#MyDigitalEducator@MOHE | Hadijah binti Jaffri

ELPPT 2022: Training

What kind of training that you can upload the information in the ELPPT? That is the question that I ask myself and few others. This is also a question that I got from others which I have no answer. Personally, I received numerous version of the answers. But, one of them said “Kalau latihan tu ada penilaian, kita boleh letak. Kalau takat datang nganga, lepas tu lupa, dapat sijil kehadiran atau penghargaan tu, mengada la kan nak letak dalam ELPPT. Yang latihan ada penilaian ni, bukan senang nak dapat sijil. Selalunya ada markah. Tak dapat markah tertentu, ada latihan yang langsung tak kasi sijil tau“.

So, with arm that knowledge, since I attended more than five trainings with evaluation at the end of the session, I tried to fill in and upload whatever relevant certificates in the ELPPT. Being me, I was unsure about it so, I asked more than one person about it. I even attended a help desk session to ask the person in charge and she guided me. But, it was rejected.

In this case, always double check the information. So, I asked few more people and triangulate the information. But the best person would be someone who has done it before. I asked a friend who had attended the same training before and she had filled in the ELPPT for that (year 2020). She suggested the following:

Under “Komponen Perkhidmatan Profesional”, select “Penglibatan Aktiviti Akademik”
Under “Nama Projek/Persatuan”, type the name of organisation such as MyDigital Educator @ MOHE – Content Creator Expert (just use the information in the certificate).
Under “Peranan”, select “Pengembangan/ Penyebaran Ilmu”

In addition, other information that you need to add depends on the information that you can find in the certificate such as date, place and so forth.

I do not know if it will be accepted or rejected after I made the amendment. But, at least I tried.

Certified Content Creator: What is that?

It has been more than three months since the deadline for content submission at MOHE website. This is the MyDigitalEducator programme. Alhamdulillah, with the support and mentoring from the mentor and fellow colleagues, I managed to complete the tasks on time. That is what matters most. The results? I do not care much.

An email was sent yesterday (15 November 2022) late afternoon to inform us about the results. Alhamdulillah, I saw few names that I recognise from UTM. One of them is the one that I learned about making videos using Canva. I do not create the videos that I submitted in the programme using Canva though because I do not have enough time to learn due to time constraints.

At that time, our aim is simple – “Let’s don’t repeat this again next year“. She has the same opinion. One of the funniest moments that we shared is when both of us were trying to submit our final assignment around 3pm. At that time, we realised that the system was lagging. It was not a good indication. We know from our experience dealing with UTM ELearning, if the system is lagging, it means that there might be overloading problems due to users (large number of users at the same time).

We had a laugh at that time and said to one another “Dah mula dah. Kena cepat ni. Dah tak boleh nak belek lagi dah sistem ni“. Then, we had a break for a while for asar prayer around 430ish. I did not log in to the system after that. I felt that I have done my best with my own limited knowledge and ability so, I could not expect more than what I can do. She tried to log in after asar, a couple of minutes just before 5pm but could not access to the system. She called me “Kak, dah tak boleh nak log in dah. Ingat nak semak balik apa yang saya dah letak tadi. Nampaknya kena redha je lah.” Being a perfectionist, I know that she still wanted to have a final touch of everything.

At this point, I was beyond care about whatever ranking (I know that my mentor has different idea about this) and the only thing that I care is, I do not want to repeat this again. With this experience, I know it is not easy to create materials for micro credential course. I know my own ability to prepare for micro credential course. It is not for me.

Part 8 – MyDigital EDUCATOR@MOHE program: Final evaluation before the real one

The deadline for final evaluation before the “real” one is 29 July 2022. My mentor started to evaluate each of us by looking at the materials, activities and assessments in the Moodle one by one. It took him quite a while to check all of our works.

He gave us a prompt reply using WhatsApp. The comments that I received are: 1) Add information relating to the duration of the module, learning mode, targeted learners and requirement of prior knowledge and (2) Add self introduction.

When I created the welcoming remark video, I just mentioned my name. It was insufficient. Alhamdulillah I use Genially, so I just rerecord again the specific slide. I rewrote the script for the video after Subuh and rerecorded that part again while waiting for a sharing session with one of the members in my group.

