A Discussion On E-learning Offered In Malaysia Universities: Pros and Cons From The Students Perspective

Electronic learning or E-Learning is a term for all types of technology-enhanced learning (TEL), where technology is used to support the learning process. Often the medium of instruction is through computer technology, particularly involving digital technologies. It is essentially a learning system that is supported by electronic hardware and software either online (synchronous) or offline (asynchronous). The learning is carried out either individually or on a small or large group basis and can be used as a hybrid to the face-to-face format, or exclusively in open and distance learning (ODL). In some instances, no face- to- face interaction takes place. E-learning is used interchangeably in a wide variety of context. E-learning is used to define a specific mode to attend a course or programmes of study where the students rarely, if ever, attend face-to-face for on-campus access to educational facilities, because they study online.

The Advantages of E-learning from the Students Perspective:

Ø Learning is self-paced and gives students a chance to speed up or slow down as necessary as the learning is self-directed, allowing students to choose content and tools appropriate to their differing interests, needs, and skill levels.

Ø Besides that, it accommodates multiple learning styles using a variety of delivery methods geared to different learners; more effective for certain learners, where geographical barriers are eliminated, opening up broader education options which made up 24/7 accessibility makes scheduling easy and allows a greater number of people to attend classes.

Ø Travel time and associated costs (parking, fuel, vehicle maintenance) are reduced or eliminated, which also included the overall student costs are frequently less (tuition, residence, food, child care).

Ø Fosters greater student or instructor contact where students and lecturers can contact with each other and lecturers uploading recent notes or students downloading any notes that they missed during the class.

Ø Moreover, it will provide higher retention where online learning will draw you to topics you like and enjoy. Studies show that because of this and the variety of delivery methods used to reach different types of learners, retention is frequently better than in a traditional classroom.

Ø Greater Collaboration of technology tools which make collaboration among students much easier. Since many projects involve collaborative learning, the online environment is far easier (and often more comfortable) to work in since learners don't have to be face-to-face.

The Disadvantages of E-learning from the Students Perspective:


Ø The lack of face-to-face communication with lecturers, contributes lack of understanding between a student and a lecturer. While a lecturer cannot easily feel a student’s demands, interests and motivations, a student can simply be lazy and being non-motivated enough and having free time schedule for his or her e-learning. This may result a low scope of the student’s knowledge and the lecturer’s accusation in lack of proficiency.

Ø Next, online classes, conferences and discussions are limited in time and totally exclude emotional interactivity. Though some universities and colleges which provide online courses and give online degrees evolve voice communication through networking technologies there is still lack of gestures, vivid dialogue and feeling of a student’s and a lecturer’s interlocutor’s presence.

Ø Moreover, not all people have self discipline. A student can avoid classes for the week and fall way behind. This makes learning even harder when trying to get caught up with the class. Lecturers may have to make a set plan and stick to it. This is sometimes very hard for people who like to put things off.

Ø Furthermore, in some cases, students are not always able to talk to a lecturer if they need help. This can be very frustrating if a student is not able to understand the material being studied. When taking the online course, he or she is the only one in the class. Some lecturer may need the interaction with other students as they may think one to one communication may be uncomfortable, making this another disadvantage to online learning.

References:

1. http://pppjj.usm.my/mojit/articles/pdf/0804/
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-learning
3. http://elearning.utm.my/
4. www.ptpm.usm.my/pgt201e/Week11.ppt
5. http://www.elearning-avenue.com/pros-and-cons-pros-and-cons-of-e-learning/

Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies

Nowadays, corporate blogging is used by an organization to reach its organizational goals and published. Besides that, corporate blogging advantage is that posts and comments are easy to reach and follow due to centralized hosting and generally structured conversation threads. For example, all major browsers including Firefox, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer 7 support RSS technology. It can visit the blog without actually visiting and enables readers to easily read recent posts. Moreover, it is very useful for low-volume blogs. In addition, corporate blogging have a lot of types, but most can be categorized as either external or internal.

How does the corporate blog help the organization?

