inspired

May - Aug 2017 / Issue 01 inspired.oum.edu.my

Building Communities
of Inquiry
• Important Dates... p. 2
• On Building Communities of Inquiry and Other Enhancements... p. 3
• Entrenching the Culture of Collaborative Inquiry... p. 6
 inspired
May - Aug 2017 / Issue 01

about inspired
inspired is a not-for-profit OUM e-newsletter on the 3Ps - practice, policy and
philosophy - of teaching and learning in and beyond OUM. Published thrice-yearly,
it engages a readership of OUM learners, staff, tutors and the interested public.
inspired evolved out of TCX (Tutor Connexxions), a now-discontinued OUM
e-newsletter which saw 45 issues published over almost a decade.

This image is reproduced with permission from Kaboompics. The cover image is licensed from Shutterstock.

the team editor’s note

Advisor Thank you for reading this inaugural issue of inspired, OUM’s new e-newsletter
YBhg Prof Dato’ Dr Mansor Fadzil on the practice, policy and philosophy of teaching and learning in and beyond
OUM.
Editor
Dr David CL Lim inspired was first mooted earlier this year by YBhg Prof Dato’ Dr Mansor Fadzil,
President and Vice-Chancellor of OUM. The idea was to retain the focus on
Editorial Members best practices in teaching and learning of TCX (Tutor Connexxions, the
Dr Zainuriyah Abdul Khatab now-discontinued e-newsletter out of which inspired emerged) but to widen the
intended readership from OUM tutors only (as was the case for TCX) to OUM
Tengku Amina Munira
tutors and learners, as well as the interested public. Like TCX, inspired is
Mohd Izral Mohd Nazir
published thrice-yearly, once in each of the three semesters OUM has in a year.
Graphic Designer Putting together this inaugural issue has been fun and intrinsically rewarding,
Megat Malfiz Ismail and I would like to take this opportunity to thank both the inspired team
members for their patient contribution and the previous TCX contributors for the
Web Administrator dedication they had put into the publication over the years. I would also like to
Saiful Amir Ramali extend my thanks to Razif Masri for the photographic work, and Nazrai Ahmad
Zabidi for assisting in obtaining an e-ISSN number for inspired.

On behalf of OUM and the inspired team, we hope you will enjoy inspired and
we wish you Selamat Hari Raya!

Dr David CL Lim
Copyright © Open University Malaysia 2017. All Rights
Reserved. Editor
No part of inspired may be reproduced in any form or by
any means without the written consent of the Editor of
inspired.
Page 1
 inspired
important dates May - Aug 2017 / Issue 01

/S
ial e

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Tutor
Compulsory

inar
Tutorial

Senior Undergraduates: Senior Undergraduates:

l / Sem
ria 9, 10 & 11 June 2017 19, 20 & 21 May 2017

2
Tuto

New Undergraduates: New Undergraduates:

inar

30 June, 1 & 2 July 2017 9, 10 & 11 June 2017

Postgraduates: Postgraduates: New Undergraduates:
9, 10 & 11 June 2017 19, 20 & 21 May 2017 19, 20 & 21 May 2017

Senior Undergraduates:
30 June, 1 & 2 July 2017
New Undergraduates:
14, 15 & 16 July 2017
Postgraduates:
30 June, 1 & 2 July 2017

/S /S
ial e ial e

3 4
m

m
Tutor

Tutor
inar

inar

Senior Undergraduates:
30 June, 1 & 2 July 2017 Senior Undergraduates
New Undergraduates: (SMP only):
14, 15 & 16 July 2017 28, 29 & 30 July 2017
Postgraduates: Postgraduates:
/S
30 June, 1 & 2 July 2017 28, 29 & 30 July 2017 ial e

5
m
Tutor

inar

Undergraduates: Existing Undergraduates & all Postgraduates:

12-24 August 2017 Online: 10-23 July 2017
Offline: 14,15 & 16 July 2017
Postgraduates:
19-24 August 2017 New Undergraduates:
Online (exercises and activities):
6 June - 6 August 2017

