ISSN: 2226-6348
Open access
Open Distance Learning (ODL) concepts have been a priority since 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic, including in Malaysian educational teaching and learning. The main benefit of this approach is the flexibility of the students in terms of distance who can learn and access from anywhere. However, limited internet data connectivity and facilities had prevented some students from joining the new educational standards of ODL. The introduction to the C programming course was also affected by this new norm of education. Plus, this course is one of the toughest courses even when it comes to face-to-face learning concepts. In fact, learning C programming is essential to improving the automated ability to recognize, measure, collect, manipulate, analyze, and interpret data and information. From the first day of the course, an ODL teaching strategy was planned, organized, and implemented, using the previous successful concept of lectures, laboratory exercises, and blended learning. Hence, the aim of this paper is to observe the early reaction of students to the ODL approach to teaching and learning an introduction to C programming courses. This paper was carried out in a survey design method with the correspondents of 86 diploma students from the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Cawangan Johor, Kampus Pasir Gudang. The findings show that the majority of students were able to use and be satisfied with the ODL approaches, particularly with the help of Code Block's software, in order to improve their understanding and programming skills for this course. Students were also able to organize their learning style and develop strategies such as reviewing the recorded lecture, asking the instructor, finding other open-source materials, studying in a group, and doing additional exercises. In summary, the ODL approach requires two-way communication and effort from both students and faculty in order to achieve the learning outcomes of this course. For future research, we will examine student response at the end of the semester and relate it to their result-oriented performance.
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In-Text Citation: (Markom et al., 2021)
To Cite this Article: Markom, A. M., Yusof, Y., & Sadimin, S. (2021). Early Stage of Observation of Open Distance Learning Concept for Introduction to C Programming Course in Malaysia. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 11(10), 134–143.
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