Critical Online Learning Implementation and Determinants in Rural Areas in Malaysia

BackgroundHigher education institutions (HEIs) shifted from in-person attendance to blended and online learning due to the COVID-19 lockdowns. ObjectiveThis study investigated the students' perception of satisfaction, convenience, engagement, and learning towards blended and online courses conducted before, during, and after the COVID-19 lockdowns. MethodsA longitudinal study design was adopted to examine the students' perception of online and blended learning courses before, during, and after the COVID-19 lockdowns. The subjects consist of Health science students (N = 130) belonging to two different colleges of a public university and the study period includes three academic years (i.e., six semesters) (2018–2021). A survey tool was developed to collect data from students studying the computer fundamentals course through blended and online learning modes from 2018 to 2021. ResultsOver 95% of students have been satisfied with the course offered through various blended learning formats since 2018. The blended 0.50-course format is the most preferred one for the students; however, the Blended 0.75-course format is highly rated by the students regarding their satisfaction and engagement than other learning formats during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Following adaption after COVID-19, the students reported a high perception of learning towards the course when delivered through 100% online learning mode. ConclusionStudents' achievement is significantly associated with the learning modes, exam modes, and various student batches. The blended 0.75-course format group shows a higher achievement than the other three-course format groups. Likewise, those students who appeared in their exams online showed higher achievement than those who appeared physically. Further, the students felt equally convenient with Blended 0.75 and 100% online learning course formats. These findings would also help HEIs choose appropriate learning and examination modes while designing courses.

The purpose of this descriptive study is to investigate students’ perceptions of online learning courses at a 4 year mid-level mid-western university and whether or not these perceptions influenced their decision to continue taking online courses or not. The findings of this study concur with Lim (2004) in that thorough preparation prior to online course work can help to curb dropout rates and can better prepare learners for successful completion of the course.

BackgroundOnline learning is an attractive option for educators, especially as means of overcoming the challenges posed by the global pandemic. Although it is best to evaluate student readiness prior to commencement of an online course, to ensure successful development and delivery of student-centric teaching and learning strategies, readiness towards online learning among physiotherapy undergraduates is unknown. The main aim of this study was to examine physiotherapy undergraduates’ readiness towards online learning.MethodsIn this cross-sectional study, participants were selected through a combination of total population and convenience sampling. The Student Online Learning Readiness questionnaire was distributed among physiotherapy undergraduates from two public and two private universities in Malaysia to investigate their technical, social and communication competencies. Information about device characteristics were obtained to evaluate their equipment readiness. Descriptive and group comparisons were conducted using independent t-test, and analysis of variance with p < 0.05 as level of significance.ResultsA total of 352 physiotherapy undergraduates participated. The response rate was 81.6%. The results showed that physiotherapy undergraduates in these four institutions had moderate levels of readiness towards technical competencies (M = 3.7 ± 0.5), social competencies with instructor (M = 3.7 ± 0.6), social competencies with classmates (M = 3.8 ± 0.6) and communication competencies (M = 3.6 ± 0.5) related to online learning. The overall readiness for these four competencies was moderate (M = 3.7 ± 0.4), however the physiotherapy undergraduates had high (> 80% possessed smartphones and laptop) level of equipment readiness. Institution and gender had no significant effect on the level of readiness (p > 0.05). Year 1 and 2 had significantly higher levels of social competencies with instructor compared to final year physiotherapy undergraduates (p < 0.05).ConclusionPhysiotherapy undergraduates in these four institutions had moderate to high levels of readiness towards online learning. Technical, social and communication competencies could be further enhanced with appropriate strategies.SignificanceThis study provides an insight into the level of readiness towards online learning among physiotherapy undergraduates. The findings of our study shed light on issues to consider when designing online courses. A pre-course training for undergraduates prior to the commencement of online courses may be useful.Trial registrationNot Applicable.

