High-touch Intelligent Chinese Learning (iCL) Framework
for Malaysia Case
Esyin Chew and Norah Jones
Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (CELT),
University of Glamorgan, CF37 1DL, United Kingdom.
{echew, njones2}@glam.ac.uk
Abstract
Although most existing e-learning systems in the
country are no more than organised web sites that
contain downloadable course notes and power point
slides, video streams, discussion forums, and other
related course materials. The essential asset of
intelligent knowledge consolidation, easy editable
content, up-to-date information, the growing test bank,
the Chinese resource library and the knowledgebase
from various experts, however, has not been fully
exploited. In this conceptual paper, we proposed a
national framework in capturing, processing,
browsing, learning, retrieving, adding and apply
knowledge to complete the task or solving a problem,
and state the challenges of fully utilizing these
essential assets. The proposed High-touch Intelligent
Chinese learning system (iCL) framework is aimed to
achieve the nature of High-touch and intelligent. The
knowledge includes in the iCL will based on the
current educational level in Malaysia.
Keywords- Higher Education,
Education in Malaysisa
Intelligent
Learning,
I. Introduction
Pedagogy is the study of teaching activities. The four
components of the pedagogy fundamental are:
i. The learner or student
ii. The educator or the academician
iii. A task to be completed or a problem to e
solved with the help of a educator
iv. The knowledge or skill needed to complete
the task or to solve the problem
The above description of the four core components of
the learning and teaching process is from Vygotsky [1]
and his theory of the Zone of Proximal Development
(ZPD). It can acts as a guide for refining the learning
and teaching environment for next digital generation.
In the last few decades, researches have studied on the
conventional learning environment such as physical
classroom with elaboration theory [2], information
pickup theory [3] and structure theory [4] in educating
variety of knowledge. Furthermore, researches on the
learning using Information, Communication and
Technology (ICT), or e-learning over the conventional
learning are blooming in the last decade [5, 6, 7, 8].
The majority of the current e-learning framework is
based on the individual educator or academic
institution or organisation. The proposed innovation elearning system is a localized framework based on the
Vygotsky idea which suited to Malaysia Chinese
education system.
II. High-touch and Intelligent Learning
A learning revolution is sweeping across the
education landscape. E-learning is the acquisition of
knowledge and use of knowledge distributed and
facilitated primarily by web technologies and based on
educational and pedagogical beliefs and pursued
learning goals [6]. The transformation for human
education is from Low-tech (conventional education
framework without using ICT as a tool) to High-tech
(highly ICT aided learning) to High-touch, which is the
proposed concept in this research in order to remove
the digital gap between learner and educator. The
nature of intelligent is to react quickly and correctly to
the problem(s) or situation(s), and to learn from
experience for applying the knowledge [9].
The proposed High-touch Intelligent Chinese
learning system (iCL) framework is aimed to achieve
the nature of High-touch and intelligent mentioned
above. The knowledge includes in the iCL will based
on the current educational level in the country. In
Chew, E. and Jones, N. (2009) ‘High-touch Intelligent Chinese Learning (iCL) Framework’ The IEEE International Conference on Future
Computer and Communication, Kuala Lumpur, 3rd -5th April, 2009 [IEEE No. 09PR3591; ISBN 978-1-4244-3754-2].
Malaysia, the government-based education is shown as
the table 1.
III. iCL Framework
Although most existing e-learning systems in the
country are no more than organised web sites that
contain downloadable course notes and power point
slides, video streams, discussion forums, and other
related course materials. The essential asset of easy
editable content, Chinese resource e-library, Malaysia
Chinese consortium, interactive test, personalized
exercise, pass year questions for public examinations,
chat room, high-touched Chinese channel, the growing
test bank from various publishers and the
knowledgebase from various experts, however, has not
been fully exploited. A practical Chinese e-learning
system, which meeting the requirements of users from
different educational level still does not exist. In this
paper, we proposed a framework based on the national
Chinese education system, namely iCL, in capturing,
processing, browsing, learning, retrieving, adding and
apply knowledge to complete the task or solving a
problem electronically , and state the challenges of
fully utilizing these essential assets in a high-touched
and intelligent concept.
automatically generate individual tutorial, test and
preference content for each student as supplement for
his weakness of learning process.
Table 2. iCL Components
1. Individual User (iU)  Student or lecturer
2. Group (G)  School or education institution, or
special interest research group.
3. Educator (E)  Knowledge providers and
Reviewers
4. Publisher (P)  Material publishers
5. Admin (A)  System Administrators
6. Knowledge (K)  Knowledge or Information for
the tasks/problems and solutions.
(p)
(s)
(u)
(a)
Table 1. Malaysia Chinese Education System
Educational
Level
Primary
School (p)
Grading System
 Standard 1-6
 One public
exam (UPSR)
Secondary
 Form 1- 6
School (s)
 Three public
exams (PMR,
SPM and
STPM)
University (u)  Year 1-3
 Various
assessment
methods
Advanced
 Special Interest
Learning (a)
Research Group




