• Home
• Analysis
• Policy
• Central Government
• Local Government
• Healthcare
• Education
• Digital Inclusion
• Green Government
• Technology
• Security

Education

E-learning tops discussion among education CIOs

By Kelly Ng | 26 October 2009

Malaysia has ambitious plans to increase entry to higher education to 40 per cent by 2010, up from 30 per cent in 2005. With that in mind, the Malaysian government is working hard at improving the availability of online education, shared Dr Zubaidah Aman, Principal Assistant Director, Ministry of Higher Education at the FutureGov Summit in Bali.

“Not only do we want more citizens to have access to education via e-learning, we want to make sure the content of these courses is of high quality,” added Aman.

The intention to leverage online learning echoed the sentiment of several education CIOs over the three days at the Summit.

Thailand’s Ministry of Education’s ICT Advisor Keartisak Sensai pointed to his country’s success in equipping schools with computers. “Ten years ago, fifty students shared one computer. Today, we have brought the ratio down to ten students to one computer.”

Providing computers is merely a stepping stone. Distance learning will become instrumental in bridging the educational gap. Students in remote schools, who were previously deprived of high quality education, can now interact with faculty of schools in the city or anywhere in the world through video conferencing and other online learning tools.

Sensai’s next challenge is to get the teachers onboard. “Many of the academic staff have been teaching without technology for decades. Changing them is difficult. Our hope is that as more younger teachers join us - using ICT in classrooms will become a norm.”

Dr David Asirvatham, Director Centre for Information Technology, Universiti Malaya, in Malaysia, also espoused the benefits of e-learning. “Besides being cost effective, research has shown there is better retention level when students can learn at their own pace and decide when and where learning takes place.”

E-learning, according to Asirvatham, can help curb IT project failures. Many IT initiatives fail because end-users are not trained and naturally do not adopt the new system well. “Planning IT projects must therefore include end-user training which is so often neglected or not given sufficient resources and attention,” observed Asirvatham. “Online learning is a fast and cost-effective way of educating end-users.”

---