Corporate blogging is a new marketing communication tools for companies. It can offer the ability to build a community and can interact with your organization and each others. It can through comments and out-of-the-box widgets, blog catalog, social bookmarking sites, cross linking and cross posting to get people interact with your organization and each others. Besides that, corporate blogging can also build a community within own organization. It gives the opportunity for your staff members to bring out their stories, and make them feel part of your organization’s community.

Meanwhile, corporate blogging help the organization ease of publishing. It allow organization publish information to public much faster than a traditional website. Therefore, it offers an easy-to-update, easy-to-work with contents management system (CMS).

For instance, General motor is a great example of corporate blogging because GM has clearly realized that regurgitating press releases is not what blogs are made for. GM corporate blog mainly is talks a lot on their blog about their cars and trucks and the design choices they make while creating them, but they also throw in interesting treatises on current hot-button issues, such as alternative energy.

Therefore, there are some advantages of corporate blogging:

• Blogs give the writer an opportunity to answer critics in a controlled forum.
• Leaders can communicate directly with customers, suppliers and investors, as well as employees, helping disseminate and explain strategy.
• Sharing their ideas freely in an honest voice brings the blogging companies new connections and generates trust which will lead to business opportunities galore.
• Blogs have a broad impact on the nature of online media by giving an opportunity to publish words, pictures and ultimately - multimedia to the web without specialized geek skills.
• They boost your search engine rankings if you add fresh content on a regular basis. Google and other search engines rewards sites that are updated often, that link to other sites and most importantly, that has many inbound links.
• People are far more likely to give great feedback if they know someone specific is listening. The power of these feedback loops can generate big benefits.
• Customers mark your company as authentic and forward-looking.
• Being informal, blogs can provide you with a measure of value. Publish an idea and see if it generates interest.
• If your blog has a positive effect on your company’s reputation then it is very beneficial to your career.

However, there is also having some disadvantages of corporate blog:

• It can be tricky to drag public comment out of a company without first routing through the sanitizing filter of a press office.
• There is a risk that an ill-judged comment could be seized upon by the media or disgruntled investors.
• Poorly written corporate blogs can look fake or perhaps worse, they reveal incompetence on the part of the writer.
• Blogs are easy to start and hard to maintain. Writing coherently is one of the most difficult and time-consuming tasks for a human being to undertake. So, far from blogs being a cheap strategy, they are a very expensive one, in that they eat up time. As a result, many blogs are not updated, thus damaging rather than enhancing the reputation of the organization.

References:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_blog
2. http://www.blogtips.org/does-your-non-profit-organisation-need-a-blog/
3. http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/08/08/15-companies-that-really-get-corporate-blogging/
4. http://www.enterpriseblogs.info/corporate-blogging/advantages
5. http://www.enterpriseblogs.info/corporate-blogging/disadvantages

Review A Local E-commerce Site

myPinkyHouse

myPinkyHouse is an online gift shop that specialized in selling the variables of gift products such as soft toys, crafts, accessories, souvenirs, flowers, greeting cards, and so on. The overall of the site design layout is match with the name of the site (myPinkyHouse) as it used white and pink color in the design of most of the pages. Besides that, the web site has uploaded some pictures in order to described the products that they sell.

On the other hands, the font size that used by this web site is normal font size which still can be see and read it clearly. The download speed for this web site is fast, which the page will loaded in between 2 to 3 seconds. This can make customers feel more comfortable as compare to those site which need to take few minutes in order to load one page. Meanwhile, the site's navigation is quite easy which customers can just click on the 'home' icon in order to go back to main page. Besides that, the side links such as products, browse categories, price range, and so on is available in every pages no matter where the customers are browse through. This provides customers the convenient as they can browse whatever pages of the site that they want.

The web site also provides customers with the browsing categories which can make them feel more convenience while searching for the products that they want to purchase. In addition, it also have the same features such as price range, shop by size, themes list, new product categories, and the best sellers. these features enables customers to search for the products more quickly based on their needs and budget in stead of browse through all the categories of the products.

Furthermore, the web site consists of search engine feature. Customers who wish to purchase specific products such as bears or flowers can just type in the product name in the search engine. After that, the site will appear the relevant page of the product that the customers want. Other than that, the shopping carts feature is available in this web site. By having this feature, it enables customers to add in a number of different products that they want to purchase by just click on the 'add to cart' icon before making the total payment.

