Join-the-Conversation: Assessment in the Common Core Curriculum

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Co-organized by Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning and Common Core Curriculum Office

Panel-led discussion session 1: Assessing in-class participation

Date: 12 May (Tue)
Time: 11:30 – 12:45
Venue: Rm 321 & 322 Run Run Shaw Building
Panellists: Dr. S.J. Aiston; Professor A. Djurisic; Professor Y.K. Kwok

Panel-led discussion session 2: Assessing presentations and groupwork

Date: 12 May (Tue)
Time: 13:45 – 15:00
Venue: Rm 321 & 322 Run Run Shaw Building
Panellists: Professor H. Corke; Ms. T.Y.C. Kee; Dr. S.Y.W. Shiu

Co-chairs:
Professor Grahame Bilbow, Director of Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning, HKU
Professor Dai Hounsell, Professor Emeritus, University of Edinburgh
Professor Gray Kochhar-Lindgren, Director of Common Core Curriculum Office, HKU

Abstract:
As part of the ‘Wise Assessment Community of Practice’ project, CETL has been working with teachers across the University of Hong Kong to identify and surface particularly effective assessment practices that are currently being used within the University.

At this first ‘Join the Conversation’ event, we should like to take the opportunity to share with you some of our preliminary findings regarding effective approaches to assessment within the Common Core Curriculum, specifically in connection with the assessment of in-class participation, presentations and groupwork. To date, we have conducted informal interviews with seventeen Common Core course teachers and tutors, and compiled three Wise Assessment Briefings, detailing a range of assessment practices that take place in Common Core courses.

In the two panel-led discussion sessions, our panellists will outline assessment practices in their Common Core course(s) and invite questions and discussion. Copies of the Wise Assessment Briefings will be provided for participants.

About the panellists:
Dr. S.J. Aiston, Assistant Professor, Division of Policy, Administration and Social Sciences Education, Faculty of Education, Course Co-ordinator and Teacher of CCHU9043 “Thinking” Women: Their Oppression and Resistance
Professor H. Corke, School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Course Co-ordinator and Teacher of CCGL9016 Feeding the World and CCGL9017 Food: Technology, Trade and Culture
Professor A. Djurisic, Department of Physics, Faculty of Science, Course Co-ordinator and Teacher of CCST9038 Science and Science Fiction
Ms. T.Y.C. Kee, Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, Course Co-ordinator and Teacher of CCHU9037 Street Sense: The City and its Environments
Professor Y.K. Kwok, Associate Vice-President (Teaching and Learning), Associate Dean of Engineering, Course Co-ordinator and Teacher of CCST9003 Everyday Computing and the Internet and CCST9015 Electronic Technologies in Everyday Life
Dr. S.Y.W. Shiu, Associate Professor, Department of Physiology, Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, Course Co-ordinator and Teacher of CCST9006 Biomedical Breakthroughs in a Pluralistic World

Interested participants are welcome to attend either or both of the sessions.
Hot lunch will be provided.

For information on registration, please contact Ms Ivy Lai by email laichun2@hku.hk.

EPSU Seminar – Educational Video Production: Tools and techniques

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Organized by e-learning Pedagogical Support Unit, CETL

Speakers: Mr Nicky Ng (Instructional Designer, CETL, HKU)
Date : 29th April, 2015 (Wednesday)
Time : 12:45pm – 2:00pm
Venue : Room 321, Run Run Shaw Building

This workshop is part two of the E-learning Pedagogical Support Unit (EPSU) seminar on Education Video Production, which took place in February. The initial seminar looked at ways in which the design of educational video impacts on learners’ cognition and ultimately their learning.

As videos become increasingly popular to deliver materials and initiate discussions, such as in blended and ‘flipped’ learning environments, it is essential to consider the form and content of the videos we create. This practical workshop aims to build on the initial theoretical seminar by introducing useful tools to create videos. You will have a chance to create your own multimedia assets, so bring creative energy and ideas on how you do, or would like to, integrate video into your teaching.

About the Speakers:

Nicky Ng is currently working as part of the EPSU team to provide pedagogical support to faculties integrating technology into their teaching and learning environments. He is also supporting the development of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

Miss Carmen Cheung
Email: carmen.cheung@hku.hk.

Residential Education in Cambridge

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Seminar jointly organized by CETL & CEDARS

Speakers: Professor Wei Yao LIANG, Life Fellow and Retired President, Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge
Date : 1st April, 2015 (Wednesday)
Time : 6:30pm – 7:30pm
Venue : Room 321, Run Run Shaw Building

Abstract:

Prof. LIANG will introduce the distinctive features of Cambridge’s residential education. He will illustrate their culture, educational support system, entertainment and facilities, and Community of Practice. In addition, Prof. LIANG will inspire us on the current issues in residential education.