iU
iU




S
E&P
S
E &P
iU


iU


S
E&P
S
A

E&P
Educator
Internet
Teacher
Teacher
Lecturer/
Professor
Researcher
iCL framework consists all of the pedagogy
components with several current add-on components
such as shown in the table 2. In addition to this,
educator plays a role as knowledge provider and the
knowledge reviewer are to make sure the knowledge
integrity in knowledge delivery. Besides, the proposed
prototype collects information of students while they
browse course materials, namely Student Profile. With
the collected information, the inference engine can
Web Server
Using DHTML + XML + Flash + VRML
Password
Authentication
- Education objects
and rules
- Knowledge
manipulation
and delivery
Code +
Password
Authentication
- Maintain education
objects and rules
- Maintain knowledge
manipulation
and delivery
using Php
iCL Knowledgebase
Presentation
Layer
(GUI)
Security
Layer
High-touch
and
Intelligent
Education
Logic
Layer
(Inference
Engine)
Knowledge
(data)
Layer
Figure 1. iCL Architecture
Chew, E. and Jones, N. (2009) ‘High-touch Intelligent Chinese Learning (iCL) Framework’ The IEEE International Conference on Future
Computer and Communication, Kuala Lumpur, 3rd -5th April, 2009 [IEEE No. 09PR3591; ISBN 978-1-4244-3754-2].
There are five user types in the proposed framework:
Individual User, Group, Publisher, Educator and
Admin. Individual user (iU) is first type of user. The
Primary School (P) individual user can access the
relevant education objects and knowledge, and likewise
those who in the Secondary School (S), University (U)
and Advanced Learning (A). The second type of user
will be an individual school or education institution or
research group (G) in special interest. This group
registers to the system as an organisation which they
can provide an engaging virtual learning environment
and education objects and rules personalized to their
students or members. iCL plays a role as a consolidator
for all related publication. Publisher (P) will provide
the up-to-date exercises and tests electronically to iCL
and maintain themselves. The fourth type of user is
Educator (R), where they are the knowledge provider,
content reviewer and carry out knowledge delivery task
at the same time. Peer assessment and top-down review
is assigned in the proposed framework. Their tasks are
to provide the up-to-date knowledge aligned with the
government education content and to review the
problems, digital library resources, exercises, tests and
etc in the system. The examples of education object are
Chinese resource library, Chinese Malaysia Chinese
Consortium, interactive test, personalized exercise,
games/puzzles, pass year questions for public
examinations, chat room, high-touched Chinese
channel and etc. Knowledge is the solutions to them.
The individual user can register with the group,
which act as an independent and personalized learning
community. The security code and password
authentication are the advanced layer of security
applied for administrator, educator and publisher log
in. The below algorithm is generalised from the table
1, table 2 and figure 1.
if i  Educational level (p, s, u, a) and
j  Educational object
T  User which use the system (iU, G)
K  Knowledge
E  Knowledge Provider & Reviewer
P  Publisher for various educational level
G  School/ Education Institution / Research Group
Then,
( K ij , T ij )
( K ,T )

ij
Figure 2 shows the generalised framework for the
proposed iCL system.
iU
iU
i
i
iU
G
iU
i
T
i
ij
i
(GUI 1)
(GUI 2)
Latest
Add / Delete/ Update
K
K
ij
iCL
Main
System
ij
P
A
E
( K pj , iU pj ) , ( K pj , G pj ) ,
( K sj , iU sj ) , ( K sj , G sj ) ,
( K uj , iU uj ) , ( K uj , G uj ) ,
( K aj , iU aj ) , ( K aj , G aj ) ,
Figure 2. iCL Framework
iCL main system is a consolidator for all individual
users, research group or school, educator and publisher.
The essential requirements or tasks for each component
are shown in the table 3.
Chew, E. and Jones, N. (2009) ‘High-touch Intelligent Chinese Learning (iCL) Framework’ The IEEE International Conference on Future
Computer and Communication, Kuala Lumpur, 3rd -5th April, 2009 [IEEE No. 09PR3591; ISBN 978-1-4244-3754-2].
Table 3. Malaysia Chinese Education System
2. G









