Just recently, another Malaysian lecturer made the country proud by winning an international teaching contest.

In doing so, she also made history by becoming the first teacher from Malaysia and outside of North America to win the competition!

Teaching greatness

According to a report by Malay Mail, Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) lecturer Sharon Jacqueline Albert Wilson won the International Communication Division (ICD) Teaching Contest 2020.

Wilson’s winning entry was titled ‘Cross-cultural teaching and learning on virtual platforms: A case study for continuous collaborative learning’.

A collaborative, cross-cultural course held for students enrolled in UTAR and University of Delaware United States (Udel), the course was facilitated by Sharon and Prof Patricia Sloane-White from Udel’s Departments of Women & Gender Studies and Anthropology.

Wilson told the news portal that she just wanted to share her project idea with the world, and she did not expect to come up on top.

“I joined the contest, not thinking that I would win, let alone win the first place.

“I just wanted to share my project idea with everyone because this was something extremely meaningful and exciting for the students and also for Patricia and me as academics,” Wilson, who is from the Faculty of Creative Industries, was quoted as saying.

Wilson will reportedly be recognised at this year’s ICD Business Meeting during the 2020 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Annual Conference in San Francisco.

The ICD teaching contest, which begun in 2016, aims to promote teaching excellence and recognise innovative and effective approaches to teaching international communication.

The first place was won by Wilson, followed by Rachel Mourão from the Michigan State University and PhD student Lamia Zia from Texas Tech University in second and third place respectively.