“I am a Techno-Rebel!” Malaysian Academics & their Personal Experiences of Progressing into e-Learning

Abstract

As we delve deeper into the world of online learning in our attempts to evaluate our Computer-Aided Self-Access Language Learning (CASA-LL) framework (Adnan & Zamari, 2011), we began working closely with e-course developers and online learning managers in different countries and educational institutions to elicit their personal experiences regarding e-learning as a whole. Moving from a macro to micro point-of-view, we noticed three components in our framework that were very relevant to course instructors and classroom tutors namely needs, design and learner autonomy - as they move their teaching from real life to the virtual universe. More interestingly, we also noticed that these three components are not just relevant to language instructors but they are relevant to all educators who wish to embrace e-learning wholeheartedly. On the downside, given that many educational institutions (in Malaysia at least) are not yet ready for e-learning or are just beginning to develop an e-learning infrastructure without clear directions, very few Malaysian academics can be seen as “true” e-learning developers and/or instructors. To collect empirical data on this critical phenomenon, we identified and personally approached two highly experienced Malaysian academics who have attempted to embrace e-learning as part of their academic existence. This research paper shares their personal drive, feelings, failures and successes given the fact that both of them had chosen to work outside of the system as it were - to prove to their peers the virtues of e-driven learning and to show others that e- learning is the path to the future. Using excerpts from unstructured narrative interviews and snippets of informal online communication with our two participants, we found that although they come from different academic backgrounds, they somehow shared common goals and faced nearly the same challenges and difficulties in their ongoing efforts to encourage, promote and support e-learning deployment.