PDF Innovating Education for A Better Tomorrow

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INNOVATING EDUCATION

FOR A BETTER TOMORROW

INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY CARNIVAL ON E-LEARNING (IUCEL) PROCEEDINGS 2022

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Innovating Education for A Better Tomorrow

International University Carnival on E-Learning (IUCEL) Proceedings 2022

eISBN 978-967-26517-1-0

© Centre for Academic Development (CADe), Universiti Putra Malaysia First Print 2022

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Book cover illustration and design: Muhammad Farhan Azmi

Published by

Centre for Academic Development (CADe) Bangunan Canselori Putra

Universiti Putra Malaysia

43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor

03- 9769 6175

http://www.cade.upm.edu.my

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Editorial Team

Wan Marzuki Wan Jaafar, K.B.; P.A Suriana Sabri

Dahlia Zawawi

Mohd Noor Hisham Mohd Nadzir Yasminani Mohamad

Siti Khadijah Adam Nurfadhlina Mohd Sharef

Mas Nida Md Khambari Zakiah Ponrahono Nadiya Akmal Baharum

Nur Aira Abd Rahim Suriati Paiman Nor Aniza Ahmad

Chong Chou Min

Ahmad Salahuddin Mohd Harithuddin

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Closing the Gap through Multidisciplinary Experiential e-Learning among Law, Computing and Business Students in Fake News

Detection in Times of Covid-19

Sia Chin Chin¹*, Tee Wee Jing², Aqilah Yaacob¹ & Raja Kumar Murugesan²

1Faculty of Business & Law, Taylor’s University, Malaysia

2Faculty of Innovation & Technology, Taylor’s University, Malaysia

*Corresponding author’s email: [email protected]

Abstract

During COVID-19, global communities are exposed to risks of fake news, especially in retrieving community-level genuine news related to laws and health. This multidisciplinary collaboration using experiential e-learning model investigates the COVID-19 infodemic from the legal, computing and business perspectives. The overarching goal is to enhance SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being) by tackling infodemic which surrounds COVID-19. This innovation aims to provide insights to understand and ascertain the nature and severity of COVID-19 false news and efficacy of the Government’s counter measures in addressing this issue, to enhance development of prototype of false news verification on social media on legal rules and news related to COVID- 19 and application in industrial setting using crowd-sourcing; to explore the development of false news detection solution prototype; to develop the business idea, market analysis, feasibility analysis, competitive analysis, marketing strategy and financial planning of the prototype; and to enhance media and legal literacy for students from all 3 schools. The methodology is based on the fusion of e-Learning, experiential learning and multidisciplinary learning. This project builds on practical experience as well as conceptual and empirical work in multiple fields (law, computing and business) and is an outgrowth of a joint-learning work group that was organized to support university-wide initiative of Multidisciplinary Learning Experience. This project has impacted and been recognised in the following manner:

1. Industrial partnership: The Computing School partnered with ProximaX Ltd (international company) to get ideas and discuss how blockchain integrates with the system.

2. Innnofest 2021: The Business School successfully led the participation of this project in Innofest 2021 in which more than 500 participants benefited from the business model proposed for the protoype of the computing students which were tested by law students.

3. Shortlisted for Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission Grant Presentation:

This model helps to answer the fundamental effectiveness and “how-to” questions related to the use of education to solve social media fake news phenomenon.

Keywords: Fake News, Collaboration, Law, Computing, Business, Multidisciplinary

Background of Innovation

During COVID-19 pandemic, global communities have been exposed to risks of fake news (Zsombor, 2021), especially in retrieving community-level genuine news related to laws, health

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and other areas. Many communities, including the students from law, business and computing schools are having substantial difficulty in verifying news disseminated online due to limited levels of media literacy..The term of fake news conflates three notions “Disinformation, MisInformation and MalInformation”, according to Ethical Journal Network the definitions are:

1. Disinformation: Information that is false and deliberately created to harm a person, social group, organization or country.

