A discussion on E-learning offered in Malaysian universities: Pros and Cons from the students perspective.

E-learning has become more and more important in this era, being the alternatives ways of modern education. Basically, e-learning means teaching/learning experience that uses Internet or computer networks to reach learners. Lately in most local universities, e-learning is used in some course or subject of study where the students rarely attend face-to-face for on-campus access to educational facilities, because they study online.

However, there are still pros and cons out of the implementation of e-learning for students.

The Pros
From student’s perspectives, e-learning would benefits them in term of lower delivery cost. It enables the student to access to study resources via internet , thus reducing their needs to travel to campus. In the long run ,this indirectly help the students waived quite an amount of money for traveling expenses to campus. They can save on expenses of purchasing books as well because they can access teaching materials through e-libraries. Furthermore, e-learning help students to communicate with their tutors, get clarifications regarding their subjects and study.

Besides that, it provides time convenience and flexibility to students. Because of non-class attendance learning, most students are able to draw out one or two days more during their free week to return to their hometown and still able to enjoy the learning process without affecting their studies. Students can get online resources, communicate with his tutor or class mates, send his query and write term paper at any time he can get access to the Internet.

The Cons
However, there are still a few cons in e-learning. Students feel that lack of face-to-face communication with teachers contributes lack of understanding between a themselves and a teacher. Face-to-face interaction is till the best communication techniques for teaching/learning.

Because of non-supervisory from anybody , students turns out to be lazy being non-motivated enough and having free time schedule

for his e-learning. This may caused a low scope of the student’s knowledge and teacher’s accusation in lack of proficiency.

Most e-learning subjects or programmes doesn’t requires students to do any physical presentation of topic of study. This makes the students lack of knowledge of presentation skills that might be needed in real person face to face presentation in future.

E-Government in Malaysia: Its implementation so far and citizen's adoption strategies.

In 1997,the Malaysia Government emerged with the electronic government to reinvent itself to lead the country into the Information Age. Implementation of electronic government started with the initiation of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) by the Malaysia government.

E-government enhances the convenience, accessibility and quality of interactions with public and businesses at large. It also improves the information flow and processes within the government, improve speed and quality of policy development, and improve coordianation and enforcement.This would enable the government to be more responsive to the needs of citizens.

E-government is one of the seven flagship applications introduced in MSC. The these flagships, seven main projects were identified to be the core of the e-government applications:

1. Project Monitoring System(PMS)
2. Human Rerouse System Information System(HRMIS)
3. General Office Environment( GOE )
4. Electronic Procurement (EP)
5. Electronic Services (E-Services)

6. Electronic Labor Exchange (ELX)7. E-Syariah

According to the survey done by Brown University on Rhode Island, US on international e-government ranking list, Malaysia has improved tremendously since 2005 and now is ranked 25th in the world. Meanwhile, there are several successful implementation of e-government in Malaysia which are :

(i) Government’s drive for e-government services

(ii) SMS alert on e-government services

(iii) Online renewal of driving licenses

(iv) Electronic filing of income tax forms

(v) Voter information

(vi) Details for government tenders

(vii) Employment opportunities

Government has sourced out several stragies to enable the citizens easier to adapt to current e-government applications.

1. The main concern here was the language barrier. In early stage of implementations of e-government, most of the services offered were only in national language which is in Bahasa Melayu (BM). This somehow caused residents & citizens whom were not really good in BM facing troubles using these services. Therefore now government is offering both English and BM version of web pages in their e-government services.

2. Besides that, large portion of citizens are not aware of the existence of e-government in Malaysia. In recent years, much advertisings can be seen in media to increase the awareness of public of these existing Malaysian E-government services .

3. Most of the web directory of e-government services is complicated. So it need to simplify the navigation of and search for information and online services through the provision of a single entry point. In other words simplify the procedures need to access to e-government services.

Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies.

Today, a shift is taking place in corporate communications. One that is promising to alter marketing strategies well into the future, which is corporate blogging. Corporate blogging is publish and used by organizations to reach its organizational goals through internal, external or CEOs blogging. Current browsers which are Opera, Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer 8 which supports RSS technology enables reader to browse recent posts easily without actually visiting the blogspot.

