Week 5 - Presentation of the Entire Workflow and Proposal by Executive Members

Date: 8 April 2021

Day: Thursday

It was a very productive meeting because a lot of details of the programme were confirmed and we are going to advance to the execution stage in the near future. We also need to submit the proposal to the Dean to be approved by end of this week. The meeting started with the presentation by Wan Suraya Binti Wan Mohd Lofti as the secretary of this project to present to the class the proposal prepared between the collaboration of Tan Wan Han as the assistant secretary and her. The proposal comprises name of project, organisational level, medium of communication, project advisor, targeted group of participants, introduction, objectives, job scope of executive members, program itinerary, budget lists, activity module, expected outcomes, actions needed and appendix. One of the important things that I have noted during her presentation is the meaningful objective of our event. In short, "Bits With Teens" aims to spread awareness among the students about the importance of learning Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) especially at the age of emerging Information Technology nowadays. Plus, what is so special about our programme is that it will be conducted in a series of fun games and activities in which the mentees will surely enjoy themselves by learning through play as the saying goes "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy."

Then, Suraya informed that our targeted group of participants are secondary school students between the ages of 13 to 17 years (Form 1 to Form 5). The amount of students involved are approximately 170. After that, she described each job scope of the executive members in the report. A brief explanation of the job description is shown below:

Director - Monitors the overall situation throughout the program 

Deputy Director - Helps the Director to ensure the program runs smoothly as scheduled

Secretary - Writes reports of the program as well as updates and records every information discussed in the class (records information of all the activities during the project)

Treasurer - Manages the project expenditure and responsible for financial issues and reports

Department of Publicity - Creates and manages social media platforms about the project (e.g. Facebook, Instagram) as well as provides information about the event to the public (prepares articles and news for the program)

Department of Module Development - Implements the correct module based on the program's objectives

Department of Multimedia and Technical - Designs teaser trailer, storyboard and even advertisement for the program 

For now, we have altogether 19 groups and according to Dr. Azah, each of the group is required to come out with a creative video despite using the teaching materials (lecture slides) that have been provided by Pua Zhi Xian, as our Module and Content Development committee member and his team. Instead, we need to create our own videos for each team to introduce to the participants about our program by modifying the prepared notes given to us. We are also required to take some photos during the webinar session for our own small group as we will be handling a portion of students in the mentor session from a large number of students. This is very vital so that the photos can be provided as proof that we have successfully carried out the project to be presented to the Head of Faculty. The photos taken throughout the flow of events can also be inserted in our reports for future reference and to ease the process of generating certificates to all of the mentors involved. Besides, we really appreciate the effort, hard work and commitment of the executive members as well as all the other members who kindly took part and contributed in the preparation of the event flow and such a great proposal as Alexander Graham Bell, a Scottish-born inventor, once said "Before anything else, preparation is the key to success."

In general, the main theme of the webinar is "Learn Computer Science Without Computer" and the program is partially divided into 5 different sections as shown below:

Social Engagement Activity

17-4-2021 (Week 6: Saturday)   - Opening Ceremony (Webinar "Learn Computer Science Without Computer")

24-4-2021 (Week 7: Saturday)   - Module 1: Embedding the Flow

1-5-2021   (Week 8: Saturday)   - Module 2: The Code-Breaker

8-5-2021   (Week 9: Saturday)   - Module 3: Dig-it!

22-5-2021 (Week 11: Saturday) - Module 4: CodaKid

In Week 6, we are going to organise an opening ceremony with the theme "Learn Computer Science Without Computer". All the participants are required to take part as there will be a Kahoot quiz session to test the understanding of the students on some of the Computer Science knowledge before the event starts. There will also be a short introductory speech given by the officiator as well as speech about connection between STEM education and Computer Science. Furthermore, it is also important to include the ice-breaking session so that the participants get to know each others from different schools and backgrounds. Besides from advertising the importance of learning Computer Science to be applied in the daily life, the main objective of the opening ceremony is to emphasise on the capabilities of University of Malaya (UM) Computer Science students in conducting an event and to attract more and more juniors to gain interest in this field. Plus, we will also be proud to promote our university as it stands ahead of the other universities and is recognised as one of the top Public Universities in Malaysia as well as in the whole world. Besides, this event also aims in promoting the spirit of "friendship first, competition second" because apart from winning the game, making new friends is more essential to widen one's horizon. Last but not least, briefing of the activity module sessions which will be held on the subsequent few weeks will also be conducted.

Week 7, Week 8, Week 9 And Week 11 will be the module conducting sessions. The participants are required to answer pre and post tests and the winners for each categories will be determined. For the budget of this event, the first, second and third places for each modules will be awarded cash prizes. Besides that, the Top 10 winners of the webinar quiz on Week 6 will also be rewarded. Thankfully, our faculty had allocated a total amount of RM50 for each of the mentors (totally 78 students in GIG1005 WIH class). It can be seen that the money given out by the university accounts for nearly 70% of the entire budget especially for the usage of Internet and other expenses to be claimed. Therefore, it is advisable to plan the expenditures wisely and thoughtfully to avoid wastage of money. Hence, the treasurer (Faiz Bin Samsudin) plays a crucial role in ensuring only rational and reasonable consumption will be made in order to save money for our university. However, the mentors need to provide receipts for refund of money from the university because suspicious and wasteful money spent will not be entertained. Throughout the program, our expected outcome is to help the participants in gaining more knowledge on pseudocode and flowchart, cryptography, numeral system and Java Programming. We also hope they will learn soft skills in terms of team work and communication skills in a fun way.

After that, Amrin Hafiz Bin Eddy Rosyadie as the Multimedia committee member showed to us some of the poster designs he and his team had worked out on. He even prepared a backdrop design that will be used as our backgrounds throughout the whole program. Moreover, Dr. Azah gave us some valuable advices and modifications on the proposal to make it even better. She suggested that certificates can be given to all the participants upon registration and completion of the entire module. It means only participants that have followed us from beginning to end are eligible to be awarded a certificate. This will indeed make sure that all the participants stay with us all the time. Furthermore, Dr. Azah had introduced an interesting session in our program which is the implementation of feedbacks from the participants to make our event even better in the future by letting them to point out the strengths and weaknesses of our program. According to Dr. Azah, the participants can take part in a so-called "TikTok" challenge to voice out their feelings and what they have learned throughout the activity. Plus, additional prizes will be given to the winners of this category who gain the most "Likes" to encourage them to join actively. Thus, Dr. Azah has called on Chim Tingshing as the Media committee member to put in advertisement regarding this new activity in social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook so that all the participants are notified. Besides, Tingshing is also assigned to create a polling system to determine the winners of the "TikTok" category fairly where the participants can post their creative "TikTok" videos on both of the social media platforms to be evaluated and voted. In other words, there will be 2 types of winners which include the academic achievers and winners decided by the public. 

Moreover, Dr. Azah has also made some amendments and minor changes on the proposal regarding the extension of quiz time, change of the word "Computer" to "Computer Science" on the poster and the hold of closing ceremony in our event as well. She also requested Wan Muhammad Azib Bin Wan Abdul Rahim to recite "Doa" in the opening and closing session. Last but not least, Dr. Azah will be giving a short speech in the closing ceremony to wrap up the entire program. 

Finally, the meeting ended with everyone opened up their webcams for photo session.