TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

When the semester began in early 2018, I set my aim to a be a Flip Blended Educator in producing the future generation of engineers. I tried my very best to make the lectures exciting by improving my teaching skill using several teaching tools and get the students to be involved in class activities. As Benjamin Franklin once said, "Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn". This is one of the key to unlock the students attention and create two ways interactive learning, which is called Active Learning. When you make the student to get involve in a class activity, indirectly they will feel visible, happy and appreciated. A plus point if you can remember their names- that would be fantastic!

Learning can either take place through face-to-face, online or a combination of both. By definition, blended learning is a marriage between face-to-face and online learning. While, in flipped classroom model, students engage with the course content before the educator can foster more active learning during the class time. In the 21st century educational world, I strongly believe that the hybrid of blended learning and flipped classroom model is a new culture of learning. It is no longer an option but rather a MUST to all educators to practice in crafting the next generation of learners. 

What I normally do for my course?

1. Upload the notes at least 3 days before the lectures

2. Alert the students that the notes are ready

3. Conduct online assessment once a week

Alhamdulillah, at the end of the semester, I achieved my aim by getting the "Blended" status on E-learn @USM. InsyaAllah I will continue to do this for the coming semesters to help the students in understanding the course even better. 

As an educator, I suppose "learning should take place in a positive environment". Therefore, my teaching philosophy is "Learning should be FUN" as I believe, FUN + LEARNING = The Best educational experience. This is not only applicable for kids but also adult learners. As Rick Riordan said, "my goal in the classroom was always to make sure they were having so much fun they didn't realize they were learning". I strongly believe that when we learn something with full of pleasure, we can absorb things much better and we will always be curious to know more, which would lead to a life-long learning. Learning is also a FUNdamental of life! It is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world as said by Nelson Mandela. In a nutshell, "Learning is FUN"! 

The question now, how can we create a positive learning environment? By definition "positive learning environment" means everybody feel good about coming to lectures and looking forward to learn. This is what I referred as "Edutainment Time"- educate through entertainment! As 21st century educators, we should be creative and innovative in designing our teaching course. It is time to transform those lengthy lecture notes into mind-blowing style of lecture notes with the use of more inforgraphic rather than word. The use of pictures and animations would help the students to capture the message better than thousand of words. We can also have a short pop-quiz either written or online quizzes (i.e. kahoot, socractive, e-learn@USM etc.). This would help us to monitor our student performances from time to time and at the same time the students can enjoy answering the questions in more relaxing way as it is kinda less formal form of assessment. On top of quizzes, I also used to play some educational videos to help them visualize the course taught. This is what I called "movie time of the day" and believe me the students really enjoyed it. The other fun thing I love to do in teaching is field trip! It is a good time to strengthen the bonding with the students, spend some time with them, get to know their characters and learn together with them. As academics, never think you are superior to your students, instead always learn from one another. Learning is borderless. Avoid nagging and be too judgemental to your students as this will create a negative environment and kill the excitement!