Why I Studied Overseas

Finally after grueling 2 and 0.5 years of National Service (NS), I pretty much looked forward to further my studies overseas. Almost every Singaporean guy would whine about how slow time passed while serving the mere 2.5 years of NS compared to 3 years in the polytechnic or the 4 or 5 years in secondary school. Due to the fact that NS is mandatory and is certainly not something which most enlistees desired, getting that yellow ticket of leave means getting back all the freedom we previously had. In fact, all my friends whom I met during NS envied me for having the chance to study overseas especially after being cooped up by NS for a relatively long period of time.

A few months before my NS Operational Ready Date (ORD), the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic was wreaking havoc around the globe. The local economy was in a bad shape as Singapore was one of the worst hit countries. As many of my friends who completed NS slightly earlier than me were unable to secure any employment, further studies was certainly the best option at that point in time considering that there were rumors that a typical local university graduate earns a monthly salary of miserable SGD 1400 when the norm should be SGD 2000 or above based on the market rate during that time. Due to this reason, many youths around my age chose to further their studies while waiting for the economy to recover. However, during that era, there were limited options for tertiary education in Singapore. The 3 public universities offered limited full time courses to polytechnic graduates which resulted in high competition in securing the courses. Although there were private universities that offered similar part time courses, I preferred studying full time and enjoy campus life as much as possible because I missed polytechnic life so much. I was aware that there were private universities that also offers full time courses. However, these full time courses were offered in collaboration with overseas universities which I felt would not provide me a more comprehensive learning experience and an enjoyable campus life.

Having decided to further my studies, I applied for degree courses in local public tertiary institutions. At that time, local polytechnic graduates were only allowed to apply for degree courses in public universities which were related to their course of study in the polytechnic. Hence, the choices were extremely limited given the fact that the variety of degree courses in Singapore public universities were already so limited compared to overseas universities which offered exotic courses such as Digital Animation, Agriculture, Mining or Marine Biology. Surprisingly, I chose Bachelor of Science in Education - BSc (Edu) offered by the National Institute of Education (NIE) as one of my choices. It was a 4 years degree course followed by serving a 4 years teaching bond in a primary or secondary school. In order to pursue this course, the prospective student would need to attend an interview at the Ministry of Education (MOE) headquarter and be successfully employed as a General Education Officer aka teacher. The reasons why I chose this course as one of my choices were firstly because of the high starting salary and stable employment, followed by the opportunity to work in a school environment which I enjoyed the most. Shortly after I submitted my application, I received an invitation letter for an interview at MOE HQ. The letter also stated that my other choices were still being considered.

Although I was still undecided about accepting this career option if I was accepted, I did my due diligence to research on the job and prepared myself to answer questions which I expected them to ask. On the day of interview, I donned a white long sleeve shirt and black long pants which is the standard formal attire for interview. The interview panel consisted of 3 ladies with a label indicating their name and designation in front of them. The lady on the leftmost was a school principal, followed by an NIE lecturer and a MOE HR executive. The school principal appeared stern and asked mostly aptitude questions while the NIE lecturer maintained a gentle smile throughout and asked me about my understanding of the subjects taught in NIE. In one of the questions she asked me regarding a subject, I replied that the particular subject seems intimidating as it requires students to write tons of essays. Surprisingly, the 3 ladies burst into laughter upon hearing my answer which really made me wonder what was so hilarious about it. Towards the end of the interview, the HR executive commented that I did pretty well for my polytechnic diploma and asked whether I would feel that it would be a waste if I did not pursue a career in Information Technology (IT) which is my field of study. I replied saying that it wouldn't be a waste as my IT background would help in situations like teaching computing related subjects such as programming in schools or to be involved in IT projects for MOE. Overall, I was glad that the interview went pretty well and they seemed to have good impression of me. True enough, I received a letter about a fortnight later informing me that I was being offered the job (and also the Bachelor of Science course as well).

