ABSTRACT
Due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Malaysian government has announced Movement Control Order (MCO) for the safety of the nation. Based on the latest data from UNESCO (2020), this measure has impacted over 7.9 million of learners in Malaysia. Subsequently, teachers in Malaysia are facing challenges to continue providing quality education to students due to the pandemic. Google Classroom was introduced after the termination of Frog VLE in Malaysia. However, the researcher found that implementing Google Classroom via online teaching and learning is ineffective compared to the face-to-face method. Hence, this study aimed to explore why Malaysian teachers face challenges in teaching and learning. The study employed a qualitative study using a semi-structured interview. The participants of this study were five teachers from different secondary schools in Selangor, Malaysia. Purposive sampling was adopted in this study with two criteria. The first criterion is that participants need to have experience in using Google Classroom in teaching and learning regardless of any subjects' while the second is that participants need at least five years of teaching experience in secondary school. As a result, a total of four themes were categorised. This research finding would offer insights to educational stakeholders and school administrators to improve the integration of Google Classroom in teaching and learning. Recommendations were generalisability and suggestions to the future researcher to explore ways to overcome the challenges faced by secondary school teachers. © ICCE 2022.All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world and IR4.0 developments forces drastic changes to sustain and provide quality education. When schools were shut down abruptly due to COVID-19, teachers were forced into emergency remote teaching, mostly by utilizing technologies but with little to no specific structure. In Malaysia, studies found that teachers struggled with technology ability especially in mastering technology applications. Due to limited experience in preparing electronic materials and using online platforms, teachers took the time to deliberate on the ways to teach online, causing delays in learning. Delays can be mitigated if teachers are agile. Agile teachers are capable to deal with new experience flexibly and rapidly by trying new behaviors and making quick adjustments so that new learning can be realized even when they do not know exactly what to do when they face unexpected challenges. This quality in teachers is important to curb learning loss especially when education was threatened by COVID-19. Reciprocally, technology plays an important role to promote Learning Agility among teachers, ensure sustainability and quality of learning, and forge learners' engagement. With the exponential use of technologies, teachers need to be an agile classroom leader. This study aims at identifying the dimensions that shape teachers' Digital Learning Agility. We hoped that this proposed research can shed insights on digital learning agility and can improve teachers' performance especially in the age of exponential technology use. © ICCE 2022.All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
Educators worldwide are facing challenges to continue providing quality learning design remotely, digitally and in virtual settings. Although teaching and learning activities are almost relatively easy to be translated to online platforms, education is missing active learning and social presence, both of which can promote effective learning. When digital education ensues, mobile technologies are widely optimized for learning. The Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission report shows that smartphones have become the most popular devices to access the Internet, reaching a near saturation usage level at 98.7% in 2020, due to the pandemic. In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, more education institutions will continue to conduct virtual lessons, and the trend is set to grow exponentially. The XploreRAFE+ mock-up mobile apps was developed with the aim of gamifying learning and foster active learning, framed by the Interest-Driven Creator Theory. In general, people who play games may experience positive activating emotions. Positive activating emotions such as enjoyment and pride are found to be positively correlated with cognitive regulations (Yeo & Frederiks, 2011). This is what XploreRAFE+ aims for its users to achieve - able to internalize the knowledge through game play and therefore, enhance their cognition. As such, this apps was designed to allow instructors who do not have the technological know-how of gamification and Augmented Reality (AR), to be able to embrace both for their learning design. Rather than spending time and effort laboriously on designing a gamified lesson with virtual contents, instructors are now able to save their time and create a gamified lesson by plugging in their content into this apps, choosing AR overlays, selecting game mechanics and eliciting students' learning feedback through ePortfolio. XploreRAFE+ would be able to add value by adding in the affective aspects, virtual extended reality elements, supporting social presence and intimacy, and immediacy of feedback. This study invites further research on the apps' evaluation after its development is fully completed.