Final Assignment
Exams infographic by Megat Malfiz Deadlines

Page 2
 inspired
feature May - Aug 2017 / Issue 01

On Building Communities of Inquiry

and Other Enhancements
An Interview with YBhg Prof Dato’ Dr Mansor Fadzil,
President & Vice-Chancellor, OUM

by Dr David CL Lim (david@oum.edu.my)

photo by Razif Masri

Dr David Lim (DL): In this May 2017 semester, new
assessment formats and structures are being
introduced to new learners. Please could you clarify
what this entails?
YBhg Prof Dato’ Dr Mansor Fadzil (DM): Thank you, Dr
David, for the opportunity to share with our learners,
academics and stakeholders the various
teaching-learning enhancements we are rolling out in
stages.
In this May 2017 semester, we are piloting a new way of
assessing learning. The pilot project involves a set of
eighteen courses which new learners will be taking in
their very first semester with us. Here’s the premise for
the move.
Research done in the context of open and distance
learning [ODL] institutions such as OUM shows that
learners stand to benefit tremendously from a more
pastoral approach to assessment. This is true for all ODL
learners but especially for those who have just entered
their first semester of study and require scaffolding
measures to ease them back into formal education. Here
we need to bear in mind that a majority of our ODL
learners are working adults for whom the academic
culture of learning is new.
Copyright © Open University Malaysia 2017. All Rights
One way of providing this pastoral care
Reserved. is through the
provision
No of specially-tuned
part of inspired assessment
may be reproduced in any form or
structures that are likely to produce
by any means without the written consent of the Chief
Editor of inspired.
positive washback
effects. In their first-semester, if not in their first-year, new
learners should rightly be given the kind of assessment
that helps orientate them to the university culture of
knowledge and learning. The assessment employed
should also help them to engage more closely with what
they have to learn, and to learn such self-regulatory
behaviours as seeking help to learn and learning
alongside peers.
With this end in mind, it simply would not do to expect
learners to complete, for each course they are taking, the
conventional written assignment to be submitted late in
the semester, topped by a final summative sit-down
exam. In this scenario, the formative and collaborative
aspect is entirely eclipsed by the summative. Feedback
on written assignments comes rather belatedly, near or
after the final exams, which is a bit too late to
meaningfully help learners learn and improve.
Based on ODL research, as well as feedback from
consultation with our learners and academics, we are
piloting a new way of assessing learning. In place of the
one conventional essay-type assignment to be submitted
towards the semester’s end, we are introducing a series
of smaller tasks to be completed entirely online, phased
at regular intervals over a semester, and given immediate
feedback. This will go a long way in helping learners to
check and take charge of their learning progress.
formats and continued on next page...
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...continued from previous page
DL: Does this mean that the conventional essay-type
assignment is being phased out? Also, what kind of
new smaller online tasks are being introduced?
DM: There is still a place for the essay-type assignment,
especially for the more advanced courses that require it.
Generally, where appropriate, in place of the essay-type
assignment, we are introducing, firstly, a series of
short-response questions for each topic in the courses
involved in the pilot project.
Subject-matter related, these short-response questions
are accessible online, enabling learners to respond to
them online, too, within a set time-window. Not only will
this type of assessment help learners pace their learning
consistently, week after week over a semester, it will also
provide them with invaluable feedback on whether they
are on-track – instantly, at that. Responses to the online
questions accrue marks and cumulatively contribute to
the learner’s overall grades for the courses involved.
Of course, the short-response question type of
assessment may not be suitable for some courses. For
these exceptions, exercises in various appropriate forms
will be introduced instead. One example of an exercise is
the actual speaking test required for a course like OUMH
1303 [English for Oral Communication].
DL: The change from having one big chunk of written
assignment due at the end of the semester to micro
tasks with instant feedback phased over a semester
sounds much more learner-friendly. Aside from
short-response questions and exercises as you
explained them, what new assessment formats are
being introduced?
inspired
May - Aug 2017 / Issue 01
DM: The other new component under continuous
assessment is the problem-based learning activity with
follow-up assessment that we are introducing
simultaneously in this May semester.
The thing to highlight about this component, firstly, is that
it builds on what learners have mastered and gauged via
the aforementioned short-response questions. Secondly,
it is effectively an exercise in collaborative online learning.
Generally, a problem-based learning activity begins with
a content-related ‘problem’ formulated by the academic
course leader and posed online by the system
administrators of myINSPIRE, OUM’s learning platform.
The ‘problem’ serves to trigger learners’ intellectual
curiosity, prompting them to share and compare
responses and experiences, and to untangle the knots, so
to speak, by way of negotiating and co-constructing
knowledge. The social and cognitive online activities that
take place here are facilitated by the teaching presence
of the tutor.
We are introducing a series of
smaller tasks to be completed