After much consideration and discussion with my parents, I decided that having an IT (technical) degree would be more appropriate for me as it would provide me with more career options in future rather than a degree which solely prepares me to be a teacher. Since there were no news about my other choices, I had to consider the option of studying overseas. In the meanwhile, I attended several overseas universities fairs held in Singapore together with my father and a few friends I met in polytechnic who were also interested in furthering their studies overseas. Initially, my father chose a university in Melbourne for me which was prestigious but course fees were high, not to mention that this city probably had the highest cost of living in Australia. He had even contacted his friend who owned a house near this university to ask him whether I could rent the house. After more research, I decided to enroll for another university in Brisbane which was also quite prestigious and a popular choice among Singaporean students including friends I met in polytechnic. In the first place, the reason why we chose Australia as a country to study in because of its close proximity and lower cost compared to the United Kingdom which was much further and costly. In terms of cost, studying in the United States was slightly more expensive than Australia but my parents were concerned about safety there. Australia was deemed more friendly to me as it was the first country I visited outside home (i.e. Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia) region when I was 13 years old which I enjoyed a lot. Another advantage of Brisbane is the sub-tropical climate which is closer to ours compared to the cold harsh climate of the UK and USA.

Singapore COVID-19 Circuit Breaker Measures - Work From Home (WFH)

Today officially marks the first day of the drastic COVID-19 circuit breaker measures implementation in Singapore. These measures are the most serious and impactful ones which Singapore has ever put in place so far, at least from the time when I was born. We are indeed living in extra-ordinary times and I want to write this blog to commemorate this historical day for our future generation to be aware of. Basically, most things in Singapore comes to a stand still except essential services such as medical (hospitals and clinics), food & beverage (dine-in not permitted. Takeaway only), telecommunications (mobile and internet services), etc.

These circuit breaker measures were publicly announced at 4 pm on last Friday, 03 April 2020 which was rather last minute. The authorities decided to implement such drastic measures after the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in Singapore continued to raise despite extensive contact tracing, quarrentine and social distancing. The most worrying thing is not the rising number of confirmed cases but rather the rising number of unlinked cases in which the infected person does not know where and how he/she caught the virus. As a result, there is a need to minimise person to person contact in order to bring down the chance of getting infected. These circuit breaker measures were not totally unexpected as many other countries which have been hit hard by the deadly virus have already implemented such lockdown measures. After the circuit breaker measures announcement were made, many organisations out there were not fully prepared and some of them even had a hard time making last minute arrangements for staff to work efficiently at home before the Monday, 06 April 2020 deadline. In fact, everyone in my office were busy setting up the necessary software and making configurations the entire day to work from home. The atmosphere gave me a peculiar feeling and it seemed as if it was the last day of operations for the organisation, so much so that there is no confirmed end date given by management for this work-from-home arrangement. On the way home, I saw many people pushing suitcase which I assumed that they were carrying their computing equipments from office back to work from home for the entire month.

The day started relatively well for me as I managed to setup the mini desktop computer which I brought home from office and connect to office network via VPN successfully last night after reaching home. However, there are currently limited things which I can work on at home as some parts of the network has not been configured and the respective team of engineers are still working on this task in office. Productivity naturally decreases with distractions at home.

Lunch options for me are certainly more limited when I work at home. As my office is located at a town centre, an endless array of coffee shops, a hawker centre, cafeterias and even several fast food restaurants provide nearby residents and office workers many lunch options. Due to this mandatory work-from-home or cease operations arrangement which affects majority of the workforce, business remains sustainable for neighbourhood coffee shops or food courts. At the coffee shop opposite my house, all chairs were taken away and customers were seen queuing orderly inside and observing the 1 metre social distancing rule. The coffee shop owner has taken this opportunity to fix some lightings above the dining area next to the walkway where many elderly customers would congregate and smoke.

All facilities at condominiums must also remain closed. On my way to buy lunch, I saw the swimming pool area and the children's playground being sealed off with boundary tape with a notice saying that the facilities are closed till further notice. It is going to be a long boring month. There is nothing much one can do even on annual leave.

Nevertheless, everyone should do their part by observing all rules set by the authorities to curb the spread of this deadly virus that has already infected and killed tons of people worldwide. Together we can overcome this pandemic and bring life back to normal. Take care and stay safe!

