This is interesting! A new thing for peer assessment. Being me who is not a tech-savvy, I normally use Google Form. This app was developed by UTM academicians from the Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Computing. I might use it if I have to assess team working aspect.
Dr Fauzan provides a manual book as a guide within the system (you need to log in to the system to get accessed to the PDF manual book). I will try to explore it later.
One of the challenging decisions to make in assisting students is extension of deadlines for assignments. Even though from the first day of class I normally will explain the assignments and deadlines yet towards the end of the semester, there will be students asking for extension for whatever reasons. In this case, it seems there are enormous tasks they have to complete at the end of semester i.e. week 12 onwards. Thus it will indirectly make them feel more stressful at the end of semester. For some people, stress will affect their immune system. So falling sick when there are lots of assignments to be submitted around the corner is normal.
But, should we aka the lecturers to be blame if students feel stress due to students own “failure” in managing their time to study? Is it fair to blame the lecturers who do not give extension? Looking back at this situation, it seems the fault lies with the way the lecturers conduct their class, in this case relating to assignment submission.
Of course there are only “some students who are struggling to be responsible and accountable of their own action”. Blaming others is an easy way out. Indeed. Suddenly I remember about “minah t test tak tau”. What happens to her now? Hopefully, things go well in her life. As a teacher, I always hope for the best for my students even though they hurt my feelings (and never apologise). In minah-t-test-tak-tau case, I have forgiven her but I will never forget what she and her father did for the rest of my life. It is lesson that I will treasure as long as I live.
One of my postgraduate students asked for my home address. I was reluctant to give it to her. But then I remember that she borrowed my book when she started her research. So, I don’t have other choice than to give my home address for her to return my book.
It was nearly maghrib when I heard someone was talking outside my house. I went outside to see the person. It was a delivery guy. The package delivered was for me. Who is the sender? I didn’t buy anything online. Well, the only thing that I buy online is book. It is essential.
The package that I received was carefully wrapped. As I opened layers of bubble wrap, I finally saw a box. A watch? A pen? I looked at the name written in the box. Unfamiliar name. I googled it. I find out about this company that I never knew exist.
There is a card. There are only few students who addressed me (inaccurately) as Prof. I cringe whenever people call me that. I am not one (yet) and do not aspire to become one either.
I remembered when she asked me what I want for a gift. I told her that an e card that she can make using Canva is sufficed. FOC. But she said that it is not enough to show me her appreciation. I don’t need material things. The watch that I got from a former student lies on top of my dresser. Rarely been used. I never bought myself such an expensive watch nor gifted someone with such an expensive give. The pen that I got from another student also was left unused in my office.
When I opened the box, I was speechless. I saw an engraved pen with my name as I opened another smaller box. This will be the second pen that was gifted to me that I would probably will not use. Let’s face it. The most expensive pen that I use costs me less than RM10 (highly recommended by fellow teachers). My favorite pen costs me RM1 which I bought in bulk (when I was at school in 2018 which I still have until now).
Now, what should I do with this gift? I cannot regift it because it has my name on (tongue in cheek remark!).
I attended a session today. At first, I was a bit reluctant to attend. After all, it is the same Elearning. But something inside me was bugging me to attend the session. Well, there are some new things indeed that have been improved since last year. Indeed.
One of the things is there will be a direct link of blended learning rating to TESDCP (under the category of T&L Delivery Resources. You can see other information like E-content (but you cannot add your E content materials here. There is another system for that).
I learn (relearn) on how to do backup/restore (again). It is simple but I have to be extra careful in doing it. If not, I might accidentally delete the students who might have registered for the upcoming semester (which is in another one more week). Since we are using two course codes (old vs new version) for certain courses, I asked if we can merge the courses into one. Dr Nihra gave a tips. We can either (1) metacourse link the courses or (2) import or enrol the students from either one of the courses (old or new code) to another one. But there is a catch. You might not comply to the blended learning rating. For the metacourse link, you need to request it to your faculty’s IT manager.
So what I did is for one course that I pair with another colleague, I did the backup/restore of the course, but I hide it from students. In this case, we are going to maintain the course with two codes.
For another course that I pair with juniors, I decided not to do the backup/restore thingy. Let’s start afresh! Another tips that Dr Nihra shared which some others have done it before (and will continue doing it in this upcoming semester) is we can prepare our Elearning in advanced and can get 4 rating if we comply to all the things (ABCD) [Refer to the picture]. So what left is the active involvement of students with the materials, activities and assessments that we prepare in the Elearning. For that, we have to achieve at least 28 active index. Any lesser than that will lead us to get 4 band. There is a calculation but I am not sure about that. But if I am not mistaken, the 28 active index depends on how many students log in to Elearning and get accessed to our course.
Another thing that I just noticed (after Dr Nihra showed it to us) is a box on the right side “Course Blended Status“. If you want to know if you have complied the blended learning requirement, you can check it in your Elearning. The example that I show in the picture (below) shows that I have achieved band 4 rating. But let’s see how it goes.
I am not that keen to have a reunion. But I just went along with the idea to keep in touch with my primary school mates. Alhamdulillah I got a chance to meet my former school mates after more than 30 years leaving school.
