Random rambling – Page 16 – Hadijah binti Jaffri

A dilemma indeed

The KPIs for university lecturers are not for faint-hearted people. Indeed. But sometimes, there are daredevil ones who would dare to do any and everything to make sure they hit their KPIs with flying colors. Slow professor principle? Definitely not on these peps’ vocabulary. They are one on the Shinkansen mode. Always. So, anything that block their way will be bulldozed indefinitely.

But the reality starts to show that the quantity does not justify the quality. People have started to talk about it. When asked about the practice of individuals who use other people’s students work without their contribution, critical people like Tan Sri Rafidah Aziz does say something spot on.

For me, I believe that we can’t hurry to be “matured”. It is as if you are taking a hormone booster to get old quickly. Does anyone want to get old early? Of course, there are outliers who excel in certain fields at young age and in academia, these people can be exemplified in the way they rise to the social academic ranking faster than the average. Some are really good. But I am not like them. I am a late bloomer. This is what I notice since young. So, I am not pushing myself to be on Shinkansen mode.

The incident that happened to one of my seniors in April 2019 left indelible mark that makes me think to reevaluate and reprioritise my goals in life. Now, I believe that if I improve myself in the way I relate myself to Allah, it will be translated in the way I lead my life as His ‘Abd. Even though in one of the verses in the Qur’an states

Yet, I believe that what is good in this world does not mean or equate with money or social status. Allah Knoweth the best and I pray May He Bless me with the best gladtiding.

Al-fatihah to my former lecturer_Part 2

He is known as “a killer” lecturer. (Former students still remember him as such). Nobody dares to come later than him. The moment he entered the class, he would lock the door. Late comers? You wouldn’t able to enter the class. Period. No negotiation. Nothing.

At that time, nobody dares to make a complaint to the administrator or the dean. Who dares to make a complaint when the one who locked the door is THE DEAN himself? You make complain to him? Are you crazy? Even the VC is younger than him. He is like Don Corleone. You don’t mess with The Don.

But former students learn values such as punctuality and such. One of my friends who took sociology classes with him would proofread her assignments (the things that we don’t bother to do for another classes). Why? Those with grammatical errors would be publicly shamed once he returned the assignments. He teaches us to be perfectionist and proficient in English. Of course, as students at that time, being young and reckless, some of us didn’t appreciate his style.

I heard the news yesterday that he passed away in his sleep. He was 81 years old. Al-fatihah to Prof. Dr. Mohamed Aris Othman (he is fondly known as Pak Aris even though he has Professorship title).

What to write in your TESDCP teaching portfolio?

There are four aspects that you need to write.

Goals of student learning,
Philosophy,
Beliefs and practices of assessment and
Self-reflection of teaching development over time.

Some tips:

Write from your heart (either in English or Malay) in Words doc file first (the system is linked to UTMPORTAL, so if you leave it for a while, you will lose all of the things that you have written if you don’t save it)
Highlight NALI (use certain terms commonly related to NALI)
Don’t worry too much about grammar (this is not an SPM essay though. But, please do proofread your writing because it might reflect your language proficiency as an academician teaching at university).
If you have written somewhere that reflect your belief in either one of the aspects, you can link the URL too (there is a column under each heading of the four aspects). For example, I link a post that I wrote here in my TESDCP about my belief in assessment.

How to fill in information on Teaching Excellence System (TES)?

First of all, you need to be UTM staff.

Next, log in to MYUTM (using your ACID and password) to go to UTM Staff Portal (Portal Staf UTM).

On your left hand side under Sistem UTM, scroll down to Akademik (click). Choose Profile Akademik (click).

On your right hand side under Quick Links, choose and click Teaching Excellence System.

Under Teaching Excellence Report, there are four (4) headings: Blended Learning, OBE, NALI & HIEPS and E-content.

a) Blended Learning

To look at your Blended Learning report (this is based on your eLearning), click Blended Learning. To see a list of courses that you teach or have taught, scroll down the heading Semester Session. Click the semester that you want to see the report. You can see the report any time during the semester. You don’t have to wait until the end of the semester to see the report.

There is nothing you can add here. If you want to see the change, make any change by adding activities, notes etc. on your eLearning.

2) OBE

To look at your OBE report (this is based on your OBE), click OBE. So, once you complete your CAR report on your OBE, the status will automatically change to Complete. If you have a course (like a module type kind of course) that you don’t need to create a CAR report, let your IT manager knows about it. For example, in School of Education, there are MPPU1060, MPPU1070 and MPPU1080 (for Full research and mixed mode students). There is no final examination and there is no grading except students need to comply certain requirements to get a status of PASS or FAIL (LULUS atau GAGAL). So, if there is this kind of course that you teach, it might appear INCOMPLETE because there is no CAR report in the OBE (Don’t worry though. It is just a report. During audit, you can let the auditors know that it is not normal courses with final exam and such.

