Digital resources can be used in many ways to support teaching and learning.
THE Covid-19 pandemic has become the major driving force for universities around the world to change their teaching and learning model by focusing on digitalisation.
It has paved more ways for personalised learning, effective participation and collaboration, as well as open science and research.
However, technology is just one piece of the puzzle that closes the digital divide in the community. Attention needs also to be given to other matters surrounding higher education and digitalisation.
DIGITAL NATIVE, DIGITAL IMMIGRANT AND PEDAGOGY
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The concept of "digital native" refers to the generation of young people born in the digital era, while "digital immigrant" is the generation of individuals who learnt to use technology at some point in their adult life.
Interestingly, it is generally assumed that digital natives are more tech-savvy compared with digital immigrants, who are presumed to face difficulties and challenges of learning to use information technology (IT).
While it may be true for the latter, however, it has not always been the case for the former.
The digital natives may come from an economically disadvantaged background, hence the lack of exposure to IT and connectivity.
Even those who may have access to technology and gadgets since young might not always know what to do with the information and resources in hand without guidance.
This is where the critical juncture is, especially in light of digital and education.
Educators need to play an active role in creating a sense of community and collaboration during online teaching and learning.
At the same time, the educators, who predominantly belong to the digital immigrant category, must play catch up with technology to embrace digitalisation.
This is a valid concern because at the end, it leads to the question of how digital learning impacts the students' ability to share their experience with the community.
Recently, the term "hybrid" has become a catchphrase for most higher education institutions (HEIs).
A "hybrid" classroom or learning stands for teaching and learning activities that happen in the physical classroom and online concurrently.
Some of the world's top universities have already acclimatised to this method, while more universities are following suit for their upcoming intakes.
The idea is to create simultaneous learning experiences and engagement for both students in the physical classroom and those who opt for online learning.
With that in mind, a positive classroom culture during online learning can contribute to community building through authentic connections and meaningful activities.
Educators must master the utilisation of technology.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
In view of digitalisation, it is critical to establish universities in Malaysia as an open intellectual field for future society, and thus, academic integrity must be maintained despite the current difficult circumstances.
Earlier this year, Malaysian academics were among the top authors of fraudulent publications discovered in a global database, casting doubt on the integrity of Malaysian higher education educators.
The findings were highlighted by two Czech economists, Vit Machacek and Martin Srholec, who studied authors in high-risk journals found on Scopus between 2015 and 2017.
This discovery calls not only Malaysian research into question, but also in global university rankings. As certain organisations use these publications to rank universities, universities are now forcing even young educators to publish at a certain level under various key performance indicators (KPI).
This raises the question of whether ignoring our educators' stress and mental health issues is worth it.
To meet the minimum KPI, some educators, including professors, have resorted to writing articles in uncredited predatory journals.
Others have also done so to advance their careers, earning titles of associate professor or other university administrative positions.
This has become a point of debate.Another issue that has to be resolved is the educators' involvement in plagiarism, free ride-sharing, and use of student papers.
Additionally, inappropriate gathering or displaying of laboratory and field data, as well as interfering in the work of other educators are becoming prevalent.
Hence, the issue of integrity must be addressed as part of a reform effort aimed at enhancing the status of our academic experts, both locally and globally.
EMPOWERING ACADEMIA, ENCULTURATING DIGITALISATION
This year's Academia Day theme "Empowerment of Academia, Enculturation of Digitalisation" calls for creativity among HEIs to address the pressing need of embracing digital transformations which, when done right, will empower the academia as a whole.
Hence, it is imperative for us to embrace the Fourth Industrial Revolution, which requires us to keep abreast with the latest technologies that facilitate teaching and learning, as well as research.
During the pandemic, there is a rise in creative implementations of progressive teaching and learning methods. Virtual learning has now taken centre stage through the implementation of massive open online courses (MOOC), open educational resources, and flipped classroom online.
In the efforts to ensure that the quality of higher education remains, Higher Education Minister Datuk Seri Dr Noraini Ahmad, in her Academia Day speech recently, stated that RM50 million has been approved in the 2021 Budget to upgrade the Malaysian Research and Education Network (MyREN).
It is important to build a sense of community and collaboration during online teaching and learning.
The faster Internet connection will ensure that the quality of higher education delivered by our educators is not compromised.
Aside from having the right tools, we must master the utilisation of technology. Since there is a consensus that our graduates must be knowledgeable and skillful to survive the competitive job market, it is only logical that we must first possess multi-faceted abilities.
Creating and utilising emerging technologies require multi-disciplinary and transdisciplinary knowledge and skills.
Therefore, the existing curriculum structure must be revised from time to time, allowing for flexibility considering the ever-changing times.
The ministry has been supportive of flexible education, which encourages HEIs to develop hybrid or transdisciplinary academic programmes, which combine two or more disciplines under one programme.
Being "purists" in a particular field may no longer carry as much weight in academia and the industry as it once used to.
We can see emerging popularity in transdisciplinary research, as supported by the ministry's Transdisciplinary Research Grant Scheme.
Additionally, we are increasingly witnessing the demands of the job market for graduates with entrepreneurial, communication and critical-thinking skills, regardless of their education background.
This is a loud call for academics to learn, unlearn and relearn new knowledge and skills, other than what we graduated with if we are to thrive and feel empowered in the present time.
With regard to digitalisation and education, we are not suggesting that digitalisation will replace conventional teaching and learning.
In fact, digitalisation gives us more reason to identify, evaluate and synergise modern technology and conventional methods to move towards digital fluency in an increasingly digitised society while upholding integrity.
Selamat Hari Akademia 2021 to all educators!
The writers Dr Diyana Kasimon, Dr Feroz De Costa and Associate Professor Dr Moniza Waheed are guest writers for the Higher Education Ministry and lecturers at the Department of Communication, Faculty of Modern Languages and Communication, Universiti Putra Malaysia
