BIODATA - Mohamed Amin Embi

BIODATA
Mohamed Amin Embi was born in Georgetown, Penang on 17 September
1963. His father was a Chief Clark at Penang Port Council and died when
he was studying at Westland Primary School, Penang. After completing
SPM in 1980 at Penang Free School, he left to Brock University, Canada
to pursue his dream to become an educator. He was the first Bumiputra
government sponsored student in Canada to obtain his degree with 1st
Class Honors (1986). Before joining the teaching profession, Mohamed
Amin completed his Diploma in Education at the Faculty of Education,
UKM with distinction in 1987. After teaching at a rural school in Sungai
Acheh, Penang for four years, Mohamed Amin was appointed as a Tutor
at the Faculty of Education, UKM in 1992 and left to continue his study at
Leeds University, UK. He was the first Asian student to obtain M.Ed. TESOL
with Distinction at the School of Education. Upon completing his Ph.D. in
1996 at the same university, Mohamed Amin returned to Malaysia and
began his career as a lecturer at the Faculty of Education, UKM. Because of his scholarly work in the field
of education, especially in the area of e-learning, he was promoted to the post of Associate Professor in
2000 and Professor in 2006. In 2000, he was also appointed as the Deputy Dean (Academic) and in 2005
he was appointed the Head, Educational Methodology and Practices, Faculty of Education, UKM. Presently,
beginning 2007, he is the Deputy Director (e-Learning), Centre for Academic Advancement, UKM. He was
also the Chairman of the Social Science Research Area in UKM from 2006-2009. Because of his expertise
in e-learning, he was elected as the first president elect of the Malaysian Mobile Learning Association in
2008. Presently (2009-2011), he is the Chairman of MEIPTA (Majlis e-Pembelajaran IPTA Malaysia). He
has published 10 books, 30 chapters in books, 65 articles in journals and 60 conference proceedings at
the national and international level. He has successfully supervised 20 Ph.D. and 40 Master students over
the past 10 years. He was the first recipient of the National Academic Award (Teaching) introduced by
Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia in 2006 and recently awarded Anugerah Melayu Cemerlang 2008
(Pendidikan) by the government of Malaysia.
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CONTRIBUTIONS & ACHIVEMENTS
Mohamed Amin’s contribution in the advancement
of e-learning in Malaysia is evident in his R&Ds
and innovations undertaken in the past few years.
He is the founder and advocate of online teacher
development centre including Virtual Teacher
Education Centre (VirTEC), ELT-Online Teacher
Resource Center (ELT-TReC), Gerbang Maya
Pendidikan Islam (GeMa Islam) and e-Xra.com. In
addition, he has initiated and developed several
free access course management systems to assist
the management and delivery of online teaching
and learning materials for the teaching community
in ASEAN and Malaysia including Open VirTEC, WeBCEPT (Web-Based Creating, Editing & Publishing
Tool), e-Learning Management System (e-MaS),
Self-access Management System (SaLMaS) and
Second Language Instruction Management Sytem
(SLIM). He has also produced the world’s first webbased interactive learning-to-learn English program
known as e-Learn and developed Malaysia’s first
learning-to-read Malay language computer-based
program for slow learners, dyslexic and autistic
children known as e-Xra C.E.P.A.T. (Computer
Enhanced Phonological Awareness Training).
He also pioneered several e-Learning Portals in
Malaysia including e-Learning Online Kiosk (eLOK),
Malaysian e-Learning Research Network (My
eLeaRN) and founded Malaysia’s first Open Access
Educational Journal known as VirTEC Journal (later
known as Internet Journal of e-Learning & Teaching
and recently known as Malaysian Online Journal of
e-Learning).
Online Teacher Development: VirTEC, ELT-TReC,
Gema Islam & e-Xra.com
VirTEC (Virtual Teacher Education Centre) is an
ASEAN one-stop online teacher education centre
founded and developed by Mohamed Amin
under the UNESCO Participation Programme.
It was officially launched and exposed to local
and foreign participants including Finland, South
Africa, Australia, Brunei, Germany, Canada,
Hong Kong, Taiwan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Iran,
Oman, Sudan, Yemen and Suadi Arabia at the
International Conference of Technology Education
jointly organized by UKM and Malaysia National
Commission for UNESCO. It was awarded a Gold
Medal at UKM Research/ Innovation Exhibition and
a Silver Medal by Ministry of Science, Technology
and Environment Malaysia at the Invention
Competition. He also presented development
about VirTEC at the 7th Annual UNESCO-ACIED
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International Conference in Teacher Education and
ASAIHL in Bangkok, Thailand.
ELT-TReC (English Language Teacher – Teacher
Resource Centre) is an online open resource center
designed and developed by Mohamed Amin to
enhance the professional development of English
language teachers in Malaysia. It was officially
launched by the Deputy Minister, Ministry of
Education Malaysia at the National Seminar on
English Language Teaching organized by UKM. For
his innovative contribution, Mohamed Amin was
CONTRIBUTIONS & ACHIVEMENTS
Interactive Learning-to-learn Programmes:
e-Learn & e-Xra C.E.P.A.T.
awarded UKM Creative and Invention Award.