3) NALI & HIEPS

To look at your NALI & HIEPS report (this is based on ePPP), click NALI & HIEPS. In your ePPP, there are questions about your teaching practice (strategies, activities that you do in class). But however, students might not know and aware that when you do, let’s say a discussion on cases in class refers to case based learning. So, they might not answer the question about case-based learning accurately (they might not state that you use case-based learning in your class). Sometimes, it is worth to highlight the activity that you do in class is related to certain teaching approach. For example you might say “You will be given a case based assignment. You have to do it in group. I want to emphasize case based learning and active learning in this class. So, I give you assignment relating to case-based learning“.

But normally, you assign the assignment on the first two weeks of semester, so students might not remember it by the time they have to fill in the ePPP which is at the end of semester (Week 13 onwards). So, don’t be disheartened if you don’t see any NALI strategies appear on your report even though you apply it in your teaching. That is why it is really important to explain your teaching strategies etc. in TESDCP (this one is different from TES) on a) Goals of Student Learning, b) Philosophy, c) Beliefs and Practice of Assessment, d) Self-reflection of Teaching Development.

4) e-Content

To look at your e-content report (this is based on whatever things you do in class as long as you use the internet), click e-content. Then select +Add New (on your right side). There are several headings will appear.

The several headings are:

Reference no (no need to fill in anything here)
Project name (if it is based on a project, state the name of the project. If not, just leave it empty)
Session/Semester (you need to scroll down to make your selection).
Subject Code (you need to type subject code of the course that you teach/taught).
Category (you need to scroll down to make your selection)
URL (you need to link a webpage URL here. See further explanation below).
From (this is the date/duration that you use the material)
To (this is the date/duration that you use the material)

Make sure you have your materials ready to be linked. For example, to add category “Gamification”, make sure you have an online quiz on Kahoot or Quizziz or elsewhere that is open for PUBLIC view. Don’t set it as PRIVATE (that one might need you to activate the viewing with certain password or code). After that, copy-paste the link. For example, HERE is an online quiz that I have made for Research Methodology class (Topic: Pilot study or Kajian Rintis) for Gamification category or HERE is a note for a topic for Educational Psychology class (Topic: Classroom Management) for Learning Management System category. Using the respective link, I paste it on URL.

Note of plagiarism: Quizziz and Kahoot allow users as administrator of a quiz to use/take questions from other existing quizzes. So, in this case, please make sure that you add some questions of your own even though you also take other questions from other quizzes.

Final word

For the marking and evaluation, even though you put more than one quiz under gamification category, the panel would only give one mark for that. So, make sure you diversify your e-Content category

Disclaimer: I am a novice in this thing. So, if you need extra help, don’t hesitate to contact Assoc Prof Dr Mohd Nihra Haruzuan (the facilitator of TES workshop). 😀 We are all together in this. So, let’s support one another in our journey to be the best educators in our respective field.

If you need the notes from the TES workshop that I attended on 26 June 2019 (Wednesday), click HERE. I took some personal notes on TES on e-content rubric (my own interpretation though) and others.

Teaching Excellence System (TES) workshop_Part 3

Measures of Student Learning

Basically, the information in Average score in ePPP and Feedback and Testimony from ePPP is generated from ePPP. So, what you can do is you have to make sure your students would evaluate you every semester without fail and request them to give narrative feedback about you. Any narrative feedback will appear in Feedback and Testimony from ePPP.

But, for Feedback and Testimony (From others), upload any message, cards etc. (written feedback) that you get from your students. If you receive a Whatsapp message from your student, screen shot it and then covert it into PDF format before uploading it to your TES.

Psst…. so next time when your students want to say thank or whatsnot, you can request them to write it in a form of note. No need card. Just a simple A4 paper would be enough. 😀

Why do I create unrelated posts in people.utm.my?

First of all, after I ended my Latihan Ikhtisas, I was astounded that I have to “maintain” my people.utm.my webpage or blog. Norah told me that I need to maintain it on regular basis to make UTM visible. I was thinking at time, how am I going to do that? Norah teaches me how to maintain it and in her own word “Ala, kau cuba tengok aku punya. Tak payah letak benda-benda serious pun. Aku letak resipi. Nanti ada bengkel webometrik ni, jangan lupa pergi balik. Cuba ingat balik apa yang aku dengan Nihra dulu pernah ajar. Kau pernah pergi kan yang bengkel aku dengan Nihra buat dulu kat fakulti?” [Translated: Just look at mine. No need to put serious stuff. I put recipe. If there is a workshop on webometric, don’t forget to register and attend it. Refresh back what Nihra and I have taught you before. You have attended the workshop that we conducted at the faculty, right?”]

