ABSTRACT
Exploring online teaching competencies is paramount in the pandemic setting. This study explores and compares the perceived importance of teachers’ online teaching competence and ability in two higher education (HE) institutions in Sarawak, Malaysia. The study employs the validated Faculty Readiness to Teach Online (FRTO) instrument which assesses four online teaching competencies: CourseDesign, Course Communication, Time Management, and Technical Competence, to gather data. The findings from 156 respondents revealed that Course Design was rated highest for online teaching competence and ability, followed by Course Communication, Time Management, and Technical Competence. A multivariate analysis of variance, MANOVA, was conducted to examine whether demographic variables made a difference in teachers’ perceived importance and ability. All demographic variables did not influence the perceived importance of online teaching competence and ability. Further analysis from the t-test revealed no significant variation between the perceived importance of online teaching competence and ability. The findings highlight opportunities for strategic orientation to change during crisis. Further qualitative and longitudinal research among more HE institutions is needed to uncover whether such perceptions were articulated into online teaching practices. Implications for pedagogy and policy are discussed.
ABSTRACT
Globally, the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant influence on international tourist arrivals and receipts. This study examines the effect of environmental stimuli on tourists' satisfaction and intention to revisit rural tourism destinations in Sarawak, Malaysia. To determine the fitness of the measuring model and structural model, a total of 272 valid surveys were used. Interestingly, empirical evidence indicates that the majority of identified environmental stimuli (i.e., environmental quality, carrying capacity, and relaxation) significantly contribute to tourists' satisfaction. Additionally, it was revealed that satisfied tourists have a higher likelihood of returning, especially to rural tourism destinations in Sarawak. Additionally, a favorable attitude of local communities was discovered to be a key moderator in increasing the relationship between visitor satisfaction and intention to revisit.
ABSTRACT
This article documents social interaction among rural and urban indigenous communities in Sarawak during the COVID-19 pandemic and their responses to the outbreak at individual, household and community levels. The study on social interaction is crucial to shed light on larger social institutions and to examine how social actions are organized across space and time. The study framed within the symbolic interactionist perspective - emphasize the role of symbols and language as the core elements of social interaction. Research methods used in the study are participant observation and interviews to understand relevant context and process. In participant observation, researchers took part in socio-cultural activities of the community in the villages and their dwellings places in urban areas and participated in social media platforms. Data from observation and interactions (face-to-face or mediated by technology) analysed based on themes and contents. The findings show that social interaction among community members significantly altered during the pandemic in terms of the mode of interactions, frequencies, locations, reasons, duration, types and topics of interactions. These include the shift of face-to-face interactions to digital interactions, reduced numbers of interactions, significant more home-based interactions, and then unequal access to digital interactions. Other findings highlight that cultural themes related to communalism, supernaturalism and family and/or children influenced the community members' engagement in social interactions. The community responses towards the outbreak varied according to the socio-economic background of individuals and households. Through these data the study shed light on how community members interacted during the pandemic;the exchanged of ideas and information, conflict during interactions, responses to the pandemic and the issues surround inequality of access to information and communication technologies.
ABSTRACT
Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) yang ditunjangi Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) yang terbentuk selepas Pilihan Raya Umum (PRU) 2018 ekoran kekalahan Barisan Nasional (BN) pada peringkat persekutuan merupakan parti penguasa di Negeri Sarawak sejak Pilihan Raya Umum Dewan Undangan Negeri (PRU DUN) Sarawak yang pertama lagi. Parti politik ini berpengalaman memerintah Sarawak dengan membentuk pemikiran politik pembangunan dalam kalangan pengundi di negeri ini. PRU DUN Sarawak 2021 diadakan berikutan pembubaran DUN Sarawak pada 3 November 2021 setelah tertangguh sejak tamat tempoh penggal lima tahun (sehingga 7 Jun 2016) iaitu 6 Jun 2021 akibat pengisytiharan darurat oleh Kerajaan Persekutuan di seluruh negara yang berpunca daripada penularan wabak pandemik COVID-19. PRU DUN ini dapat melihat pengaruh GPS dalam persada geopolitik Sarawak dalam keadaan negara dan negeri ini masih dalam keadaan penularan wabak pandemik COVID-19. Justeru adalah menjadi tujuan penulisan artikel ini untuk menganalisis pengukuhan kuasa politik GPS terhadap geopolitik Sarawak dalam PRU DUN Sarawak 2021. Berdasarkan analisis data keputusan PRU DUN Sarawak 2021, pemerhatian di lapangan dan analisis sumber sekunder, dapatan kajian menunjukkan bahawa pengukuhan sokongan pengundi kepada GPS disebabkan beberapa faktor iaitu pengalaman GPS memerintah Sarawak, kepimpinan GPS yang dikenali pengundi, manifesto pilihan raya GPS yang realistik, penerusan program pembangunan Sarawak, jentera pilihan raya GPS yang berpengalaman dan bersistematik, impak penularan wabak pandemik COVID-19, perpecahan