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WHAT IS...EDUCATION? THE PURPOSE OF EDUCATION?  Recently, someone asked me to define “education”, something that most people take for granted. I think a good starting point would be to revisit the National Philosophy of Education (NPE). Let me quote verbatim: “Education in Malaysia is a continuous effort towards enhancing potentials of individuals in a holistic and integrated manner in order to create individuals who are well-equipped intellectually, spiritually and emotionally. This effort aims to produce knowledgeable, ethical and responsible Malaysian citizens who are can contribute towards the harmony and prosperity of the community and nation.” To me, what is not evident or obvious in our NPE, is the lack of emphasis on the SKILLS. Here’s my own definition of education…Education has multiple dimensions which boil down to imparting KNOWLEDGE, inculcating SKILLS, and instilling VALUES. All the issues that we have been discussing on education/higher education actually revolved ar...

The article above implied that MOOCs have failed to deliver its potential to educate the masses. Well, I won't be too quick to jump to a conclusion. Yes, I'm a strong advocate of MOOCs and online learning — as a student of MOOCs as well as a practitioner of online learning, and now helping the Ministry of Education with the Malaysia@MOOC . Let us view it this way: Rome was not built in a day, but they were laying bricks every hour. I'm always reminded of this phrase. It takes time to achieve something great. Actually, Rome was just the result of massive, persistent effort and lots of hard work. It was the outcome of a grand feat of strength and stamina — and intelligence. The bricks were the small units that made up the great structure. What about MOOCs? We are still laying the foundation -- still laying the bricks. Mistakes and failures are to be expected. The problem is, people (politicians, administrators, investors) are impatience—they want to see MOOCs as a game chang...

Everyone is reflecting...Me? Well, 2015 has been an interesting year. Interesting indeed! I always enjoy being in the circle of academics and work together with them. They are all great people...some with their ego  😊 . The academic world is always very exciting. Every day is different. There's no dull moment. No routine. We don't make much money like those people in the business world (but good if the government would revise our salary scheme hi hi). We pride ourselves to take on the responsibility to nurture the future nation builders. We are shaping the young mind that would become the potential leaders of the future. A lot of people looking at Malaysian Higher Education and simply judging the quality of our university by the so-called world ranking. It's not that simple. As for next year, well, the economy doesn't look very promising. Now academics have more things to think about, apart from teaching (I want to repeat, teaching, teaching, teaching), research, super...

Change is inevitable. The Ministry of Higher Education (MOHE) has mandated The Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) to implement the 'MOOCs plus credit recognition and transfer' initiative, which would enable all MOOCs courses from Malaysia and other platforms such as Coursera, Edx, Canvas, etc, to be registered into the Malaysia's MOOC platform and be given credit (MOOCs is the acronym for Massive Open Online Courses). The question is, are we ready? Yes, and No. As someone involved directly on the ground, helping to lead the Malaysia MOOC initiative for the 20 Malaysian public universities , I can see the challenges ahead, but as Anthony Robin said, “The only impossible journey is the one you never begin”. MOOC is a big thing. I believe it is a game changer. Twenty two of the top 25 US universities in US News World Report rankings are now offering courses online for free. In 2014, the so-called Big 3 MOOC providers, Coursera, Udacity, and edX, introducing their own creden...

There has been an intense discussion in many higher education forums and social media revolving around the issue of re-examining and re-thinking our future direction, as far as undergraduate programme and employability are concerned. Graduate employability is always taken as a good measure to show the ‘quality’ of education and reflect the reputation of the educational institution. Is it true? Yes, it is important and relevant but to me, that's not THE ONLY reason for the existent of a university. In addition to the issue of graduate employability, there are deeper questions that do not often get addressed in public dialogue about higher education: What is the purpose of higher education today and for the future? What do we want to achieve for all the young talent we are nurturing? Or are we (educators) really nurturing them in a true sense of providing wholesome and holistic education? These questions challenge us to re-imagine the role of university and educators (lecturers) beyo...

"A SMOOTH SEA NEVER MADE A SKILLED SAILOR" When I came back and joined Universiti Sains Malaysia (Food Technology Division, School of Industrial Technology) in 1994, I was asked to teach the laboratory class. I took over and changed some of the experiments (and the manual). I spent most of the time in the laboratory, observing and helping with the hands-on. It was an enriching and valuable experience for me in building my career as an academic. Many new lecturers asked me what to do if they are asked to teach courses that they don't like or they don't have expertise. My standard advice always 'take it, grab it, don't complaint'. It's part of the learning curve. What do you expect — smooth sailing? "A smooth sea never made a skilled sailor". To me, as an academic, it's important to get a broad-based knowledge and at the same time specialize in a few subjects (maybe a bit later). So, it's a kind of "Jack of many trades and a master...