So, I start to post various things that I think might be important to me or benefit others in one way or another especially certain posts that contain information that I get from attending workshop like TES workshop, journal and whatsnot. Like the half-day workshop on commercialization and Intellectual Property (IP) that I attended this morning (9 to 12 pm 25 June 2019, Tuesday), I think I have attended similar workshop before I made some notes but I don’t remember where I put the notes now. So, as I listen to the facilitator (and ask questions), I also write down the notes using this platform i.e. people.utm.my. So, perhaps there might be some colleagues who need some information about commercialization (for example), might use my webpage as a guide because I would also link whatever relevant webpage on the post (this is to ensure that I know where to get detailed information myself).

One of my colleagues said that it is not right to just copy-paste link to here but in my case, I will make sure that I will put some introduction of the link that I provide. That’s the least I can do.

Secondly, I am not getting any younger. So, I have the tendency now to forget things that I write on notebook and stuff. On top of that, I cannot share it with others immediately as compared to if I write it on a post like this. In a way that, I want to help others and myself just in case if we need some important information relevant to our work.

Of course, I also write nonsense random rambling like about cat, recipes and whatsnot. This is a way that I used to do when I did my PhD. When I experienced writer’s block, I would write blog. So, just to make sure that I would keep on writing no matter what. My former supervisor, Steve said to me “Hadijah, if you cannot write or edit your thesis, don’t make yourself of not writing at all in a day. You need to keep on writing in different format, style or place. You will not lose the writing momentum“. After not writing any journal article for one whole year during Latihan Ikhtisas (except editing my students’ articles), I feel as if I am starting to lose my writing style. I need to do something about this. When I told Norah about it, with a smile on her face, she replied “Sebab tu lah kau kena tulis post kat sini, Dijah” [Translated: That’s why you need to write any post here, Dijah].

Thirdly, sometimes I forget how to do certain things even though there are posters about it such as how to apply leave using MyUTM, or about conferences or events like Car Free Day. I want to make sure that I can remember those events or conferences and at the same time, help to disseminate the information to others.

There you go. My reasons of writing nonsense random rambling posts. 😀

What can be commercialised based on products with Intellectual Property (IP)?_Part 2 by UTIM

Commercialization of Intellectual Property

Why do we have to commercialize?

Benefit for others
Income generation
Create employment opportunity (spin-off company – syarikat hiliran)
Experience for business and networking

What should you do before commercialization?

Get Intellectual Property first
Marketability (have to do market survey first)
Know about commercial acts

Note: Make sure that whatever you commercialize would be based on your expertise. For example, if you have a cosmetic product but your expertise is in educational psychology, you can file for IP but it won’t be counted in MyRA.

But let’s say you have a module but Penerbit UTM does not want to publish it, you can copyright it first under InnoComm and then print it yourself and register your training in UTIM. So, you can use your module for every single training that you do and then even though Penerbit UTM does not hold the copyright, yet you can still commercialize it under UTIM. In this case, you commercialise your service and product i.e. module.

What can be registered for Intellectual Property (IP)?_Part 1 by InnoComm

Why do we file for IP protection?

To protect your IP from others copying, manufacturing, selling or importing your invention without permission
ELPPT purposes: as bonus (10%).
Commersialisation purpose.

What can be registered as IP?

Your research output/findings. For example, if you have a student, you can’t copyright the whole thesis. You only can copyright the output or findings (which is part of the thesis). Meaning, the output is UTM property and thus, as a staff or student, you can copyright your output.
Your product such as “tudung” design, song lyric etc. that you can file under “patent“. But one product can be copyrighted under patent and also industrial design, like tudung. The design of the tudung itself falls under the industrial design but you declare it as a product that you create, it falls under patent.
Your notes using OCW (this is not under Innovation and Commersialisation Centre or ICC or InnoComm).

Where to apply a copyright for your product?

Go to this link

But, if you want to skip the process of copyright through ICC or InnoComm, you can use UTIM or do the copyright (pay the fee for RM200) yourself.

UTIM is a UTM company that help you to copyright your work that you wish it to be yours, not UTM if 1) it is not related to your field, 2) you don’t use UTM facilities and 3) you don’t create the product during office hours.

Note: Your password would be the one like UTMFIN (if you forget, email the IT manager UTMFIN to reset your password for you).

Who would be the main contributor?

ONLY ONE can be the main contributor. So, if you have other researchers in your group, please make sure that you negotiate and discuss who would be the main contributor.

