The objective of this study is to examine the use of ICT by autism care centres (ACC) in Malaysia during the pandemic as well as to know the ACC teachers' view on Virtual Teaching and Learning (VTL) platform. A preliminary study through site visits to four (4) selected care centres were carried out to get visual insight of ICT facilities used by them. An online survey was conducted to get feedback from the teachers on the perceived usefulness and their willingness to adopt the VTL. The site observation results found that all the care centres have basic ICT requirements that can help the teachers to access the internet and do e-filing records, but lack of ICT resources limits the VTL. The survey results reveal that more than 81% of the responding teachers are interested and support the implementation of VTL platform. They are confident that the platform able to aid them in VTL especially during pandemic. It is concluded that the objectives of the preliminary study are achieved and the VTL is very well accepted. Finally, further study on the digital model of teaching-learning that support the development of VTL platform is essential to move forward towards VTL implementation.

This study aims to explore the use of mobile application in enhancing the communication between parents and teachers during the Covid-19 pandemic. The mobile application is specifically designed for Parent Teacher Associations (PTA), named PTA-MA that enable them to manage their activities and hence, communicate with members. Minimum Viable Product (MVP) method was used for the development of prototype of PTA-MA application. Two online surveys using Google Form were conducted in several schools. First survey is to get PTA feedbacks on the willingness to use as well as perceived usefulness of the PTA-MA application. Positive feedbacks from the preliminary survey on the willingness to use had triggered the researcher to develop a prototype of mobile application to be used by PTA to enhance their communication especially during pandemic. As a result, a prototype of PTA-MA was produced. Second online survey was conducted to obtain the PTA's views on the prototype built. The survey showed significant results that at least 80.6% of the respondents are confident that the PTA-MA application is able to further enhance the communication among PTA members and they are also agreed to support the use of PTA-MA by PTA. Therefore, the development and implementation of PTA-MA needs to be treated as a special project because it significantly impacts the schools, PTAs and to the Ministry of Education Malaysia towards the transformation of the education system as stated in the Malaysia Education Blueprint 2013-2025.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to temporary school closures affecting over 90% of students worldwide. This has exacerbated educational inequality, particularly for students with learning disabilities such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), whose routines, services, and support they rely on have been disrupted. To address this issue, it is important to investigate virtual teaching and learning (VTL) strategies that can provide a more effective learning experience for these unique learners. The main objectives of this research are twofold: to investigate the challenges faced by teachers and students with ASD in Malaysia when adapting to online education, and to explore how the learning process occurs during the pandemic. Additionally, the study aimed to identify suitable VTL technology for autism care centres. Four autism care centres were visited for on-site observation activities, and interviews were conducted with the care centre principals. Two sets of online questionnaires were distributed to 10 autism care centres, where 6 principals and 16 teachers provided feedback. The data collected through on-site observations, interviews, and online questionnaires, were then analysed to construct an instructional digital model (IDM) for VTL. The model is very significant as a guide for the development of VTL platform for autism care centres. Finally, a VTL platform development framework was created, which provides a structure for system developers to conduct further research on the development of VTL platform based on the IDM. The framework aims to facilitate the successful implementation of the VTL.

One of the major issues in system integration is to deal with interoperability of legacy systems which use traditional System Integration Patterns (SIP). Information are unable to exchange effectively when the systems involved comes from developer that tended to not interoperate and this leads to the interoperability problem in heterogeneous system integration. To address the interoperability issues, interfacing processes need to be made more easily by defining components, processes, and interfaces that affect the system integration architecture at the initial design stage. This paper includes a basic concept on types of traditional SIP covering File-Based, Common Database, Remote Procedure Call (RPC), Distributed Objects, and Messaging. An overview of three Service Interface Design (SID) approaches for systems interoperability is discussed. The discussions on these approaches serve as a basis for the solution of interoperability of heterogeneous systems which use traditional SIP.

The rapid development of information technology has affected various aspects of life including education at the school level. However, conventional teaching and learning methods are still used in secondary schools, especially for Islamic subjects. One of the ways to help students learn better in Islamic subjects is by implementing a web-based content platform in the context of Islamic education. This is a learning tool to support the teaching and learning process using various media such as educational video materials for secondary school students, because multimedia elements will make learning more interesting especially for Islamic subjects that require memorization, reading, and comprehension. Another desired goal is for teachers to be able to manage their Islamic lessons online. In developing web applications, appropriate development methodologies have been implemented using Waterfall Model as a guideline. The waterfall model has different development phases such as analysis, design, implementation, testing and finally documentation. The web-based Islamic Education Content Platform (IECP) was designed and developed using Visual Studio Code with PHP and MySQL databases. It was assessed by obtaining Expert Review (ER) through a set of questionnaires given to four experts and fifteen respondents through User Acceptance Test (UAT). The results of ER indicate that web-based IECP is suitable for use and currently need to be refined and improved. Meanwhile, the UAT results show that web-based IECP is generally accepted and believed to be beneficial, especially to secondary school students and teachers.