Aim/Purpose. Higher education institutions face difficulties and challenges when it comes to distance learning. The purpose of this paper is to examine self-efficacy indicators and student satisfaction during online English classes. Background. E-learning has been very relevant since the Covid-19 era and is still relevant today. It is possible for students to study regardless of their location or time. By measuring students’ self-efficacy, instructors can gain valuable insights into their students’ ability to create social interaction, cope with technology, and acquire knowledge and tools to manage the learning process. Methodology. This study uses mixed methods along with two measurements. Before and after the course, quantitative and qualitative data were collected. Higher education students in Israel participated. A total of 964 students enrolled in English as a foreign language courses at the pre-basic, basic, and advanced levels. Contribution. Analyzing self-efficacy from several angles provides insight into students. What influences students’ confidence and belief in their ability to succeed in online courses. Moreover, how students perceive their own learning and how they cope with challenges. Findings. Compared to the measurement before the course, self-efficacy decreased on average. Most significant decreases occurred in ‘creating social interactions’ and ‘acquirement of knowledge and tools’ to manage the learning process. A slight decrease was observed in the ability to cope with technology. Additionally, self-efficacy and satisfaction with the course were positively correlated. Recommendations for Practitioners. An overview is provided of the most effective tools and techniques for teaching languages in digital format in this paper. This will allow instructors to design and deliver courses in a more effective way. Thus, they will be able to make better informed decisions, resulting in better outcomes for students. Recommendations for Researchers. Distance Learning courses should resemble the common digital environments in everyday life, rather than imitating face-to-face courses mainly in the field of social interaction. Impact on Society. Digital tools should be encouraged that facilitate effective learning processes instead of sticking to traditional methods that characterize face-to-face courses. Using common interfaces in daily use among the general population will enable the implementation of these recommendations. Future Research. Future studies could be helpful if they compared the English courses developed in the CEFR model with those taught face-to-face as well as those taught online. In addition, motivation and self-monitoring should be examined in both synchronous and asynchronous courses as well.

PurposeWithin the higher education structure, students have the desire for both virtual and face-to-face learning and demand for diverse simulations from the higher education institutions. The purpose of this study is to highlight the significance of higher education success (HES) for one of the top private universities in Malaysia. In the paper, a research model for HES has been proposed and tested within the management perspectives. This research model has five dimensions, namely, smart classroom, user-friendly technology, peers support, partnership and social governance, as potential determinants for HES.Design/methodology/approachA structured survey questionnaire using an extensive literature review was conducted from a No. 1 private university in Malaysia. The target population included students who have passed out under-graduate or post-graduate or are studying in their final trimester. The questionnaire was administered to 107 respondents using an interview method in order to have scientific and authentic data with minimal common method bias. The data collection process was taken over a one-month period during May 2018 and it ensured the rectification of missing data. The study utilized an inclusive criterion as those students who have complete knowledge about the university in terms of academic, administrative and technical matters.FindingsOut of 107 survey respondents, 76 (71 percent) respondents were favorable for HES, which implies that the targeted education institution strives toward career development for students. The study reveals that the partnership of the institution has a positive influence on HES. Smart classroom and social governance are the other determinants which have a positive impact on HES. An excellent infrastructure facility together with formal and informal activities to cultivate knowledge sharing, trustworthiness, quality education and academic excellence of the institution makes it a healthy atmosphere for students to pursue their studies. However, user-friendly technology and peers support were not found to be significant.Practical implicationsThe proposed research model is crucial for educationalists to design the course curriculum for higher education institutions. The significant results and scope discussed in the present study can be applied and customized to any higher education institution in the globe for long-term sustainability to orient students toward career development.Originality/valueSince the present paper investigates the No. 1 private university, the current findings can be used as a guide for other private universities to enhance their course curriculum. The conceptualization of the research model includes new dimensions which highlight the latest development in HES. Emerging studies have claimed that HES depends on effective administration of the institution by the management and appropriate industry linkages, with the highest priority for student learning capabilities to exhibit their talents.

