Sunday, July 31, 2011

Selamat Menyambut Bulan Ramadhan Al-Mubarak


Pada semua pelajar, tutor dan seluruh warga OUM Perak khasnya dan OUM amnya, kami warga OUM Perak mengucapkan "Selamat Menyambut Bulan Ramadhan Al-Mubarak" dan "Selamat Berpuasa".

Thursday, July 28, 2011

OUM sasar 130,000 penuntut tahun 2015 - Utusan Malaysia

Oleh HAMDAN TAWADI
utusanjohor@utusan.com.my

Mohamed Khaled Nordin memahat batu sebagai simbolik perasmian Bangunan Pusat Pembelajaran OUM di Batu Pahat, baru-baru ini.

BATU PAHAT 26 Julai - Universiti Terbuka Malaysia (OUM) menyasarkan pengambilan sekurang-kurangnya 130,000 penuntut menjelang 2015.

Presiden dan Naib Canselornya, Prof. Emeritus Tan Sri Anuwar Ali berkata, hingga kini lebih 100,000 orang memasuki universiti itu dengan jumlah lulusan yang berjaya dilahirkan melebihi 32,000 orang.

"Sambutan baik daripada masyarakat menunjukkan OUM adalah antara pilihan utama golongan yang ingin belajar sambil bekerja.



"OUM juga telah membelanjakan hampir RM100 juta untuk membeli dan mengubah suai pusat-pusat pembelajaran di seluruh negara bagi kemudahan para penuntutnya," katanya pada Majlis Perasmian Bangunan Pusat Pembelajaran OUM di sini baru-baru ini.

Perasmian Bangunan Pusat Pembelajaran OUM itu disempurnakan Menteri Pengajian Tinggi, Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin.

Anuwar berkata, pusat pembelajaran OUM di daerah itu memenangi anugerah reka bentuk terbaik daripada Pertubuhan Arkitek Malaysia pada 2007 dan ia adalah antara 18 pusat pembelajaran yang beroperasi di bangunan milik OUM.

Dalam pada itu, Mohamed Khaled berkata, langkah OUM menyediakan infrastruktur dan program akademik berkualiti amat bertepatan bagi membolehkan universiti itu memberi khidmat terbaik kepada penuntutnya.

"Hakikatnya, dengan adanya bangunan sendiri, OUM boleh mempertingkatkan lagi usaha dalam menyediakan program-program berkualiti kepada rakyat," katanya.

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Bengkel Kecemerlangan Peperiksaan OUMH 1103 dan OUMH1303



Seperti pada semester-semester yang lepas, Bengkel Kecemerlangan Peperiksaan bagi membantu pelajar baru OUM berjinak dengan format peperiksaan untuk semester Mei 2011 telah diadakan pada 23 Julai 2011.





Bengkel ini telah diadakan dalam dua sesi iaitu sesi pagi (8.30pg hingga 1.00ptg) untuk subjek OUMH1103 dan sesi petang (2.00ptg hingga 4.00ptg). Seramai 47 orang pelajar baru OUM Perak yang jauh dan dekat telah hadir bagi mengikuti bengkel ini.





Bengkel OUMH 1103 iaitu subjek Learning Skills for Open and Distance Learners telah dikendalikan oleh Dr Richard Ng, Pengarah OUM Perak. Beliau telah mengajar subjek ini sejak tahun 2004 lagi dan terlibat dengan pembangunan bank soalan serta merupakan salah seorang pmeriksa kertas untuk subjek ini.





Dalam bengkel ini, pelajar telah didedahkan dengan topik-topik serta perkara yang perlu diberi fokus semasa peperiksaan yang bakal diadakan pada 14 Ogos 2011 jam 2.00ptg. Sesi ini juga bertindak sebagai sesi ulangkaji bagi membantu pelajar mengingati apa yang mereka telah pelajari.



Pelajar telah didedahkan dengan Soalan-soalan peperiksaan semester lepas dan contoh jawapan juga telah disediakan bagi memudahkan pelajar memahami teknik menjawab soalan semasa peperiksaan nanti.



