COVID-19 MCO: Updated instructions for MPPE1113 group presentations

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We are halfway through the semester that is unprecedentedly affected by COVID-19 pandemic. Like other academics, I have no choice but to jump and dive into the ocean of mobile learning. The one thing that I refuse to claim that I’m the expert.

Nonetheless, the School, Faculty and UTM’s CTL are quick to respond to the needs of this kind of academics (who are not that techno-savvy), by offering loads of online courses on online learning and assessment. I found them all to be useful.

The insights gained from all these online courses on teaching and learning is that I need to re-design the instructions for my classroom assessment and this is particularly related to the way that students have to present their group assignments. instead of F2F presentation, I specifically re-designed the instructions by asking students to complete the following:

  • Read and discuss the topic assigned to your group.
  • Prepare a 30 minute presentation based on your collective understandings towards the topic and the sub topics.
  • The slides need to have narrations i.e. audio recordings of your explanations of the points in the slides.
  • Here are some examples of online tutorials:
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pP3kTmsnbnY
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dxhxvg__zUQ
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=selYsj94RQg
  • Each group will then provide the concept mapping based on your group’s assigned topics, and exchange it with the other groups.
  • For the topics that will be covered by me, each one of you needs to prepare one concept mapping for each of the topic own your own.

These updated instructions are uploaded on the class’ e-learning. All MPPE 1113 Cognitive Psychology students can download the slides at their own convenient.

The revised instructions for group assignment (MPPE 1113) due to COVID-19 MCO. Students can download the PDF version on the class’ e-learning portal.

MPPU 1024 Research Method in Education: Webex session #1

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I conducted a Webex session yesterday for MPPU1024 Research Methods in Education (Section 02). I have 25 students enrolled in the course for this semester. I took over the course from Dr. Hadijah after she had covered all topics for the quantitative research methodology. Beginning this week, I’ll be facilitating students with the qualitative approach in conducting educational research.

Revisiting educational research. It’s essential for students to have an overview of research in education.

For the first session, it was a relief to find that most students were able to access Webex. The were technical hiccups here and there but alhamdulillah, possible to be rectified once you get the hang of Webex’s tools. The meeting was scheduled on 4:15pm, following the original face-to-face classroom timetable.

During the meeting I focused on the topic “An Overview of Educational Research”. The sub-topics included:

  1. Differences between quantitative and qualitative approaches in educational research.
  2. Research paradigms in social sciences.
  3. Philosophical underpinnings of qualitative research in social sciences.

One of the sub-topics discussed during the meeting was the philosophical underpinnings of social sciences research.

Students who wished to watch the recordings could do so via the link given on the course e-learning portal. The recording is also available in public domain via https://utm.webex.com/recordingservice/sites/utm/recording/playback/9806f6ec24234572b9001fde23b4a428.During the online meeting, students were also reminded to post questions on the e-learning forum.

Students could watch the recording of the online meeting via the given links.

Updating e-learning portals to accommodate the phases of COVID-19 MCO

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Due to the multi-phases of MCO that we have to embrace throughout the entire semester 2 session 2019/2020, I have to keep on updating the e-learning portals of my PG classes from time to time. For this semester, I’m having three PG courses: MPPE 1113 Cognitive Psychology (Perdana Programme and Offshore Programme) and MPPU 1024 Research Methodology in Education.

Updated weekly instructions for MPPU 1024

 

Apart from informing students about the fact that all of us need to adjust to the new way of learning method (abrupt migration to online learning; 100%-ly starting 18 March 2020), I do feel that it is also vital to check on their progress and mental health as well. Most of my students shared their concerns via our classes’ WhatsApp groups, therefore I really feel that active communication between me and my students must be frequently maintained. Although I do feel at times I served as their personal “helpdesk” (well, because students will send me personal messages at any time of the day, which obviously affected my work-life balance), but I kept reminding myself that through this pandemic crises, it all boils down to the sacrifices that all of us should make. Indeed, it is a trial time for all of us now.

Updated weekly instructions for MPPE 1113

Congratulations Samia!

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I would like to congratulate my Master student (mixed-mode) Samia Arjumandi for successfully negotiated her proposal defense this morning. Thank you to the examiners, Prof. Yeo and AP Dr. Zainudin for all the constructive comments and suggestions. Thank you also to AP Dr. Baharin for chairing the session.

Samia presenting her master thesis proposal
Panel of the day

International advisory board member for Qualitative Social Sciences

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I’m honoured to be selected as one of the international advisory board members for the newly launched Qualitative Social Sciences. Thank you Dr. Melih Sever and the rest of the journal’s editorial team members.

For those who are interested to publish in the journal, you can visit the journal’s website: https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/nsb

https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/nsb/board

My latest publication in Qualitative Social Sciences

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It started with an email I received on 5 November 2019 from an academic all the way from Turkey, which contained the following message:

Dear Narina,

I contacted you through Qualitative Research Conference abstract book where I really enjoyed reading your inquiry regarding meaning making and narrative story construction. I have done research on illness narratives of bone marrow transplant patients and I truly understood your dilemmas and inner doubts. I want to say that I believe you can make a great contribution to our brand new journal Qualitative Social Sciences. 

The journal is an open access international peer reviewed free journal. There was no journal in Turkey focusing on qualitative social sciences so we wanted fill that gap. Qualitative studies are not considered as much science as hard sciences here, so we wanted to take a step in promoting qualitative research or study. This is how we start mainly.

It is a non profit journal meaning we do not charge anyone for publication, process or submission of articles. Our humble effort is just a step towards advancement of qualitative social research here. Because I also worked on narratives, I wanted to share this journal with you.

Dr. Melih Sever
Editor-Qualitative Social Sciences
Suleyman Demirel University
Social Work Department

And so I agreed to contribute an article, and Alhamdulillah my article was published on 31 December 2019.

The front page of my article entitled “Who Am I in My Story of Teaching?: Confronting Puzzle of Practice Through Narrative Inquiry”

Feel free to read my latest paper via my ResearchGate https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338393118_Who_Am_I_in_My_Story_of_Teaching_Confronting_Puzzle_of_Practice_Through_Narrative_Inquiry

Or read directly from the journal website https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/nsb/issue/51274/659914

If you are interested to publish your qualitative work, you can do the online submission on the journal’s website or you can contact Dr. Melih personally.

What a way to welcome 2020…