We are currently experiencing the rapid growth of technology-based distance learning courses and programs in higher education, K-12 education, training, and other non-traditional learning contexts. With the proliferation of e-Learning courses and programs, it is important that instructional designers, instructional technologists, and others think critically about the nature of their research and practice. A number of questions and issues need to be addressed. For example, many individuals use the terms virtual space, virtual learning, and virtual learning communities when discussing e-Learning design and development. Do we all attach the same meaning to these terms? Probably not. As we design Web-based courses, should we try and use the structure of the traditional classroom as the metaphor for the “online” classroom? This is certainly an open question, given the criticisms that many students and trainees voice concerning traditional classroom instruction and training. Are the relevant instructional design, development, and policy issues the same for higher education, K-12 education, and training in the private sector? What are the implications and effects of using templates and various server software including WebCT, Blackboard, and other programs when designing and developing e-Learning programs? Finally, what can be learned from those individuals who have made pioneering efforts to design and develop online courses? The contributors to this issue of the Quarterly Review of Distance Education directly address many of these questions.Richard Schwier discusses the concept of learning communities in general and virtual learning communities in particular. Schwier describes three aspects of virtual learning communities including the elements, purposes, and the catalysts of virtual learning communities. The catalysts discussed include alignment, engagement, and interaction. In addition, a number of research issues concerning virtual learning communities are presented.The implications of the rapid growth of e-Learning in training, academic education, and non-traditional learning environments for instructional designers are discussed by Wellesley (“Rob”) Foshay, who argues that each context will place different demands on instructional designers. In particular, Foshay discusses the issues and events that are affecting academic organizations, training organizations, and non-traditional educational settings, and the implications for instructional design research and practice in each of the three environments.The implications of using various server-based courseware tools for developing Web-based courses are discussed by Douglas Harvey and Jung Lee. Certainly, courseware tools can help instructional designers and developers be more efficient when developing online courses. But at what cost? Harvey and Lee provide a critical discussion of how effective template-based approaches are for the development of online learning courses. In particular, some of the specific issues discussed include the pedagogical impact of courseware tools, the visual interface, navigation layout, and interaction implications for online courses. Finally, the instructional design implications when using online development tools and server software are discussed.In the final two articles in this issue, the authors identify some lessons learned from the development and delivery of online courses. Barbara Bichelmeyer, Melanie Misanchuk, and Larissa Malopinsky discuss the adaptation of an existing residential course to a Web-based course. Lessons learned from three different literature bases and results of the adaptation, design, and development processes are also analyzed. Tiffany Koszalka and Mary Beth Bianco focus on the importance of instructors in online learning courses. Specific issues and lessons learned by instructors who have “taught” online courses are described and specific areas and questions for research in online learning environments are presented.Critical issues, both for research and development, that instructional designers and instructional technologists will need to think about as they transition their work to e-Learning environments are identified and discussed in this issue of the Quarterly Review of Distance Education. Much potential as well as problems exist for the design of instruction in an e-Learning environment. Critically important is that individuals in the field of instructional design and technology be actively involved in theory development, research, and the design and development of online learning courses and programs.

This study delves into the influence of external factors on the job satisfaction of academic staff in private universities in Malaysia. It examines the impact of elements such as salary, work conditions, career development opportunities, and job security on the overall job satisfaction of faculty members. A total of 161 academic staff members from 8 private universities in Malaysia took part in the research, offering perspectives on how extrinsic factors affect their job satisfaction. The research adopts a quantitative approach, utilizing surveys to gather data on motivational factors and satisfaction levels. The results reveal that salary, job security and company policy significantly enhance job satisfaction, with work condition playing a relatively less impactful role. The study underscores the significance of fostering a supportive and conducive work environment, and suggests policy adjustments to enhance the job satisfaction of academic staff. By shedding light on how extrinsic factors influence the academic experience, this study provides valuable insights for private universities aiming to retain competent and engaged faculty members.

