The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) supported a visioning workshop on developing policy for systematic implementation of technology-enabled learning (TEL) at the Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS), Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia in March 2018. This marked the beginning of a collaborative project between COL and UMS to integrate the use of blended learning in all UMS courses.

Inaugurating the workshop, UMS Vice Chancellor, Professor Datuk Dr. D. Kamarudin D. Mudin, said that “to become a smart university, the UMS TEL policy will be in line with the DEPAN 2.0 [Malaysia’s National e-Learning Policy 2.0] of the Ministry of Higher Education – it will help the students of UMS to constantly redefine their skills to meet the challenges of an increasingly competitive future.”

The workshop was facilitated by COL Education Specialist: eLearning, Dr Sanjaya Mishra and attended by senior officials, deans and UMS faculty. “With the upgradation of the eLearning Unit to a Centre, the UMS has shown increased commitment to support adoption of TEL, and COL will help UMS in taking a systematic path to implement the policy through capacity-building, blended course development, monitoring and evaluation,” said Dr Mishra.

COL’s TEL initiative supports face-to-face teaching institutions in the Commonwealth to systematically integrate TEL through policy development, capacity-building and use of appropriate technologies.