Marketing has always been about balancing company interest with customer interest, but know it is becoming more about opening dialogue and building trust. Through corporate blogging, company can indirectly fine-tune their marketing messages through social interactions. Blogging enables faster feedback and a more strategic understanding of where the market is heading.

From a competitive standpoint, blogging demonstrates to customers that a company cares about its products and customers. Building a relationship with customers is all about loyalty and transparency. Customers are more inclined to deal with an organization that they think they know the best. This is where blogs come into the picture. Through blogging, an organization can build its relationship with its customers and promote their products at the same time.

The 2 most common corporate blogging is internal blogging and external blogging:

(i) Internal Blogging
Internal blogging is to capitalize on the opportunity to encourage communications and knowledge flow upwards in the organization. Basically it can be accessed by all of the corporate employee throught the corporate’s intranet. Internal blogs may be used in lieu of meetings and e-mail discussions, and can be especially useful when the people involved are in different locations, or have conflicting schedules. Blogs may also allow individuals who otherwise would not have been aware of or invited to participate in a discussion to contribute their expertise.

(ii) External Blogging
An external blog is a publicly available weblog where company employees, teams, or spokespersons share their views. It is often used to announce new products and services to explain and clarify policies, or to react on public criticism on certain issues. It also allows a window to the company culture and is often treated more informally than traditional press releases, though a corporate blog often tries to accomplish similar goals as press releases do.

A corporate blog if is not properly managed and maintained,can turn from cool to catastrophic. Despite the ever blooming of corporate blogging, there are still pros and cons of it.

The Pros:
Ø Requires strong written communication skills
Ø Easy to set up a company blog.
Ø Appeals to younger consumer groups and employees
Ø Dialogue with consumers
Ø Search engine visibility
Ø Requires little budget input

The Cons:
Ø Is time-consuming to maintain
Ø Requires strong written communication skills
Ø Blogs are so popular that their credibility as a source of information is declining.
Ø Lack of control vs. over-moderation.
Ø Legal minefield, privacy concerns
Ø Hard to measure ROI

Review a local, transactional e-commerce site

Blooming Florist Sn Bhd is an established company that specializing in florist and souvenirs. It starts its business in year 1981 and is managed by May and Martin Cheah. This website not even selling flowers, but also cakes, wines, hand bouquet and so on. Blooming Florist Sdn Bhd has grown from a small retail shop to its present set-up of five retail outlets in Petaling Jaya, Kuala Lumpur and a head office/ workshop cum retail outlet in Kelana Jaya in this few years. Nowadays, Blooming Florist Sdn Bhd is linked with most reliable florists throughout Malaysia. Besides, it also networked more 100,000 florists worldwide through its membership in Interflora Pacific unit Limited. Blooming Florist Sdn Bhd has been operated for many years in the market. It has won for many awards for their quality products, good services, instant delivery and etc.

The services that provided by Blooming Florist Sdn Bhd to their customers:

(1) Delivery service
Blooming.com provides the following delivery services to their customers:

(i) Same-Day and Next Day Delivery in PJ/KL, and throughout
Malaysia.
(ii) Requests for MORNING OR AFTERNOON delivery
(iii) Peak Floral Delivery days
(iv) Sundays and Public Holidays

(v) International Orders

(vi) Order For Wreaths/Sympathy Flowers

(2) Online Payment

Customers can pay their Blooming.com.my purchases in various way:
(i) Online credit card payment by VISA or Masteercard
(ii) Online Banking such as Maybank2u.com, RHH e-banking and etc.
(iii)Pay using Kawanku ATM
(iv)Open bill payment via Maybank2u.com, Public Bank and etc.
(v) Cash payment- by paying cash at Blooming’s outlets.

(3) Outside Malaysia services

All products shown in the website are for deliveries within

Malaysia. For the delivery service outside of Malaysia, our
fulfillment is carried out through Interflora. All International
Deliveries are done through Interflora. Interflora is a network of Florist whose membership now exceeds 75,000. Blooming.com.my is a Member of Interflora. This enables flowers to be delivered worldwide by Reliable Member Florist located all over the world.

