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Moderator: Good evening ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to the night forum of today. First of all, I would like to thank to all
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of the audience in front of me. Thank you very much for attending the forum
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for today. Our issue for tonight is “Online Learning”.First of all
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, I would like to introduce our panels for tonight. Right on my left is Miss Natalie, a student from Aimst University, next to her is our specially invited parent, Mr Seng Keat Siang . For your information, he is the winner of the best father for the year 2009. A big claps for him and congratulation for the award. How are you doing, Mr Seah?
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KS : I’m good, and glad to be here this evening..
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Moderator : Beside her is Professor Shirley Wong from the Department of Modern Language University of Malaya. How are you today professor?
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Shirley : I’m doing Great. Thank you.
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Moderator : At the end of the corner is the very experience counselor, Dr Sarmini Segar. Welcome to our forum for today, Dr.
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Sarmini : Thank You.
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Moderator : Ladies and gentlemen, As we all know, online learning is also known as web based learning. Online learning can also be define as a specific mode to attend a course or program of study where the students rarely or never meet face-to-face, nor access on-campus educational facilities, because they use to study online. For further detail about this topic, I would like to seek an information from the first panel next to me, Miss Natalie.As one of the AIMST student, when do u know about online learning and why you choose online learning as one of your way to study?
Natalie: Thank you Mr chairperson. A very good evening to all the panelist and the audience. I’m so glad to be one of the guests here. As what Mr Bryan has said just now, I’m a first year student at Aimst University and I’m taking science education. I knew this kind of learning since I was in secondary school. However it is not widely used as we must dependsed only on text book and teacher’s guide. The reason why I choose online learning is firstly it is a flexible way. Why? It is because it work when it make sense for me. I can use it whenever either at night, evening or morning. With the online learning , I am not tied to the class schedule. Sometimes, the class timetable is too pack that make students feel so stressed about it. The pack and tight schedule can cause the student cannot perform well in their study due tofatigue condition. So by using the online website learning for an addition, I can lessen my work load. Besides going to campus, I also used to surf internet to study. I can go for it Aside from time management aspects, I become more control of my learning process with some online courses. I can even learn on my own page and also choosing the subjects that I want to learn. Other than that by having this kind of technologies, I can make friends all over the world. I can share ideas and information with my friends from other universities of other countries. By doing this my knowledge will be widen and get to know their country too. From this, I also can learn more learning skills and improving my communication skills.
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Moderator : Next we move to our counselor, Dr Sarmini Segar, may be she would liketo share her precious experience with all of us. Based on your experienced, what arethe positive about online learning?
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Sarmini :
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Online learning or with other word is E-learning mean is a term thatencompasses all form of technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) or veryspecific types of TEL such as online or web-based learning. In my opinion, online learning is the other ways
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of student to study or to get the information if they can’t attend the class.
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From this, student can attend a course at anytime from anyway. That
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mean, the student can attend the class from anywhere in the world that has
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internet access. So, they can still get the information about courses. Besides that, online classrooms also provide chat rooms and news groups for meetings and joint work. From this, it helps the student to share information and give opinion in certain topic. For example, when students have a problem in study or misunderstands in some topic in the class, they can get the information from
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this online group discussion. Student also fined the course material that
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may not be available in the library or from theirreading. So, at the same time students can get more information andknowledge about the topic they found. Advantage of online learning is the course material is accessible 24 hour a day 7 days a week. From this material, students have the ability to read, discussion, explanation and comment. Using the internet to attend class, research information and communication withother students teaches skills in using technologies that will be critical toworkers in the 21st century business community that works with colleagues globally and across time zones.
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Moderator: Next we move to Mr Seah Keat Siang. As a father to
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four children, how far do you agree with online learning, Mr Seah?
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KS : I do agree with the online learning because it did not require any specific time and place. So it made my life easier by reducing the cost of sending my children to the tuition that sometimes might be so far. Instead of reducing the cost, I also can have a look on my children progression in front. of my eyes. This also could avoid them from creating a reason to loafing and soon. Besides that, from what I know, the online instructors come with practical knowledge and may be from any location across the globe. This allows students to be exposed to knowledge that can’t be learned in books and see how class concepts are applied in real business.

Moderator :
We have listened to student, counselor, and mother’sopinion out onlinelearning, now, I would like to post next question to professor Shirley Wong, may you share with all the audience for tonight, why you strongly recommended your students to do online learning?