2. Misinformation: Information that is false, but not created with the intention of causing harm.

3. Malinformation: Information that is based on reality, used to inflict harm on a person, organization or country

In Malaysia there is an increasing number each year of internet users according to Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) . In 2021 the internet users reached more than 87.4% and could grow higher in 2022 and 2023. In the social networking category, Facebook led as number one users in Malaysia with 37.8% followed by Instagram with 22.1% based on a survey in 2018. In terms of communication app users Whatsapp leading as first app with 45.5%

and followed by FB Messenger with 25.8% based on survey 2018 and the most used device to access internet is smartphone with 93.1%.

This multidisciplinary collaboration using experiential learning model investigates the COVID-19 infodemic from the legal, computing and business perspectives. From the legal perspective, the legal implication of current framework and initiative of curbing fake news dissemination are being examined. From the computing perspective, the prototype of technology-supported participation of community-level verification tool in reducing COVID-19 infodemic is being developed. From the business perspective, the market feasibility of the prototype of fake news detection verification tool is being studied.

Description of the Innovation

The multidisciplinary approach of learning and teaching in law is a novelty especially in the Asian region. Compared to other academic disciplines, historically, the legal academy has not been considered the collaborative type. There is a need to participate in more collaborative ventures and there is an emerging readiness to recognize the positive impact of collaboration. Therefore, this innovation to address the following issues:

i. Identification of potential use of multidisciplinary experiential learning approach in fake news detection;

ii. Determination of legal implication of current framework and initiative of curbing fake news dissemination;

iii. Development of prototype of technology-supported participation of community-level verification tool with industrial partner and students from non-computing backgrounds in reducing COVID-19 infodemic; and

iv. Study the market feasibility of the prototype

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Figure 1: Model of Learning Pedagogy using Experiential and Multidisciplinary Collaborative Learning

Figure 2: Model of Innovative Collaborative across Three Disciplines (Business, Computing and Law Schools)

Significance of the Innovation

In this innovation, we seek to overcome some of the predicaments that educators generally do not integrate their teaching with experiences or literatures beyond their own domain. This fragmentation of discipline in teaching is an ordinary approach of teaching and learning in the Asian region. This innovation presents a multidisciplinary model that lays out the pathways by

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which broadly participatory processes lead to more effective community problem solving such as fake news detection and to improvements in the community’s well-being and mental health through analysis of legal basis on deterrent of fake news, as well as development of crowd- sourced news verification tool using block chain technology.

Impact of the Innovation Towards Education or Community

A. Impact Towards Education

This multidisciplinary innovative experiential collaboration has enabled meaningful learning experience in the following manner:

1. Taylor’s Law School (TLS) final year students, through the Pro Bono Project Module, have been impacted positively as they have learnt to provide insights to understand and ascertain the nature and severity of COVID-19 false news and efficacy of the Government’s counter measures in addressing this issue;

2. School of Computing and Engineering (SCE) final year students, through the Capstone Project 1 Module, have brough about positive changes by collborating with industry partner (ProximaX) to enhance development of prototype of false news verification on social media related to legal rules and news related to COVID-19 and application in industrial setting using crowd-sourcing;

3. TLS have brought about positive changes by exploring the development of false news detection solution designed by SCE and provide constructive feedbacks to the prototype solution;

4. Taylor’s Business School (TBS) final year students, through the Entrepreneurship Acceleration Project Module, have been impacted positively by successfully developing the business idea, market analysis, feasibility analysis, competitive analysis, marketing strategy and financial planning of the prototype;

5. Overall the media and legal literacies have been positively impacted through the enhancement of these literacies for students from all schools (SCE, TLS, TBS);

6. All students have learnt to overcome the challenges in multidisciplinary project for the common goal of fake news detection in achieving Sustainable Development Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-Being).