Bagi sesi petang pula, En. Yusni, iaitu salah seorang tutor kanan yang cukup berpengalaman dalam subjek OUMH 1303 iaitu English for Oral Communication, telah dipertanggungjawabkan untuk membimbing pelajar. Beliau telah berkhidmat dengan OUM sejak tahun 2002 lagi.



Bengkel ini telah banyak membantu pelajar OUM terutama pelajar baru bagi menghadapi peperiksaan dengan penuh yakin. Pihak OUM Perak amat prihatin dengan keperluan pelajar dan sentiasa berikhtiar untuk mengelolakan bengkel seperti ini pada setiap semester. Hasil kaji selidik menunjukkan bahawa pelajar yany mengiukti bengkel mempunyai peratusan kelulusan yang tinggi berbanding dengan pelajar yang tidak hadir.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Ministry comes down hard on errant private colleges - The Star

By Richard Lim

PETALING JAYA: The Higher Education Ministry is coming down hard on private colleges which offer unrecognised courses.

The ministry has issued 47 summonses to several colleges and university colleges to appear in court for offering unregistered or unapproved programmes, and has warned that students enrolled in unaccredited and unrecognised courses run the risk of missing out on job opportunities or avenues for further studies.

The colleges were also hauled up for various other offences, such as relocation to new premises without approval; and for employing lecturers without teaching permits.

The ministry's enforcement and inspectorate division director Dr Naimah Md Khalil said the most recent cases involved two private providers which contravened the guidelines under the Private Higher Educational Institutions Act 1996 (Act 555) and this was a serious offence.

“Only the registrar-general can approve courses which have been given the stamp of quality from the Malaysian Qualifications Agency,” she said.

In the first case, a college in Petaling Jaya which specialised in fashion and jewellery design (which has since changed its branding) was fined RM120,000 for offering five unapproved courses.

Several factors were considered by the Sessions Court judge, such as the number of students enrolled and the course fee for each programme, among others.

As a result, the fine for offering a degree programme in fashion design was RM50,000 while the degree in jewellery design earned the college a RM10,000 penalty.

The second case, involving a university college in Kuala Lumpur, was more intricate as the private provider realised albeit too late that it had made an error.

Attempts to rectify the problem the offering of five unapproved undergraduate and postgraduate courses related to music were made and the judge took everything into account.

However, the college was still slapped with a RM65,000 compound fine.

On the verdicts, Dr Naimah said such action would serve as deterrents for errant education providers.

The court cases complement recently released ministry statistics, which reveal that 47 compound notices were slapped on errant private education providers from January to March this year, compared to 47 last year and nine in 2009.

The cumulative amount of compound notices issued up to March was around RM470,000.

In April, higher education deputy director-general (private higher education institutions) Prof Datin Dr Siti Hamisah Tapsir said the ministry would also get tough with colleges that use gimmicks like “free laptops and accommodation” being offered to new students.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Peak Performing - OUM Senior Managers Development Program

Posted by Richard Ng on 13 July 2011

Vice President of OUM, En. Repin Ibrahim, delivering his welcoming speech

25 OUM senior managers were selected to attend a 5-series 2-day training program at Seri Pacific Hotel KL on 4th and 5th July 2011.

The training was conducted by Potential Plus Consultancy Sdn. Bhd., one of the consultancy companies which has helped OUM mould its managers since 2001. Mr. Moses Teh (Managing Director) and ET Khor (Principal Consultant) with their vast experience, were on hand to share their expertise.

One of the ice-breaking sessions

Another ice-breaking session. From left: Datin Hanin, Dr Richard Ng and Dr Tina Lim

Ice breaking session. From left: AP Dr. Santhi, Puan Normala and Mr. Mahfar

Datin Hanin was sharing about one of the participant's secret talent during the ice-breaking session

The training started sharp 9am with a welcome speech from En. Repin, OUM Vice President (Business and HR Development). En. Repin reminded selected participants about OUM's past Performance and how we have to come to it and what comes ahead. Thus the training is very important for participants to help OUM positioned itself to face uncertainty in the future.