10 October 2020. It was a year ago when I had the reunion with my primary school mates. How time flies! Indeed.
I bought a tablet. After contemplating for a year, I decided to get a tablet with a pen that I can use to write . Like always, I used one of my postgraduate students as my guinea pig. I already commented her proposal but I want to use the pen. So I scribbled new comments, drew an arrow here and there to show my points.
But one of the things that I noticed on the first day I bought the tablet was it turned into a sleep mode after 7pm and only can be switched on back at 7am. It is like I can only use the tab for 12 hours!!!. This continued for nearly a week. I tried my best to change the setting but to no avail. It did not work. So I decided to go to the service centre, and got things fixed. Alhamdulillah. It can be switched on after 7pm.
I shared my experience with some friends. Some even joked “The tablet is smart because it wants you to have a work-life balance. No more work after 7pm“. Yeah, right. I am ok if the setting is from 7am to 9pm. Not 7pm. It is too early!
Since I installed basic apps, I do not have any game etc installed. To get myself familiar with the tablet, I wrote this post by using the pen. A small step indeed.
It was one of the days that I have packed schedule starting from 815am. Is it normal? It is normal but what makes it challenging is having to attend more than one event at the same time. Some people can do it well. I am not one of those people.
I had a meeting about a course and we needed to decide on the rubric etc. While attending that meeting, I also attended the Majlis Apresiasi FSSK. Using two devices, it seemed things could go smoothly. But there is only one “me” with one brain that needs to process overloading information at once. By 12pm, I was exhausted. Then someone asked me about a copy of course information that he cannot open using his laptop. I gave three versions: Words 2003, Words docx and PDF versions. He still cannot open any of the files. *sigh* My patience was wearing thin. I still remembered back in the days when I used a “dumb” phone. He chided by saying “Apa ni telefon cap ayam?”. I have the urge to say the same thing to him now “Apa ni laptop cap ayam?” but I bite my tongue and said “Try to open it again using PDF version and then you convert the PDF to Words”.
What makes me wonder is he taught the course last semester and thus it does not make any sense to ask me to give him the course information this semester. He should have the course information already since last semester. It is the same course information that will be used in the upcoming semester. I am not even the course coordinator. What is wrong with this picture?
There is a typo mistake. Dr Doria gave the right name of the faculty but somehow it was appeared differently.
Anyway, congrats Dr Doria! You make me proud to be your teacher and colleague!
It was Friday. Even though officially it was my day off but due to the urgency to amend something for the extension of UTMER, I grudgingly prepared the mitigation plan as needed. At first, I did not have any idea on how to simplify the presentation of the mitigation plan. I googled up on the internet and found some examples using PowerPoint. I thought to myself “This is doable”.
While preparing the mitigation plan, I chatted with a junior about a course that we will offer next semester. Since she knew that I was preparing the mitigation plan, we just chatted using Whatsapp. At the same time, I noticed that there were emails coming in – almost non-stop. It was a bit unusual. Normally, I will not get many emails on weekends.
I opened one. Well, it was a former student asking me to be his supervisor. Within another half and hour later, I got similar emails from other students. On top of that I also got messages from some students. Alhamdulillah, not many of this batch have my number.
All in all, guess what? I had more than 10 students asking me to be their final year project (FYP) supervisor. Well, the last time that I had was in 2013. Yup. That was a long time ago. I do not know what is the current practice so I asked around. I asked the course coordinator. She replied: “I will assign them with supervisors from ………….”.
Now, how am I going to break the news to these students? I have to be tactful. So I decided to create a simple poster.
Some of them replied back. Well, I did not expect that they would reply my email back. Here are some of their responses:
Student A: Ah that’s okay Dr. Your response is very cute and heartwarming hahaha
Student B: Noted, Dr. Thank you for the reply, I’m glad that I had the chance to take your classes before. Have a good day, Dr.
Student C: I adore your effort in creating the e-poster, Dr. It somehow makes me feel special and appreciated. Thank you too for your prompt reply to my inquiry, Dr Hadijah. I clearly understand your email, always be safe and healthy Dr <3
Student D:
Noted Dr
. Thank you for your response.
Student E: Assalamualaikum & good morning Dr. Hadijah. I understand Dr. I’m quite disheartened you cannot be my supervisor, but having you as my teacher is good enough! Thank you very much Dr. Hadijah and have a nice day ahead! :DD
Long time ago, I used Calvin and Hobbes’s cartoon for my Social Psychology class. I find that there are certain things related to psychology. The psychological terms depicted in comic strips are relatable. But it has been a while since I taught Social Psychology, so I have not used cartoon or comic strips in teaching.
One of the juniors shared a book by David Kyle Johnson – Science Fiction as Philosophy (Course Guidebook). I was blown away by the idea of using science fiction in teaching, especially teaching philosophy. I think Prof Johnson is a geek who like sci-fi movies. I am not that hard core sci-fi person though. So, even though I was introduced to Star Wars, Star Trek and such by one of my brothers when I was a kindergartener, yet somehow I am not a big fan of those things. I watch such movies for the sake of entertainment, but I never really into knowing the details of each characters or the plots.
But after studying the course guidebook by Prof Johnson, I got some ideas in crafting activities for my class. Nope. I do not teach philosophy though. But let’s see how it goes.