Gamification: Your Secret Weapon to Turbocharge Your Virtual Learning

Gamification creates a significant difference in today's remote teaching and learning world, as many educators are using it to gamify their learning experiences. Educators see many advantages of incorporating gamification elements in the classroom, such as increased learner interaction and participation. Furthermore, the gaming industry has clout in the field of education because gamification encourages learning by play. In partnership with The Design School, the School of Education hosted the first webinar of the year on 4th March 2021, titled GAMIFICATION: Your Hidden Tool to Turbocharge Your Virtual Learning.

The two guest speakers Dr. Charles Sharma Naidu, a senior lecturer in Game Studies and Contextual Studies from Taylor's Design School, and Ms. Fauziah Ismail, the Managing Director at MEDTECQUE SDN BHD, which is an Exclusive Business Partner for Growth Engineering, an Award-Winning organisation in the field of gamification and e-learning which is based in the United Kingdom. The session was moderated by Dr. P. Thivilojana from School of Education. This event attracted over 150 people from various education institution around the world. The main highlight of this webinar session's discussed about the application of knowledge in the area of Arcade Gamification. It had enabled participants to experience gamification firsthand and understand how gamification and immersive online virtual learning work. Following the webinar, there was a lively Q&A session.

Tourism Speaker Series – International Trade

On 9th February 2021, the School of Hospitality, Tourism, and Events hosted a virtual Tourism Speaker Series for Tourism and Hospitality students. As part of the learning process, the school had invited an industry speaker to share his knowledge on International Trade during the Tourism Economics module class. This session aimed to introduce students to the idea of foreign trade and its economic effects on the hospitality and tourism industries. This series included students from the Bachelor of International Tourism Management (Hons.) programme registered for the Tourism Economics module and 10 external academicians.

They had the opportunity to meet Prof Dr. Ahmad Shuib, Professor of Recreation and Tourism Economics at Universiti Putra Malaysia's Faculty of Forestry and Environment. In his presentation and Q&A session, he offered a simple international trade description based on economic principles and real-life examples. He also shared additional knowledge on the hospitality and tourism industries before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to attending the e-Learning lecture and tutorial sessions, the students were granted the opportunity to explore the experts' practical knowledge. The lecture series was an extremely informative session for the students.

Write for Rights Campaign by Amnesty International Malaysia

35 Creative Writing students from the January 2021 semester had the opportunity to expand their creative writing skills by engaging in Amnesty International Malaysia's Write for Rights Campaign. The event took place on 10th February 2021, in one of Dr. Nur Haniz Mohd Nor's Creative Writing Classes, where Katrina Maliamuv, Director of Amnesty International (Malaysia), educated the students on the value of writing letters to the "Powerful Individuals" who have been detained around the world for fighting a specific cause for their community. Amnesty International campaigner Lily Jamaluddin and Activism Organizer Lau Li Yang continued to share insights and activities with students on how writing letters is vital and how society tends to overlook connectedness in writing a letter in this digital age that we live in. The students had a great time and learned a lot from the session.