In a panicky mode, we need extra assistance from each other and in this case, peer support does help to manage our anxiety. Indeed.

Part 7 – MyDigital EDUCATOR@MOHE program: How important mentoring sessions are to scaffold one’s learning?

Learning, according to Lev Vygotsky, is a process that requires social support from persons such as parents, friends, and teachers. However, the social support does not end there; it can also come from the larger society, community, etc. In this way, social supports enable an individual to acquire knowledge and skills with the assistance, direction, and backing of a more knowledgeable and informed individual. This is the meaning of scaffolding. According to Vygotsky’s theory, when persons who are learning something new have the necessary support, they have a greater chance of comprehending and mastering the knowledge or skills they acquire independently in the future.

Even though I feel overwhelmed by the programme requirements for MyDigitalEducator, I remind myself to tackle things one at a time. Having a mentor who closely monitors our progress is beneficial, despite the fact that some may feel overwhelmed by it. Several members of our group have opted to withdraw from the programme owing to unforeseen events and causes.

This program is demanding in a way that we have to ensure the materials that we develop is not just good enough, but perfect (or almost perfect) to be showcased to others. This is not easy. “Janji buat, janji siap” adage is not applicable in this sense. Being me, I know well better that rather than doing something just for the sake of doing (Janji buat), I would rather not wasting myself to do it on a first place. So, once I have decided to do something, I will commit to it until its completion.

Some colleagues say “Ala, janji siap sudahlah”. I no longer feel annoyed hearing that from them, but if my students ever say that, they will know (or later find out) what I will do.

I am blessed to have a mentor who is willing to sacrifice long hours and even weekends to have mentoring sessions with us. May Allay grant him the best rewards for his efforts.

Part 6 – MyDigital EDUCATOR@MOHE program: I am not alone

There are more than five colleagues from my faculty who are also in this MyDigitalEducator program. But I only discuss ideas with a few of them. Having these few individuals who share their ups and downs with me, makes me feel more confident and motivated to finish the materials needed for the module. It is not easy but I know that I can always discuss things with those who are in the same journey as me.

There are also colleagues from different faculties who I exchange ideas with. We had a few WebEx sessions. I learn to create video using Canva from one of them. She also showed me how to use Quizlet. She mentioned Prof Dr Azidah Abu Ziden from USM. There is a module which Prof Azidah created which is in the MOHE module. I googled her and found few more videos that she has created or she was an invited facilitator.

Some might wonder why do I have time to create this post even though I have limited time to edit my videos. Chill ok? I need to capture this moment as it happens. What I want to emphasize is when doing the materials of this module, I learn a lot about myself and others. I also learn about the importance to unlearn, learn and relearn things or upskilling. It is time consuming. No doubt about that. But it is important for me to push myself to learn video making, craft teaching materials and activities using various platforms (even though I have to subscribe to some of the platforms) and assess my own current skills.

I show some of the videos to former students. As a role model, I know that I need to be competent and thus, be able to teach and guide students accordingly. One of the students said “Dr, don’t you feel bored and tired to learn new things?” I replied “To stay relevant, we have to learn new things every day. If it is not much, at least we learn one or two things every day. Try not to miss any chance of learning new things everyday. But, I learn things according to my ability and stay in the state of flow as proposed by Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi. Even though I set my own standard and deadline, I welcome feedback from others. I only feel bored and pressured when people who do not have the skills to make video but force me to do something for them“. This student asked “Does anyone can force you to do things for them?” I just relied “Welcome to ________ (fill in the blank) environment workplace”.

Part 5 – MyDigital EDUCATOR@MOHE program: Video making is challenging but May Allah ease the process

The clock is ticking. Indeed. There will be another round of internal evaluation by my mentor on 29 July 2022 (Friday). He said that we will be given two days to edit or improve our teaching materials and resubmit again by 31 July 2022 (Sunday). Seeing him so concerned and having enormous patience in guiding us to complete the materials, I feel that I should not let him down by not giving my best shot. Since there is an ongoing renovation going on nearby, I need to do something to record two videos with no unnecessary background sound aka drilling etc. We don’t want the videos to have such background sound, isn’t it? Unless we want to “pass” the migraine that I have to those who will use the videos (tongue in cheek remarks!) How can I avoid “the noise”?

