A discussion on E-Learning offered in Malaysian universities: Pros and Cons from the students perspective

E-learning means technology-enhanced learning, such as through internet. Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR) is the first university to offer e-learning degree programs in Malaysia as well as in ASEAN in 1997. Then was followed by Multimedia University (MMU), University Technology MARA (UITM), University Putra Malaysia (UPM) and Open University Malaysia (UNITEM).

Advantages of E-learning from student’s perspective:

1) Easy accessibility – Can obtain teaching materials through e-libraries, communicate with tutors for clarifying uncertainties in study irrespective of location.

2) Time flexibility – Able to get online resources, communicate with tutor or classmate and send in assignments at any time being able to get access to the internet, especially for those who are working while taking course.

3) Able to learn at own pace – Able to learn at any time without concern will be left out of a lecture as in traditional method of education.

4) Affordable – Can save expenses on travelling, accommodation, food and high fees for tutors.

5) Save time – Do not have to spend time travelling to campus particularly those who stay far away from campus.

6) No discrimination – Everyone’s performance will depend on merit alone, thus there will be no issue on inequality based upon race and sex.

Disadvantages of E-learning from student’s perspective:
1) Lack of face-to-face communication – tutor cannot easily feel student’s demands, interests and motivations through deficient of gesture and vivid dialogue.

2) Expenses on technology equipments needed – Have to spend money on buying computer and internet network which support the requirement of E-Learning software provided by the university.

3) Require new or enhanced computer and troubleshooting skills - It seems like the benefits are far more than the limitations, thus E-Learning could be a better choice depending on each individual’s needs.

For further reading:
Electronic Learning
University-level e-learning in ASEAN
Pros and cons of E-Learning
Positive and negative aspect of online learning

Mobile payment systems in Malaysia : Its potentials and consumers' adoption strategies

Nowadays many of us live with mobile phones at anytime and anywhere. Traditionally it started function as making phone calls and text messaging, and now eventually it had becoming more advanced by providing payment by using mobile phones—mobile payment. Consumers are able to pay for a wide range of goods and services as if they are using credit card for payments.

For more information regarding mobile payments:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Payment
http://www.neowave.com.my/mobilemoney_howitworks.asp

Potentials of mobile payment systems in Malaysia
With reference to Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz’s statement in "Mobile Digital Signature Symposium 2008" on 3rd June 2008, there are 88% of Malaysian population subscribed to mobile phone services, and this high penetration rate shows that mobile phone networks is increasingly becoming a population channel for Malaysians. Moreover, there are 55 million deposit accounts in Malaysia’s banking system from our population of 27 million indicates a high percentage of population have deposit accounts with the banking system. Eventually mobile payment systems will have a very high potential in Malaysia since high percentage of mobile phone subscriber and high rate of participation of population in banking system forms an ideal platform for mobile payment.

Consumers’ adoption strategies
In order to widen the reach of mobile payment to the population, new and innovative mobile payment products and services are important for offering simplicity, convenience and speed at minimal cost, as well as providing efficient and cost-effective method of delivering mobile payment services even in the remote areas.

Common payment infrastructure and standardizing the payment messaging format for wider acceptance of mobile payment are essentials for the growth of mobile payment. Thus consumer can easily make payment using mobile phones without having the difficulty of lack of payment infrastructure while paying or different payment format which might confuse them.

Moreover, the industries should expand the range of products and services providing mobile payments to ensure the consumers are able to conveniently use mobile phones for making their payment. The industries should also formulate a transparent and cost-effective pricing framework to provide incentives through using mobile payment, for instance give a rebate of 5% if pay by using mobile payment to increase consumers’ participations.

The Government also has to ensure the security and integrity of mobile payment by providing supporting regulatory and legal framework. This is to strengthen the consumers’ confidence in the safety, security and reliability of mobile payment as their payment method. Thus, education and outreach programmes can be use as a mean to increase the consumer awareness and confidence in mobile payments.

Review on online beauty product fraud

Online transaction is a place where most of the fraud could take place as there is not much legal protection for the buyers. From the blog posted, we could see that victims that are caught in this scam do not know much on the procedure and safe guard to be taken.

Moreover, most of this online transaction fraud lured t

heir “prey” by offering cheaper price of the same product that sells in the market. Where buyer would do survey on caught by the low price that they could not found in elsewhere. However, sometimes victim falls as prey to this online

transaction fraud because of their ignorance and feel of greed. Victims come from all sought of profession has be falls as prey for being greedy as they are attracted to the “super low price” of the product and did not do any survey towards the authenticity of the websites.

In addition, some of this website lure their victim

using time constraint where they need to conclude the "great deal" in certain time. If the failed to do so than the deal will be off. Thus the victim would not have enough time to check for the authenticity of the website.

Besides that, consumers are not well aware of this type of online transaction scam. Thus, they would become easy prey for this con-man. On the other hand, some of the victims does not know which authority that they could refer to and make complaint of such scam. Thus, member of the society does not know much of this scam.