AP Dr. Santhi, representing her group 5 to present their findings. Looking on is Mr. Moses Teh (right) and ET (left)

Part of the trainees

The first module conducted was on "Managing and Driving Change: Manager/Leader of the new milliennium & Understanding Different Personalities and How it affects Relationships and Performance (EQ).

Other modules are:

Module 2 - PEAKS - Self Discovery, Personal Leadership and the Secret of Motivation
Module 3 - Star Search - Selecting the Best from the Rest
Module 4 - Coaching for Excellence
Module 5 - Personal Effectiveness and Dynamic Communication

Chief Librarian of OUM, Ruzita presenting on behalf of Group 1

The training is a process of "Learn, Unlearn and Relearn" to many of us. Some may have attended such Leadership courses and some may be new to such courses. But most important this course helps to train participants to be leaders and not just managers in changing time especially during turbulent economy.

Members of Group 1

Members of Group 3. From left: Mr. Zakir, Puan Hazna, Dr. Tina Lim and Mr. Aduka

In a nutshell, the five modules that these participants will go through, is all about linking Strategy and Organizational excellence to its people. The training started with a very interesting ice-breaking session. Imagine, those people in the training are familiar faces and yet many of us do not know each other? It was fun and we all learn about each others secret and hidden talent.

Hazna, Deputy GM of Meteor, representing her Group 3

Mr. Moses started the session with an inspiring story about an elderly lady Rose who has enrolled into a university program. Sounds familiar at OUM? A few interesting quotes have come out from this story:

a. Never too old or too late to begin anew
b. We do not stop playing because we are old. We grow old because we stop playing.
c. Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional

The key point is that we can be better. We need to know the difference between "Success" and Significance." We need to know the difference between a manager and a leader especially managing in the new millennium. Moses also put forth what makes a superior leader. Who are the superstars and who are the so called eagles in the organization. He added that one must aim to achieve "significance" rather than just "success".

Members of Group 2. From left: Datin Teh Raqamah (Senior Manager CR), Johari (Senior Manager CIDT), Dr Richard Ng (Director of Perak LC), Hj Ahmad Izanee (Director of Pahang LC cum Class Monitor), Mahfar (Senior Manager, Program Accreditation) and Puan Faizah Mohamed (Senior Manager, Group HR)

Members of Group 4. From left: Datin Hanin, Puan Noorma, AP Che'An, Puan Zurina and AP Dr. Santhi

An interesting lesson learned during the 2 days is about the Ice-berg model of success where the exposed part (15 percent) of the ice-berg represents Knowledge and Skills of a person and the sub-merged (hidden - 85 percent) part represents a person's Attitude, Traits, and Motives or (ATM in short).

Surprisingly (of course not surprising) is that human behavior that have influence on one's positive or negative performance is mostly the submerged part - the ATM.
The ATM, we were told is actually influenced by our brain.

Dr Richard Ng presenting Group 2's findings

Most of the leader's performance according to Moses are influenced by their superior actions -> Monkey see Monkey do. Thus to be high achiever and to produce superstar staff, we need to understand ourselves first and then understand others. It is always easy to manage ourselves then to manage others.

Group discussion. From left: Datin Teh, AP Che'An, AP Dr. Janet Woo and Mr. Zakir

ET Khor then took us through a Personality test. It was fun and we now understand ourselves better. The exercise was interesting and reflected rightly the personality among us as leaders. Basically, there are 4 types of personality; Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholy and Phlegmatic. We found after the test that many of us are either Choleric or Melancholy. Some are Phlegmatic or Sanguine. The video shown by ET was also interesting as it showed the differences between the different personality. I guess we are all visual learners and we learn better through pictures and video clips and this is one of the excellent video clips.

Moses also shared with us on "How to be a good leader" by Jack Welch. According to Jack Welch the former CEO of GE, there are 8 characteristics of a successful leader. Jack's point: "Think of yourself as a gardener with a watering can in one hand and fertilizer in the other."