3. E

1. iU

4. P
5. A
6. K








Requirements/ Tasks
Browse tasks / problems
Learn knowledge / solutions
Open forum
Entertainment embedded with knowledge
Browse tasks / problems
Learn knowledge / solutions
Close forum
Entertainment embedded with knowledge
Suggest new education and knowledge
objects
Provide and maintain education and
knowledge objects
Review (approve/reject) new suggested
education and knowledge objects
Organize seminar/ virtual conferences
Review digital library resource
Provide and maintain up-to-date published
education and knowledge objects
Create and maintain educator user account
Maintain the iCL site design, security and
availability
Maintain digital library resource
Knowledge objects ( using different
education objects to delivery the
knowledge)
A task to be completed or a problem to be
solved; and the knowledge needed to
complete the task or to solve the problem
IV. Conclusion
iCL targeted to be a nation-wide innovation elearning framework that can vastly contribute to the
Chinese education in Malaysia. This framework is able
to covers the various forms of the educational level as
well as individual school or organisational modules or
even smaller learning objects such as individual
knowledge delivery. It implies a geographically
distributed learning environment linked by the Internet
based on open-source technology and may incorporate
synchronous and asynchronous communication.
Consolidation of knowledge, interactive environment,
personalised community and peer-supported learning
zone of proximal is the advantages of iCL framework.
To meet this imperative community education
institution must strategically equip and organise
themselves to build powerful relationships with
students that help those learners connect successfully to
learning. Today and tomorrow's technology realities
those that make the digital age also the age of lifelong
learning and give the educator more chances to touch
students than we have ever had before. iCL can serve
as a navigational guide for all level of educational
background striving to design touch points to best
promote student engagement and learning. Ultimately,
iCL can further the Chinese research group community
movement's longstanding commitment to be the
catalyst of knowledge advancement and exchange,
educational attainment, and empowering aspirations for
all members of the nation.
5. References
[1] Vygotsky, L.S., Thought and Language, MA: MIT Press,
Cambridge, 1962.
[2] Reigeluth, C. & Stein, F. ,The elaboration theory of
instruction In C. Reigeluth (ed.), Instructional Design
Theories and Models, Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum Associates,
1983.
[3] Gibson, J.J., The Senses Considered as Perceptual
Systems, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
[4] Scandura, J.M., Structural Learning I: Theory and
Research, London: Gordon & Breach, 1973.
[5] Kate Fry, E-learning markets and providers: some issues
and prospects, Education + Training, MCB University
Press, Volume 43 Number 4/5, pp. 233-239, 2001.
[6] Dastbaz, M., Stoneham, R., A UK Perspective on ELearning: An Overview of the “Workflow” and “Reusable
Learning Object Approach in the UK eUniversities Project,
Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on
Information Visualization (IV’03) 1093-9547, 2003.
[7] Timothy K. Shih, Nigel H. Lin and Hsuam, P., C.,
An Intelligent E-Learning System with Authoring and
Assessment Mechanism, Proceedings of the17 the
international Conference on Advanced Information
Networking and Applications (AINA’03) 0-7695-1906-7,
2003
[8] Tiecheng., L, Kender, J., R., Lecture Videos for ELearning: Current Research and Challenges, Proceedings of
the IEEE Sixth International Symposium on Multimedia
Software Engineering (ISMSE’04), 0-7695-2217-3, 2004.
[9] Ralph M. Stair and George W. Reynolds,
Principles of Information Systems. 6th edition.
Thomson Learning, 2001.
Chew, E. and Jones, N. (2009) ‘High-touch Intelligent Chinese Learning (iCL) Framework’ The IEEE International Conference on Future
Computer and Communication, Kuala Lumpur, 3rd -5th April, 2009 [IEEE No. 09PR3591; ISBN 978-1-4244-3754-2].