The Open University Malaysia, the first University in Malaysia to run the distance learning programmes started its first intake of 753 students in 2001. Since then its cumulative students intake is well over 67,000. To ensure quality education, OUM should be highly selective of its part time teaching staffs and have ISO certification for its examination department. Perhaps the philosophy of grading the mature adult students needs reorientation.
Question bank to assess quality of learners
Open University Malaysia (OUM) is embarking on a project to develop a question bank that will serve as a repository for examination questions for the 500 over subjects it offers.Senior Vice President Prof Mansor Fadzil said the move will ensure that the questions developed are of high quality that meet the needs of learners.
“The current practice is to develop exam questions every semester which may not meet the quality standard due to the constraints of time and resources. We hope to eliminate this problem with the question bank through the structured development of questions by our pool of experienced subject matter experts, academics and tutors.
“It is timely that we rope in the academics and tutors as they are better placed to provide feedbacks on current developments and changes in their respective subjects. In the past, exam questions were set by the SMEs.”
Mansor said the move will provide a mechanism to gauge learners’ understanding and knowledge of a particular subject as the questions are structured to include the six dimensions of the Bloom Taxonomy namely one’s ability to recall, understand, apply, analyse, synthesise and evaluate.
The question bank, he said, will have an armoury of well-thought and structured questions that can stimulate critical and higher order thinking among learners. “The thought provoking and challenging questions will help nurture critical thinking in learners which they can apply in their working life. This will contribute to the development of high quality human capital needed to spearhead the socio-economic progress.”
He said the project will kick-start with a workshop in mid-April which gathers the SMEs, academics and tutors to brainstorm on the appropriate questions.
“We hope to develop four sets of exam questions for each subject that will be regularly populated. We will start with 11 subjects while the rest will be done in stages. The entire project is expected to be completed in two years. We will ensure that security be given top priority to avoid leaks.”
Meanwhile, the university’s e-content project for its learning modules has started. It entails the development of dynamic web pages that incorporate interactive features to complement the print content of its modules.
Initially, 20 modules will be incorporated with e-content but eventually, all the 500 over modules will have the e-content component built in.
“The interactive and graphic features will give added value to the learners as they make learning more engaging and meaningful,” said Mansor.
Established in 2000, OUM is the first open distance learning institution in Malaysia. The university took in its first batch of 753 learners in August 2001 but the cumulative student intake has since increased to over 67,000.
The university offers 51 academic programmes ranging from diploma to post graduate levels from the Faculties of Business and Management, Information Technology & Multimedia Communication, Science & Technology, Education & Languages and Applied Social Sciences.
With its motto “University for All”, OUM subscribes to the philosophy that education should be made available to all, regardless of time, place, age and economic background.
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