Lively discussion on education technology by educational experts

Lively forum session titled “Education Technology Forum: Post Covid-19”

A lively forum titled “Education Technology Forum: Post Covid-19” was organised by UTAR Centre for Learning and Teaching (CLT) on 24 July 2020, via Facebook Live.

The invited speakers were Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) School of Industrial Technology Prof Abd Karim Alias, Founder and CEO of AQL Learning Innovation Consultancy (AQL-LIC) Zaid Ali Alsagoff and Universiti Teknologi Petronas (UTP) Department of Computer Information Systems lecturer Ts Dr Savita Sugathan; three experts from the educational field. The forum was hosted by UTAR Faculty of Information and Communication Technology (FICT) lecturer Dr Manoranjitham Muniandy.

The purpose of the forum was to provide a platform for the educators and the public— parents, teachers and students to gain insight on the latest creative and innovative teaching and learning methods, techniques and practices after the covid-19 period.

Dr Mano started the forum by introducing and sharing the background of the three speakers. The first speaker was Prof Karim, a strong advocate of online learning. He is also the director of the Centre for Development of Academic Excellence in USM, editor of Elsevier journals and co-chairman of the technical committee for Malaysian Open Online Courses (MOOCs). The second speaker, Zaid Ali, is a learning innovation specialist with over 15 years of experience in tertiary and corporate education. The last speaker, Dr Savita, is a personality and team-based learning expert with 15 years of experience as an academician. Dr Savita is also a licensed practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Practitioner and a certified Microsoft Innovative Educator.

In the forum, they discussed three interesting topics, namely the challenges faced by students, educators and higher learning institutions, initiatives taken to overcome these challenges and the opportunities of moving forward.

Prof Karim sharing the challenges faced by students, educators and higher learning institutions

Prof Karim shared the challenges faced by students, educators and higher learning institutions, “When we talk about the challenges faced, it always abound. It is up to how we deal, react and cope. In the early covid-19 period, the challenge was both educators and students were not fully ready for the new learning and teaching environment. When learning and teaching had to shift online, everyone was surprised.”

“The challenge for the educators was they had to acquire new skillsets and change their mindset. There was a transition from face-to-face learning to online learning. The learning approach in the classroom previously was teacher-centred and students were more to dependent learners, but now in the online classroom, students have to be more proactive and independent. Besides, I do feel that parents and family background bring challenges as well. In this case, I will advise teachers to be more empathetic by understanding the background of the students and change their teaching approach accordingly,” he added.

Zahid Ali sharing about the initiatives taken to overcome the challenges

Speaking of the initiatives that need to be taken to overcome the challenges, Zahid Ali said, “I have seen a lot of good initiatives by different universities. Most of the universities have conducted initiative course including webinars and online assessments to help their students and staff become better during the Covid-19 and post-covid 19 periods. This is indeed a great initiative to be taken by the institutes. At the beginning of the lockdown, the focus of the webinars and online assessments was on the tools for online learning, since all of us needed tools to teach, but now the webinars are moving towards fun learning and teaching experience.”

“What Covid-19 showed us today is that lecture class can be done online and it opens up more doors to the educators and learning opportunities for the students. Universities can connect with industries by inviting CEOs or professionals around the world to share on various interesting topics,” he added.

Dr Savita sharing the opportunities of moving forward

Sharing the opportunities of moving forward, Dr Savita said, “There is a shift in the education due to the covid-19 pandemic. All of us, including educators and universities, need to be able to see this as an opportunity to make changes in a positive way. Educators have to be ready to learn, unlearn and re-learn. They need to be more agile since the traditional way of teaching is no longer applicable.”

“Universities also need to be more agile and flexible in adapting the changes. Universities need to manage the changes in consideration of the parents, students and educators. They can practice blended learning, both face-to-face and virtual learning which I think is a very good thing to look into to understand the needs of our students. The opportunities are wide open but universities need to figure out ways and take advantage of it to stay relevant and important in the industry. I am looking into the possibilities of having more collaboration with universities to provide opportunities for students and give more value to them,” she added.

The forum saw an active interaction between the speaker and the participants. It was followed by a Q&A session before it adjourned.

Please click here to watch the live forum.