New Educational Norm, Enhanced Learning? an Analysis of Online Learning Tools and the Capacity to Deliver an All-Encompassing Learning Experience

Abstract

The global pandemic has presented challenges and opportunities in relative equal measure across business sectors and Malaysian society. For education providers the pandemic accelerated the transition to the online platform as the primary medium for learning and underlined the need to develop a coherent strategy for the integration of technology, based around technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK), (Mishra and Koehler, 2006). Online learning has been contextualised as an opportunity to allow digitally literate learners to engage with an academic curriculum arguably better than traditional approaches and more on their terms. Online learning platforms have the potential to offer a more holistic experience given the variety of learning tools available covering notetaking, self-testing as well as audio and visual reinforcing of knowledge. Over the past 18 months from the initial transition to online learning and through the various traversing between Movement Control Orders (MCO), learners' engagement with online platforms, the effectiveness of learning tools and the ability of online learning to enhance the learning experience has been debated with tradition and online teaching approaches compared and evaluated in terms of effectiveness and measurable outcomes. This research will consolidate existing research in the areas of online learning and technological pedagogy and takes research forward in the field of digital learning spaces. Using a student-led survey among undergraduate business students across academic years 1 to 3 and a mixture of public and private universities, the research will examine the effectiveness of the online learning environment and online learning tools in providing a more holistic and sensory learning experience, enhancing learning and proposing approaches to facilitate a better learning experience. Providing the perspectives of students from across the years of study and a range of institutions allows the research comparative insight into the activities of individual universities and the effectiveness of the digital learning tools they have embedded into their respective curricula. The findings of this research will prove beneficial to the Quadruple Helix' of stakeholders, namely, education providers, employers, policy makers and students, providing insight into the individual and collective role of digital learning pedagogy and teaching platforms in creating an appropriate learning environment and enhancing the learning of enrolled students.