Electronic Currency

Normally, cash is known as a mean of exchange and of storing value in various forms. Nowadays, internet becomes more important for the people in the world. As a result of recent proliferation of computers, telecommunication links and modern method of rendering payment are receiving a great deal of attention form people. The example of the modern method of rendering payment is electronic currency.

Electronic currency can known as electronic money, digital cash, digital money and etc. It typically means that currency with real value and which can be exchanged for traditional cash which is in the forms of coins and notes, is instead entirely virtually. It refers to money which is exchanged only electronically. Besides, electronic currency is designed to facilitate electronic commerce transaction. It only exists in the form of digital format and can be primarily based on the internet. Normally, electronic currency involves the use of computer networks, internet and digital stored value.

There are two types of electronic currency:
( 1 ) Identified e-money
This type of electronic currency contains the information revealing the identity of the people who originally withdrew the money from the bank. Besides, identified e-money enables the bank to track the money as it moves through the economy.

( 2 ) Anonymous e-money
The function of anonymous e-money is like the real paper cash. When anonymous e-money withdrawn from an account, it can be spent or given away without leaving a transaction trail. It can’t be traced as it moves around the economy and the owner of the cash can not be identified.

There are two further varieties of each type of e-money:
( 1) Online e-money
Online e-money requires a third party such as a bank or clearing house when carrying out the transaction. This is similar to credit-card clearing mechanisms at the point-of-sales in supermarkets.

( 2 ) Offline e-money
Offline e-money does not require a third party during the conduct of a transaction, analogous to exchange of cash for goods. It is the most complex form of e-money and true digital cash takes the form of offline anonymous e-money, especially when it comes to solve the double-spending problem.

Examples of electronic currency:
( a ) PayPal
PayPal is an online payments and money transfer service that allows people to send money via e-mail, phone and etc. A PayPal account can be funded with an electronic debit from a bank account or by a credit card. The receipt of a PayPal transfer can either request a check from PayPal, establish their own PayPal deposit account or request a transfer to their bank account.

( b ) Chipknip
Chipknip is the electronic cash system that used in the Netherlands. It is an electronic pursues which allows us to pay via bank or credit card as a sort of loadable wallet in-a-chip. Chipknip differs from other electronic payment system. It is because people have to change it with money before people use it to conduct a transaction.

The application of pre-paid cash cards for consumers

What is pre-paid cash cards for consumers?

Pre-paid cash card also known as “stored value” card. It looks like a credit card and debit card and they offer the same function to purchase products and services but with an important difference – you only can spend the balance that you have been preloaded into the pre-paid cash card. As a result, you will not have the risk of running into debt as the pre-paid cash card has no credit to spend.

There are three application of pre-paid cash card:
(1) Closed system prepaid cards

Closed system prepaid cards also known as merchant gift cards. It have emerged and replaced the traditional gift certificate. “Closed system” mean the cards only can use at a single merchant, that means closed system prepaid cards can be used only at the retailers that issue them. For example, the consumers only can use the cards at the particular merchant that issue the cards at the fixed amount of the card. There is a variation on the closed system card, which called semi-closed system card.

(2) Open system prepaid card
Open system prepaid card is a multipurpose prepaid card that can be used at any merchant that accept a card that operates on a particular payment system or network such as an association network and etc. So, it also known as network branded prepaid card. Open system prepaid card has wide range of function than closed system prepaid card. The common example of this kid of prepaid card is aka Network-Branded Prepaid Card.

(3) Prepaid Card Advance
It is a technological advance that enables the cardholder to manage their prepaid card account by using their mobile phone. As a result, it may enable the cardholder to initially load the card, fill-up their account, obtain a balance, transmit funds to secondary cardholder and temporarily block a card easily.

Mobile Payment System in Malaysia: Its Potentials and Consumers’ Adoption Strategies

Mobile Payment System in Malaysia
There are 4 billion mobile phones in worldwide but only 2 billion bank accounts. This is very raison for the new mobile payment system. It is a system using mobile devices to make transactions such as pay bills, perform banking transactions and etc. In order to enjoy the benefits of mobile payment, users have to register and activate an account with mobile payment service providers.