References

Covid-19 circuit breaker measures: What you can and cannot do for the next one month

Completion of Introduction to Forensic Science Course

Due to the escalating COVID-19 situation, many events are cancelled and businesses are either partially or fully closed. As such, I decided to recommence my e-learning to keep myself occupied while at home. Since there is nothing much we can do outside due to social distancing measures, it would be a wiser choice to do some e-learning to gain as much knowledge as possible during this fearful time. The knowledge and/or certifications obtained may be of good use in future when this deadly virus situation turns better. The last time I did e-learning was around October 2018 which was more than a year ago. Ever since I decided to do e-learning again in mid February 2020, I have completed 6 courses including this one and obtained the e-certificate for each of them. As a professional working in the IT industry, I would naturally chose to study IT related courses such as Cybersecurity and Artifical Intelligence (AI) which are highly sought after these days. Many like-minded people would agree that we should pursue courses related to our profession which are beneficial to our work and for better career prospects. Therefore, I had proceeded according to plan and have completed the Cybersecurity specialisation (consisting of 4 courses) and AI Introduction course, both offered by IBM on Coursera e-learning platform. After completing these 2 learning areas, I happened to chance upon this Introduction to Forensic Science online course offered by Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore on Coursera platform while searching for a course to study. A glance through the course syllabus aroused my interest as Science was my favourite subject back in secondary school which I often scored well. In fact, if I had not chosen to study IT in polytechnic, I would have chosen a Science related course such as Biotechnology. This is a hidden fact buried in my heart after secondary school till today. Although I am not really a big fan of CSI, I have always been fascinated by how Science is applied in real life to help us in work and improve the way we live. Overall, it had been an enjoyable learning experience and I am proud to have completed this course which is the first course/certification outside my area of work.



Here are some important information and my learning experience for this course.

Topics Covered

1. Introduction to Forensic Science
2. Chemical Analysis in Forensic Science
3. Time of Death; Blood
4. DNA in Forensics
5. Fingerprinting; Polymers & Fibres; Firearms
6. Narcotics
7. Toxicology
8. Case Studies

Schedule

It takes approximately 25 hours to complete this course. The recommended time to commit, including attempting all the assessments is around 3 hours per week for a total of 8 weeks. However, I was so addicted to this course that I managed to complete all the lectures and assessments within a week. The moment I studied the first lecture, I looked forward to study the next one so much that I made use of my time after lunch break and also after work to study.

Instructor

This course is taught solely by Associate Professor Roderick Bates from the School of Physical & Mathematical Sciences of Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. Professor Bates is a British who has taught in several South East Asian universities prior to joining NTU. Throughout the course, he explained the underlying scientific concepts well enough for layman (someone without professional knowledge in chemistry) to understand. Initially, I was worried about not being able to comprehend all the scientific terminologies and concepts which are the fundamentals for Forensic Science. Although I had studied Chemistry for O'Levels, it was more than 20 years ago since the last time I was in touch with this subject. Fortunately, the underlying scientific concepts were not as difficult to understand as I expected. Anyone who has studied Science in secondary school would be able to undergo this course successfully. Moreover, the assessments in this course do not test learners much of these underlying scientific concepts. Professor Bates also demostrated some of the more important experiemnts in the NTU Chemistry lab and shared numerous case studies from all over the world in which how Forensic Science was applied to solve crimes. However, since he is a British, most of the case studies he shared are from the United Kingdom.

Assessment

The assessment for this course consists of 3 quizzes, each consisting of 15 multiple choice questions and 2 assignments. According to schedule, learners are expected to attempt quiz at the end of week 3, 5 and 7 while assignments are at the end of week 4 and 6. There is no assessment for week 8 lesson as it is purely sharing of case studies by Professor Bates. Since this course is hosted on Coursera, it is required to abide by the passing standards set up this reputable e-learning platform. Learners need to obtain a score of at least 60% to pass all the quizzes. Reattempting a quiz is possible but to ensure that learners study the materials throughly before reattempting the quiz, there is a limit of maximum 3 attempts every 8 hours. Both assignments are scenario based which test learners on reasoning and application of the various techniques to solve crimes. Upon submission, assignments will be graded by 4 other fellow learners accordingly to the rubrics provided. A learner is also required to review at least 4 other random learners' submitted assignments in order to complete the assignment.

Some interesting things I learnt from this course are ...