entirely online, phased at regular
intervals over a semester, and
given immediate feedback. This
will go a long way in helping
learners to check and take
charge of their learning
progress.
photo by Razif Masri
Once the educational transaction of collaborative online
learning reaches a sufficiently rich level, learners will
proceed to assess their mastery individually. This will be
done in online mode through a set of high-level
multiple-choice questions [MCQs] revolving around the
‘problem’ previously discussed.
As with the component comprising short-response
questions, the online MCQ component flowing from the
problem-based activity has an embedded
instant-feedback mechanism.
continued on next page...
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...continued from previous page
DL: Will the MCQs flowing from the problem-based
learning activity for the involved courses contribute
marks towards the learner’s overall grade?
DM: Yes. Generally, the MCQ component of continuous
assessment for the courses in question will contribute
thirty percent to the overall grade. The same weighting is
given to the previously-mentioned series of
short-response questions. What this means is that,
structurally, we are now giving the continuous
assessment portion a heavier weighting than before. Now
it stands at sixty percent, while the final examination will
carry forty percent.
DL: I understand that these enhancements you have
just shared is part of your larger vision for OUM which
borrows something from the educational model of
‘community of inquiry’ conceived by Garrison,
Anderson and Archer. Please could you tell us more
about that?
DM: The ‘community of inquiry’ model is certainly
something we are keenly pursuing at OUM. I have sought
the support of our Vice President (Academic), Prof Dr
Sha’ari Abd Hamid, to systematise its introduction to our
teaching-learning process. We draw from the model for
good reasons. It provides a sensible, if not prudently
informed way of conceiving successful learning in higher
education. And it points to how we could get there.
As premise, the model conceives of learning as a
cognitive act undertaken by the individual learner. But it
does not reduce learning to being dependent entirely on
the learner alone. The learner still needs to study the
given learning materials on his or her own for a significant
number of hours over a semester. Studying on one’s own
is certainly essential and rewarding. But it has its
limitations.
This is where Garrison et al. come in. They acknowledge
the importance of self-study but they also recognise that
successful learning is invariably collaborative; it takes
place socially, within a ‘community of inquiry’, through
sustained communication. This is especially relevant to
the ODL setting. Why? Because the social aspect or
presence of learning is precisely that which supports
learning, otherwise known as ‘cognitive presence’ in the
parlance of Garrison et al. Conceptually, ‘cognitive
presence’ is “a vital element in critical thinking, a process
and outcome” that we want our learners to realise.
The other element in the model which supports cognitive
presence is ‘teaching presence’. Contrary to conventional
wisdom, teaching presence in the Garrison et al. model
refers not simply to the designated teacher but rather to
any participant in the community of inquiry. It could be
the learner’s peer or peers, as the case may be, although
the primary responsibility of teaching rests on the
shoulders of the teacher or the tutor in our case. In this
scheme of things,
Copyright © Open Universitythe functions
Malaysia of the teacher or tutor are
2017. All Rights
to design and develop learning activities, and to facilitate
Reserved.
higher-order learning through the exercise of leadership.
No part of inspired may be reproduced in any form or
by any means without the written consent of the Chief
Editor of inspired.
inspired
May - Aug 2017 / Issue 01
In a nutshell, then, the three core elements or presences
– social, teaching and cognitive – need to interact within
a community of inquiry in order to yield for the learner a
worthwhile educational experience.
"The Garrison et al. model and our
long-standing practice do overlap
to a degree. Both conceive of
successful learning not as an
unpredictable outcome of chance
but as a series of planned activities
designed to encourage information
exchange, focused discussion,
peer collaboration, community
building, and so on – all with the
ultimate aim of promoting
higher-order learning."
DL: The ‘community of inquiry’ model as you’ve
explained it is very explicit about the precise roles it
assigns to each stakeholder. Aspects of the model
seem familiar and appear to me have been long been
embedded in our existing teaching-learning process,
no? photo by Razif Masri
DM: The Garrison et al. model and our long-standing
practice do overlap to a degree. Both conceive of
successful learning not as an unpredictable outcome of
chance but as a series of planned activities designed to
encourage information exchange, focused discussion,
peer collaboration, community building, and so on – all
with the ultimate aim of promoting higher-order learning.
With the ‘community of inquiry’ model coming to the
forefront of our practice, our operational challenge now is
to entrench the culture of learning conceived by the
model. In the coming semesters, OUM will be conducting
extensive briefings and training, as well as disseminating
information on the ‘community of inquiry’ approach we
are taking. It is crucial that all the stakeholders are kept
abreast of these developments which I’ve spoken about
and are made fully aware of the roles they ought to play
and the support we will be providing to help them
achieve the desired educational experience.
DL: Thank you, Dato’, for taking the time to share your
thoughts with the readers of inspired.
Page 5