Finally, while customers want to make payment, they just need to click on the 'checkout' icon. Moreover, the web site has provide customers with several methods of payment. For example, they can choose to make payment by using credit card, by bank in or account transfer, by cheque or bank draft or money order.

Source:http://www.mypinkyhouse.com/index.asp

E-Government in Malaysia: Its Implementation so far and Citizen's Adoption Strategies

E-Government is the short form for electronic government. It also known as e-gov, digital government, online government or transformational government. E-government is the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) to transform government by making it more accessible, effective and accountable. E-government includes:

• Providing greater access to government information
• Promoting civic engagement by enabling the public to interact with government officials;
• Making government more accountable by making its operations more transparent and thus reducing the opportunities for corruption; and
• Providing development opportunities, especially benefiting rural and traditionally underserved communities.

The E-Government implementation seeks to improve the convenience, accessibility and quality of interactions with citizens and businesses; simultaneously it will improve information flows and processes within government to improve the speed and quality development, coordination and enforcement.

The Current Application of E-Government in Malaysia include:

• E-Filing : It means that filing income tax and other governmental forms online.

• Renewing Road Tax: The consumer may just enter its insurance details (cover note, etc) and make its payment online using a credit or debit card, and the road tax disc can be delivered to its home or office.

• Renewing Driving License online: Under the online system, drivers need only log on to a website and pay for the renewal with their credit card.

• KWSP(EPF) Account: With Online EPF service , the employees can check their balance, print EPF statement, EPF detail like when employer bank in EPF money into thier account, detail information about their EPF “Account 1″ and “Account 2″, and etc. The employee just need to have an online EPF account , so call “i-Account”.

• E-Perolehan: E-Perolehan is the new procurement system allowas the Government ministries to electronically select items to be procured from the deskstop, initiate an electronic approval process and also create, submit and receive purchase orders, delivery orders and other-related documents electronically.

Common Problems Encountered by Consumers
Although E-Government Malaysia has provided many services to the citizens/consumers, many of them still do not use e-government. This may because of several reasons such as:

Unfamiliarity with ICT
Although the citizens/consumers have known about the services provided by E-Government Malaysia, many of them still do not use it because of the unfamilarity with information and communications technologies ICT. The citizens/consumers may not have to knowledge to fully use the services online.

Concerns about privacy and security of information
Privacy refers to the right for information attributed to an individual to be treated with an appropriate level of protection. Meanwhile, security generally refers to the protection of information system assets and control of access to information.As problems relating to the privacy and security of information has been occured, citizens/consumers tend to be fear of giving out their information online.

Protecting the privacy of citizens and assuring them that their personal information will not be compromised is critical in e-government because this is the key to user trust. Without this assurance, no one will be prompted to use e-government services.

Inaccessiblity
Besides that, a most common problems encountered by the citizens or consumer is inaccessibilty. An E-Government site that provides web access and support often does not offer the “potential to reach many users including those who live in remote areas, are homebound, have low English proficiency, exist on poverty line incomes, suffer from chronic illness, are single parents or older adults.”

Ways to Encourage Citizens to use E-Government Application
In my opinion, it think that E-Government may provide ease and convenience in the delivery of public services, and offer innovative government services to encourage the citizens to use E-Government application.

Besides that, i think that training is necessary to be provided for the citizens who do not have the knowledge or unfamiliar to the use of E-Government application. On the other hand, E-Government has an environmental bonus which will helps to encourage the citizens to use the E-Government application. Why do I say so? This is because, online government services would lessen the need for hard copy forms. This will helps to reduce the use of paper as people tend to be more and more environmental friendly.

Last but not least, I would like to conclude that, E-Government in Malaysia has provided many services for the citizens. As a result, Malaysian citizens should make use of these services and benefit from it.


References:

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-Government
2. http://www1.american.edu/initeb/ym6974a/egovernment.htm
3. http://www.apdip.net/publications/iespprimers/eprimer-egov.pdf