Pro And Cons From The Student Perspective on E-learning Offered In Malaysian Universities

E-learning is a modern process of education which many local universities have been implemented it beside than offered the traditional ways of learning to their students. E-learning is supported by the computer technologies. This learning experience takes place without face to face communication between the lecturers and his or her students. It is also known as distance learning. Instead of attending lectures and tutorials, students can access to universiti intranet to get those materials provided by their respective lecturers and tutors as when as they are needed it. Hence, student able to get latest news and upcoming events by surf the E-learning portal. E-learning was begun in the late 1980's in Malaysia. MARA University of Technology (UTM) is one of the universities that offered distance learning in 1990.Since E-learning has become more and more popular but it still have some pros and cons on it form the students perspectives.

From the perspective of students, E-learning enable them to save cost because they no need to print out the notes and exercises and it also environmental friendly. They can access to the notes and done the tutorial online whenever and wherever they desired as long as they can access to the Internet. Other than that, they can also reduce the cost of travel to campus for attend the classes.

Furthermore, the students can also enjoy the time flexibility provided by the E-learning. They can 'attend' lectures at anytime, anywhere they want as long as they can access to Internet. The E-learning is available 24x7 so they no need to scare about missing part of the notes. Students can get information easily through the portal such as lectures notes, tutorial's questions. Beside that, they can also communicate with their lecturers through online.

On the other hand, there are some cons in using the E-learning portal too. The first disadvantage of E-learning is lack of face-to-face communication between the lecturers and students. E-learning which promotes home-study has reduced the opportunity of students to meet their lecturers. As when they have problems regarding their subjects, they might not get instant reply from their lecturers as well as their lecturers might not free at that moment.

By having the E-learning it tends to make the students become lazy and ineffective, due to spoon fed by the educational institutions. Since having the E-learning, most educational tasks are done either by the tutor or some sophisticated software, leaving students with the simple task of just downloading notes and reading them. It runs the risk of creating lazy and dependent students. In the future, students tend to expect all the information will be delivered to them and would not seek information on their own.

Other than non-technological problems, students may also faced technological problems while using the E-learning. Computer and Internet connection play an important roles in this distance learning. Sometimes the Internet connection may be interrupt and will cause to ineffectiveness of getting the information from the portal.

Review on a post on Legal from My E-Commerce Blog

After review on the Legal from e-commerce blog, I found that a lot of Internet users have unauthorized using their technical knowledge about technology and Internet to hack into the organization system to stole employees personal data and customers personal data. The potential risk of this action is the data could be used to apply loans or credit cards under false names. These hackers may abuse these confidential information for their personal purpose.

Online Fraud

On the other hand, some of the illegal company also using the Internet to cheat customer's money. Through review on the news that posted on the blog, I have been noticed that there are 66 people were cheated of their money after making Internet purchases of skincare products from someone named “Big Pussycat.”The victims made online transfers amounting to RM73,445.10 for the products which came under names such as “My Beauty” and “My Sherman Beauty” that had been advertised on “Big Pussycat's.” website.Since there are many victims cheated by online fraud, I would like to suggest several ways to prevent online fraud to all of you.

Ways to prevent online fraud:

1.Diversify your passwords. Many people use the same password for all their important internet access points. While this can make remembering the passwords easier, it also plays into the hands of internet crooks.

Tip: Use a different password at all sites to which you normally login. You can alter them by just a character or two if you want.

2. Never login to a site via an Email link. Reputable financial institutions or e-commerce sites will never send you an email which contains, in the body of the email message, the login and password fields.

Tip: Assume any unexpected email you get from a financial institution or other e-commerce site to be a scam unless you go directly to the site by typing in the URL into your browser and see the information verified there.

3.Know who you are doing business with. Whether you are purchasing items in an online auction or making a purchase from an online store, be sure to determine whether this business is reputable.

Tip: If you are making a large purchase, insist on having a phone number for the store and call it to confirm their identity. Check directory information for their city and make sure they exist. If the seller refuses to give you this information, do not do business with them.

SMS Spam

After review from the blog, I have found that there are some handphone users use the hanphone to do SMS spam.Some fraudster is trying to steal your personal information by tricking you with a text message or by getting you to go to a fake Web site and enter personal information, like your bank account login and password. SMS spamming is unwanted junk mail delivered as text messages to your cell phone. The Star newspaper has reported that after the recent SMS scam attack on Digi subscribers, now is the turn for Maxis subscribers to experience the similar SMS scam.

Subscribers will be informed through SMSes that they had won some cash worth a few thousands from Maxis. In order to withdraw the money, they were required to call a foreign 15 digits phone number to provide then with the bank account number.A Maxis spokeperson beside denying their involvement, also reminded the subscribers to ignore these types of SMSes. The SMS scams cases have increasing and cheated a lot of people. Those people who have received this type of SMS have to call back to the mobile services operators to make sure and check whether the SMS is really sent by the company.In addition, the government also should take action against those people who use SMS to cheat the customers.