Three students from Methodist College Kuala Lumpur (MCKL) bagged top prizes at the recent ICDL Asia Digital Challenge 2022 (DC2022). The competition is an annual student competition inviting secondary and tertiary students in Asia to compete and showcase their digital prowess and its application in the new digital economy.
Liao Ying, Law Yen Kay, and Chin Jun Lin, currently undergoing their Cambridge A Level programme at MCKL, went head-to-head with over 1,000 students from 11 territories like China, India, Japan, Indonesia, New Zealand, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Vietnam to name a few. Contestants were given six months to partake in one of three competition track, Business, Design, Emerging Technologies and had to undergo two rigorous rounds before making it to the finals.
Liao Ying took home the silver award in the Business Track, while her classmate, Law Yen Kay was presented the bronze award in the same category. “I completed the ICDL module of management spreadsheets previously, finding it useful and interesting – which is what enticed me to join the competition as a challenge to myself to learn more digital skills,” said Liao Ying. “We were required to self-learn the ICDL modules of Application Essentials, Digital Marketing and Advanced Presentation and having effectively mastered the module of Application Essentials and performed well in the certification test.”
Law Yen Kay shared the same sentiments in joining the digital challenge, “I saw it as an opportunity to develop essential digital skills as I was about to finish college. I believed that these skills would be very helpful in university and as I enter the working world.” Chin Jun Lin secured a bronze award under the Emerging Technologies track, saying the lessons were interesting to learn.
Mentor, Lydia Ong, Coordinator, Digital Education at MCKL ensured the students were well-equipped with the necessary resources required to advance in the competition. “It was important for me to keep encouraging them to practice the skills multiple times to improve their scores. To help them with this, I shared some relevant resources which were deemed useful to enhance their practical skills and understandings about the key concepts,” she said. “I also set achievable goals and timeline for them and track their progress in completing the self-paced e-book and diagnostic test.”
Working closely with the students proved to be fruitful, especially when the winners were finally announced, “I was very excited when they revealed the winners’ list after each round of the competition. Some students started the journey without much prior knowledge about the digital skills. All I did was to believe in their potential to succeed and pushed them through their limits,” Lydia beamed. “They have thoroughly enjoyed the competition and learned new knowledge and skills in preparing for the competition. Their achievements and experience gained through this event will set good examples to the junior and encourage more students to participate the competition in the following years.”