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Shirley: Thank you to Mr chairperson .Online learning is other option for students
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to improve their knowledge. As a lecturer, I also encourage my students to learn English by online. For instance,I suggest them to surf MyLinE website. For your information, this website provides additional resources for learning in English for academic and professional purposes. Besides that, it does also provide a platform for self-access interactive learning. The learning process will be more attractive and interesting
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instead of learning in class. There are many activities provided in this website.
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The most attracted me is the student forum site. This is a placefor sharing of experience and ideas as students in a university. They canexpress their views and opinions on academic and non-academic issues, seek assistance or they can communicate with other fellow students. The other one is ‘Correct My English’ site. This is a platform where students can post a short
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text that has written and other users could help correct the text. I believe that this
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is one of the affective ways of learning but yes, there will be pro and cons. It depends on the students to decide.
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Moderator : Well, from what Prof Shirley mentioned just now, for every good thing there must be a bad thing on it. The same thing goes for online learning. What do you think about the negative impact of Online Learning Dr ?
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Sarmini :
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The disadvantage of online learning is lack of interaction you will get with classmates and instructor. For example, in the class, students have a change tospeaking in class presentation and discussion and give their own opinionclearly. But in online learning, student just can sit at the front of the laptop, type their opinion and wait the answer. The second disadvantage is missing out non-verbal communication. As we know, non-verbal communication is very important than verbal communication. Non-verbal communication is also know as body language which refer to, among other things, gestures people make while speaking, eye contacts and the way they stands. In online learning students just can communicate as actual words. Lastly, In order to succeed at online learning, you have to have some specific skills. You have to be self-motivated, responsible for your own learning and have good time management skills.
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If you don't have those skills, traditional classes may be a better choice for you.
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Moderator: Back to Mr Seah, what do you think the benefit that your children can get from the online learning?
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KS:
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The online learning that my children join was very interesting one. I did not mean toover promoting this online learning but this is the real thing that my childrentold me. One of my children said that she got what she did not get in class. Sheadded more that in this program she could test her understanding whether bydiscussion or a short quiz provided there. Furthermore, over 75% of collegesand universities in the U.S offer online degree programs, with online degreesrespected as “on the ground” degrees. (Lewis). If this program is notconventional, why the big country willing to take the risk? There must be areason of success behind it. Just think about it.
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Moderator: Prof Shirley, could you please tell us what is the different between student who practice online learning and who are not?
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Shirley :-
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There are different between the students who practice online learning and who are not. For my students who are practice online learning, they have improved a lot. That’s why I ask all of my students practice online learning.
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This is compulsory for them and extra credits will be given. I would like to advise all of the students to take this opportunity to improve their knowledge,
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not only in English but in all fields of study. Please use the technology for good purposes that will give benefits to you, especially in your study.
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Moderator: Back to Natalie, where do you heard about this online learning and how it give impacts to your academic achievement?
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Natalie: In the university I become more interested in online learning since I realized there are plenty of advantages for me. I was introduced to online learning through my friends. They shared with me all the online websites learning such as wikipedia, portal pendidikan utusan, myline online resources for learning in English and many more. Furthermore, my lecturers also advised us to find additional informations through the websites that are linked to our subjects. Since the lecturers also are using technology so they give the links where we should refer to. The websites help us to gain more knowledge by surfinginternet. This additional information is important because the contents I get from
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the reference books, lecture notes and text book are not enough. There are too
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many assignments I have to do. However all of them are grouping
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activities. Sometimes, my friends and I share the online web learning whenever
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and wherever we want to. In this group discussion, we will discuss what we find and we gathered all together. We will make hard copy for each of us. Finally we can use it as our references in our preparation
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towards final examination. My parent and family also supported me in this way of learning. As I cannot access internet at home due to no wireless connection,
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my parents bought a broadband for me. So from the sources, now I can easily continue using online learning. That’s all from me. Thank you.
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Moderator: Congratulation, Natalie. Now we know that online learning is proven to boost everyone knowledge. Finally we have come to the end of our forum for tonight where we have shared a lot of knowledge which we don’t even know before. Online learning is build up with the modern technology nowadays. Besides the good things there is also bad thing. So it is everyone right to choose.
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For the last word from me, I would like to thank again to all ladies and gentlemen for tonight and also to our panels. A billion thank I dedicate to everyone for cheering up this forum for tonight. See you again for next week on the other issue.