), live video conferences (Zoom, Microsoft Teams) as well as pre-recorded
lecture videos (Youtube) were deployed. The situation has appeared as an
opportunity for learners to consume and instructors to diversify via the flexibility on
the delivery and timing of online learning. The synchronization of online classes can

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help students feel a stronger sense of connection to their peers and instructors.
Students would have full control and freedom to complete their course learning
materials at their own time from any location with Internet access. (Bih, L.N., et al,
2021)

Teachers realized the need for them to learn many new skills and unlearn
instructional pedagogical practices that have long dominated their professional lives.
To do this, teachers must be given ample time and support to master the e-learning.
Learning to teach an online course requires time; preparing for online teaching
involves considerable time, effort and workload. Kaleta, Skibba, and Joosten (2007)
in their study even proposed that teachers were to be given the necessary training at
least six months before implementation. Lack of competence has been known to be
one of the most serious obstacles preventing teachers’ use of technology in
education (Bingimlas, 2009). Creating a community of practice among the teachers
may be a good idea because teachers will not feel alone in their struggle; they will
then have each other to bounce off ideas and make planning and preparation easier.
Teaching and learning activities should be uniform, including learning and homework
for all subjects. Nowadays, the learning process depends a lot on the initiative and
ability of teachers to use e-learning. This needs to be improved and teachers need to
strive to adhere to the syllabus and implement teaching and learning consistently
and systematically.

Website and application designers should cater to the needs of their users to
enhance the e-learning experience by

 creating relevance by mapping courses with perceived learner needs 

 devising instructional strategies in alignment with real learning contexts 

 choosing the technology that best supports the instructional strategy 

 planning instructional strategies relevant for digital-age and on-the-go

learners 

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Initiatives to increase device ownership need to be implemented. These include
granting device purchase grants, creating device loan schemes such as textbook
loan schemes and providing free devices to students from low-income families.
While this measure requires government financial allocation, it is a worthwhile
investment for the future of the country. Private companies and non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) can mobilize efforts to donate new or used computers to be
distributed to schools. Additionally, tax relief can be extended to encourage device
ownership. It is appropriate for device purchase expenses and internet charges to be
categorized separately from other lifestyle expenses as per the current tax relief
schedule. The amount of tax relief can be increased as the cost of these two items is
quite high.

The government's initiative to provide 1GB of free mobile data is not enough to
support class teleconferencing and video display activities due to high data
requirements. Students from poor families are unable to purchase additional data
more often due to financial constraints. Telecommunication companies should
consider providing free additional data to assist teachers, parents and students.

Television, radio and video streaming channels should be fully utilized as an

alternative method of delivering lessons to large groups of students. EduwebTV, for
example, was created by KPM to provide online education services. However, video
streaming usually uses high data. Alternatively, KPM launches Education TV
Program or Class @ Home but this program only runs for two hours every day.
Broadcast time needs to be extended to cover more subjects and for each level
(degrees and levels). Subjects which need less visual assistance such as history can
be taught through radio as it is still an important medium of communication of
information.

Although e-learning is ongoing, direct interaction between teachers and students is

still limited due to the high number of students per class. The effectiveness of e-
learning can be enhanced by hiring teacher assistants / tutors among new graduates
to participate in student guidance programs, thus addressing youth unemployment.
Tutors can be assigned to smaller groups of students to give more specific attention.

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However, students who are less fortunate and have special needs should not be
forgotten.

Administrative support is also important especially by looking into critically needed

facilities, such as a reliable and fast Internet connection and providing enough
computers for all students. Administrators need to play a more active role in creating
conditions fostering innovation. They must be the ones to identify with the innovation
and persuade or cajole others into adopting it.

Providing knowledge to upgrade users understanding about security on the web is

one of the few steps that could be taken by the relevant parties to protect such
groups from the evolving cyber security threats. Thus, cyber security awareness
education is important to protect the Internet users from potential cyber crimes as
well as evolving cyber threats. The researchers strongly believed that all cyber space
users must be educated on the importance of the best practices on the Internet.
Moreover, the students at higher education level are heavy Internet users and they
would be forming the future workforce. Such factors necessitate students to be
educated on cyber security incidents. Although rising cyber security incidents may
not be eliminated with education and training, Internet users must still be educated to
increase their awareness of these incidents so that they would be able to take
precautionary steps when necessary. Users must be empowered with the knowledge
to protect themselves. Self-defence is the best shield while surfing the Internet.

Conclusions

At the heart of the e-learning is still for education to take place. Technology is only a
tool to facilitate the processes involved. Teachers and students are still the ones who
have to make teaching and learning happen. Students need to want to construct
knowledge on their own instead of merely receiving and memorizing what is taught.
On the other hand, teachers must have in-depth knowledge of their content and
pedagogical matters. The more teachers know how their students learn, the more
they will be able to employ a variety of teaching strategies including a wide-range of
technology-based tools in matching their students’ needs with the content to be
taught. Technology-enhanced learning environments need to be designed by
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considering pedagogy and content matters for higher ecological validity for the
systems to be useful in practice. (Mei, C.L. et al, 2017)

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