International Journal of Humanities and Social Science Vol. 4, No. 8; June 2014 124 Online Learning in Higher Education in Malaysia: A Case Study of Students’ Future Expectations Fauziah Sulaiman Physics with Electronic Programme Faculty of Science and Natural Resources Universiti Malaysia Sabah Jalan UMS, 88400 Kota Kinabalu Malaysia Abstract This paper reports the results of a study concerning of Malaysian undergraduate science physics students’ and pre-service science teachers’ perceptions of learning through online. One of the main focuses is to seek what is the students’ feedback after exposed with online learning particularly their respond of future expectation, assessment and evaluation. Hundred and two (102) students were involved in this study which consists of 61 students from the School of Science and Technology (SST, science student) and 41 students from the School of Education and Social Development (SESD, pre-service science teachers). Both programmes were offered in University Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia. The students followed all learning activities for sixteen weeks through online. The online learning environment (i.e., learning management system, LMS) was used as the main medium to delivered learning process throughout the second semester of 2008/2009 academic year. Analysis of the open- ended questionnaire and interview data indicated that a common student suggestion was that the designer should i. Use videoconference while chatting in chat room; ii Improve Internet facilities within UMS; and also iii. Incorporate this approach into other physics course. Keywords: learning outcomes; online learning Introduction Online learning is comparatively new in University Malaysia Sabah (UMS). Though in early 2000, UMS has been introduced with an electronic teaching aid such as Blackboard and several computer aided instruction as one of the teaching and learning tool, both from School of Engineering and Information Technology (SEIT) and School of Education and Social Study (SESD), until now the usage of these teaching aid seems not been utilised at all or at least part of it. In School of Science and Technology (SST), a very small number of lecturers prefer to use online learning as the teaching and learning medium. They were really comfortable with the existing medium (i.e., face-to-face lecture based) to deliver course syllabus and content objective throughout semester. Ironically Malaysian government through the nine challenges in Vision 2020 that must be achieved in order to be a well- developed, advanced and higher income country in 2020 had stated through the 6 th challenge that Malaysian citizens must try to adapt with these cutting edge technology and must also contribute to the science and technologies civilizations. Additionally Malaysian Prime Minister also stated the Information Communication Technology (ICT) and education service are two main keys of the National Key Economic Area (NKEA), thus must be utilised very well in our daily life scenario to ensure the higher income economically and productivity country objectives can be achieved (Razak, 2010). Therefore, as a rapid developing country, Malaysia really need to explore the potentials of these NKEA especially in higher leaning institution in order to reply the Prime Minister’s call. Department of Information Technology & Communication (DITC) Media & Educational Technology Unit (formerly known as Multimedia and Educational Technology Unit, METU) was then established in UMS to ensure the nation’s vision and mission in higher education particularly in UMS can be achieved.