This study explores the perpetrators of workplace incivility among lecturers in private universities in Malaysia, aiming to identify the primary instigators and understand how organisational factors contribute to the occurrence of such behaviours.While workplace incivility has been widely studied in Western contexts, there is limited research in Asian higher education, particularly regarding the roles of students, peers, faculty administrators, and superiors.Guided by Andersson and Pearson's Spiraling Theory of Incivility, findings from semi-structured interviews with 10 participants from selected private universities reveal that superiors are the primary source of incivility, followed by students, peers, and faculty administrators.The study shows that, unlike Western models, incivility in this context is often one-directional and tolerated due to hierarchical norms, collectivist values, and conflict avoidance.Theoretically, the study extends the Spiraling Theory by demonstrating that cultural and structural constraints can interrupt the expected reciprocal spiral of incivility.Practically, it highlights the need for clear anti-incivility policies, culturally sensitive leadership training, and institutional accountability measures to address all sources of incivility.

Online courses in higher education are growing in popularity (Putulowski & Crosby, 2019). The worldwide COVID pandemic of 2020 brought new attention to online courses and the percentage of higher education students enrolled in online courses skyrocketed from 29.7% in 2015 (Allen & Seaman, 2017) to 75% in 2020 (NCES, 2022). By 2022, an average of 54.2 % of higher education students enrolled in an online course (NCES, 2023). The student experience in online courses can be impacted by many different factors including work and family responsibilities, study commitments for the course, insufficient time, ill health, and approach to learning (Farrell & Brunton, 2020; Willging & Johnson, 2019). Students may also encounter different barriers such as institutional, technological, financial, and pedagogical barriers that may hinder their online student experience (Neben, 2014). Much of the research that focused on what students in higher education perceive as barriers to their online experience has been conducted prior to the COVID pandemic of 2020. This body of research points to a range of perceived barriers to the online student experience such as lack of social interaction, instructor issues, time and support for studies, learner motivation, and technology issues that can interfere with the online student experience (Muilenburg & Berge, 2005). This survey study was conducted to determine what barriers are perceived in online courses after the COVID pandemic of 2020. The survey consisted of two measures including the Barriers to Online Learning measure developed by Muilenburg and Berge (2005) and the Online Self-Regulated Learning Questionnaire (OSLQ) used to measure student self-regulation in online learning (Barnard et al., 2009). Composite means of barrier subscales were determined as well as the percentage of participants who rated barrier subscales as a moderate barrier or stronger. Mann-Whitney U tests were performed to determine if there were significant differences in perception of barriers among genders, self-regulated learning levels, graduate and undergraduate students, and the number of online courses taken. Motivational barriers were rated as a moderate barrier or higher by the highest percentage of participants. Social barriers had the second highest percentage of participants rating them as a moderate barrier or higher. Also, data suggest that perceptions of barriers are not significantly different among genders. Participants who reported lower levels of self-regulation in learning had significantly higher scores for the motivation barriers than participants who reported higher levels of self-regulation in learning, graduate students rated time barriers significantly higher

