In tandem with UTAR’s status as a Premier Digital Tech Institution, the Centre for Foundation Studies (CFS) of Kampar Campus launched the “Teaching with Technology Workshop Series” in December 2019. Since then, a total of three workshops have been organised. The workshop series aimed at introducing online quiz platforms to school teachers in Kampar as an alternative or supplementary teaching tool.

The idea for the workshops was mooted by the Director of CFS Tan Lee Siew and CFS’s Head of Department of Science and Engineering Ooi Siew Fong. According to Tan, the workshop series has, thus far, benefitted a total of 75 school teachers from SJK (C) Pei Yuan, SMJK Pei Yuan and SMK Methodist (ACS) Kampar.

The workshops were conducted by CFS academics Ho Wai Yew, Chooi Wen Xin, Seit Kar Mun, Rachel Tham Jia-Hui, Sabrina binti Omar and Hoh Ming Chee. The participants were first introduced to online quiz platforms and the advantages of using them to boost their teaching experience. The teachers were then given the chance to design their quiz and decide on the settings including background music, time and memes to be displayed. To allow the teachers to experience gamification in classrooms, they had the chance to ‘play students’ and answer the quiz designed by their peers. These simulations never failed to elicit joy and laughter from the participants.

“This is a testament to the ability of these platforms to engage students and capture their attention,” said Ho. “Indeed, experiencing is believing and we hope that teachers will adopt these platforms in their teaching,” added Chooi.

The “Teaching with Technology Workshop” series received positive feedback from the participants. Ang Beng Hing, the principal of SJK (C) Pei Yuan acknowledged CFS Kampar’s continuous effort in organising activities that advance the use of technology in classrooms. “This workshop series has greatly benefited the teaching and learning in our school as we have just recently installed smart boards in all our classrooms,” said Ang. 

G.Thatchani, a Science and English teacher from SMK Methodist (ACS) Kampar with more than a decade of teaching experience was pleasantly surprised how engaging and useful these online platforms can be. “I had a great time attending the workshop and I think that these online platforms are invaluable tools for engaging students.” “We teachers would be able to save our precious time and concentrate more on our students’ need since grading is automated. Moreover, the data generated would enable us to pinpoint the areas where students need improvement and thus enable us to cater to specific students,” added Thatchani.

The knowledge gained from the workshop series also proved to be a boon for the teachers during the Movement Control Order. “When we launched this workshop series, we never envisioned that it would be so relevant to these teachers. The last leg of this series was conducted in early March and we are glad that these workshops have prepared the teachers well for online teaching,” said Tan. Tan also wished to express her gratitude to the Pejabat Pendidikan Daerah Kinta Selatan for supporting the workshop series.