By UOW Malaysia KDU

Abu Huraira, Chief Financial Officer of Nightmoring Studios sharing his thoughts on webinars were still quite uncommon and how GDCOM wanted to create a platform for learning and sharing among the education community

On 18 March 2020, Malaysia began the implementation the Movement Control Order (MCO) as a preventive measure in response to the COVID-19 pandemic that was ravaging the world. As a result of the general prohibition of mass movements and gatherings across the country, all Institutions of Higher Learning (IHLs) and schools across the country were forced to conduct their classes through online means. Many were caught unprepared in delivering online content, while all lecturers and teachers were directed to work from home as well. The Academic Excellence Division in the Ministry of Higher Education suggested to the Game Development Council of Malaysia (GDCOM) to organise a series of webinars to talk about gamification from both a learning point of view and from an industry perspective. Gamification is the use of game design and mechanics to enhance non-game contexts by increasing participation, engagement, loyalty and competition – and is a tool used to create engaging content for students in both online and face-to-face classes.

Puan Aidora Abdullah, Senior Lecturer of UOW Malaysia KDU sharing on ways to engage students through gamification

Early in the MCO period, webinars were still quite uncommon and GDCOM wanted to create a platform for learning and sharing among the educational community. The webinars, hosted by UOW Malaysia KDU started on 16 April 2020 with a sharing session by Abu Huraira, Chief Financial Officer of Nightmorning Studios and ended with Puan Aidora Abdullah, Senior Lecturer from UOW Malaysia KDU sharing on ways to engage students through gamification. According to Associate Professor Ts. Tan Chin Ike, Chairman of the Game Development Council of Malaysia and Head of School of Computing and Creative Media at UOW Malaysia KDU, “GDCOM is about the inclusiveness of the whole ecosystem especially among the universities. We want to share good practices among all institutions that will benefit the community. Gamification makes seemingly mundane tasks fun, using it appropriately can boost participation rates via online learning.” The Game Development Council of Malaysia (GDCOM) is established to advice on implementing matters pertaining to the Malaysian Game Development Ecosystem that is related to the functions of the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia (Academic Excellence Division). GDCOM is established as a strategic platform between Institutes of Higher Learning (IHL) and Industry in order to develop an impactful game development talent ecosystem in Malaysia. The council has three broad-based objectives; to provide academic leadership and academic excellence in higher education; to create awareness of the game development industry; and to develop talent development initiatives to sustain the ecosystem.