Gamification

I first came across this concept in late 2016.  I attended a one day course about Gamification by a former senior of IIUM (Zayd Ali Alsagof).  I never met him while at IIUM.  He was two years senior.  The chances that I would take the same class would be slim if he majored in psychology.  Most of the time, we would take the courses based on level (of difficulty).  Looking at the course code, you can understand that the course is meant for students at certain year of study.  It does not mean that if you are a first year student, you can’t take courses which are meant for final year student.  It is just that you will “struggle” a lot because the courses would be much complicated and most instructors would assume that you already know some of the theories that you would learn in different classes that you take in junior year.  

So, here I am teaching at a university and yet I am struggling to learn about the current things in education.  I went to this gamification workshop on volunteer basis because I feel that I need to improve my teaching practice.  I want to “inject” something new in my teaching every semester.  That’s my aim.  In sha Allah 

I learn a lot from the course.  But there are so many things that I have yet to explore even though some of the things are not free like Prezi. or Padlet.  One thing at a time. 

One of the things that I immediately implement in my class is online assessment. It is not that we don’t have online assessment on UTM elearning, but the feature is different from other online assessment such as Quizziz, Kahoot! and such. 

So, I tried Quizziz in my MPPU1024.  The students felt excited because it is like playing a game, rather than taking a test.  There are immediate feedback/answers using memes and there is also a ranking.  Yup.  All “players” will be ranked.  At the end of semester, I asked the students to give me feedback about the activities that we did in class.  Some of them give positive notes about Quizziz.  I wrote a paper and presented it in a conference in 2017.  Since then, I start to collect more data every time I use Quizziz in my class.  But, it is kind of challenging to get feedback from students unless it is considered as a part of the grading.  Another challenge, another way to tackle.  One thing at a time.  This is what make teaching interesting.  There would always be challenges that you need to deal with.   Never ends.  

Why do students leave question(s) unanswered?

I have just finished marking the final exam of one course.  Other than multiple choice questions, there are also open-ended questions (short answer questions).  Not that difficult or challenging.

How wrong I was?  When I first marked few of the students exam scripts, I was impressed because they can use their own words to explain various concepts.  So, I gave full marks for this.  Then, as I read the answers of other students (by this time, it was the tenth student), I started to notice a decline of satisfactory answer.  Am I being too strict because of the different time frame of marking?  The first tenth were marked after sahur and the remaining ones were after I have started fasting more than 2 hours.  No.  It couldn’t be that.  I was still feeling fresh and alert.  Am I being affected by the noise of scam phone ringing?  It couldn’t be it.  I felt a bit annoyed but I took a break for a while before continuing marking.  

I further read more exam scripts.  Yup.  I started to find that some students even left one or two questions unanswered.  What went wrong?  I guess, perhaps they cannot find any clue from the MCQ section.  Well, a good question will not give hint of any answer to the other question.  

When I looked again closely the five questions, well, the questions seem complicated but the answers to all of the questions are straight forward.  It does resonate with this saying “sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple“.

So, why do students leave question unanswered?

There are many reasons.  One of it is perhaps they might not have enough time to write the answers.  Second, rather than writing a wrong answer, some might perceive that it is better not to write any answer at all.  Third, they simply do not know the answer or don’t have any idea/clue to write anything at all.  As a teacher, what should I do about this?

Scam? Oh please

I came a bit early today because I was planning to finish my marking.  Finally, the students have submitted their assignments and all so that I can start marking their papers etc.

Around 805am, the land line phone in my office rang.  I was a bit suspicious.  Who on earth will call me this early when I know that half of my colleagues are not even in the office yet.  I just let the phone rang unanswered.  Then, it stopped.  Well, at least it stopped ringing on my phone but there was a phone ringing nearby my office.  Yup.  My next door neighbour’s phone was ringing.  It rang for several minutes before it stopped (well, this neighbour of mine will not come to his office during exam period this early.  That’s his routine since the last few years). 

