MOOCs in the Malaysian higher education institutions: The instructors’ perspectives

ABSTRACT

Massive open online courses (MOOC) are considered a modern e-learning technology that was initiated by the Malaysian higher education in 2015. The current literature on MOOCs, covering research relating to its effectiveness to accommodate different students’ abilities showed conflicting results in this regard. With limited studies on MOOCs’ effectiveness in Malaysian higher education, this study explored current opportunities, challenges, and solutions of using MOOC in the Malaysian higher education institutions. Instructors from various teaching backgrounds were interviewed to respond to these concerns. The study found that the major challenges faced by instructors when using MOOC were redundancy, lack of facilities and exposure, incompetent knowledge in MOOC course design and development, and insufficient leadership and capacity-building programmes. Therefore, possible solutions to these challenges were identified and discussed. These findings can help the policy makers explore strategies for the future development, implementation and success of MOOC in the context of higher education in Malaysia.

Abbreviations: MOOC: Massive Open Online Courses; cMOOC: Connectivist Massive Open Online Courses; xMOOC: eXtended Massive Open Online Courses; ahMOOC: adaptive hybrid Massive Open Online Courses; LMS: Learning Management System; MQA: Malaysian Qualifications Agency; STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics     

Amazon’s Day One in China: The Role of Amazon’s Kindle in China

After the long-standing effort and negotiations, Amazon finally released its two Kindle products in China since it entered China 9 years ago. Some say Kindle as it plays as a Catfish would stir up China’s e-book reading market, while the others say Kindle has missed the best timing to enter the market. The article describes the Kindle’s current status in China digital publishing arena, exploring the consistent Amazon strategies in China e-commerce market, and analyzing its threats and opportunities coming from four aspects in the long run, policy, content, willingness-to-pay and competition.     

Clinical librarianship in the UK: temporary trend or permanent profession? Part I: a review of the role of the clinical librarian

BACKGROUND: This paper is the first of a two-part series of articles presenting the role of the clinical librarian (CL) in the UK today. It situates the CL concept historically, and specifically reports the findings from a study in 2002 (Skinner, The Role of the Clinical Librarian in the UK. MSc Dissertation. Loughborough University: Department of Information Science). RELEVANCE: The impetus for the 2002 study was the awareness of an increase in job advertisements within the NHS for roles seeking to enhance the practice of evidence-based medicine, which included elements of clinical librarianship. Therefore the research was undertaken to establish whether this increase was coincidental, or the beginning of a new professional role for librarians. METHODS: A content analysis of CL job advertisements, examining job titles and duties was undertaken. Twenty-three advertisements were scrutinized, and these results are presented here. As a complementary investigation, a postal questionnaire was sent to a sample of practising CLs in the UK. RESULTS: Several duties can be classified as core to the role of the CL. However there is a great diversity of duties attached to this core, reflecting an absence of nationally accepted practice. CONCLUSION: Further work was necessary to assess current practice and how clinical librarianship can continue to grow at local and national levels. This is addressed in Part Two of this series.     

The Whitening of Grey’s Anatomy

Through the strategic absence of discourse about race within the portrayed interracial relationships, the writers, creators, and producers of the modern TV medical drama Grey’s Anatomy strategically portray a racially progressive, postracial, and color-blind society. By utilizing Scott’s (1993) absence as presence, the creators, writers, and producers situate the characters as race neutral or White and enable the dismissal and forgetting of racism’s long history and its impact on the current structures that produce and reproduce racial inequality. By doing so, they obviate contemporary racism’s presence and its influence at both the societal and individual levels, thus contributing to postracism (Ono, 2011).     

Muslim Women’s Use of Internet Media in the Process of Acculturation in the United States

This study examines how Muslim women use Internet-based media in the process of acculturation in the United States. Grounded theory methodology (Glaser, 1992) and Sam and Berry’s (2006) model of acculturation were used as theoretical and analytical frameworks. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 Muslim women to learn about their media use and experiences in forming and maintaining relationships in the United States. Educational opportunities were an emerging theme in the determining factors of immigrating to the United States. The data indicated that Muslim women use a variety of Internet-based media such as Facebook, Skype, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Viber for communicating with family and friends locally and abroad. A majority of the participants reported that social media allowed them to express a part of their identities. The data suggests that the participants attained the level of acculturation defined as integration. The participants use these media to build and create relationships in their new communities. The combined relationships the participants maintain both locally and abroad seem to play a role in the creation of balance in their lives, which allows them to thrive in their new communities, at school, and at work.     

The University of Fort Hare’s (UFH) corporate memory in the spotlight: retracing the institution’s centenary history through visual documentation

University records constitute an integral element of an academic institution’s corporate memory. This business information needs to be well managed throughout its life cycle for the purpose of accountability, transparency, good governance and for reference purposes. This paper reports on a qualitative study that was undertaken at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa by examining an exhibition developed to mark the institution’s centenary. The purpose of the study was to evaluate and trace the provenance of the collections on display to gain an overall assessment of the extent of archival development at the UFH. It cannot be over-emphasized that organizations often struggle to write their centenary history due to lack of supporting documentation as the information is either incomplete, missing or misfiled, rendering it unusable. One of the key findings emanating from this study was that much of the material used for the displays is copyrighted to sister heritage institutions and private individuals, demonstrating the consequences of lack of development and preservation by the UFH of its own archives. Consequently, the need to revamp the institution’s records and archives management systems is mandatory. An encouraging development is that in 2018 there are plans to appoint a records manager, an institutional archivist and a manager of student records. The centenary exhibition has therefore been an opportunity to demonstrate the value of archives to the University of Fort Hare.