Chromatography, a simple Chemistry technique for the separation of a mixture by passing it in solution or suspension through a medium in which the components move at different rates are also applied in Forensic Science. I vividly remeber doing this experiment back in lower secondary.

Identical twins have almost similar DNA. In the event when one of the twins is a suspect for a case, it would require much effort and money to identify which one. In fact, there are such instances which the criminal charges were dropped due to the extremely insane effort and cost to identify which of the identical twins is gulity.

If you intend to commit a crime, it is advisable to wear white cotton clothing as all cotton materials have the same composition and fibre pattern. Hence, there is no way to unique identify a piece of cotton clothing or trace the manufacturer. Fortunately, most cotton clothings are dyed with colour and it is possible to analyse the composition of the dye and trace the manufacturer and buyer

In order to know whether a bullet is fired from a firearm found at the crime scene, simply just load a bullet into the firearm and fire it. The striations (series of ridges, furrows or linear marks) caused by the firing are unique for every firearm. In this way, we can compare both bullets. If their striations matches, then we can conclude that the bullet found is indeed fired from the firearm.

Codeine, which is a medicine used to relieve cold symptoms is made from the opium poppy plant, the same plant in which opium, morphine and heroin are made from. This indeed sounds scary to me as Codeine was prescribed as medicine to me by the doctor I used to visit. In fact, there are some drug addicts who manage to turn codeine into diacetylmorphine which is a "stronger" form of morphine using chemicals which are readily available.

Forensic Science also plays a part in Archeology by helping to determine whether a set of skeletal remains belong to King Richard III of England through the matching of mitochondrial DNA with that of the descendants of the King. This is fascinating as the skeletal remains are more than 500 years old and such technique is only available quite recently.

Ironically, my alma mater, Presbyterian High School (PHS) adopts Forensic and Pharmaceutical Science as their Applied Learning Programme (ALP). The school's ALP gives students the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills from different disciplines of STEM (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) to solve meaningful problems. Engaging students in investigative Science and experiential scientific inquiry promotes their interest in STEM activities, not only during their school years but also throughout their lives. From what I understand from the teacher who is currently the Head of Department (HOD) for Science in the school, this is an non-examinable subject for the students. However, students who do well in this subject may be awarded bonus points for entry into related courses in polytechnic. The obvious difference I spotted between this Forensic Science course I studied and the one which PHS students studied is that theirs consist mostly of practical lessons while mine consist of purely theory lessons. The drawback of my course is the lack of opportunity to conduct experiments. Nevertheless, it is definitely a wonderful experience to learn how Science is applied in solving problems in real life.

If you are a fan of those CSI or Hong Kong crime investigation movies, why not consider to convert your interest into action and perhaps someday you could be a real Forensic investigator?

Advance the Creation & Appreciation of Arts in Singapore using Technology

The National Arts Council (NAC) recently launched the SG Arts Plan which is a 5 year plan that charts new directions for arts in Singapore and supports the needs and aspirations of the arts community and all Singaporeans. One of the tasks for this plan is to implement digital initiatives by using technology to design arts experiences and to increase accessibility to the arts.

A good way to make arts performances such as concerts, musicals and operas more accessible to more people is to provide live streaming online through a portal. In fact, some of the most prestigious opera houses across Europe began streaming performances live online since May 2015. With the high percentage of our local population, both young and old own mobile devices such smart phones and tablets, this idea is viable. Moreover, our local network infrastructure is capable of supporting high bandwidth and usage and ensures seamless viewing of contents online via mobile devices anytime, anywhere. With this live streaming feature, people may still enjoy watching any performances they are interested in but unable to attend. In a way, this feature also allows unlimited number of people to watch the performances without the physical space constraint of the performance venue. For paid performances, people should be expected to pay a cheaper fee to watch online. The artistes and production company would be agreeable to this idea since it helps to promote their performances to as many people as possible. However, the drawback of this live streaming feature which most people will highlight is whether they are able to capture the real immersive experience of watching the performance live in a gallery, theatre or opera house. Nevertheless, this live streaming feature provides an alternative avenue of watching performances and would certainly reach a wider audience.

