The disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has shown just how important it is and while teaching on online platforms isn’t new to most universities, the pandemic has intensified their investment in it.
The poll, titled Global Student Survey, found that among the 21 countries surveyed, a total of 97% of Malaysian undergraduate students said their universities provided these resources, just ahead of China , Indonesia and South Korea .Published on Feb 26, the survey was carried out by Chegg.org, a nonprofit arm of education provider Chegg.
“We invested in a state-of-the-art Learning Management System, Lecture Capture System, remote communication tools and applications, expanded hardware capabilities and created over 1,000 course microsites, for each course taught in the university, ” Taylor’s University deputy vice-chancellor and chief academic officer Prof Dr Pradeep Nair said.
It’s been a steep learning curve for Malaysian HEIs, and in a post-pandemic era, hybrid learning is the way forward, he said.“In a typical classroom, there are four dominant and critical activities; knowledge dissemination, knowledge validation, knowledge synthesis and knowledge assessment. Taylor’s University lecturers conduct lectures, tutorials and practical demonstrations synchronously in an engaging virtual classroom and has over 40,000 recorded lectures.
“There is also no compromise on the learning outcomes and quality of learning. It is just a different way to learn, which I believe will become the new normal in higher education, as people begin to get used to it, ” he said. The higher education system must understand that technology moves at a fast pace, Prof Lee explained.
“The great thing about it is that it makes education accessible to more people, especially those who work and wish to improve themselves, ” she added. “At the end of the day, human interaction is still an essential part of education.”Sunway University, she said, will be using hybrid learning this year to accommodate their students’ needs and to allow them to continue their learning, either online or face-to-face.
“We also have to be mindful of the digital divide. Not all students have laptops or access to good Internet connection.While many foresee online learning to be the norm, Prof Lee said the learning experience gained from face-to-face as well as experiential learning through human interaction will still be the preferred option.