Today’s story is about Samuel Ansong, our MSc IT Management alumni. We call him Sam Song. He has been passionate to purseu his PhD degree, unfortunately due to his commitment with his employer who has sponsored his MSc study, he has to say Goodbye (temporarily I hope) to UTM and went back to Ghana.
Sometimes he call me ‘Mak’ meaning mother. Having him as my student is a blessing. When we first met, I realised that, Wow! We had the same interest which is about FOOD! But…it is the opposite. I am interested to study on how assist people to eat less food by applying Intermittent Fasting assisted by self monitoring using mobile apps. On the other hand, his interest is on promoting people to eat good delicious food! Hahahah, there we go. He even created a Facebook Page on Food . Two different culture.
When I told him about Intermittent Fasting, he explained that it is actually normal for him to not eat for a long period of time. He just got to know the term called Intermittent Fasting is what he has already been practicing. One more thing that I will never forget about his comments on drinks in Malaysia, he asked me: ” Why do Malaysian add sugar in fruit juices?” Heheheh. We, Malaysians are so sweet right? 😉
By the way, he did very well in completing his MSc dissertation titled Design of Gamified Intermittent Fasting Mobile Application for Prolong Use. One advantage that he had is his experience in working with media and his capabilities in using photo editing software. I advised him to design the prototype of an Intermittent Fasting mobile app. I was amazed with his effort in preparing the mobile apps interface printed on cards which can be held by participants of the study. These are examples of two screens that he has produced:
This MSC IT Management Alumni has a strong will and motivation to publish. He has prepared a draft journal article for me to review (still waiting feedback from me though). Last week, I received an email on call for book chapters on Gamification which will be published by IGI Global. I forwarded the link to him. And as expected, he is eager to submit a chapter.
Why do I encourage him to submit a book chapter? This is a goof practice to start writing and publishing for junior researchers. In addition, this may help junior researchers to start build their research profile. Once a book chapter of a conference paper is published, there will be a strong push factor for students to publish more, to upgrade their skills in publishing their scholarly work.
Dr Min, why waste time writing a book chapter? Why don’t you ask your student to push their limits, challenge them to submit to Qi journals for example? My answer is I believe in the LEARNING JOURNEY. Also I believe every student can write and publis to top rank journals. But it needs practice. In education and learning, and in fact in all aspects of our lives – One size does not fit all. Every student has their own capabilities and talents. Sam has prepared a journal article. Inshaa ALLAH awaiting to submit soon. While waiting for the submission, I am motivating him to write a book chapter. I forgot to mention earlier, Sam has published a conference paper that is published in IEEEXplore and indexed by SCOPUS titled A Conceptual Model for Designing a Gamified Intermittent Fasting Mobile App.
This afternoon we had an online meeting. It was quite challenging though. Sam requested me for a meeting to discuss on the book chapter at 1 pm Malaysia time which is 5 am Ghana time! Yesterday I proposed to him that we postpone the meeting to 2pm Malaysia time. It happened that the connection was not good. We can see each other, but unfortunately he can’t hear my voice. And then we ended up changing our virtual background hahahaha. Finally I sort of gave him a short recorded lecture and end the meeting which later I shared with him. Yeah, we must always have a back up plan, asynchronous learning.
Sam will always be my student and my ‘son’. Hope to see you again in Malaysia as a PhD in Information Systems student at Azman Hashim International Business School, inshaa ALLAH.