JAN - MAR 2016

iNTELLECT NEWSLETTER

01 TED trainer’s Retreat

02Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Programme

Towards Excellent Teaching Engagement - the Teaching Engagement Scale (TES)

03

TED Trainer’s Retreat29 - 30 Jan 2016

To open 2016, TED organized a special trainer’s retreat to appreciate our internal trainers who have, over the years, conducted many TED trainings for academics in Taylor’s University. The retreat also included newly on-boarded trainers who were warmly welcomed.

The retreat was held at the Philea Resort Melaka, attended by 21 TED trainers specializing in various dis-ciplines on the 29th of January.

TED is committed to continually motivating our valuable trainers, and to support them in their development as trainers with events like the TED Trainer’s Retreat.

Any academic interested in becoming a TED trainer is welcome to contact TED (ted.intellect@taylors.edu.my) with a suggested training topic.

The objective of this retreat was definitely to express appreciation to TED trainers for their efforts and successes in contributing to 2015 academic trainings. In addition, the 2-day retreat allowed trainers and TED to align goals and expectations for 2016 trainings based on TES dimensions.

Our trainer, Ms. Hetal Doshi, used DISC as a framework for her training. She began the session with a discussion and analysis of the results of each trainer’s DISC assessment results, completed by trainers before the retreat.

This discussion was useful towards identifying and developing personal competencies of the trainers in terms of how they may approach training. In addition, she included activities such as ‘Training SWOT’ and ‘Life Script’, which proved very fruitful to participants not only for training, but at home and at work.

Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Programme

Dec 2015 - Feb 2016

Participants discuss major events that form generational mindsets in an interactive activity during the “Teaching the Gen-Y classroom” session.

Part-time lecturers form an ever growing proportion of teaching staff in many universities, including Taylor’s University. These lecturers often bring to classrooms much valued industry knowledge, which greatly enriches the learning experience. However, though many also have teaching experience, the Taylor’s University environment, with its emphasis on initiatives such as e-Learning and holistic student development, can pose unique challenges even for experienced lecturers.

For this reason TED launched a specialised 2-day induction and orientation programme for part-time lecturers entitled “Teaching and Learning in Higher Education”. On 1st and 2nd December 2015, TED ran the first cycle of the programme with part-time lecturers from SABD and TDS. This was no serious lecture series, and participants could be seen laughing and sharing their knowledge with their fellow part-time lecturers in a highly interactive programme.

NTELLECT and Library representatives share the resources available to part-time lecturers.

The programme is aimed at equipping lecturers with essential “tools” of teaching in the Taylor’s classroom, for example, student-centered teaching strategies, implementing technology in theclassroom, and lesson design. In addition, it also introduces important Teaching and Learning Support resources such as INTELLECT and the Library which will support their teaching career and development.

Participants were not only able to obtain new skills and knowledge from this programme, but were also able to get to know and learn from their fellow part-time lecturers from different faculties.

It was a very successful cycle, and the programme received very good feedback from the lecturers, even from part-timers who have taught for a few years at Taylor’s University. It was unanimously agreed that as a part-time lecturer, they found it to be highly useful and relevant:

It is a good intro to everything, from almost zero knowledge of the things to an awareness of them.

“ “

Short & sweet, effective orientation“ “

Since then, 2 additional cycles have been run in February and March 2016, to equally good feedback. In total, 28 part-time lecturers from 6 schools (HTCA, TDS, SABD, TBS, SOCIT, SLAS) participated in the programme.

Dr. Cheah Swi Ee from School of Education posing a thought-provoking question during a discussion in the “Lesson Planning & Curriculum” module.

The programme demonstrates Taylor’s University’s commitment to the quality of education students receive, whether they are full-time or part-time lecturers. With the programme, part-time lecturers are introduced to new skills and knowledge of how they can take up opportunities for support and further professional development.

With this extra support and access to professional development, part-time lecturers are able to learn even more effective practices to use in their daily teaching. Ultimately, our students will be the main beneficiary from having even better teachers in their classrooms.

Towards Excellent Teaching Engagement - the Teaching Engagement Scale (TES)

Dec 2015 - Jan 2016

Why Engagement?

Research evidence strongly supports the essential role that student engagement plays in learning and behavior. For example, engaged students are more likely to demonstrate positive student outcomes such as decreased dropout rates and higher grades. They are also more likely to demonstrate more effort in classwork, pay more attention and experience more positive emotions (Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004). Research also shows that teachers have a tremendous impact on student engagement (Martin, 2006).

Before August 2015, Taylor’s University course evaluations measured the effectiveness of the module, but not the individual engagement abilities of the lecturer. With all the positive attributes associated with high levels of student engagement, we were interested to find out, as a university, where we stood in terms of the teaching engagement, and even more interested in finding out how we could further improve it.

The First Cycle

For this purpose, the Teaching Engagement Scale (TES) was implemented across 11 faculties at Taylor’s University starting from August 2015. This 360° teaching evaluation tool would enable the university to use data-driven approaches for designing professional development initiatives towards improving engagement, and thereby, the student learning experience.

With the support and efforts of leadership, lecturers and the TES project team, the first cycle of the TES achieved very strong results. For example, student response rates went from a university average of 30% before TES implementation, to 75% after TES implementation - more than twice the previous response rate!

Students completing their TES Student Evaluations on their mobile devices.

Altogether, the TES collected more than 45,000 student responses and 1200 staff evaluations (self, superior and peer), a real goldmine in data for professional development design.

Our overall student engagement scores (Scorecard Classification) were also very positive. While, as a university, we have always known we have good lecturers, great lecturers, with the TES, we also have university-level data that says the majority of our students think so as well.

What next?

With the 360 degree feedback found in the Scorecard, lecturers are empowered to make decisions on improving their teaching engagement. They now have a powerful tool in the Scorecard that specifically identifies which teaching dimensions they are excelling in as well as areas of improvement. More importantly, they have a report that is also balanced, and all parties are in agreement on what these dimensions are. Nonetheless, as always, the true beneficiaries of the TES system are the students. When their lectur-ers are empowered with information with which to improve, as well as the professional development they need to improve, students have teachers in their classrooms that are all headed towards a goal of excellent teaching engagement.The TES cycle will start again in 2016, with the AP2016/01 cycle running for all modules being taught between January to June.

v

01 LEAD 50, Exclusive Student Committee to organise iLEAD Conferences 2016

Taylor’s University Book Club meet with Sarah J. Maas

Taylor’s University Chinese Society 24 Festival Drum Established

Kiki Lala: A Cross-Cultural Simulation & Cross-Cultural Engagement Workshop

Taylor’s University Chinese Debate Team: Malaysian Champion

SHINE Discovery Session @ Taylor’s University

ETC. Magazine – 2nd print magazine

The Annual Taylor’s University Inter-school Debating Championship (TUIDC 2016)

020304050607080910

INTELLECT Team Building 2016 at Thistle, Port Dickson

Mindfulness Workshop at Taylor’s University, Lakeside Campus.

LEAD 50, Exclusive Student Committee to organise iLEAD Conferences 2016

Jan - March 2016

Following the successes of two iLEAD Conferences last year, LEAD 50, an all exclusive student committee was established to organise the iLEAD Conferences 2016. This year, the iLEAD Conference will be a leadership conference by students, for students.

The team is now hard at work, detailing the programme outline, targeting renowned speakers and in the process of creating a brand new experience for participants this year.

Through this 1 year experience, each student in LEAD 50 will be able to develop their professional skills, undertake various different roles and responsibilities, work in a diverse team and be exposed to various networking opportunities both internally and externally.

Their first activity together as a team was the Team Building Activity held early this year where they aligned their goals, vision, mission, values, roles and responsibilities as a team.

Taylor’s University Book Club meet with Sarah J. Maas

16 March 2016

The Taylor’s University Book Club students were all smiles when they recently met with Sarah J. Maas, New York Times, USA Today, and internationally bestselling Throne of Glass series: Throne of Glass, Crown of Midnight, Heir of Fire, Queen of Shadows, and the series’ prequel, The Assassin’s Blade during a recent book signing event at Popular Bookstore, Sunway Pyramid.

The students, all fans of the works of Sarah J. Maas, attended the ‘Meet and Greet Session’ and got their books signed by the said author. During the event, attendees had the opportunity to hear from the author herself her experinces and understand the creative writing processes involved in developing this fantasy series.

Students also picked up writing tips and were priviledged to be part of this esteemed event. The attendees also took the opportunity to bond and exchange ideas amongst one another.

Kiki Lala: A Cross-Cultural Simulation & Cross-Cultural Engagement Workshop

22 - 23 February 2016

As part of the plans to roll out Learning Package 4: Global Engagement in full force this year, Life Skills Development conducted a test drive session of the core workshops under LP4 on February 22 and 23. The first part of the workshop, Kiki Lala: A Cross-Cultural Simulation, was held on February 22 to give participants a simulated cross-cultural experience. Employing various heightened cultural rules and norms, participants were placed into an environment of cultural clash, forcing them to navigate their way through the simulation by developing cultural intelligence on the spot.

The simulation was divided into 4 distinct stages: orientation, practice, observation, and visitation. During the orientation stage, participants learned the distinct culture of their own group, which they then put into practice by trading with their own countrymen during the practice session. Each country then sent observers to note the similarities and differences in their neighbouring countries, so that they could provide tips for their fellow countrymen who had to travel as visitors to trade with citizens of the other country during the visitation session.

20 SHINE students participated in this simulation that is filled with confusion, frustration, embarrassment, but most of all laughter. To wrap up the simulation, the facilitator got participants to reflect on how their experience in this simulation is similar to a cross-cultural experience in the real world and how they could extract their learnings to be implemented in a real life cross-cultural environment as well.

As a continuation of their experience of this cross-cultural simulation, the 20 SHINE students returned on the next day, February 23, for the Cross-Cultural Engagement Workshop. The workshop provides a platform for participants to explore cross-cultural and diversity issues, and forces them to examine the biases that they themselves might have developed.

The workshop began by introducing the concept of culture and how it has shaped one’s outlook, behavior, and practices. Then participants were given a questionnaire that enables them to assess their own cultural values. And using this understanding of how value is shaped, the participants then engaged in a group activity that allows them to talk about their interpretation and understanding of other cultures. The latter part of the workshop introduces to participants the power of culture to include and exclude people while also challenging participants to re-evaluate some of their own stereotypes. The workshop concluded with a time of reflection as participants jot down their thoughts and key learning points from these two days.

The SHINE students who attended this round of workshop are given an opportunity to sign up to be a part of the Cross-Cultural Crew — a group of students who will take up leadership roles in propelling the core objective of SHINE LP4 and, more specifically, coordinating the projects, initiatives, and events under LP4 as well.

Taylor’s University Chinese Society 24 Festival Drum Established

January 2016

Initiated by a group of enthusiastic students under the leadership of Chin Lrum Kianz, a student from the School of Biosciences, Taylor’s 24 Festive Drum troupe was established in January 2016. Chin (more fondly known as Tyrone) was an active member of the drum troupe in his secondary school and carried the vision of sharing this unique element of Malaysian Chinese culture with the Taylor’s community and even beyond. Taking off with his vision under the umbrella of Taylor’s University Chinese Society, Tyrone and the team raised a total of almost RM 6000.00 to purchase an initial set of 10 drums.

Under Tyrone’s coaching, the drum troupe began their practices in the month of February. The 10 drummers in the troupe would meet every Saturday afternoon in the university’s staff carpark to practice their routine and polish their coordination.

Now, Taylor’s 24 Festive Drum is ready for their debut performance in conjunction with Orientation Week and the March Clubs & Societies Day scheduled for March 24! The troupe has also taken up other performance slots for a few campus-wide events that are lined up for the year: March Orientation Party, C.S.I.’s fundraiser – Lumière ’16 scheduled for April, and also the Chinese Cultural Charity Carnival to be held in May.

Taylor’s University Chinese Debate Team: Malaysian Champion

12 - 17 April 2016

On March 12, 2016, Taylor’s University Chinese Debate Team competed in the 6th World Mandarin Debating Championship (Malaysia Division) that was held in University Tenaga Nasional and was crowned the champion of the Malaysia division. In addition to winning first place, one of the debaters from Taylor’s team, Elaine Neoh, also garnered the “Best Debater” award.

The World Mandarin Debating Championship is an international debate competition organized by Nanjing Audit University, and since its inception in 2009, the championship has now become the world’s largest international Mandarin debate competition. This year, 307 university teams from China, Taiwan, Singapore, Australia, England, and Malaysia participated in the qualifying rounds for this championship, but only the top 16 teams will qualify to compete in the grand final that will be held from April 12 – 17, 2016 in Nanjing.

By winning the Malaysia division of the championship, Taylor’s University Chinese Debate Team has successfully secured a spot in the top 16, and thus will be representing Malaysia and the Southeast Asian Region in the grand final. The team will be competing against the champions of the other divisions, including representatives from Macau University of Science and Technology, Monash University from Australia, Shih Hsin University from Taiwan and more.

SHINE Discovery Session @ Taylor’s University

19 - 21 February 2016

It was a totally different experience having the SHINE Discovery Session (SDS) held on campus from 19th – 21st February 2016. Many, including staff and participants, were sceptical whether it could be done here on campus and still keep the essence of SDS on whole.

We are proud to say that the changes did not affect the overall experience nor the take-away of the participants. The 1st day of the SHINE Discovery Session was held on campus from 9:00 am till 6:00 pm, covering areas such as Personality Assessments, Accountability Buddy System, “Spaghetti & Marshmallow” and also LEGO Reflection. The 2nd day centred on the Jungle Adventure at the foothills of Genting Highlands in Batang Kali with activities such as survival cooking and jungle trekking. Participants returned to campus at around 6.00 pm and that was the end of Day 2. The 3rd and last day of the SHINE Discovery Session continued on campus with sessions on Personal Values, Mission Statements, Personal SWOT Analysis, Goal Setting and Action Planning among others.

Students begin the SHINE journey with SHINE Discovery Session, which is a process of self-discovery, get to know yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, and your personality while going on an adventurous trip with your SHINE family.

What the participants of SHINE Discovery Session have to say :

Loke Ren Zhang, School of Pharmacy“I learn that everyone has the ability to do wonders, it's just the matter of time, effort and the initiative that people have to take to get there. I learned that despite being an introvert, I too, am capable of speaking in front of a crowd and excel in many aspects of my life if I choose to give it a try”.

Edmond Tan, School of Computing & IT“I think all Taylor's students should join this programme, to learn something valuable from this programme and to know yourself even better”.

Gan Sheng Hsien, School of Engineering“It was fun, interesting yet a productive programme & I learned many things and I have a clearer vision now about myself”.

Noor Hafsa Azmi, School of Architecture, Building & Design“For some, it could be a life changing experience and just in these 3 days made me feel like I have accomplished something big and I feel like I have made the right decision to start improving myself and to become a better person with the help of SHINE Award Programme”.

ETC. Magazine – 2nd print magazine

24 March 2016

ETC. Magazine is a magazine publication entirely owned and operated by students of Taylor’s University Lakeside Campus. They have been actively operating an online magazine for the past few years, and it was not till last year May that the first print issue was launched.

This year, ETC. Magazine has successfully raised their own funds to produce the second issue of their print magazine. The theme for this magazine is ‘Diversity’, and the members of ETC. Magazine have worked hard to design and write articles ranging from global issues to fashion. The magazines are free, and they were distributed to students during the March, Clubs and Societies Day. Felicitations & congratulations to ETC. Magazine for their 2nd print magazine & hope more is to come their way.

The Annual Taylor’s University Inter-school Debating

Championship (TUIDC 2016)18 - 21 March 2016

Debating has been around for a long time. It began as a quiet subculture in Malaysia, focusing more on the public speaking as aspect than the debating aspect. There was a reason for this and the reason is simple: no one had any idea on what they were really doing! With just a small community of fresh debaters, there were very few tournaments and even less coaches to prepare teams for those tournaments. Now, Malaysia has seen a flourishing of our debating scene. Debating is now accessible to students as young as 11, with about 60 tournaments a year in Malaysia alone. The Taylor’s University Inter-school Debate Championship (TUIDC), for a second year, has become a significant annual event in the effort to develop young debaters.

The Taylor’s University Debaters raised much excitement when our convener, Felice Wong Jing-Yi, released our Co-Chief Adjudicators. With a very diverse and fresh adjudication core in charge of all the topics to be debated during the tournament, the debating scene was very curious. Two of our Taylor’s University Debaters, Marina Hamdan and Sameer Singh Dhillon, were part of the adjudication core with Aaron Luke from Kolej Tunku Jaafar and Sara Abdul Rahim, from IIUM. Within a few hours of releasing the registration form, there were already 50 teams registered.

Another announcement that gained very generous praise was the “Open up Your Homes” programme, which would pair Borneo Debaters with East Malaysian Debaters who were willing to spare a room. More than a few fun sleepovers were held during the course of the tournament! This provided better access to Borneo Debaters who always struggle with the high expenditure of accommodations when participating in tournaments in the Peninsular. The registration fees were also discounted specially for Borneo Debaters to encourage more participation.

On the day of the tournament, there were 60 teams of three with 25 judges. This meant the convening hall was filled with 200 enthusiastic high schoolers all ready to take home the championship trophy! They debated 5 preliminary rounds with surprising and novel motions such as “This house celebrates materialism” and “This house would criminalize the use of the force”.

After debating 5 preliminary rounds, the second day ended with a Socials Night organized by Leaderonomics. There were fun activities that helped the participants’ release a bit of their stress and learn more about guidance and leadership. After all the activities, the teams making it through to the outrounds were announced. While all teams did very well, only 16 teams were fated to make it through.

The 16 teams battled it out until finally, only two teams made it through to the Grand Finals. The teams were from SMK Sri Permata and Methodist College Kuala Lumpur. The Grand Finalists debated about religion. It was a thought-provoking and moving debate. After the judges’ deliberation, the decision was made, Dr Sia Ah Hok, our external guest speaker for the day and Ms. Merlee Tiew Mei Lee, from Business Development, gave away the prizes. The champion of the tournament was SMK Sri Permata with the runners up being Methodist College Kuala Lumpur (MCKL). The overall best speaker was Abel Law from MCKL whereas the finals best speaker was Kishen Sivabalan from SMK Sri Permata.

INTELLECT Team Building 2016 at Thistle, Port Dickson

4 - 5 March 2016

4th & 5th March 2016 was the much anticipated INTELLECT teambuilding outing! The five divisions of INTELLECT namely, Teaching and Educational Development, e-Learning Academy, Student Success Centre, SHINE Award Centre and Life Skills Development came together as one UNITED team at Thistle, Port Dickson with the sole MISSION to become a high performing team.

Armed with strong determination and high morale, 29 INTELLECT staff came together to conquer this year’s team building activities at Port Dickson. The first activity of the day, the Bus Hunt, kick started our annual teambuilding. We were tasked to find clues along the journey to Thistle, Port Dickson from Taylor’s campus. We scanned and craned our necks in search for the clues given to solve the puzzling questions of the bus hunt. The activity gave us a jolting start to what we are to encounter later that day. The starter session was an appetizer before we were to serve the main course.

Later in the afternoon, we continued with more brain-wrenching activities such as Robots and Aliens, which was about managing and planning for a change, Magic Carpet an indoor game, which was about working together as a team and finally Articulate, which was about its players describing words from different categories to their team as quickly as possible without speaking.

These activities sounded and looked easy but alas that was not the case. Nevertheless, after sweating and toiling while playing indoor games, we learned to be consistently motivated, strive to achieve higher productivity and race together towards a common goal. The most interesting and rather intriguing part was we learned about our diversified team members with different personalities, approaches and how to work together despite the contrasting nature of each member.

The highlight of the teambuilding activities this year is definitely the outdoor games by the sandy beach of Port Dickson. Some of the activities include Flying Comet – team need to secure “flying” objects coming from unknown source using a canvas, Save Holy Water – team need to collect as much water as they can from the sea and fill up their container, Bulldozer – team need to move forward together while using canvas till the finish line. It is a unique experiential learning opportunity rather than just another classroom based learning session. The metaphor behind this string of challenging activities is taking head on the obstacles in our lives and salivating the enormous sense of accomplishment when we overcome them.

It has been an enriching experience and the 4 teams’ demonstrated cohesiveness amongst team members with greater understanding of each other’s personalities and styles. Team spirit and camaraderie was deeply felt and embraced.

On the last day, we left with heavy hearts but intense hunger for more! More we will definitely have during next year’s retreat with greater sense of togetherness, synergy and bonding among our INTELLECT family!

Mindfulness Workshop at Taylor’s University, Lakeside Campus.

March 2016

Mindfulness is a way of intentionally paying attention to events in the present moment with an attitude of openness, flexibility and being non-judgement. Research shows that regularly practicing mindfulness can improve mental health & well-being and increase resilience towards stress. Mindfulness for staff can reduce stress and burnout, leading to less days taking off from work and reduce the feeling of being under pressure from too much to do and too little time. Regular practice can improve coping skills, motivation, planning and problem solving, and relaxation.

Mindfulness for students can bring many benefits that can improve the ability to learn. It can improve mental health (reducing anxiety, depression and stress), learning, focus, attention, flexibility and creativity. It can help develop social and emotional skills though greater self-awareness, emotional regulation, resilience, motivation and empathy.

In our aspiration towards introducing the concept of mindfulness in our educational delivery and daily lives, we are pleased to share that INTELLECT, organised a series of mindfulness workshops entitled “Turning Down the Radio: An Immersion into Urban Mindfulness” facilitated by Mr. Remington Cooney on the 18th, 19th, 24th, 25th, 26th and 27th March 2016 for Deans, Deputy Deans, HODs, staffs & students. His specific area of research is in the use of mindfulness meditation techniques in the enhancement of curriculum structure and student well-being.

Remington Cooney introducing Mindfulness

Dr. Suresh Kumar Velayudhan Pillai, our very own lecturer from the School of Hospitality, Tourism & Culinary Arts also took up a slot to share breathing techniques with participants for better overall well-being and health. During these sessions, participants were introduced to the concept of mindfulness, practical steps to implementing mindfulness techniques into our daily lives.

Dr. Suresh teaching breathing techniques

Session 1 (18th - 19th March 2016)

The first session was exclusively for the Academic Leaders and Heads of Departments held at Suria Hill Homes, Janda Baik. Surrounded by enchanting view of fauna such as a magical waterfall and cooling streams, Suria Hill Homes definitely caresses the heart of nature enthusiasts and those who wish to take a break from the bustle of city life. Our Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor Dr. Pradeep Nair was one of the attendees. This session was a wonderful experience for a change, to quiet the mind & to experiment mindfulness techniques together with deep discussions on the science of mindfulness and the concept Contemplative Inquiry versus Quantitative & Qualitative research methods.

Mindful Walking Exercise

Session 2 (24th & 25th March 2016)

The second session was organised for the Staff Interim Moderator’s (SIMs) of the PODz Programme at Taylor’s. It’s been a year since PODz was launched at Taylor’s and it involves the use of mindfulness as a focusing technique before the start of a

particular PODz session. Thus, the SIMs were already used to the concept of mindfulness and were very much open and excited to implement it into their daily lives and to understand the science of mindfulness.

Mindful Listening Activity

Mindful Sensory Activity Mindful Mingling Activity

Session 3 (25th-26th March 2016)

The final session was for a selected group of students who belonged in a POD itself. The aim was to allow students to experience mindfulness and to gauge the level of acceptance of the mindfulness concept among students. The overall comments from students were very encouraging and some felt so much more relaxed and at ease after the end of the session. It was clearly visible during that session many of our students were under stress & this session helped them gain some clarity and allowed them to take a breather.

Judging from the response received from the various participants, mindfulness is definitely a great method to focus one’s mind and attention. It is also a very effective method to relax the body and mind. This directly leads to a better emotional state of mind and an improved quality of life as the alignment of the heart, mind and body is enhanced through mindfulness practices. The mindfulness techniques and concepts that was shared by Remington through-out the session did not infringe nor cross over any religious or spiritual boundaries and thus was not in conflict with each other.

We hope to have more mindfulness based session at Taylor’s to help promote emotional and physical well-being. Do keep your dates free on the 11th of November 2016, because INTELLECT will be organising the first ever Emotional Well-Being Summit that will also feature mindfulness.

Mindful Drawing & Colouring Activity

Mindful SHINE Students

01Festival for Celebrating & Recognising Project Transformer Heroes

Festival for Celebrating & Recognising Project Transformer Heroes

30 - 31 March 2016

This two-day festival aims to celebrate, appreciate and honour our academics who have embraced technology (using TIMeS and ReWIND) and enhance student’s learning experience as well as increasing the learning outcomes. Throughout the two days, more than 100 academics from various disciplines and background came together to witness these Transformer heroes receiving their certificate and getting inspired by 12 heroes who were kind enough to spill their superheroes’ secret through the sharing sessions.

We had so much fun on day 1 of the festival, but second day of the festival proved not be anything lesser. The room was packed with enthusiast academics who came to celebrate their colleagues’ achievement as well as tapping on the Transformer Heroes’ secrets. Another comrades received their certificates and we had another 6 Heroes sharing their secrets.

Some facts that you missed during the festival:

1. Dr. Looi Mei Lee (SBS) module is the only module in Top 10 Modules for both, TIMeS and ReWIND.2. Despite some describing themselves as novice to TIMeS and ReWIND, they marched on and create

meaningful learning activities, and that made them Transformer Heroes.3. The Transformer balloon is a hit among the presenters and participations.

Philip Gan (School of Communication)“Theory is dry and boring. We need to make theories fun & get the students to fall in love with learning”

Watch his sharing session here

Dr. Cheah Swi Ee (School of Education)“Encourage students to take charge of their learning”

Watch his sharing session here

Day 1

Catherine Lee Cheng Kiat (School of Communication)“Age does not matter to use TIMeS and technology”

Watch her sharing session here

Sarah Abedi (Taylor’s Business School)“Students really appreciate when lecturer interacts with them in discussion forum”

Watch her sharing session here

Dr. Phelim Yong Voon Chen (School of Biosciences)“The tricks for blended learning is ‘We learn by repetitions and we learn by mistakes”

Watch his sharing session here

Dr. Wong Yau Hsiung (School of Liberal Arts & Sciences)“Apply bite size learning – Students find it easier to study one small topic followed by activities and assessment.”

Watch his sharing session here

Day 2

Magdelene Chew Meow Khee (School of Computing & IT)“TIMeS allows for peer evaluation, which is good for the students”

Watch her sharing session here

Dr. John Tiong Jeh Lung (School of Pharmacy)“Undergo a paradigm shift. From Hesitation to Exploratory to Discovery”

Watch his sharing session here

Premagowrie Sivanadan (Taylor’s Business School)“Students perceived lecture capture as an important learning support for them. So, give examples, examples, and more examples during lecture!”

Watch her sharing session here

Tan Siok Inn (Taylor’s Business School)“If you are new in using ReWIND, don’t make unnecessary perception, it really benefits your students!”

Watch her sharing session here

Dr. Looi Mee Lee (School of Biosciences)“Have some goals for your ReWIND video. Put a little extra efforts, trim it and make it interesting and meaningful.”

Watch her sharing session here

Nor Hayati Ramli (School of Architecture, Building & Design)“WiKi in TiMeS fulfils the need of Architecture History module, it’s a user friendly and perfect tool for classroom collaboration”

Watch her sharing session here

01 SHINE Chinese New Year Potluck Party 2016

SHINE Chinese New Year Potluck Party 2016 22 February 2016

SHINE Ambassadors hosted the “Year of the Red Monkey” Chinese New Year Potluck party on the final day of the 15-day Chinese New Year celebration “Chap Goh Meh”. It was an AUSPICIOUS celebration to remember, reconnect and renew ties with our students and staffs. SHINE Award Centre, welcome all members and non-members of SHINE programme dressed in brilliant red and other colours to this festive gathering of unity and togetherness.

This event was kick start by the golden touch of calligraphy by Dr. Tang, dressed splendidly in red cheongsam, asked God to bless all students and staffs at INTELLECT with more prosperity and luck throughout the year. Later the event was ushered with a traditional lion dance performance. The performance was organized by Taylor’s University to entertain staff and guests, and also to bring luck for the year ahead.

The event made up of noodles and other delicacies prepared by the INTELLECT staffs and SHINE students. Among the participants were a number of non-SHINE students as well. There were other fun games and activities were carried out in order to make the celebration more interesting.

The event ended with performance by SHINE Ambassadors and Intellect staffs singing the famous Chinese New Year Song lead by Mr. Gerald. Overall, it was such a successful event. For those that couldn’t go, do join us for the next festive celebration.

01 Student Orientation

02 Parent’s Orientation

03 Peer Assisted Learning Services (PALS)

05 Student Success Workshop (SSW)

04 TGC Brown Bag Sharing Session

Student Orientation 23 March - 25 March 2016

SSC together with the Student’s Orientation Leaders society organized the orientation programme to welcome the new students. The orientation was held in the span of three days for both the January and March 2016 intakes. The intention of the programme is to assist in integrating the students to the new learning environment as well as introducing them to the various facilities that is available in the campus. Many fun and informative activities were organized which made the new students feel very welcomed to Taylor’s University.

In addition, two new initiatives were introduced to further assist the new students to get adjusted to university life. The First Year Experience (FYE) Information counter and First Year Helpline were introduced to assist the new students who seek assistance during and after the orientation week.

For further information please do contact us at ssctaylors@gmail.com or contact our helpline at 011 -378 26781

Parent’s Orientation 23 March 2016

In our effort to establish closer relationship with students’ parents, SSC have organised a Parent’s orientation during the January and March intakes.

The objective of the event was to provide parents with an overview of the services in Taylor’s University both from academic and non-academic perspective. The event also aims to provide Student Success Centre (SSC) with an opportunity to establish relationships with parents and also to provide a platform for parents to discuss on queries that they may have with regards to their child’s education journey in Taylor’s University.

The event was held at the Tangerine and Temptations Restaurant and the response from the parents were overwhelming. Light refreshments were also served to all guests.

Several speakers were invited to provide insights of the support that their department provides and among them were Ms. Angela Pok (Vice President, Student Experience), Ms. Marianne Elizabeth (Head, Counselling & Psychological Services), Mr. Raventhran (Security Manager), Ms. Rani Kaur (Manager - Student Relations, Events & Service Learning) and Ms. Kalai Mathi (Trainer and Web Content Editor, ICT). Among the services shared by the speakers were Student Experience beyond Classroom, Support Services in Taylor’s, Safe in Taylor’s and Ensuring a Smooth Academic Journey in Taylor’s.

There was also a Student’s Sharing Session whereby two selected students shared their learning experience and academic journey in Taylor’s University among them were their experience and the benefits of being part of the Peer Assisted Learning Services (PALS) and SHINE Award programme. During the event the parents were very engaging and many questions were raised during the Question and Answer session.

Peer Assisted Learning Services (PALS)

16 February 2016

SSC is pleased to announce that the Peer Assisted Learning Services (PALS) is back again for 2016. At PALS, we offer study sessions at no cost, with the intention to assist students with academic related matters. These sessions are being led by trained Student Leaders.

In our effort to promote the PALS classes among students and staffs, a promotional video was created and currently is being displayed across the university’s promotional televisions. You could obtain the lat-est information about the classes and also the schedule via this mode.

For the January semester a total of 24 PALS Classes are being offered in 4 Foundation Programmes. The programmes that PALS are being offered are the Taylor’s Business Foundation, Foundation in Science, Foundation in Engineering and Foundation in Computing & IT.

In order to better prepare the student leaders for their classes, a training was held on the 16th of February 2016. During this session the student leaders were exposed to various teaching styles as well as on methods to handle students who are facing difficulties.

PALS Student Leaders for Foundation January 2016 Semester

You can obtain the latest information and services offered by PALS by following our facebook page at www.facebook.com/palstaylors

TGC Brown Bag Sharing session

16 March 2016

The Taylor’s Graduate Capabilities (TGC) are a set of capabilities which is being implemented in all programmes in Taylor’s University with the intention to produce graduate who will be able to meet the demands and requirement of the employers. This is in align with the University’s mission in becoming the Top employers’ top choice university. The 8 capabilities which form the TGC framework cover the overall spectrum demanded by the employers.

In sharing best practices of implementing the TGCs into the modules in Taylor’s University, a Brown Bag session was held on the 16th March 2016, at C6.04 from 12pm to 2 pm. The intention of the event is for the lecturers to share their methods and techniques in which the TGCs were effectively integrated in their respective modules. This is the third time a brown bag is being organized and for this event, 4 lecturers volunteered to share their experiences.

The four lecturers are :

Ms Ambikai Thuraisingam (Always in Motion )

Ms Ambikai who is a Law lecturer from Taylor’s Business School. During her session, she shared that In order to succeed in both our career and life, we would need to constantly improve our knowledge and skills as well as the ability to think creatively to solve problems. She also shared the teaching method used to integrate these values in her students and also how the students were able to apply legal issues. She also addressed problems in a business environment by using well-structured and logical arguments.

Rewind link :- http://bit.ly/1WdOFtM

Dr Roseline Yap Wai Kuan (Learning beyond classroom via community engagement)

Implementing TGCs is not only limited to classroom activities, Dr Roseline shared her experience in integrating TGCs in her module through a community engagement activity.

Rewind link :- http://bit.ly/1UJuYKT

Ms Najihah Salwana Sanusi (School of Hospitality, Tourism & Culinary Arts)

Learning through reflection on doing is being proven as one of the most effective methods of teaching. Ms Najihah shared on how she integrated the TGCs using the Experiential Learning method.

Rewind link :- http://bit.ly/1WdOWNr

Dr Sivakumar Sivanesan (School of Engineering)

Measuring the effectiveness of student’s TGCs attainment is as crucial as integrating it in themodules. Dr Sivakumar shared a framework describing the use of ESAT as a tool in measuring the attainment of the TGCs by the students.

The attendees were provided with an opportunity to seek further clarification during the question and answer session which was held at the end of every presenter’s session.

If you have missed attending the event, you could view the rewind presentation via the below link

Rewind link :- http://bit.ly/1PVfw6A

Student Success Workshops (SSW)

January - March 2016

The Student Success Workshops (SSW) is a Student Success Centre (SSC) initiative in collaboration with schools and student support departments to support Taylor’s University students especially in their first year to help build their personal success and adaptability to university life.

From January until March, we have offered various workshops such as Learn Better with TIMeS, Time Management and Mastering Multimedia presentation to help students get used to university academic life.