My solution: I came early. I arrived at UTM before 7am. Alhamdulillah, the traffic was smooth. I woke up a bit early to prepare bento (I plan to complete the two videos as soon as possible before the renovation guys come to work). I remember that my friend told me that we have to prepare a story board and script. I already prepared it yesterday despite having migraine (not as severe as the previous day). I also have prepared the slides in Genially yesterday. I showed it to one of the colleagues who is also in the same MyDigitalEducator program. She gave some comments and ideas on how to improve it as she is used to create videos etc. She is an expert as compared to me but I know it is a phase and with her assistance, I learn some tips and tricks.

She does not use Genially but Canva. Well, Canva has similar features but I am not used to its features. At this time, I have limited time to explore and learn new things as I need to finish these two videos today (to be exact before 5pm). Honestly, I am still exploring the video making features in Genially, so I need to focus my attention and spend time to learn the features.

Also, I need at least one or two days to edit the videos. I plan to submit the teaching materials before Friday. I have a tuition class on every Friday so I do not think that I have time to edit the teaching materials on Friday.

I use Genially to create one of the videos. It is a trial and error method of solving problem. But since I have limited time to find videos in YouTube and whatsnot, so I just focus on try out some features and see the output. Alhamdulillah Genially has the preview features so, I can always immediately preview it. At the moment, I already share the link of Genially in the MOHE moodle. So whatever changes that I make in Genially, I do not have to change anything in the Moodle. This is the only way to save time.

Part 4 – MyDigital EDUCATOR@MOHE program: First internal evaluation

Having a passionate mentor is like having a gyutou knife. It is a dream to have one but it can cause serious injury too with its sharpness. A learner who is like me who needs extra time and lots of efforts to master learning new things can be a nightmare for any passionate mentor. My mentor had decided to have a quick evaluation before we submitted our materials (deadline is on 30th July 2022). Even though he is not feeling well yesterday, but he made a point to have one-to-one session with us. I was the third person to be evaluated. So after seeing the first two people getting their feedback, I know how serious my mentor is.

When it was my turn, I showed him the downloadable checklist first before I showed him my lesson plan and materials in MOHE moodle. He gave constructive feedbacks which I would use to implement. One of the feedbacks is I should omit the links to the materials in the checklist. His justification is students will use the links in the checklist without accessing moodle. My thought is still in the MCO mode in which I used to give such checklist to students who had difficulty to access elearning. This module is not for such students. I overlook this aspect.

The second feedback that he gave is I should use embed display setting for the materials. I tried it several times to no avail. This is one good example of a struggle that I have to overcome. I will try to watch again the related videos to learn about this. A quick solution would be to bug one of my friends to teach me (she gave a talk before about elearning stuff and she knows elearning better than me).

Another thing that he suggested is to have an opening or welcoming video with a short instruction. I am thinking to use Genially with the voice recorded mode. I need to learn to do that. I have tried once but I am not satisfied with the recorded video. My laptop is a bit slow when converting video to MP4 so using an online video recorded video is an option that I have to consider as the only option now.

I lamented to one of the seniors. He advised me “Just do the things within your ability. If you have to learn something new, learn at your own pace. If somebody pressure you to do something that beyond your ability, just ignore it. Just ignore it until it is no longer relevant. But if you must do it and do not have any other choice, just deal with it“. With a chuckle he said “Masa tu la nak pening kepala“.

I try to convince myself that this is just a phase. Indeed. But I am starting to feel helpless. This is not good. Knowing the severity of learned helplessness, I need to do something to avoid myself falling into that situation.

Note: What is learned helplessness? It is a term coined by Martin Seligman and Steven Maier to describe a condition that occurs when we face uncontrollable situation continuously (repeatedly) and despite our best efforts to find solution, we face failures or negative outcomes. This will lead us to stop trying to change the circumstances or the situations even when we have the ability to do so. In this case, our judgment about our ability is being clouded by the negative assessment of our efforts based on the negative outcomes of the uncontrollable situations.

