MAXIS remais upbeat about the progess of its eKelas initiative.
Since its launch in 2017, with a focus on Science, Mathematics and English for Year 4 to Form 5 students, in line with the Malaysian Syllabus, the company said eKelas has been implemented in 118 PIKs across 10 states in Malaysia and 570 schools nationwide, with more than 45,000 students connected through the eKelas portal (www.ekelas.com.my).
"This community programme is driven by our passion to offer digital education and we want to bring together the best of technologies so people can Always Be Ahead in an ever-changing world. As all facets of life becomes increasingly digitalised, Maxis wants to ensure that everyone from all walks of life, including students, are not left behind. Through eKelas, we want to provide access to quality educational materials for students all over Malaysia and in turn help to improve their academic performance," said Maxis' chief corporate affairs officer, Mariam Bevi Batcha.
Aside from 3,000 hours of live tutorials online, eKelas also has more than 2,100 self-developed learning materials including notes, videos and worksheets that can be accessed on the eKelas Portal for free. Students also have access to more than 10,000 eBooks and 500 audiobooks through a collaboration between Maxis and the National Library of Malaysia.
Maxis said it has collaborated with several organisations in ensuring that the content on the portal is up to date and relevant to students. "Through a collaboration with MDEC (Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation), eKelas hopes to increase the interest of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) among students by offering video content based on photography, videography and robotics modules developed by MDEC as co-curricular activities," said the company.
University partnership
Besides that, students from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia's Education Faculty also worked with eKelas to produce 177 short learning videos covering 35 topics.
Since 2019, Maxis eKelas has also been recognised by the Ministry of Education as an initiative under its Highly Immersive Program (HIP) to help students master English. They are eligible to collect co-curricular points from their participation the eKelas storytelling and essay writing competitions organised.
"English proficiency among students can improve with active usage of the language as a medium of communication and learning. This is where HIP plays a role in providing a stimulating English learning environment. Maxis eKelas has opened up more opportunities for students to engage in immersive English language activities," shared Education Ministry's deputy director, English Language Training Centre, Dr Kalminderjit Kaur.
MCO activities
To encourage after-school learning especially in this pandemic, Maxis eKelas has held additional Live Tutorial sessions during the MCO period. The 30-minute YouTube Live session runs from 2.00pm-5.30pm on weekdays with quizzes and game-based learning. To increase engagement on its portal, Abang Portal, the eKelas community manager, conducts academic activities as well as other fun activities such as cooking, photography, and videography classes, quizzes on the Olympics and webinars on how to stay safe during the pandemic from 9.00 am to 5.30 pm daily.
Maxis said other than programs in line with the school syllabus, eKelas also produced a digital mission that teaches the importance of cyber security. "Bijak Siber dengan Geng Gajet" was developed in collaboration with Astro Ceria. Winners of the competition received Lenovo ThinkPad L14 laptops along with MaxisONE Go WiFi sponsorship for a year to help them continue their learning digitally.
"I participated in the competition because I wanted to learn how to use social media more responsibly. Each episode and the content on the eKelas portal provided me with a lot of new knowledge. I hope to use my prize even until I continue my studies at a higher learning institution in the future," said Hamizan binti Mazlan's sister, a 17 -year -old student from SMK (A) Dato' Ismail, Kelantan.
"We have witnessed how the diverse activities and programmes carried out by eKelas have empowered students' lives. We will continue to work hard in our efforts to offer eKelas to more students throughout Malaysia. The eKelas mobile application is now in the final stages of testing and will be ready to launch in the near future," added Mariam.