Page 51 - Reimagining Higher Education : Case Studies On Designing For Inclusion, Equity, And Access In The Buka Project

P. V. Arumugam & J. S. Emmanuel · Course learning re-design, capacity building and

learner engagement - Wawasan Open University (WOU), Malaysia

Course learning re-design, capacity building and

learner engagement - Wawasan Open University

(WOU), Malaysia

Prakash V. Arumugam and

Jasmine Selvarani Emmanuel 5

Introduction

In late 2019, the world was introduced to the COVID-19 Coronavirus, causing a

pandemic that reached its peak in early to mid-2020. In e orts to avoid the virus

spreading from person to person, institutions of higher learning across the globe
scrambled to move from traditional classroom teaching to an online learning

environment. Most, if not all, conventional institutions were ill-prepared to
manage an online learning setting, having done things the ‘normal’ way up to that

point in time.
Though Wawasan Open University (WOU) was better prepared than most,

being an ODL institution, there were areas that could have been improved. WOU

utilises a hybrid learning environment where there are synchronous physical
classes and online classes supported by an asynchronous learning system. The

pandemic pushed the university to revisit this model and opt for a purely online
learning ecosystem.

5 © The Author(s) 2023
To cite: Arumugam, P. V. & Emmanuel, J. S. (2023). Course learning re-design, capacity
building and learner engagement - Wawasan Open University (WOU), Malaysia. In H. Teräs
& J. Brunton (Eds.), Reimagining higher education: Case studies on designing for inclusion,
equity, and access in the BUKA project. BUKA Project: Advancing Equity and Access to Higher
Education Through Open and Distance Learning. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8427632

49