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International Journal of Engineering & Technology, 7 (3.30) (2018) 1-5
International Journal of Engineering & Technology
Website: www.sciencepubco.com/index.php/IJET
Research paper
Usage of Online Learning Resources among Academic Staff at a
Malaysian University
Kamilah Radin Salim*, Morina Abdullah, Nor Liza Ali, Rosmah Ali
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
*Corresponding author E-mail: kamilah.kl@utm.my
Abstract
This paper reports on the awareness and usage of online learning resources in teaching and learning among the academic staff at a public
university in Malaysia. In addition, the advantages and disadvantages of online learning resources are also presented. Online learning
resources recommended by the management of the university include e-learning modules, Open Courseware (OCW), Massive Open
Online Courses (MOOC), BLOSSOMS, Edutainment and Video of Exemplary Professionals. Data were collected using a survey ques-
tionnaire with Likert scale items and open-ended questions. The questionnaires were distributed to 160 academic staff of the university.
The results show that the most attended training was e-learning and most respondents are currently implementing it in their courses.
However, less than 10% of the respondents implemented the OCW, MOOC, BLOSSOMS and Edutainment. About 23.1% of the re-
spondents implemented Video of Exemplary Professionals in their teaching and learning. Some respondents also reported lack of student
participation in using e-learning and other resources due to system instability. The practical implication of this study is that more training
on new online learning resources should be provided to the academic staff to increase their skills in using the online learning resources in
their teaching. Better internet connection is also necessary to boost the use of these resources.
Keywords: blended learning, e-learning, online learning resources; online teaching and learning strategies; teachers’ training
1. Introduction
In the era of information and communication technology (ICT),
most of students in higher education institutions are already ex-
posed to the use of ICT. Consequently, the higher education insti-
tutions need to reform the teaching and learning approaches by
using technologies in their class to complement face-to-face teach-
ing and learning. The use of ICT in education also expands the
opportunities for learning and access to online learning resources
without the constraints of time and place. Therefore, this case
study was performed to examine the awareness and implementa-
tion of online learning resources in teaching among the academic
staff at one public university in Malaysia.
The use of online learning resources in teaching and learning is
part of the blended learning program in the New Academia Learn-
ing Innovation (NALI) Model promoted via the top-down ap-
proach by the management of the university. NALI is part of
teaching and learning policy of the university. The objective of
NALI is to create meaningful and interactive learning activities,
materials, environments and systems appropriate to develop Grad-
uate Student Attributes (1). NALI Model emphasizes pedagogy
and the use of digital resources as shown in Figure 1. Examples of
pedagogy (also known as Learning Modes) are case study teach-
ing, problem-based learning, peer instruction, and service learn-
ing; whereas examples of digital resources (also known as Learn-
ing Materials) are Open Courseware (OCW), Massive Open
Online Courses (MOOC), and BLOSSOMS. However, this paper
only discusses the academic staff’s awareness and implementation
of online learning resources (or digital resources) in their teaching.
Fig. 1: New Academia Learning Innovation (NALI) Model (2)
Blended learning is a combination of face-to-face and online
teaching and learning approaches that foster meaningful learning
experience for the students (2). Therefore, all courses offered by
all programs at the university are required to have e-learning com-
ponent. Academic staff are given points in their performance ap-
praisal to encourage them to use the online learning resources in
their teaching.
The university also has Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL)
that provides training and workshops for staff development. The
mission of CTL is “Promoting Excellence and Innovative in
T&L”. All training for new teaching and learning approaches, use
of ICT in teaching and learning and other related educational
training are provided by CTL.
With all these strategies in place, it is interesting to see how NALI
Model was perceived and implemented by the academic staff.
Therefore, the objectives of this study were to: