In Search of Meaning about Digital Teaching and Learning: A Collective Reflections

The Covid-19 pandemic has affected various sectors particularly the education sector. The decision by the Malaysian government to close down higher learning institutes and schools has forced educators and teachers to switch their teaching and learning techniques from face-to-face to completely online. This situation has pushed the lecturers from the General Studies Department, Sunway University, Malaysia to master not only the technological tools, but also the pedagogic aspect that drive the entire process, to ensure the teaching and learning process can be carried out properly. Within a short period of time, different methods and modalities were designed and experimented, yet little is known on how such abrupt and rapid modifications affect the overall quality. Considering the value of experiences and reflections, this study probes on the mediated experiences of GSD academics on online teaching and learning, whereby a qualitative-research design was leveraged in a plethora of collective reflections in using E-Learn. The findings revealed that E-Learn has a huge potential to be effectively employed for synchronous and asynchronous modalities due to its user-friendly features and tools within the capacity to disseminate information, structure virtual lessons, record students’ involvement, monitor reports and deploy both formative and summative assessments. This study concluded that the various features of E-Learn had tremendously assisted the GSD lecturers during the online teaching and learning process, and is deemed suitable be used as a platform or Learning Management System (LMS) for online teaching and learning activities.