The 13th International Malaysian Educational Technology Convention (IMETC2019) was held between August 25th and August 28th of 2019 at the Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM). The Centre for Instructional Technology and Multimedia (CITM) of USM had successfully embarked in a journey of co-organising IMETC2019 with the Malaysian Ministry of Education, the Malaysian Educational Technology Association (META), and the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT).

IMETC2019 brought together researchers, educators, and policymakers from all across the world including: Australia, Indonesia, Thailand, Nigeria, the Netherlands, and the United States. Based on this years’ theme entitled “Inclusivity of the 21st century of technological teaching and learning environment”, a combination of Workshops (25th of August), Conferences (26th till 27th of August) and Best Practices Sharing Session (28th of August) were conducted. IMETC2019 attracted over 100 local and international participants for all these sessions with noteworthy speakers such as Associate Professor Dr. Trey Martindale, (then President of AECT), Mr. Adam Brimo, the Founder and CEO of OpenLearning.com, Dr. Henny Van der Meijden, Researcher and Lecturer from the Department of Educational Sciences, Radboud University, The Netherlands, and Madam Hajah Rafeah binti Hashim, Distinguished Principal (Technological Leadership) of Sekolah Menengah Sains (Science Secondary School), Pokok Sena, Kedah, Malaysia.

This special section of TechTrends consists of the papers selected as “best paper” from each of the four IMETC2019 conference tracks: General Issues in Education, Technological, Curriculum Development, and Instructional Design. Wibawa and Kardipah were awarded best paper in the General Issues in Education track for their work on flipped learning with problem-based learning. Keri Duncan earned best paper recognition in the Technological category for examining the effects of immersive game-based learning on student engagement and the development of collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking. Yahaya and Zaini were recognized with the best paper honor in the Curriculum Development track for their study on the effects of a mobile app with tutorial learning strategy on anxiety level of secondary students. The Instructional Design track best paper was presented by Rabu and Badlishah with levels of students’ reflective thinking skills in a collaborative learning environment using google docs.