With the pandemic disrupting higher education and redefining the roles of educators, incorporating technology and innovation into teaching and learning are among the changes brought about by COVID-19 that needs to continue even after vaccines are rolled out to contain the disease.
Dr Racheal Poh Su Ying (left) and Ms Teoh Siew Chin both received the INTI Teaching Innovation Award 2020.
Dr Racheal Poh Su Ying, who heads several programmes at INTI International College Penang’s School of Business, said that maintaining student engagement, motivation, and persistence were some challenges faced when it comes to online teaching during the pandemic, therefore, a lecturer must always be proactive, think outside the box and be innovative in their teaching methods.
“Managing asynchronous learning effectively requires a great deal of student independence in learning. Appropriate teaching methods and adequate motivation from the lecturers will maximize students learning in an unconventional learning environment,” said Dr Racheal, who emerged as one of the winners of the INTI Teaching Innovation Award 2020.
Organised by the Teaching & Learning Department, the award aims to recognize faculty members who use blended and online learning technology effectively through good practices in course design as well as innovative use of technologies that go beyond traditional classroom instruction. The award for 2020, which was themed Innovative Practices for Learning Continuity, also aimed to showcase innovative practices that promote learning continuity at INTI, especially during these challenging times.
Dr Racheal, who holds a doctorate in education, is hopeful about transforming students by applying the lessons she learned during her postgraduate studies which has guided her teaching style. “I hold to my principles in innovative teaching which are guided by Robert Gagne’s Nine Events of Instructions1, which I find very useful in designing the course in Blackboard,” she said, adding that Blackboard is a Learning Management System used across all INTI campuses to complement the delivery of classes.
The gamification approach using various features provided by Blackboard Learn is an effective way to engage students online.
“The course content area in Blackboard consists of a few important items such as assignments, discussions, e-book and groups. It enables students to retrieve the course materials and easily participate in asynchronous sessions,” shared Dr Racheal who has been in the tertiary education line for 10 years and now heads the Master of Business Administration, Diploma in Business – Working Adult, and Diploma in Marketing programmes.
Dr Racheal uses the flipped classroom approach as an instructional method and elicits student responses through engaging class discussions. In this way, her students will complete their readings at home and learn through live problem-solving in class.
“I also incorporated a few innovative teaching aids to supplement their understanding in class such as the Pear Deck and Mentimeter. It’s really fun!” she laughed.
She reiterated that the outcome of every lesson is very important for online teaching, hence, she designs the most appropriate learning methods for students and embeds all required knowledge in the virtual classes. “The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows, and this needs innovation,” she concluded.
Meanwhile, Ms Teoh Siew Chin, a senior lecturer at INTI International College Penang’s Centre of Excellence for Pre-University (CEPS), finds the gamification approach using various features provided by Blackboard Learn an effective way to engage students online.
“Using features found in Blackboard Learn can be an effective way to engage students asynchronously as well as track their performance in the form of online submissions and grades. To fully engage with my students, I also use various tools such as polls, whiteboard, online quizzes created using Quizizz, Kahoot, Wordwall, Mentimeter or Socrates interchangeably.
Ms Teoh, who has taught Cambridge A-Level physics at INTI Penang for more than eight years, admitted that the challenge in teaching e-supported programmes, often lies in engaging students in a virtual platform. To increase the rate of online student engagement, two main features called Adaptive Release and Achievement – eBadge, were utilized to gamify the approach.
“The gamification approach was found to have improved the online engagement rate among students. Awarding e-badges also showed positive outcomes among learners through comments given,” Ms Teoh said, sharing that students admitted the gamification approach was not only helpful, but also motivating, evoked a sense of accomplishment, boosted confidence, improved understanding of a topic, and helped maintain consistency in learning.
“Besides using tools available in Blackboard Learn, videos summarizing each chapter are posted online as part of revision before attempting any online tutorial,” she added.
“From an instructor’s perspective, another positive outcome is that this approach can be used repeatedly and can be improved in the future. Most importantly, this approach has come in handy during the Movement Control Order,” she explained.
Ms Teoh shared further, “When face-to-face sessions were not possible, students were trained on how to process and analyze data. For example, with a set of data given, they were required to process and analyze the data then submit their work online for grading before the due date.”
“We will then discuss the work during the Blackboard Collaborate Ultra session. Students were also introduced to a free online simulation, for example, the PhET interactive simulation. Besides using it for a better understanding of concepts, PhET provides a virtual lab such as a circuit construction kit. Students can make use of it by exploring, setting up the ‘virtual’ circuit and learning the concept involved,” concluded Ms Teoh, whose innovation and dedication in teaching also won her the INTI Teaching Innovation Award 2020.