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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).   

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.  😀

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?

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

What should you do before commercialization?

  1. Get Intellectual Property first
  2. Marketability (have to do market survey first)
  3. 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.