Different styles of learning
AN innovator at heart, Heriot-Watt University Malaysia assistant professor Mohanaraj Balakrishnan believes innovating education is the way forward.
“Everything is changing, so how can teaching be the same?
“If you don’t innovate, it will come to a point where your students will just learn online and not show up for class because there is no added value to your teaching,” said Mohanaraj, a Chemistry lecturer in the varsity’s foundation programme.
The enthusiastic lecturer said he believes in a term called “teachologist” — a teaching methodology that incorporates technology into teaching.
He conducts virtual lessons for his classes and develops videos using screen capturing software, which he subsequently uploads on YouTube and the university’s virtual learning environment.
“These videos are for students to revisit at home.
“Within Chemistry, I developed a sub module for students to learn independently. As a British university, one of our main focus is on independent learning.
“Students will independently decide how and when they want to sit for the assessments and how they want to progress as every student has their own way and speed of learning,” he said, adding that the idea is for students to complete the module before the semester ends.
Through this module known as personalised learning, Mohanaraj develops ways of teaching that will address each student as effectively as possible.
“There are also checkpoints in this module where they can meet me to get help if they are struggling.
“Incorporating independent learning gives students an amount of freedom in deciding how they want to learn the particular module, rather than the lecturers deciding for them.
“Feedback I received from students was that like the fact that they are in charge of their learning and they feel more responsible,” he added.
Mohanaraj said the aim behind this is to focus on learners.
Another project he developed, which was subsequently incorporated into other courses, is the gamification of lecture reflection.
“After our lesson, we will use a tool called “kahoot” which gamifies the lecture reflection.
“It is important for students to be able to reflect on how much they have learnt,” he said.
Mohanaraj said it is also important for lecturers to reflect on the effectiveness of their lesson delivery and if they have covered their topics well.
He said lecturers and students will be able to detect their progress on the tool.
“It is fun and students become competitive because it is a game. It generates an excel sheet that shows every individual student’s score on every question they have answered.
“As a lecturer, we will be able to analyse the overall performance for each question, which reflects back on the learning outcome,” he shared.
Mohanaraj tries out his innovative ideas during his lessons for at least a semester, followed by conducting a survey to assess his students’ feedback on the effectiveness of his new teaching methodology.
He said if the response is positive, he subsequently discusses the idea in an academic forum with the other lecturers.
“At the forum, we share our ideas with each other and students’ feedback on it.
“This year, I plan to create an online guidance for students on some of the more complex problems they solve in chemistry,” he added.
Mohanaraj said sometimes, half of the class are not be able to grasp the knowledge of solving problems then and there.
By uploading videos on these areas in Chemistry on YouTube and the varsity’s virtual learning environment, students are able to pause, slow down and replay the videos.
“Some of the feedback I received was that they viewed the video several times.
“Eventually, their performance improved!” he said.
The ambitious lecturer said he plans to personalise lectures in the future, in a way that caters to different styles of learning.
“The underlying goal is to cater to different styles of learning and to support students who learn at different paces in the best way possible,” he said.
The university has a tutoring initiative where lecturers are assigned to 10 students to mentor individually.
He said assigned tutors meet students on average two to three times throughout the semester.
On the varsity’s foundation programme, Mohanaraj said the varsity was initially given the Scottish A Levels syllabus to run.
However, they customised it to suit the kind of programmes the varsity has.
“As a result, it takes the learning burden off students to a large extent and it is also realistic.
“The foundation programme helps our students know what they want (to pursue).
“Our lessons are delivered in lecture - tutorial mode, there are ongoing assessments and research components. This prepares students for their undergraduate years,” he said.
Mohanaraj said the university’s foundation programme does not just cover topics within the course but gives students a comprehensive knowledge on their subjects.