The current trend of education is towards the implementation of technology in teaching in order to attract the attention of 21st century learners whereby teachers need to adopt technology-enhanced environment such as the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) in their teaching. This study aims to investigate the teachers’ perceptions and tendency to use VLE as a tool for teaching. The teachers’ perceptions were investigated based on the main constructs of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). The respondents were 178 teachers in southern state of Malaysia. The data were collected using a questionnaire and it is validated through the use of Rasch model. The finding was found that the teachers were moderately ready to use VLE and they moderately accepted the implementation of the VLE (mean=3.67 and 3.65). Besides that, the teachers felt that the VLE was useful (mean=3.58) and was easy to use (mean=3.34). It was also found that 84.2% of the teachers’ acceptance was influenced by the teachers’ readiness, and the teachers’ perceptions of the usefulness and ease of using the VLE in teaching. Therefore, it can be concluded that Malaysian teachers has intention to use VLE in their teaching. The use of VLE can improve the innovative way of teaching that can increase students’ interest in constructing knowledge through their learning process.
Mathematics is fundamentally important for Science and Technology, as well as in engineering. Mathematics is compulsory for students since all engineering subjects were Mathematically oriented. However, the preliminary study found that students’ achievement in Mathematics courses have been associated with three main factors, namely interest, attitude and learning habit, as in the KASH Model (Knowledge, Attitude, Skills and Habits). This Model stipulated that poor performance is not just lacking in knowledge and skills but also including poor attitude and habits. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the students’ level and relationship between interest, attitude and learning habit based on KASH Model. A total of 58 students were selected as a sample of the study, who enrolled in the Thermodynamics, Fluid Mechanics and Solid Mechanics subjects. A set of questionnaires with 21 items was used to collect data; a descriptively analysis was used to find the mean and percentage, as well as correlation index using Pearson. The results; high level of factor of interest, attitude and learning habit, and high correlation between interest, attitude and habit. The implication is that teaching and learning process must equally fostering all these variables to achieve a high level of students’ achievement, especially in Mathematics subjects.
This study investigated the influence of psychological capital on work engagement among employees in a corporate company. 200 respondents from one of the corporate companies in Johor were involved as the sample for this study. Data obtained from the respondents were analyzed into descriptive statistical analysis to analyze the demographic data of respondents, level of psychological capital and level of work engagement. Finding from this study shows that the level of psychological capital among employees is high. As well as the level of work engagement. Interestingly, there is a correlation between psychological capital and work engagement found in this study. Future studies should explore more about another factor that could influence the relationship and offering a more comprehensive understanding of psychological capital in the Malaysian context.
Critical thinking skills are one of essential employability skills for graduates when entering the workforce. The lack of critical thinking skills among Malaysian graduates is a concern as these skills are important for success in the 21st century. Therefore, this paper aims to study the effects of online reciprocal peer tutoring (RPT) through Facebook discussion on students’ critical thinking. In this study, the online RPT approach in Facebook was used to nurture students to think critically. In RPT, the tutor role is switched between participants in each task, giving equal opportunities to all learners to benefit from the tutor and tutee role. This approach was integrated into their learning for 4 weeks to increase students' critical thinking. During the learning process, they need to involve in 4 critical thinking tasks based on Bloom's taxonomy. 29 undergraduate students from the school of education, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia completed the validated instrument, Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal test (inference, assumption, deduction, interpretation, evaluation arguments) before and after the treatment. The findings show that it is significantly different in making inference (Z=-3.85, p=.000
In the field of metabolic engineering, one of the primary goals is to maximize the production of a desired substance. However, to identify the set of gene deletions that will result to the desired production goals is difficult. This is due to the complexity of the regulatory cellular and metabolic network and also lack of good modeling and optimization tools. In this study, the optimization algorithm from previous works was implemented to identify the gene knockout on the result. The previous works faced the problem of inability to provide single run with two goals to maximize the biomass and the desired products. Besides that, the previous work also showed long computational time. In this study, a hybrid of Differential Evolution and Flux Balance Analysis (DEFBA) is proposed to solve the long computational time problem and provide an optimal set of gene knockout with high yield of the desired product. The case study in this research involved the production of succinic acid (also called as succinate) in yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The results from this experiment included the list of knockout genes and the growth rate after the deletion. DEFBA had shown better results compared to the other methods. The identified list suggested gene modifications over several pathways which may be useful in solving challenging genetic engineering problems.
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