Thus, we should not turn our deaf ear towards this fraud that will cause member of the society to feel insecure towards the convenient of the online transaction that could affect most of the business for the genuine online sellers. Next time anyone who wanted purchase online, they should check on the authenticity of the websites, or online purchase from trusted sites to avoid falls as victim.

other related websites:

• How to Fight Online Transaction Fraud
• Beware of e-frauds
• Online Fraud Protection

Work In Progress

Review a local, transactional e-commerce site

E-commerce has available in Malaysia for a long period. There are many local e-commerce website in Malaysia, and I had chosen one website which is http://lelong.com.my/. Although it had exist for a long time, there still not all of the Malaysian using this e-commerce service. And now let me introduce you to this locally known e-commerce service.

This e-commerce service incepted at the end of 1998, as it has quickly established a firm footing in the e-commerce arena. "Serving the community and bringing a high standard of quality into homes and businesses by providing an avenue for on-line trading at a low cost", is the mission statement of lelong.com. The site’s main income included membership fee, posting auction/sales fee, and D.I.Y. Banner Advertisement fee. The other services included real-time account inquiry, funds transfers and payments, and also online share trading.

As for the selling system, it has Maximum Bid / AutoBid / ProxyBid. Every time another party beats your initial bid, AutoBid raises your bid by one single increment more than the challenging bid. If another bidder exceeds your Maximum Bid, the bids end. User could pay through several payment channels such as Online Credit Card, Interbank Transfer / Giro / Bank Counter, E-banking Payment, and also check payment.

Although it’s a new market for Malaysia in e-commerce, there are still many improvements to be made. The total demand for online buyer had grown rapidly; company should go for online market since there are still many opportunity in the internet.

Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies.

A corporate blog is a blog published by or with the support of an organization to reach that organization’s goals. In external communications, the potential benefits include strengthened relationships with important target groups and the positioning of the publishing organization (or individuals within it) as industry experts. Internally blogs are generally referred to as tools forcollaboration and knowledge management.

Before we understand corporate blogging as an marketing communication tool, we need to know what is the nature of blogs. Blogs are not objective, they might give biased information. People who are writing blog with their perception, value or interest. From the equation, you just cant remove their personality. Blog is not a corporate communication department, you may realise there are pointless in thier blogs. Different bloggers have different voices. You might find out everyday voice; natural, direct and informal, maybe even funny or irritating. Blogging shouldn’t becompared to journalism, but you’ll find a similarity between Personality/Voice. Furthermore, you are not alone out there. There is always some blogs sharing your interests. You might be a part of conversation by linking to those blogs from posts of your own, starting their opinions. publishing useful information or thoughts. Haha, it is not neccessary try to converse, but the most blogger would argue that this is an important part of blogging.

From a business perspective there are several potential reasons to blog. But, as always, it depends on what you want. There are some reasons of corporate blogging. Become the Expert. Position yourself and your company as the thought leader of your business. Customer Relationships. In your forum, your main objective is not to sell something but you will have more personal relationships between you and your customer. You may join the customer discussions, provide tips and insight or receive feedback. Media Relations. It is every PR consultant's dream to create a channel where media regularly check what you have to say, instead of media just being passive. Knowledge Management. Blogs works in two ways. First of all, there are an easy way for the readers to find information and resources they want or need. That is obvious and could be used internally in many organizations. Second, blogs are a kind of "university light" forthe blogger. Blogging is on-the-job learning.

You may want to see what others are doing?

European Corporate Blogs http://www.corporateblogging.info/europe/

Business Blog Consulting http://www.businessblogconsulting.com/

CEOBlogsList http://www.thenewpr.com/wiki/pmwiki.php/Resources/CEOBlogsList

If you are free, you may read those blogs below:

Dana's bloghttp://www.danavan.net/weblog/

Micro Persuasionhttp://www.micropersuasion.com/

Corporate Engagementhttp://trevorcook.typepad.com/weblog/

Scobleizerhttp://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/

Contentioushttp://blog.contentious.com/

The Application of Prepaid Cash Card for Consumers

Prepaid cash card also called as prepaid debit card. It is a plastic card which provides an alternative payment method to cash when making purchases. The funds are withdrawn directly from either the bank account, or from the remaining balance on the card. Usually, cash cards are used for telephone and Internet purchases. Cash cards can also allow for instant withdrawal of cash, acting as the ATM card for withdrawing cash and as a cheque guarantee card. Merchants can also offer "cashback"/"cashout" facilities to customers, where a customer can withdraw cash along with their purchase. Unlike a charge or credit card, a debit card purchase incurs no interest.

For those who cannot get a bank account, or do not wish to use an ATM card that is attached to one, prepaid cards are a way to get the same convenience. One easy way to get a cash card is through an online financial payment service such as PayPal. PayPal cards use a person's PayPal account balance as the principle. However, an account holder must have a PayPal account in good standing for 60 days to obtain one. Another method is to go to a check-cashing store and purchase a card. These cards usually cost about RM10 plus the amount of cash principle. Once purchased, the cards may be refilled at any location offering the particular service. The biggest drawback to this variety of card is the fee structure. It's common for ATM transactions to cost several ringgits in fees and for debit purchases to cost anywhere from 50 cents to RM1. There may also be a percentage charged monthly on any balance carried. The third option is to have a percentage of your paycheck go into a cash card. The payment service will mail you a card and will usually charge a nominal up-front fee. These cards also come with plenty of usage fees.