feature
Entrenching the Culture of
Collaborative Inquiry
by Prof Dr Sha’ari Abd Hamid
Vice President (Academic), OUM
In any provision of higher education, the responsibilities
of the university extend well beyond placing learners
within a curricular landscape at the front end and, at the
back end, assessing learners to ascertain the degree to
which set learning outcomes have been met. A host of
other responsibilities come into play; here I want to focus
on just one: setting the culture of teaching and learning
that mediates both ends.
The ‘How’ of Learning
The curricular landscape sets out ‘what’ to learn, while
the culture of teaching and learning concentrates on
‘how’ to learn. Both are critical considerations, of course,
but the latter is especially close to the heart of any
institution that provides higher education in the open,
distance and online modes. This is due primarily to the
unique learner demographics.
An open university such as OUM caters to a multitude of
geographically dispersed learners from a very wide
range of backgrounds, almost all of whom juggle work
and study simultaneously. This is in contrast to the
conventional university where learners, most of whom
study full-time, attend face-to-face lectures and tutorials,
and interact with their peers and teachers on-campus.
By way of facilitating teaching and learning for the former
category of learners, OUM had in the early days equally
emphasised learnerMalaysia
Copyright © Open University participation in self-directed learning,
2017. All Rights
online
Reserved.discussions on content-related matter, and
supplementary
No part of inspired may face-to-face (F2F)
be reproduced in any form ortutorials led by the
by any means without the written consent of the Chief
assigned tutors.
Editor of inspired.
inspired
May - Aug 2017 / Issue 01
photo by Razif Masri
Increasing Emphasis on Online Teaching and
Learning
As OUM evolved and fine-tuned its operations based on
institutional research and feedback from learners,
academics and other stakeholders, it began to
de-emphasise F2F tutorials and give increasing emphasis
on online teaching and learning.
As our President and Vice-Chancellor, YBhg Prof Dato’ Dr
Mansor Fadzil, has explained in several issues of TCX
(Tutor Connexxions) and elsewhere, OUM studies have
shown that, although our learners generally view F2F
tutorials favourably, an overwhelming majority have not
been able to leverage on them. For the most part, this is
due either to learners being geographically removed from
the nearest learning centre, or to their being preoccupied
with work and other life commitments, compelling them to
forgo the tutorials.
Hence, in recent times, instead of getting learners to
organise themselves around the fixed times and places of
tutorials they are unable to attend anyway, OUM is
putting learners back at the heart of their learning
experience with online learning. The result is learners
being empowered to learn asynchronously alongside
their peers and tutors at their own convenience, by their
schedule, at their own pace, and from wherever they may
be located at any given time.
continued on next page...
Page 6