Cash payment in Malaysia still considers as a large portion of the number of transactions in the economy. Cash payment is expected to level off soon and stabilize with the increased use of electronic payments. It is because electronic payment can increase the speed of payment, convenient, and reduce costs. Mobile phone payment is identified as one of the delivery channels that should be leverage on. Bank Negara Malaysia sees mobile payment system has a tremendous potential in Malaysia considering that 88% of the Malaysian population are subscribing to mobile phone service. The high penetration rate affirms mobile phone network as an increasing common channel for Malaysia to perform activities such as make payments. Indeed, payment via text message has significant potential also. With 25 million mobile phone subscribers in Malaysia, there has potential to accelerate the migration to mobile payment.

Introduce new system to across an organization is not an easy task. After few years trial and error, many industries in Malaysia are really to go with mobile payment system. Maxis FastTap is an integrated mobile payment service that uses near field communication (NFC) technology. With this service, user who sign up for FastTop is available now to use the classic phone to purchase goods and services Visa payWave merchant locations as well as pay for toll, parking, theme park charge and etc and Touch n Go points nationwide.

Nowadays, Malaysian users can continue to enjoy the benefits of speed and convenient on their mobile phones. This innovation of electronic payment in Malaysia bodes well for the mobile payment innovation in future.

Credit Card Debts: Causes and Prevention

Credit Card Debts

Payment card covers a range of different cards that can be presented by cardholder to make payment. The payment card can be classified into types depend on how the account is managed. Different types of payment card include debit card, credit card and charge card. Among all the types, credit card is most popular. It is because cardholders can make purchases at merchants that accepting credit card without any cash payment. Credit card debts accessed through credit cards. Debts result when a cardholder make purchases either items or services through credit card system. Credit card debts will accumulates via interest and penalties when cardholder does not pay back the money of payment.

Causes

Nowadays, credit card debts have become flourish problem especially in campuses. One of the most common causes is excessive spending. Cardholder did use the credit card a lot and will soon apply another credit card. Normally, cardholder will just kept more offers and move the credit around from card to card.

Cardholder always has little or no saving. This is one of the major mistakes that easily cause the credit card debts. Cardholder will uses credit card to cover any unpredictable or emergency expanses.

Most of the credit cardholder falls into debts is only partially understood or lack of financial knowledge about credit card system. He/she has no idea about the debts and charges he/she is going to pay.

Poor money management includes monthly budgeting of credit card’s bill payment. This is one of the most general mistakes that easiest to make. For instance, cardholder will be charged high interest due to late payment of debts.

With the ease use of credit card, relying on it to meet monthly purchases and expenses become very common. Credit card looked as extra income. It absolutely will lead the cardholder down slippery road into debts.

Some of the cardholders may be more comfortable with debts. This cause is related to one’s debt attitude. Cardholder believes that their future earnings able to paid off the accumulated debts. He/she willing to tolerate debts, so that he/she can keep maintains their comfortable lifestyle.

In this time of financial crisis, many people become unemployed each day. He/she will reach for credit card to cover the daily expenses if he/she is having difficulties securing a new job.

Prevention

Prudent spending and being a responsible credit cardholder is the best against credit card debts. Cardholder should spend within the means, and if do make purchases by credit card, he/she should settle the payment as soon as possible. Never make a late payment to anyone.

Credit card debts are a problem for a significant number of students. Many of them lack the knowledge of how to handle the debts. Education is the key. Education must go beyond providing information. The earlier they learn how to manage finances, the less likely they will fall into debts problem.

Creating a new budget is an effective and efficient way to under control the spending. With the budget statement, he/she will be able to clearly know the exactly spending. He/she will able to cut out unnecessary expenses. Setting up budget is not easy. So, he/she can obtain free consultation services in some organizations. The key is always avoided extra expenses and purchases.

Credit card, when used properly, is convenient and an excellent budgeting tool. If abused, it will become the starting point of nightmare and stress. Remember that always ask yourself what you want the credit card for.