The invention of the Internet made it possible for art to be created in various forms and distributed across the digital world without the need to go through art galleries. With apps like Instagram, Tumblr and Pinterest, anyone out there can showcase their art work easily. However, to ensure cohesion among our local artists and the communities, there should be a portal created for sharing and bonding purpose. This portal not only facilitates sharing and commenting of art works but also acts as a place for artists to maintain their portfolio. The relevant authorities and institutions should have access to this portal to view and grade the art works for cases such as the artists applying for admission into an art institution or studies.

Technology affects art across various mediums and is able to change the way artists are operating. Modern day image and video editing software provide more than a million shades of colours which are far more than traditional watercolours. The huge array of tweaking and fine-tuning options open up limitless horizons for artists to express themselves more creatively and accurately. While artists of the past rely solely on pencil or brush to make beautiful works of art, modern day artists can make use of sound, video or computer generated images to provide a more immersive experience. Rather than merely displaying static art works, the portal can support additional materials such as voice or video from the artists to accompany the art works for more detailed descriptions.

Another advantage of technology is that it allows experimentation. Given the fast turnaround time to compose something and see the results, Children or anyone who is a beginner in arts can simply reset and retry multiple times. This ability promotes incredible imagination and aids comprehension of structure. The portal can possibly provide such basic tools for children and beginners in arts to have some hands-on as a way of arousing interest and promoting the creation of arts.

Data analytics is the process of examining data sets in order to draw conclusions about the information they contain. It is used by many corporations across all industries to enhance productivity and business gain. Similarly, we can make use of data analytics to interpret important data, such as audience segmentation and consumption patterns for the arts industry.  When data analytics feature is included into the portal, it will enable art practitioners to cater to changes in audiences’ needs and preferences for future art works.

Problems with Singapore's Art Scene

In less than a generation, Singapore transformed itself from third to first world and its economy developed at such a rapid pace which many people considered to be a miracle. However, its arts scene does not develop at similar pace and is in fact, developing at a very slow pace and is not as thriving compared to other developed nations. It is a universally acknowledged truth that a country in possession of a First World reputation must also have a thriving arts scene. Here are some of the challenges and problems faced by Singapore’s art scene which explains why it is not as thriving as expected.

First of all, Singaporeans have had the mentality that pursuing studies or careers in arts would not be as lucrative as science. When Singapore was in the process of rapid economic development as driven by the government after its independence, many jobs were created in sectors such as Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction. Obviously, being a developing nation back then, Singapore required many expertise in these sectors related to Science to develop its infrastructure and support the economy. Unfortunately, now that Singapore is already a developed nation, its conservative mentality of the people are still geared towards pursuing Science related studies and careers for a more secure and better future. Due to this reason, science related stream or courses in our secondary schools, junior colleges and tertiary institutions remain to be a more popular choice than arts related stream or courses. As a result, people formed the impression that only academically weaker students should pursue arts as an alternative option. To debunk this perception, the National Arts Council (NAC) has been developing ways to describe the importance of the arts to our society, economy, education, and well-being and actively engaging the public through organising a series of arts events island-wide occasionally. The NAC and National Heritage Board (NHB) have also jointly award the arts and heritage scholarships to nurture outstanding individuals who are able to contribute to Singapore’s arts scene.

There is also a myth that local artists are not as successful as international ones. Some people believe that due to the fact that academically weaker people pursue arts as an alternative option resulted in lower standard of artists in Singapore which attributed to less impressive achievements from our local artists in the international art scene. There are in fact artists such as Linying, our very own singer-songwriter who clinched a spot on Spotify’s US Viral 50 playlist which people who are not really interested in this area are not aware of. Perhaps there should be more publicity for the major achievements of our artists through various means such as television and Social Media where majority of our people spend lots of time in.

On the contrary, there are children who has interest and intend to pursue arts for leisure at a young age. Most of them love music and would like to take up classes in playing musical instruments such as piano, dancing or singing. These private lessons are often costly and usually only rich families can afford. To ensure that these children are not discouraged from pursuing arts for leisure due to cost, the government can award some subsidies to make lesson fees more affordable. This scheme would be something similar to the SkillsFuture credit which is given to Singaporeans aged 25 years and above with the exception that it is intended to expose local individuals to arts at a young age.