Some of the participants who are listening attentively to one of the presentations

Another inspiring part of the training is the video on Steve Job. It's not just about how Steve founded Apple but more importantly how he was sacked from the company he founded and he managed to come back. It is about believing in yourself, love what you do, have the courage to follow intuition, do something you are great at and be innovative. Steve's success is driven by his believe that "One must treat everyday as if it is your last." Steve added: "Stay Hungry Stay Foolish".

Some of the quotable quotes after the 2-day training:

a. What's get measured, gets done
b. Customers are not always right. How to manage these customers?
c. Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result
d. Monkey See Monkey Do

We also have brainstorming session on issues related to OUM and how we are going to handle it. Class monitor Hj. Ahmad Izanee has been tasked to prepare the summary of the suggestions put forward.

A point of note to participants:

Prepare a learning log for our next training session, which will be held in Sept. Participants are to write:

a) What they have learned over the 2 days
b) What and how am I going to apply what have been learned
c) What and how they have been applied.

Generally, this is a good session. We have fun and we look forward to our next training session.

Friday, July 8, 2011

Latihan "Strategic Marketing For Learning Centre" @ PP Greenhill Ipoh

Laporan dan gambar disediakan oleh Sharizal:

Sdra Yon Rosli sedang mengendalikan sesi latihan

Kursus Latihan "Startegic Marketing For Learning Centre" telah diadakan di PP Greenhill selama dua hari pada 6 dan 7 Julai 2011 dari jam 9pg hingga 5ptg. Kursus ini telah disertai seramai 22 org peserta dari empat buah pusat pembeljaran OUM iaitu dari PP Kedah/Perlis, PP Penang, PP Perak dan PP Sarawak.

Gambar kenangan. Duduk dari kiri: Puan Munaliz, En. Yon Rosli, PM Dr Frank Kiong, Dr Richard Ng, PM Dr Tan Toh Wah serta lain-lain peserta

Kursus ini turut disertai oleh Pengarah Pusat Pembelajaran OUM masing-masing iaitu Puan Munaliz Bt Musa - Pengarah PP Kedah, Dr Richard Ng - Pengarah PP Perak, Assoc. Prof Dr Tan Toh Wah - Pengarah PP Penang, Assoc. Prof Dr Frank Anak Kiong - Pengarah PP Sarawak.

Dr Richard sedang mengendalikan bengkel pemasaran bagi menambahkan bilangan pelajar

Kursus ini mengandungi enam modul iaitu:

Pada Hari Pertama (06/07/2011)

a) Sharing of Marketing Strategy and Implementation 2010 – 2015
b) Marketing Mix and AIDA concept in OUM context
c) Local marketing and changing market demand

Pada Hari Kedua (07/07/2011)

d) Customer Engagement
e) Exploring Factors Influencing Learner Attrition : Retention Strategies
f) Managing Resource Centre (Library)

Para peserta sedang mendengar penjelasan dari salah seorang peserta mewakili kumpulannya untuk membentangkan hasil dapatan mereka

Pada hari pertama, latihan telah dikendalikan oleh En Yon Rosli B Daud - (Pengurus Kanan (Bahagian Pemasaran Kumpulan)) dan Dr Richard Ng - (Pengarah PP Perak).

Perbincangan dalam salah satu kumpulan dibimbing oleh AP Dr. Tan

Perbincangan dalam salah sebuah kumpulan yang terdiri dari kari Cyprian (Sibu), Murni (Perak), Auni (Kedah dan Wan Nizar (Penang)

Manakala pada hari kedua taklimat disampai oleh Pn Faizah Bt Mohamed - (Pengurus Kanan (Sumber Manusia)), En Muhamad Hafiz B Morad - (Pustakawan Kanan) dan Assoc Prof Dr Shanti A/P Raghavan (Pengarah Pusat Pengurusan Pelajar)

Para peserta sedang giat membuat brain-storming kumpulan masing-masing

Sidang latihan yang pada julung kalinya dikendalikan sepenuhnya oleh staf dalaman OUM telah dijalankan dengan menggunakan data-data terkumpul dan dibentangkan melalui penjelasan serta bengkel.

