Cheok, M. L., Wong, S. L., Ayub, A. F., & Mahmud, R. (2017).

Teachers' Perceptions of E-Learning

in Malaysian Secondary Schools. Malaysian Online Journal of Educational Technology, 5(2), 20-33.

The article teacher’s perception of E-Learning in Malaysian secondary school is well

acknowledgement of the current secondary school teacher’s percipience in using E-Learning

in classroom. The findings been identified that the evidence has shown poor adaption of E-

learning, this result are been discussed in “Teachers’ Readiness to Utilize Frog VLE: A Case

Study of a Malaysian Secondary School” Analysis of result from the correlation analysis

indicated that there was a significant correlation between the teachers’ basic knowledge of

ICT and the Frog VLE course attended. However, the correlation analysis failed to indicate

any significant correlation between the teachers’ attitudes and skills in accessing Frog VLE

after attending the training. Research has been conducted in an effort to identify the elements

found in e-learning at schools that are serving these traditionally underperforming students,

and this study is an attempt to build on that body of knowledge on usage on Vle Frog

platform in classroom and the impact of change of teaching method.

The purpose of the studies been clearly justified that being teachers as implementer in the

classrooms, their perception of the innovation is very important to justify measures of

improvement in the present condition in order to sustain and increase E learning uptake. By

conducting open-ended questionnaire the article identified 3 major questions to answered,

what are the benefits of e-learning for teaching as perceived by teachers, what are the barriers

of e-learning implementation as perceived by teachers and what are the suggestions do they

have to improve e-learning teaching and learning environment in school.

Subjects

Participants were from 3 secondary schools from 2 states in total 60 teachers. They were

randomly selected after their schools were identified as being among the top users of the

FROG VLE. 40% male and 58.33% are female participants, mainly from 41-50 years old age

group.

Instruments

It was open ended survey was employed as the data collection method. Questionnaire was a

qualitative method, where 3 questions posed were meant to provide window on what was

working or what was not and what needed further refinement in the recent implementation of

E-learning. The researchers used data analysis strategy to produce a detailed and systematic

record of the themes and issues identified from teachers. Technology Acceptance Model

(TAM) has been used as guide to justify the prediction and assessment on teachers pre

acceptance on the technology.

Critical Review

The research problem is clearly outlined in the beginning of the article where the authors

discuss the teacher’s perception of E-Learning in Malaysian secondary school. It is clear that

this topic has significant impact on current Malaysian educational system and movement

towards 21st century. “ICT Infrastructure and internet connectivity in educational institutions

provides learners and teachers the opportunity of adopting 21st century teaching-learning

methods that promotes the development of 21st century skills.” By Garba, S. A.,2015. The

authors even extended the article’s significance in highlighting the benefits, barriers and

suggestions in teachers’ perspective. However, It would be great if the teachers real time

experience being discussed, examples of classroom incidents while using the E-learning

platform maybe helpful. The authors did provide a sufficient amount of background

information on the problem. Clear explanation was given on The Frog Virtual learning

environment (VLE), its important clarifies on the E-learning systems that are being referred

and measured. As this VLE platform are the key tools for this study. The three research

questions proposed are presented at the end of the findings and discussion section of the

article. The first two are clear, with one focused on benefits of teaching online for teachers

and students, it’s great to cover both receiver and implementer. Second on barriers teaching

online within school and beyond the school, both scopes were explained well and precise.

The third question has repetition of ideas and could perhaps be split into several different

questions for the sake of focus and clarity, for example awareness, training and FROG Vle

relevance could have been joined and more other ideas may have discussed as in this article

‘The E-Learning Maturity Model (eMM) is a quality improvement framework designed to

help institutional leaders assess their institution's e-learning maturity’ Marshall, S. (2010).
Due to the fact that this is a qualitative study, the focus on sixty teachers in three particular

schools for 2 states is appropriate. However, choice of teacher from age group of 41years to

50 years old seems to be not balanced, the sample should be from most average age of

teacher to maximum. The methods used did not result in a representative, unbiased sample.

The researcher did a good job in providing the purpose and content of measurement.

However, it would be great if researcher used other qualitative methods for data taking such

as video recording and interview, this may have provided more accurate and wider scope.

Similar method were use in, “Principles of Effective Web-based Content for Secondary

School Students: Teacher and Developer Perceptions” Barbour M. K. (2007). Since it’s a

qualitative method research and open ended questionnaire based, the researcher used data

analysis method to somewhat conclude the measurement and information.

Conclusion

Overall, this study has concluded that online platform is not being easy for teachers to use in

the classroom. The researcher has clearly justified the barriers and suggestions in his

conclusion. As mentioned Vle Frog having less exposure among teachers and students,

therefore more steps shall be taken to enhance the usage of online platforms and more

technologic tools to achieve greater quality of teaching and learning in our education system.

The benefits of having Vle Frog been discussed by Thah, S. S. (2014) “ To successfully

implement the VLE, it is very important that there is buy-in from all stakeholders. Very

frequently, change management is not implemented effectively, resulting in poor adoption

and buy-in. But the Frog VLE has a change management component built into its

implementation. Carnivals, briefing sessions, hand-holding activities and promotions on a

nation-wide basis are imperative to disseminate the use of Frog VLE as teaching and learning

portal”. I totally agree with researchers statement in the conclusion “The more teachers know

how their students learn, the more they will be able to employ a variety of teaching strategies

including a wide-range of technology-based tools in matching their students’ needs with the

content to be taught. Technology-enhanced learning environments need to be designed by

considering pedagogy and content matters for higher ecological validity and thus for systems

be useful in practice”.
Reference

(1) Barbour, M. K. (2007). Principles of effective web-based content for secondary

school students: Teacher and developer perceptions. International Journal of E-

Learning & Distance Education, 21(3), 93-114.

(2) Garba, S. A., Byabazaire, Y., & Busthami, A. H. (2015). Toward the Use of 21 st

Century Teaching-Learning Approaches: The Trend of Development in Malaysian

Schools within the Context of Asia Pacific. International Journal of Emerging

Technologies in Learning, 10(4).

(3) Kaur, T., & Hussein, N. (2014). Teachers’ Readiness to Utilize Frog VLE: A Case

Study of a Malaysian Secondary School. Journal of Education, Society & Behavioral

Science, 5(1), 20-29.

(4) Marshall, S. (2010). A quality framework for continuous improvement of e-Learning:

The e-Learning Maturity Model. International Journal of E-Learning & Distance

Education, 24(1), 143-166

(5) Thah, S. S. (2014). Leveraging Virtual Learning Environment to Scale Up Quality Teaching

and Learning in Malaysia. Asia-Pacific Collaborative education Journal, 10(1), 1-17.