undi parti pembangkang Sarawak dan penurunan peratusan pengundi bandar yang pro parti pembangkang. Oleh itu, pengukuhan politik GPS dalam geopolitik negeri Sarawak ini menunjukkan bahawa pentingnya pengalaman dalam memerintah serta mempunyai jentera parti yang tersusun bagi memenangi pilihan raya.Alternate :The Sarawak Party Coalition (GPS) backed by Parti Pesaka Bumiputera Bersatu (PBB) which was formed after the 2018 General Election (GE) following the defeat of Barisan Nasional (BN) at the federal level is the ruling party in Sarawak since the first Sarawak State Legislative Assembly General Election. This political party has the experience of ruling Sarawak by shaping the political thinking of development among the voters in the state. The Sarawak State Legislative Assembly General Election 2021 was held following the dissolution of the Sarawak State Legislative Assembly on 3 November 2021 after being delayed since the end of the fiveyear term (until 7 June 2016) which is 6 June 2021 due to the declaration of emergency by the Federal Government nationwide due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This Sarawak State Legislative Assembly General Election can see the influence of GPS in the geopolitical stage of Sarawak in the country and the state is still in a state of COVID-19 pandemic outbreak. Therefore, the purpose of writing this article is to analyze the strengthening of GPS political power over Sarawak geopolitics in Sarawak DUN 2021. Based on data analysis of Sarawak State Legislative Assembly General Election 2021 results, field observations and analysis of secondary sources, the findings show that the strengthening of voter support for GPS factors namely GPS experience of ruling Sarawak, GPS leadership known to voters, realistic GPS election manifesto, continuation of Sarawak development program, experienced and systematic GPS election machinery, impact of COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, Sarawak opposition party vote split and percentage drop urban voters who are pro -opposition parties. Therefore, the strengthening of GPS politics in the geopolitics of Sarawak shows the importance of experience in governing and having a well -organized party machinery to win elections.
ABSTRACT
The machine learning approach has been widely used in many areas of studies, including the tourism sector. It can offer powerful estimation for prediction. With a growing number of tourism activities, there is a need to predict tourists’ classification for monitoring, decision making, and planning formulation. This paper aims to predict visitors to totally protected areas in Sarawak using machine learning techniques. The prediction model developed would be able to identify significant factors affecting local and foreign visitors to these areas. Several machine learning techniques such as k-NN, Naive Bayes, and Decision Tree were used to predict whether local and foreign visitors’ arrival was high, medium, or low to these totally protected areas in Sarawak, Malaysia. The data of local and foreign visitors’ arrival to eighteen totally protected areas covering national parks, nature reserves, and wildlife centers in Sarawak, Malaysia, from 2015 to 2019 were used in this study. Variables such as the age of the park, distance from the nearest city, types of the park, recreation services availability, natural characteristics availability, and types of connectivity were used in the model. Based on the accuracy measure, precision, and recall, results show Decision Tree (Gain Ratio) exhibited the best prediction performance for both local visitors (accuracy = 80.65) and foreign visitors (accuracy = 84.35%). Distance to the nearest city and size of the park were found to be the most important predictors in predicting the local tourist visitors’ park classification, while for foreign visitors, age, type of park, and the natural characteristics availability were the significant predictors in predicting the foreign tourist visitors’ parks classification. This study exemplifies that machine learning has respectable potential for the prediction of visitors’ data. Future research should consider bagging and boosting algorithms to develop a visitors’ prediction model.
ABSTRACT
Purpose>This study aims to examine the faculty perceptions of their competence and readiness for online teaching in Sarawak higher education (HE).Design/methodology/approach>A validated instrument, Faculty Readiness to Teach Online (Martin et al., 2019), was distributed to four main higher learning institutions in Sarawak, Malaysia, yielding 174 responses.Findings>The highest rated competencies across the four HEs were course communication and course design. This was followed by time management and technological competence. MANOVA results showed no significant differences in the demographic variables.Research limitations/implications>The results of this study must be viewed in light of some limitations of its generalisability. First, the small sample size does not fully represent all of the target population. Secondly, the study did not provide qualitative research data, especially pertinent to how the teachers perceived their competence linked with their ability and online teaching behaviours.Practical implications>This current study shows that all participants were cognisant of the need to enhance their competencies to teach online. As acquisition and mastery of such competencies may require time and support, this means that the transition to online teaching requires advanced levels of instructor training and support, be it through professional development programs or in-service training.Originality/value>Perceived importance for online teaching competence was ranked highly across all the four institutions. This understanding can help HEs transcend emergency online practices to provide data-driven approaches to better support and improve coordination, resilience and adaptability in HE.