Surpise ..... untuk birthday boy kita Sdra Ahmad Fahmi dari OUM Perak

Break time ... dari kiri: Sdra Yon Rosli, Cik Kalminder, dan Cik Ariana

Pada hari terakhir kursus iaitu 7 Julai merupakan hari lahir En Fahmi Osman , satu kejutan telah dibuat untuk beliau. Peserta kursus telah bersama-sama menyanyikan lagu harijadi untuk beliau.

Penyampaian cenderahati kepada Puan Munaliz dari AP Dr. Santhi

.... juga kepada AP Dr. Tan

... dan AP Dr. Frank Kiong

Sebelum pulang PP Perak sebagai tuan rumah telah menyediakan cenderahati kepada peserta, iaitu dalam bentuk labu sayong sebagai tanda kenang-kenangan. Semoga semua peserta telah bermanfaat daripada sesi latihan 2 hari ini.

Para peserta pulang dengan cenderahati dari OUM Perak.

Semoga bertemu lagi ...

Amah Pemegang Diploma Terima Tawaran Kerja Sebaik Pulang Ke Indonesia - Utusan

Oleh IZRA ABD RAHMAN


PETALING JAYA: Pembantu rumah Indonesia, Sarmini wahyudi, 28, yang lulus cemerlang dalam bidang Diploma Pengurusan Universiti Terbuka Malaysia (OUM) hujung tahun lalu ditawarkan pekerjaan sebaik sahaja pulang ke negaranya.

Tawaran kerja tersebut diperoleh Sarmini pada Rabu, tiga hari selepas dia pulang ke kampung halamannya di Jawa Tengah, Indonesia pada 3 Julai baru-baru ini.

Bekas majikan Sarmini, Tan Choo Kang, 56, berkata Sarmini telah menghubunginya melalui khidmat pesanan ringkas (SMS) dan memaklumkan berita gembira itu kepadanya.

"Saya terima SMS daripada Sarmini semalam (Rabu). Dia gembira kerana telah ditawarkan pekerjaan yang baik walau baru beberapa hari pulang bertemu keluarganya," katanya ketika dihubungi mStar Online.

Choo Kang berkata Sarmini mendapat tawaran bekerja sebagai pegawai kerajaan di salah sebuah jabatan berhampiran dengan tempat tinggalnya yang terletak di Kampung Banyumas.

"Sarmini bagaimanapun tidak memaklumkan kepada saya sama ada dia bersetuju menerima tawaran tersebut atau sebaliknya," katanya.

Sarmini yang berkhidmat sebagai pembantu rumah di Malaysia selama tujuh tahun telah mencipta sejarah apabila menjadi pembantu rumah Indonesia pertama di negara ini membawa pulang diploma.

Dia telah diberi pelepasan dan sokongan untuk mengikuti pengajian separuh masa oleh majikannya.

Anak seorang tukang kayu dan mempunyai seorang adik ini lulus cemerlang apabila memperolehi mata purata nilai gred kumulatif (CGPA) 3.39 sepanjang empat tahun mengikuti pengajian separuh masa di OUM.

Sejak Sarmini pulang ke Indonesia, Choo Kang berkata dia belum terfikir untuk mencari pengganti Sarmini.

Menurut Tan, sebelum Sarmini menamatkan perkhidmatannya, dia dan isterinya Wee Phooi Kuan, 47 pernah berpesan kepada pembantu rumahnya itu bahawa keluarganya sanggup menerimanya bekerja kembali jika dia tidak mendapat pekerjaan di negaranya kelak.

"Memang kami sekeluarga sedih selepas Sarmini berhenti tetapi dalam masa yang kami gembira kerana dapat membantu melaksanakan impiannya untuk sambung belajar.

"Apabila saya mendapat khabar itu, saya dan keluarga cukup gembira dan berbangga.

"Kami berharap agar dia terus maju pada masa akan datang," katanya yang turut menghubungi pihak OUM memaklumkan berita gembira ini.