Academia, Technology and Teaching

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The COVID-19 pandemic hit the world in various sectors, including higher education. The invisible enemy had the universities closed and major examinations postponed. Before the pandemic, not many educators knew about, let alone conducted online teaching. But as the saying goes, every cloud has a silver lining. Now many educators have become at least an expert beginner in Webex, Zoom or Google Meet.

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A big data study revealed four major changes in consumer behaviour after COVID-19 - consumers go online, livestreaming leads the sale, youngsters become family-oriented and shop on goods that provides comfort at home (1). Consumer-to-manufacturer (C2M) becomes the new wave in sales where big data canvasses the feedback on highly-desirable products. Come to think of it, have we utilized big data to understand students’ and stakeholders’ needs? A report showed that adapting to the new normal requires educators to be more creative (2). Have we supported our educators well to champion this?

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In this issue, we feature a special entry by Prof. Dr. Nor Hayati Othman on surviving life in academia, hand-picked articles written by our faculty and social media guides. We also highlight our YouTuber-educators and an undergraduate student who is championing iPad training. We also feature Dr. Paveethrah’s reaction after her poetry had 7600 shares online and Dr. Yeoh Boon Seng’s reflections on online teaching in the midst of the pandemic.

In this issue, we pay a special tribute to Miss Jemilah Jusoh who has been with the Medical Education Department since 1991.

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I am sure a lot of us miss flying at this stage, so allow me to end with the usual - sit back, relax and enjoy your reading.

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1. 4 new shopping trends revealed in post-lockdown China. (2020). Retrieved 4 July 2020, from https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/06/4-new-shopping-trends-in-post- lockdown-china/

2. Nik-Ahmad-Zuky NL, Baharuddin KA, Rahim AFA. Online clinical teaching and learn- ing for medical undergraduates during the COVID-19 pandemic: the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) experience. Education in Medicine Journal. 2020;12(2):75–80. https://doi.org/10.21315/eimj2020.12.2.8