JOURNAL OF DIGITAL EDUCATION, COMMUNICATION, AND ARTS (DECA)

AN ANALYSIS OF IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES FOR ENGLISH FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES (ESP) FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT VIA BLENDED LEARNING MODE AT CHINESE VOCATIONAL POLYTECHNICS

Liping Qiao — 2023-12-18

In the midst of the current digital learning era, traditional assessment has gradually shifted over prioritizing summative assessment towards equally emphasizing formative assessment within blended learning mode. However, there are still limited studies that investigate the implementation of formative assessment via blended learning mode in China particularly looking at the situation at Chinese vocational polytechnics. To explore actual formative assessment practices, a qualitative case study was conducted at two vocational polytechnics and experienced ESP teachers were selected as participants. Rich data were collected through rounds of semi-structured interviews and document analysis and emerging themes from the elicited and analysed data show five categories of challenges. The findings revealed that though most ESP teachers perceived formative assessment as an effective and fair way to monitor students’ learning process, there are still challenges that must be mitigated especially when implemented via online platforms. The challenges come in the form of difficulty in following ESP assessment principles, limited training and absence of guidelines, large class size, and students’ lack of motivation influence their assessment practices. This study justifies the need to develop explicit guidelines for best practices in ESP formative assessment for teachers’ reference.

UNDERGRADUATES’ PERCEPTION OF COMMUNITY SERVICE COURSE-NARRATIVES ON CHALLENGES AND INITIATIVES AT TECHNICAL ENGINEERING UNIVERSITY

Mohd Adri Che Din — 2023-12-18

Community service is an important co-curricular course which is offered to university students in many countries to develop critical thinking skills, awareness, empathy and soft-skills like management and communication. How such as course is able to instill in students the desired traits requires more study. This study aims to investigate the perception of undergraduates participating in community service course, the challenges that they have to face and their initiatives as mitigation strategies in achieving the goals of community service. Data for this study is elicited via a simple mix-method approach that combines elements of quantitative and qualitative research. The 68 undergraduates who served as purposive samples were enrolled in a 14-week co-curricular course called community service and were surveyed, interviewed and physically observed as they undertook the assigned tasks. All the community service groups were able to plan and execute four main projects. The study found five types of main challenges that the students have to face namely i. sourcing for funds and financial support, ii. logistics and manpower, iii. group dynamics, communication and cooperation, iv. time management and v. task planning and distribution. Initiatives and mitigation strategies undertaken by the students are having more specific meeting and discussion, exploring all possible options, appointing capable group leader who knows roles well and referring to and consulting lecturers. These insights from this study are useful for tertiary level curriculum planners to further enhance the effectiveness of such experiential learning course to further actualize the potential of the university students.

PERSEPSI AWAL PARA PELAJAR KEJURUTERAAN TEKNOLOGI DI UNIVERSITAS SWASTA TERHADAP AMALAN RASUAH (KORUPSI) DI DALAM KERJAYA

Mohd Mohamed Zin — 2023-12-18

The Integrity and Anti Corruption Course was first implemented at private higher learning institutions in Malaysia in 2022 (UniKL) to follow the National Anti-Corruption Plan (NACP) which aims to realise the vision of the country to be of high integrity and corruption-free. The Integrity and Anti course was made compulsory to be offered and taught as one of the elective courses under the general subject category (MPU). The objective of the study is to measure the level of comprehension of the university students of engineering technology programme on integrity and corruption in Malaysia. This is important for them to be individuals who have high integrity and despise corrupt practices when they join the workforce. This initial study is important to see whether the content, delivery method, and duration of the course are suitable and adequate to create positive impacts among the undergraduates. A total of 89 respondents were chosen as convenient non-probability sampling for this study and all of them have enrolled in the Integrity and Anti-corruption course for 1 semester. They were asked to respond to questions in a survey instrument adapted from previous studies by Malaysia Integrity Institute (MII). The findings from the survey show that the majority of the respondents have a good grasp on what is integrity and why anti-corruption is detrimental to a country. Their general comprehension on the matter of Integrity and Anti-corruption is good but many have the preceptive that some specific examples of corrupt practices are acceptable. This is quite worrisome and the study proposes that this course be further improved and enhanced into a compulsory subject for all university undergraduates. This is to propagate a more comprehensive understanding of integrity and corruption as a crime that must be eradicated.

A PRELIMINARY STUDY ON NEW UNDERGRADUATES’ EXPERIENCE OF UNDERTAKING ONLINE ASSESSMENTS FOR ENGLISH POST COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Badrul Hisham Ahmad — 2023-12-18

This initial study set out to investigate university freshmen’s feedback on their online assessment experience using the university’s learning management system in their English Language course which was conducted online. The objectives of this study were to investigate a) the learners’ perception on their overall online assessment experience for a language course using the university’s LMS, b) the learners’ experience in completing a writing assessment and c) the learners’ experience in completing a listening assessment. This basic mix-method study investigated 27 English Language learners of a public university in Malaysia attending Level 1 English proficiency course. A questionnaire containing 17 items using 5-points Likert-type scale was administered to measure their general online experience and their writing and listening assessment experience using the university LMS. This was followed by a round semi-structured interviews to probe further reasons behind their perception and experience. The study found that the freshmen expressed positive perception towards their overall online language assessment experience. They also indicated positive feedback for their experience in taking online writing and listening assessments Through the interviews the students highlighted that they are able to familiarize themselves and adapt faster by drawing on their previous experience during online learning at home during Covid-19 pandemic for their high school studies. They learnt to be patient and not panicky whenever there is any technical glitch which they had faced quite a lot during the pandemic. This shows that the students have developed certain level of literacy and digital education competency.

ANALISIS SEMIOTIKA JOHN FISKE PESAN PENGGUNAAN NARKOBA PADA FILM ANIMASI 3D “FICUSIA”

Nurul Faizah Alfi — 2023-12-18

Up until now, drug use has been the main focus of the world. In Indonesia, there has been an increase in the prevalence of drug users by 0.15 percent. Using film as a medium to convey anti-drug messages is one of the many ways this can be done. This study aims to find out whether the message about the dangers of drug abuse from the film Ficusia has been conveyed properly or not. This research is a descriptive qualitative research that uses John Fiske's semiotic analysis which has several codes to analyze the object under study. There are three signs of television expressed by John Fiske, namely the Level of Reality, the Level of Representation and the Level of Ideology. The results of the study revealed that the animated film Ficusia is successful in becoming an anti-drug campaign media because it contains several factors and the impact of drug use. Apart from that, messages about the dangers of drug use have also been conveyed in this series.