Abstract:

The study aims to explore the lecturers’ view of using online communication activities to support face-to-face learning of Elementary Mandarin at a public university in Malaysia. Six lecturers participated in online communication activities via e-learning management system “i-Learn Portal” to express their view and experience of these synchronous and asynchronous communication task for semester Sept 2011-Jan 2012 (one semester). The qualitative data from two research tools: i.e., interviews and online observation were collected and merged among six lecturers who taught Elementary Mandarin I program from seven different faculties in Shah Alam main campus and satellite campuses of Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. The findings indeed show some views and experiences of lecturers with regard to the advantage and disadvantage in integrating online communication activities to support face-to-face Elementary Mandarin teaching and learning. The discussion includes consideration of some ideas on how to conduct better online communication activities in a blended learning environment in future.

Keywords:

Online communication activities, e-learning management system, face-to-face learning, Elementary Mandarin I.