In recent years, Singapore hits the top of the table for being one of the most expensive city in the world to live in. Housing and office rental forms one of the main component contributing to this notorious international ranking. Art housing which is becoming more expensive than before hinders the development of arts scene through higher cost in rental and ticketing. Although rental charges are heavily subsidised by NAC, utilities and maintenance costs which are substantial are borne by the tenants. With donations from corporates and individuals fluctuating according to economic performance, NAC faces the difficulty to maintain the amount of funding provided to art practitioners. Only when people realised the importance of arts and the values it brings to us then funding would be more constant and substantial. NAC needs to continue with the uphill tasks of arts advocacy.

My Interest & Involvement in Arts

Art consists of a range of human activities that create visual, auditory or artefacts to express imagination or conceptual ideas. It is intended to be appreciated for its beauty or emotional power. When art is mentioned in Singapore context, most people especially children or teenagers would associate it with Drawings, Paintings or Artefacts (such as lanterns or kites) due to the involvements in making these items during art lessons from nursery to secondary two in school. However, art comes in many different forms and is definitely more than the visual category of items which most Singaporeans have encountered during school days. Other common forms of art includes Architecture, Sculpture, Music, Poetry, Dance and Performing. All of these are important in our daily lives as they were used to communicate ideas or provide pleasures for us. A good example of art being used to communicate ideas is the broadcast of the Pioneer Generation Package advertisement on television to the elderly for the purpose of creating awareness for this package in the form of a song. The usage of art to communicate idea in this case increases the effectiveness by capturing the attention and making the content easier to remember through melodious tune. Music is another popular form of art that provides entertainment for us to relieve stress. Given the importance of art in our daily lives, there is a need to actively promote the creation and appreciation of art, an area which I feel Singapore is far lacking behind many nations.

Art and science are often perceived as polar opposites. Traditionally, tertiary institutes categorise their courses into one of these two areas and require their students to stick to one side of the fence. Although I am considered to be a technical person because of my profession and background in Information Technology, my interest and involvement in art is no lesser than the people in the arts and entertainment industry. I enjoy watching West End and Broadway musicals as they provide immersive entertainments and also greater understanding of humanity through insights into specific cultures, behaviours and thinking of people of certain eras. When I told my friends about my interest in musicals and even wrote blog posts about some of those musicals I like, they were indeed surprised to know that such a technical person like me would display such great level of interest in a form of art which locally, few people would be interested in. To debunk this perception, I replied them saying that Leonardo Da Vinci, the great Italian polymath was a scientist as well as an artist. Some of his most well-known inventions include parachute and helicopter whereas famous paintings include Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. He was a perfect example to illustrate that art and science are closely related and both areas contributed to his exemplary success. 

As an Information Technology professional, I have the opportunity to apply art in my work through designing user interfaces (UI) for web or mobile applications. The standards and guides provided by documentations such the Web Interface Standards (WIS) defines the objectives while art helps me overcome the subjective interpretations of the users interacting with the user interfaces. For example, the standard would mandate the size, wording and position of the various UI objects while art is being applied to design icons to prevent cluttering too much text on the screen especially on a mobile device. Icons are subjective and may be interpreted differently by different users. This is how art is applied in a field of work that is highly perceived to be purely scientific.

My Thoughts on Education And Technology

How technology can help to improve learning?

Emerging technologies are quickly gaining momentum in the education sector. There are several ways which the adoption of technology can help to improve learning.

First of all, the Internet made E-learning possible for students by allowing them access to course materials anytime, anywhere. With the majority of households and public places having high bandwidth Internet access, an institution may adopt E-learning as a means of teaching by developing its own portal for staff and students to access. Lectures may post videos of their lectures on the portal for students to watch on demand. In this way, the students may attend lectures in advanced or after they have attended the same lectures on campus. Having these online lectures allows students to reinforce their understandings of the topic by learning at the own pace in the venue of their choice. Similar to online lectures, tutorials and lab exercises may be posted online for students to prepare them in advanced before attending the lesson on campus. The answers to these tutorials and lab exercises could also be made available online after the actual lesson for the convenience of the students.