Note: You need to put the percentage of the contributors as well especially if it involves monetary thingy. Such as a product that you produce something that you can commercialize then later on you declare to cut certain percentage of those you put as contributors.

Which is which?

a) Patent

Patent is a technical solution. It has to be something new. Need to have inventive steps that not obvious to be copied easily. It has to have industrial applicable.

It is advisable to patent first your work before you publish. Once you publish, it is copyrighted under the publisher. So, technically it is can be used under the copyright of the publisher. That’s why you cannot recycle it again elsewhere.

Things that cannot be patented

i) Discoveries like new species of animals, plants, mathematical and scientific methods

ii) Schemes of doing business

iii) Methods of treatment to save animals or human (kaedah merawat) not medicines (medicines can be patented).

iv) Common name like “Kimono” (this is a common name referring to Japanese traditional clothing). So, when Kim Kardashian wants to make “Kimono” as her patented and trademark, it is not allowed. But for Apple, their trademark is the logo of the apple, not the word “Apple” itself. But when people want to refer to their product, of course they use the word “Apple” but not referring to the fruit, but the gadget/IT product.

b) Utility Innovation

No need inventory steps. You still can file it to be IP.

c) Industrial design

It has to be external design. For example, the inside component of a washing machine, you cannot file it under industrial design. It has limited time frame for 10 years and need renewal.

d) Trademark

You cannot request for a common name like Apple. That is why “Apple” product only IP the logo (picture). There is no duration for renewal and no need to be renewed. Like paracetamol (is a industrial design) and thus it can reproduced by other company other than Panadol (it is a company). You can also file IP for “phrases” like I’m lovin’ it (McD) – under branding etc. but if you can notice it, they make the grammatical error with purpose because if their trademark is the fully grammatically correct phrase, then it would raise the issue of using the phrase for common usage.

e) Trade secret

Like KFC recipe, coca cola recipe etc. You can file for Trade secret (because it won’t be disclosed as compared to patent). Like red velvet cookies (it is your new invention, if you copyright it, it just stops people from reproduce the ingredients but does not stop people from reproducing the product, so better do it under Trade Secret).

f) Copyright (Hakcipta)

It has to be reduced into material forms like written form, audio/sound form etc. It has to be the 1st one copyright in Malaysia. Like Apps, musical work, sound recording, derivative works [(karya terbitan) contohnya kerja-kerja terjemahan] but you need to get permission from the author but is the author has died, you need to wait 50 years after his/her death. Let’s say you want to translate Terman’s books. He passed away in 1950s, so we can translate his work after 50 years of his death without getting any permission as long as his work is not published and patented with the organisation he worked when he copyrighted his work.

It have to be registered under MYIPO.

What are (some) of the criticism about CEFR cum new KSSM syllabus for English?

I found quite a lot criticism and concerns by various individuals mainly teachers or educators (those people who are in teaching profession) on the current implementation of CEFR based curriculum and MUET. Here are some of those that I can find

New syllabus is good

New literature syllabus

English Literature is a dying subject

MUET is a requirement for admission

The need to boost English proficiency

The need for proficient English teachers

MUET

When I assigned to teach form 6 student MUET subject, I was feeling a little bit apprehensive. I never took MUET before. The only similar kind of examination that I had taken is IELTS before I went to further my PhD at UK. It is the requirement for admission to any of UK university. So, with RM600+/-, I took IELTS once. Alhamdulillah I got Band 7, so I could apply to any UK university that require at least Band 6.5 or 7 as application requirement. Well, those were the days. Things are different now for the better. MUET is required as admission requirement as well as graduation requirement.

Last year, when I sent Amira and Shakir to SMKUT to take their MUET speaking test, they told me that they were partnered with a lady from UKM. She failed her MUET and thus, she needed to retake MUET again as graduation requirement. Amira and Shakir asked me if is it required to get Band 4 to graduate in Malaysian universities. I told them that as far as I know, only the top five universities i.e. old or research universities make such requirement. For other universities like USIM, it depends on your majoring. If you major in Islamic Revealed Knowledge programme like Qur’an and Sunnah, it is required for you to get Band 4 to graduate. This is what I know based on my conversation with USIM graduates who work as teaching in the school where I did my Latihan Ikhtisas.

But now, they i.e. Ministry of Education want to make it as requirement for non-option teachers who are teaching English to take MUET too. Of course, this move would create an uproar among teachers in Malaysia. But, being as an outsider but somehow links to education system, I would like to see positive change in this move. Would they become better teachers to teach CEFR curriculum if they take MUET? What would happen to those teachers who are not excelled in their MUET? That’s what I want to know in the future.