Online education is provided by fewer universities in Africa than the western world. However, during the outbreak of COVID 19 many universities were forced to embrace online teaching and learning, even those who were against it. The outbreak of COVID 19 opened new ways of teaching and learning that most of universities had to adopt for their survival. This study was carried out to explore the beliefs of Tanzanian lecturers and students on online teaching and learning during the outbreak of COVID 19. This study is anchored on the Technology Acceptance Model by applying a concurrent triangulation design, which helped the researcher to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. The study targeted university lecturers, Deputy Vice Chancellors, academics, and students in selected full- fledged universities in the northern part of Tanzania. The findings indicate that lecturers and students were positive about the use of online teaching and learning, and there is no statistically significant difference in perceptions mean scores between lecturers and university students on the use of online learning during the outbreak of COVID 19. However, various challenges were identified that hamper the smooth running of online teaching and learning, such as lack of adequate resources, poor connectivity of internet and lack of knowledge and skills on how to use the online platforms. This study recommends that universities have to improve the availability of resources for online teaching and learning and to invest in staff capacity building to motivate the lecturers to use online teaching more effectively.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate factors that influence accounting students’ preference toward career paths. Career path refers to the choices of jobs and occupational positions an individual may choose to hold. Accounting students may choose to advance their career into one of the following areas: financial accounting, management accounting, taxation, auditing, finance, etc. According to past literature, choices of career path are influenced by intrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, third parties, and career exposure.Design/methodology/approachA self-administered survey was used to collect data from students in a reputable private university in Malaysia. This university recruits a huge number of accounting students annually for its accounting program. A total of 306 questionnaires were collected for data analysis using statistical analysis system.FindingsThe findings of the study suggest that undergraduate accounting students are more influenced by intrinsic motivation and career exposure in selecting their career paths, whereas third parties and extrinsic motivation are less likely to influence undergraduate accounting students’ career choices.Research limitations/implicationsThe results, however, could not be generalized to all accounting students in Malaysia since the study was collected from only one private university in Malaysia and non-probability sampling technique was applied. The theoretical contribution of this study is the inclusion of new variables in the model.Practical implicationsProfessional accounting bodies may benefit from the findings of this study as it may provide a basis in designing member recruitment strategies.Originality/valueThis paper fulfills an identified need to study how shortage of certain career path for accounting students could be resolved.

Leadership Orientations of an Educational Leader in a Private University in Malaysia

This study is based on a private university in Malaysia that has developed a Moodle-based online learning environment. Since the introduction of e-learning, all materials, including lecture notes, data, and discussions, are performed within the e-learning platform. To understand more about how the e-learning platform has been used, the research will concentrate on the data of study activity event logs in selected three academic weeks in 2020. The methodology includes phases of data extraction, data processing, data mining, analysis, and evaluation. To understand more about the mechanics of the e-learning process, the outcomes of each process are investigated. Based on the method previously stated, the utilization pattern of the UniKL VLE platform can be effectively investigated. A process model is generated by using the process discovery process available in the Flexicon Disco tool. Subsequently, the process model may enable the process to be improved and as such, could further enhance the existing e-learning platform.

Corona virus or most popularly known as the Covid-19 has paralyzed the people movement as well as various sectors that includes the education sector. Henceforth, it gave a breakthrough for academia to venture themselves into work from home with the aid of information technology. It is known as online teaching and learning (OTL). Frequent and continuous usage of OTL to conduct lessons for learners from home may take a toll on the health aspect of academicians. Demographic factors associating with the factors related to ergonomic settings among academicians will be the focus of this study. Data was collected from private universities in Malaysia by using online platform. Association rules technique based on unsupervised approach had been used to find interesting patterns between demographics and ergonomic settings. With association rules, finding co-occurrences of demographics factors leading to the factors of ergonomic settings is the main strength of the technique. Despite many researchers in the past has done ergonomics studies in various areas/fields, only simple and descriptive statistical techniques were used. At present, there is no research work reported using the association rules technique in the educational field in the context of ergonomics. Association rules algorithms FP-Growth and Apriori were used and the evaluation metrics used in this study were support, confidence and lift. The results from this study indicated that the academic group with demographic factors (Married, Male) particularly vulnerable to the risk of mental health while the academic group (Married, Female, Years of experience is less than 10 years) did not have adequate ergonomics facilities at home and lacked a better sense of interpretation of the information provided to them by the management in the process of executing OTL. The results could facilitate further improvements to establish good working conditions for academicians to use OTL from home. The management could undertake the necessary initiatives targeting specific academic groups to address the issues facing them.

This research combines computer self-efficacy, computer anxiety, innovation diffusion theory, the technology acceptance model, and a proposed new hybrid technology acceptance model to study adolescents' behavioral intentions to use online learning courses. The results of the study show computer self-efficacy, compatibility, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use have a great positive effect, and computer anxiety has a great negative effect, on the behavioral intention to use online learning courses. By explaining adolescents' behavioral intentions from a user's perspective, the findings of this research provide insight into the best way to promote new e-learning tools for adolescents.