...continued from previous page
Entwining Self-Directed Learning and Collaborative
Online Learning
With F2F tutorials reduced in frequency, OUM’s current
accent is on self-directed learning and, especially,
collaborative online learning. These two main ways
through which learning is promoted are intertwined, each
feeding into the other in cycles that repeat themselves
until the minimum threshold of learning is met.
Within this framework, self-directed learning is an
essential staple, as YBhg Dato’ Mansor underscores in
the main feature of this issue. At the most basic, learners
need to individually cover their learning materials
consistently over the semester, progressing day by day,
week by week. Learning materials here refer to one or
more of the following: course modules, video lectures,
online exercises, prescribed references, and so on.
In the OUM context, self-directed learning, while
essential, is rarely in itself sufficient to promote the kind of
deep learning that typically occurs when it is coupled
with collaborative learning with peers and the tutors
serving as online interlocutors.
To illustrate this, let’s imagine that that topic to be studied
by the learner concerns ‘ideology’ and the phenomenon
where people espouse values and perform actions that
are arguably detrimental to their best interest.
Studying on his/her own as the first step, the individual
learner should be able to grasp, at the very least, some
key concepts related to ideology and ideological
identification. Reasons may be offered in the prescribed
reading material for why people do not always act in
conformity with their best interest.
All that is well and good. But how would the learner check
his/her understanding? What if the learner gets tangled
up in attempting to unravel the knotty problems related to
the subject matter? On his/her own, how will the learner
reliably test the theories or hypotheses encountered as
‘knowledge’?
Community of Inquiry
Taking cognisance of the real world, we will find generally
that, while an individual may be able to make reasonable
strides solitarily, he/she stands to make even greater
strides if he/she were to learn collaboratively. As the
idiom goes, two or more heads are better than one.
It is on this premise that the online ‘community of inquiry’
model was originally proposed by Garrison, Anderson
and Archer in their essay, “Critical Inquiry in a Text-Based
Environment” (2000). Garrison et al. argue that an online
community of learners practising the culture of
collaborative inquiry trumps solitary learning on its own.
Together, through sustained online discussions, the
learner,
Copyright © his/her peers
Open University and2017.
Malaysia theAllteacher
Rights (or tutor, as is the
case
Reserved.in OUM) will be able to critically negotiate and
co-construct meaning
No part of inspired may out inofanywhat
be reproduced form orthey are studying in a
given course.
by any means without the written consent of the Chief
Editor of inspired.
inspired
May - Aug 2017 / Issue 01
It bears pointing out, though, that putting a group of
learners and the teacher together in an online forum does
not in itself constitute the kind of ‘community of inquiry’
envisioned by Garrison et al. The ‘community of inquiry’
may be said to exist only insofar as every member in the
group actively shares (instead of hoards) resources,
experience and knowledge, and participates in sustained
online discussions on the subject-matter at hand at
higher cognitive levels.
Articulating this espoused culture of teaching and
learning is no doubt easier than realising it. The challenge
that open universities invariably face lies in obtaining the
buy-in and commitment of all parties – learners and tutors
– to come online prepared, having done prior homework,
to share and partake in sustained discussions that
progress to higher cognitive levels.
“The challenge that open
universities invariably face lies in
obtaining the buy-in and
commitment of all parties – learners
and tutors – to come online
prepared, having done prior
homework, to share and partake in
sustained discussions that photo
progress
by Razif Masri
to higher cognitive levels.”
The task required to realise the goal is, in short, to
entrench the culture of collaborative inquiry. This involves
a number of things, including communicating
unambiguously and routinely reiterating to learners and
tutors the university’s teaching-learning expectations,
weaning learners off the culture of passive learning with
demonstrations of successful collaborative
teaching-learning, guiding learners in engaging with
others online in a respectful and supportive manner,
providing continuous training to tutors on ways to exert
constructive ‘teaching presence’ in their online facilitation
of discussions that encourage critical reflection and
discourse, and so on.
OUM is currently engaged in this multi-prong phased
approach to entrenching the culture of collaborative
inquiry, about which I hope to share more in the coming
issues of inspired. I warmly invite all of you, learners and
teachers of OUM, to join us on this worthwhile journey.
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