Mohamed Amin is also the brain child of the
development of Gerbang Maya Pendidikan Islam
or Gema Islam, Malaysia’s first Islamic Education
Teacher Development Centre. He also founded
e-Xra.com which is Malaysia’s first pre-school
teacher development centre.
To assist secondary school and tertiary students in
Malaysia learn English interactively via the internet,
Mohamed Amin developed the world’s first webbased learning-to-learn English program known
as e-Learn. This innovation was widely reported
in the media including in the Utusan Malaysia,
‘e-Learn: UKM Perkenal 750 Kaedah Belajar Bahasa
Inggeris’ and the Sunday Star, ‘Secrets of Smart
Language Learners’. Because of his innovative
ideas and publications related to this research
project, Mohamed Amin was awarded UKM Young
Researcher Award.
e-Xra C.E.P.A.T. is Malaysia’s first computer-based
learning-to-read program developed by Mohamed
Amin and his wife to assist slow learners, dyslexic
and autistic children learn to read Malay language.
The program has successfully helped more than
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CONTRIBUTIONS & ACHIVEMENTS
25,000 children with reading difficulty in Malaysia
including some in Singapore, Brunei and Indonesia
learning to read Malay language within 3-6 months.
The innovation was awarded a Gold Medal by the
Ministry of Science, Technology & Environment
Malaysia at Malaysia Technology Expo 2006.
e-Learning Management Systems: e-MaS, SaLMaS,
SLIM, Open VirTEC & WeB-CEPT
e-MaS (e-Learning Management System) is an
open source e-learning management system
designed and developed by Mohamed Amin to
assist lecturers manage online courses in UKM. For
this innovation, he was award UKM Information
Management Award.
Through his sabbatical research project, Mohamed
Amin developed a self-access e-learning content
management system designed to help the teaching
communities at all levels of education manage
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CONTRIBUTIONS & ACHIVEMENTS
online teaching and learning materials/activities.
SaLMaS has been used by more than 250 lecturers
in public as well as private universities in Malaysia.
A Specialized Workshop on Self-access Learning
Management System was organized by UNITEN
during the International Conference on e-Learning
& Multimedia 2005 to introduce its usage to local
and international participants. For his innovation
through SaLMaS, Mohamed Amin was again
awarded UKM Creative, Innovation & Invention
Award and awarded a Gold Medal by Ministry of
Science, Technology & Environment Malaysia at
Malaysia Technology Expo 2006.
Recently, in 2009, Mohamed Amin developed
another unique e-Learning System known as SLIM
or Second Language Instruction Management
System. It is world’s first template-based Course
Management System designed to allow second
language instructors create and managed online
language materials/activities related to the main
language skills (reading, writing, speaking &
listening). During his presentation on the research
development of SLIM at the 2nd International
Conference on e-Learning recently (1-2 Dis. 2009),
a number of policy makers from the Middle East is
interested to try out the system in their countries.
Mohamed Amin also is the founder of Open VirTEC
(an e-Learning System embedded within VirTEC)
and WeB-CEPT (embedded within ELT-TReC) which
is a web-based tool developed to assist the English
language teaching community in Malaysia create,
edit and publish online language learning and
teaching materials.
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CONTRIBUTIONS & ACHIVEMENTS
e-Learning Portals: eLOK; My eLeaRN & MOJeL
In his attempt to promote e-Learning in Malaysia,
Mohamed Amin has developed a number of portals
related to e-learning including eLOK, My e-LeaRN
and MOJeL. e-LOK or e-Learning Online Kiosk is
a one-stop online kiosk designed to increase the
public literacy on e-learning and is available for
free at http://www.ukm.my/elok
Mohamed Amin is also is the founder, developer
and chief editor of Malaysia’s first open access
educational journal known as VirTEC Journal,
My eLeaRN or Malaysian e-Learning Research
Network is a one-stop portal developed to
coordinate research information and activities on
e-learning in Malaysia and is available at http://
www.ukm.my/myelearn.
later known as Internet Journal of e- Learning &
Teaching and recently (2008) known as Malaysian
Online Journal of e-Learning. It is available for free
at http://www.ukm.my/mojel.
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PUBLICATIONS
e-Learning Publications
To disseminate research findings on e-learning,
besides publishing more than 120 articles in
journals and proceedings, Mohamed Amin has also
published more than 40 books and chapters in a
book. His recent books include Computer-Mediated
Communication (2009), Course Management
System (2009), Readings in Online Language
Teaching & Learning (2008), Online Teaching &
Learning in ELT (2006), Teknologi Maklumat &
Komunikasi dalam Pengajaran & Pembelajaran
Bahasa Melayu (2008), Pengintegrasian ICT dalam
Pendidikan (2008) and Panduan Pengajaran &
Pembelajaran Berkesan (2009).
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RECOGNITIONS & AWARDS
Recognitions & Awards
For his significant and outstanding academic contribution especially in the area of e-Learning, Mohamed
Amin was awarded Best Teaching Award 2005 and 2006 by UKM and was the 1st recipient of the National
Academic Award 2006 (Teaching Category) by the Ministry of Higher Education, Malaysia. He was also
awarded Anugerah Melayu Cemerlang 2008 (Pendidikan) by the government of Malaysia.
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