Part 2 – MyDigital EDUCATOR@MOHE program: When you have a passionate mentor

We are assigned with a mentor for MyDigitalEducator program. Our group is blessed to have a mentor who is passionate in teaching. Well, he holds an admin post at this unit which responsible with things related to teaching and learning. Thus, it does resonate with his actions.

One of the things that he did was had a briefing with all mentees. After that, he checked the title that we sent for the module that we have to develop. There were some of us who give generic titles. He reminded those individuals to change the title. He also reminded us to inform him if we have any technical problem or directly inform the webmaster from UUM. Alhamdulillah the PIC from UUM is very helpful especially in rectifying technical problems that we might have.

Other than briefing, our mentor also set a date for progress reporting via WebEx after Eid Adha. Sigh…. I was planning to take a long break but apparently I cannot do so as I have to complete 50% of the module by that time. Technically, I have less than 2 weeks to do so. One might be wondering, if I have lack of time to complete the module, why do I have time to create this post, right? This is a way for me to “capture” the moment that I am having at this time. So, I can reflect at it later on and see what are the things that can be improved.

In a way, this is the way I do my CQI for my teaching.

IUCEL 2022: Gather Space

I am struggling to get myself familiar with this Gather Space platform. When I got the tentative program, my turn for presentation is on 29 June 2022 (Wednesday) from 2 to 5pm. During the briefing, it is suggested that we wait nearby our poster during the evaluation session. If we want to move out from the session, we can do so but we need to let the evaluators know. However, I do not know how to do it at first but after several attempts, I find that there is a space in which I can type a notification about my status. This is really interesting!

UPM has done a well done job in preparing this year IUCEL using Gather Space platform. I know from Dr Chong about Gather Space and he mentioned about using it for his students. They interact using metaverse mode in Gather Town. For someone like me who takes extra time to learn new things like Gather Town, knowing this platform gives me an idea about what I can do for the MyDigitalEducator module. But it might be a bit too overidealistic on my part as I am still struggling to create a content/collection in Wakelet (LOL to myself). It is a challenge that I set for myself but I will take it in a stride.

What can I conclude from the briefing?

During this briefing, there are so many things to digest though. I feel a bit cognitive overload but I will try out according to my own pace. Chill!

How to share Wakelet content/collection with your students?

There are two options that we can choose to share the content/collection with students.

Share without allowing students to write or add any response.
Share by allowing students to add their work, leave comments and such.

Either way, first we need to set the sharing option. After clicking the Share button which appears like a locked lock on the right side, we will see this

This is the normal setting. The collection is private. So we need to change it either to Public or Unlisted. Based on the videos that I have watched, it is suggested that we select it as unlisted because it will only appear to those which whom we share the share link. If we select Public, any Wakelet user can get access to our content/collection.

Option 1: Students cannot add anything

Once we click Unlisted, we will see this option. For this option, students will be able to access the materials but they cannot add any comment or cannot upload any link, PDF file or image. To share the collection with students, just copy the link and we can share the link with students via Telegram, Elearning and such. Other than link, we can use QRCode or embed method. If we have Reddit, Facebook, Twitter, Microsoft Teams or Google Classroom etc., we can use that method as well.

Option 2: Students are the collaborator of the content/collection

To enable students to be collaborators in our content/collection, click INVITE COLLABORATORS. There are few options that we can add them as collaborators. Option ONE: Copy link and later on share the link with students. Personally, I think this is the straight and direct method. Option TWO: Copy code and share the code with students. Option THREE: Click the Microsoft Teams or Google Classroom icon to share the collection to students who are already in Microsoft Teams or Google Classroom list. Option FOUR: We can invite students who might be Wakelet users or invite them via email. Don’t forget to click the Invite button to activate the action.

Note: Wakelet has an academy (Wakelet Academy). I double check my notes by referring to the Wakelet Academy. Some of the points are similar in YouTube videos too. So, if I leave out anything, you may directly refer to Wakelet Academy to find out more information.

I created a note for myself to remind myself the steps that I should follow when creating a content/collection in Wakelet. I put it HERE for anyone to use.