But then I faintly heard another sound of phone ringing.  It must be one of the few doors neighbour’s phone.  What a heck!  I thought it has stopped (few weeks ago, there was another colleague got this kind of call.  He answered but he was informed that he got some loan etc. and needs to settle certain amount of money to certain bank).  This is clearly a scam.  Beware guys!  This is an example of digital fraud.  There are many cases which might leave traumatic experience to some.  My stance: Stay calm.  Don’t panic.  Know your financial state.  

Since when we become the dumping ground ….

It has been more than a year since I watched Malaysian TV channels (yup, I am not purposely avoid watching any of the channels, it is just that somehow the coverage at my area receives Singapore based channels better than the local ones).  I was shocked to watch the news clip about Malaysian is being a dumping ground of non-recyclable waste of developing countries.  This is a classic example of “bullying” at global level.  It is kind of ironic when the same countries propagate global warming issues, sustainability and such and yet, they “dispose” their garbage at another countries like Malaysia, Philippines,  and who-knows-what other countries might be the victims here. 

Is it ethical?  Is it morally right?

Free meal and Free Market

It is the brain idea of one of my colleagues, and thus, this project was started since Semester 1 2016/17 (on 20 November 2016 to be exact).  At first, the project only offered free meal (100 pax) but later on, the project also includes offering stationery that students might need (this is known as Free Market).  

Alhamdulillah, even though there is ups and downs of this project since it started but the people who support the cause try their very best to make sure it runs on regular basis.  It is not easy to run this project on regular basis especially it needs financial supports and also volunteers to assist us in making sure that it will be run on weekly basis.  

For semester 2 2018/19, the last Free Meal and Free Market was conducted on 2 May 2019 (a week before Ramadan).  In sha Allah it will be continued on the next semester.  I have got some of my colleagues who passed me some stuff (stationery) that they bought.  Based on my observation, black pen, foolscap paper, rulers and yellow highlighter are among the most highly-sought after stationery.  

What a true academician and scholar….

I always admire this guy since I was young (I think when I started to read about an article that he wrote in the 1990s).  To envision myself as an academic like him, it is something that I have in mind.  It is not easy to choose this path but I will try my best to stay true to myself In sha Allah.  He was one of the co-authors of Rukun Negara (I googled about this).  I guess, every time I recite Rukun Negara, it will remind me of him.  

When I heard about his passing, I am sad.  As I browsed the news to read more about him, I came across his saying “The child is the father of the man. Educate and groom the young person, and he will grow up to be the right kind of adult. If you wait until he becomes an adult, it is too late”

What a true academic until the end!  

 

What does it mean to be a truly educated person?

As I marked the exam papers, I could not help from wondering this thing “What does it mean to be a truly educated person?”.  Looking at some of the lackluster inarticulate answers of my PG students, I was wondering what went wrong in my class.  Did I emphasis the wrong thing?  Did I emphasis exam results than what they should know regardless of whatever grade they might get? 

I encourage my students to be reflective.  I give them reflective questions.  When I found a note about what kinds of questions that self-regulated learners ask themselves, I share the note with my students.  In one class, I discussed with them about self-regulation model/theory and using the note, we discussed about how we can use it in different context of our lives.  I did my best in this case to guide my students not to be good test takers, but true learners.  But again, “you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink“.

But one thing that I notice is not many of my students are avid readers.  Meaning, not many of them like to read.  When I asked some of them if they have the textbook that I have recommended, NONE of them have the textbook (this was my UG class).  Unfortunately, it happens not only in my UG class, but also in my PG class.  The only difference is for my PG class, they realise the importance of having a textbook in the middle of semester, so by week 10 (there are only 14 weeks in one semester),  majority have the textbook.  Well, better late than never.  The UG class?  I rest my case. Perhaps they did borrow the textbook from the library and it is just that I don’t know about it (husn zahn in Arabic – or in English it means think positively or in Malay – bersangka baik)