7. The academic achievement of the student has been positively impacted by the project.

100% of the students in Law School have achieved between A to A-. None of the students has failed in all the schools. Below is a snippet of one of the Assessment Performance Report of the student performance.

Majority of the students have found this project extremely engaging and motivating. The current TES module report with a response rate of 100%

Qualitative Comments by Students Generated from TES Module Report and Survey in Satisfaction of Student:

“Amazing module just a great experience overall.”

“Learned to get out from the bubble with this module. thanks dr.”

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“A very encouraging lecturer”

“Dr. Sia is friendly and helpful. She is prompt in helping students clear up confusion and also offers great life advice in general.”

“In my opinion, having collaborations with other schools/faculty is a good opportunity to exchange ideas and perspectives of contributing and developing the solution. Everyone will be able to participate in the brainstorming session in order to come out with a feasible solution as well as a business model.”

Overall, the students have recognised the value of engagement and learning experience through this collaborative multidisciplinary experiential model of pedagogy. Through this approach to curriculum integration which focuses primarily on the different disciplines and the diverse perspectives brought about to illustrate this issue of fake news, the students have opened up more doors to the various perspectives in solving a global phenomenon.

B. Impact Towards Community

This project which was executed by 3 groups of students from the Law School (TLS), the School of Computing (SCE) and the Business School (TBS) have impacted and recognized by the industry and community in the following manner:

a. Economic Development through Industrial Partnership

The SCE students have partnered with ProximaX to get more ideas and discuss how the blockchain integrates with the system. This has definitely enabled the experiential learning to be in line with the expectation and standards of the industrial partner by enhancing the economic development of the fake news solution in the current market.

b. Social Development through Participation in Innofest

The TBS students have successfully led the participation of this project in Innofest 2021 in which more than 500 student community were able to benefit from the business model proposed for the protoype of the SCE students which were tested by the TLS students.

c. Environmental Development

All students have successfully contributed to climate change by preventing fake news which come from climate sceptics who spread false claims on social media. The fake news detection solution helps to navigate climate news in the era of fake news.

Commercialization Potential

The prototype developed to detect fake news is currently being reviewed by the Knowledge Transfer and Commercialization for potential commercialization

Conclusion

Multidisciplinary endeavors are an increasingly important mechanism by which different groups can together absorb and address the changes that affect a population they are both working to serve. An intense multidisciplinary experience – which promotes and expects students to perform high-quality professional work, and to do so in a collaborative model otherwise unknown in some schools; motivates powerful emotional attachments to that work; and sometimes results in successes for a population that has the capacity to demand more than a student knows she can give – generates long-term critical professional learning and fosters an ability for collaboration.

The process tends towards better outcomes for clients and collaborators alike because we understand, by engaging our learners and by incorporating the wisdom of the individuals with

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whom we collaborate, how we can change together to create more just and favorable results in times of COVID-19.

Acknowledgement

The authors would like to express their appreciation for the support of the industry sponsor ProximaX for providing the blockchain platform and training.

References

Jing, T. W., & Murugesan, R. K. (2018, June). A Theoretical Framework to Build Trust and Prevent Fake News in Social Media using Blockchain. In International Conference of Reliable Information and Communication Technology (pp. 955-962). Springer, Cham.

Maréchal, N., Renieris, E., Rydzak, J., Hartmann, I. A., Obar, J. A., Gaur, A., ... & Keton, A. (2021).

Tackling the 'Fake' without Harming the 'News': A Paper Series on Regulatory Responses to Misinformation. Wikimedia/Yale Law School Initiative on Intermediaries and Information.

Zhou, X., & Zafarani, R. (2018). Fake News: A Survey of Research, Detection Methods, and Opportunities. arXiv preprint arXiv:1812.00315, 2.

Zsombor, P. (2021). Malaysia Uses Emergency Powers to Impose 'Fake News' Law. [Online].

Press Freedom. https://www.voanews.com/a/press-freedom_malaysia-uses-emergency- powers-impose-fake-news-law/6203266.html