Besides having learning contents made available online, discussion forums can be created to facilitate discussions on the learning topics among the teaching staff and students. The discussion forums also provides a platform for students to clear their doubts with their lecturers on certain areas of the learning topics or provide assistance to students who are weaker in the learning topics. Through the discussion forums, lecturers can easily spot students who are actively participating in the discussions and award them additional marks accordingly for active participation. The downside of having discussion forums is the need for the teaching staff to moderate inappropriate posts from students.

To enhance the learning process, the portal may also provide a means to make peer-graded assignments possible. Students submit their written assignment online for fellow students to review and grade them according to the rubrics set by the lecturer. In the event of a dispute arising due to the review or grading, the portal would need to provide a feature for the lecturer or tutor to intervene and settle the matter.

As students these days are getting more knowledgeable and outspoken, the portal may provide a blogging feature for them to post their research or thoughts on the learning topics. With the younger generation of students being more tech-savvy, writing blog is certainly not an uphill task for them. It gives them the opportunity to showcase their passion, knowledge and learning process. The lecturer may consider awarding bonus marks to students who write blog that provides insightful contents to the learning topics.

Last but not least, the portal can provide a repository of past years’ examinations or test papers and also mock exam papers from the lecturer. Having students attempting mock examinations or tests online helps the teaching staff to monitor their progress and arrest areas of weaknesses. The results and data for these mock examinations or tests collected in the backend can be analysed for the purpose of curriculum planning.

What are the challenges faced by education institutions in Singapore?

Educational institutions around the world including Singapore are facing tough challenges. These challenges are results of social, economic and technology trends.

More evidently in the case of Singapore, like any other first world countries, faces the problem of ageing population. Due to the need for Singapore to develop rapidly before and after independence, more educational institutions were created to meet the demands of the baby boomers generation. As society progressed and transformed Singapore into a first world nation, birth rate decreases and on the contrary, educational level of its people increases. This trend resulted in decrease in schools’ enrolment which in turn lead to oversupply of learning facilities and teaching staff over the years. The effect had been felt from the defunct or merging of primary, secondary schools and even junior colleges in recent years. While there is no way for these non-tertiary institutions to escape the fate of becoming defunct or merging due to falling enrolment, tertiary or post-secondary institutions can try to make up for the shortfall in enrolment by operating Continuing Education and Training (CET) classes for working adults. In fact, our government encourages tertiary institutions to transform themselves to support SkillsFuture, which is national movement to provide Singaporeans with opportunities to develop their fullest potential throughout life, regardless of their starting points (i.e. lifelong learning).

With the increasing educational levels of Singaporeans and demands from employers, more public and private tertiary institutions were setup in recent years. The increase in institutions naturally created more competition as students have a greater choice of local and overseas institutions to choose from. Emerging technologies also made E-learning possible. One such example is Coursera, which is an online learning platform founded by Stanford University professors that even offers degree programmes. Although these degree programmes offered by such online learning platform may not be as well accredited as those offered offline by a formal intuition, the short courses they provide are relatively popular among working adults for lifelong learning due to the low course fee and convenience to access anytime, anywhere.

The evolution of technology introduces new jobs and eliminate existing ones at the same time. Educational institutions need to run a race against the technology evolution by constantly creating new courses and changing existing course syllabuses to meet industries demand, especially the rate of evolution increases rapidly due to the smart nation initiative. A good example to illustrate this point is the use of Internet-facing applications and chatbots to cover the first level of interaction with customers. The role of the customer service officers would switch to handle more complex requests or interactions and at the same time help to train up the chatbots to make them smarter in their interactions with customers. Institutions providing the customer service related courses would need to incorporate this new task into their course syllabus.

Another effect of the technology evolution is the change in the way lessons are conducted and more value-added services provided. Students who are more tech-savvy these days expect E-learning to be conducted to certain extend. Besides using technology to improve learning experience, educational institutions are also expected to provide more value-added services through the use of technology. A good example is to harness on the reliability of biometric devices for attendance taking and another example is to release examination results via mobile applications to anxious students. As educational institutions need to adopt technologies aggressively to meet these expectations, there are additional operating costs incurred due to the engagements of expertise to develop and maintain the infrastructures.