Light refreshments will be provided.

For information on registration,
please contact Mr Edmond Yeung by email yeung.edmond@hku.hk or by phone 3917-8105.

Acknowledgment:
This Seminar is funded by the UGC special project “Professional Development and Capacity Building for Residential Education”.

Invitation to attend CITE Research Symposium 2015 “Digital generations -> Learning society”

Message from Centre for Information Technology in Education within the Faculty of Education

Invitation to attend CITE Research Symposium 2015

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You are invited to participate in the CITE Research Symposium (CITERS 2015) on 29-30 May 2015 (Friday & Saturday) at The University of Hong Kong. This year’s CITERS is organized by the Centre for Information Technology in Education of the University of Hong Kong (CITE), in collaboration with Centre for Advancement in Inclusive and Special Education (CAISE), Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL), the Libraries of the University of Hong Kong and HKU SPACE. The goal of the symposium is to discuss recent research, share good educational practices, and new technologies, with a view to furthering research and practice that support learning with IT. It also provides a platform for the presentation and sharing of outcomes from research and development work conducted by practitioners and researchers to advance our knowledge and understanding of the many issues related to technology-supported learning and teaching.

There are four sub-themes, which are (1) Cyber worldness and Cyber worldliness; (2) Designing and assessing learning; (3) The future of open learning; (4) Emerging pedagogies and technologies. The symposium will feature sessions on a broad range of topics related to the Symposium theme and subthemes. In addition to invited speakers and paper presentations, there will also be experience sharing panels, hands-on demonstrations and discussion forums. Symposium activities are organized as a two-day event. On each day, there will be keynote addresses and parallel sessions on e-Learning, including introductions to CITE projects that focus on various areas such as self-directed learning (SDL) in the Science KLA, e-Learning implementation in schools.

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CITERS 2015 is designed to be of interest and relevance to academics and research students in tertiary institutions, school principals and teachers from local and international schools, school administrators, librarians, government officials, publishers of educational resources and e-Learning related industries, and interested members of the community. The program rundown and details about CITERS 2015 can be obtained from http://citers2015.cite.hku.hk. If you are interested in attending the event, please visit the symposium website for online registration and details of the registration fees. School teachers and principals who are interested to attend the event are requested to register with the EDB Training Calendar. The deadline for online registration is 10 May 2015.

I look forward to seeing you at this important Research Symposium. Please encourage others who may be interested to attend this Symposium.

Yours sincerely,
Dr. Jingyan LU & Dr. Timothy HEW
CITERS2015 Organizing Committee Co-chairs

Beyond Carts and horses: Issues in the design of advanced learning systems

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Co-organized by the Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Education and Centre for Enhancement of Teaching and Learning

Speaker:Prof. Michael Jacobson, a Professor and Chair of Education in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney, Australia
Date : Mar 19, 2015 (Thurs)
Time : 12:45pm-2:00pm
Venue : Runme Shaw Room 101

Abstract

In this talk I discuss a study in which ninth grade students used agent-based computer models to learn difficult scientific knowledge about complex systems of relevance to understanding climate change. We investigated if varying the sequencing of pedagogical structure (SPS) provided for the computer models would result in differential learning outcomes of the targeted complexity and climate concepts. The experimental condition used a low-to-high (LH) SPS sequence based on productive failure (Kapur & Bielaczyc, 2012), whereas the comparison condition was based on a teacher’s suggestion to employ a more traditional teaching approach—which is classified as a high-to-low (HL) SPS sequence—for the classroom activities. The main results found significant learning of ideas such as “greenhouse gases” and “carbon cycle” by both groups on the posttest.

However, for the more conceptually challenging complex system ideas, such as “self organization” and “emergent properties,” only the LH experimental group demonstrated a significantly higher performance on the posttest compared to the HL comparison condition. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings for the design of advanced learning systems are considered.

About the Speakers

Michael J. Jacobson, Ph.D., is a Professor and Chair of Education in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Sydney, and an Honorary Associate in the School of Medicine. He also is the Co-director of the Centre for Research on Computer Supported Learning and Cognition (CoCo).

Previously, he was an Associate Professor in the Learning Sciences Laboratory (which he helped establish) at the National Institute of Education (NIE), Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and the Senior Associate Director and an Associate Professor at the Korea University Center for Teaching and Learning in Seoul, Korea. Professor Jacobson has also held faculty and research positions at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Vanderbilt University, and the University of Georgia.

His research has focused on the design of learning technologies to foster deep conceptual understanding, conceptual change, and knowledge transfer in challenging conceptual domains. Most recently, his work has explored learning with immersive virtual worlds and agent-based modeling and visualization tools, as well as cognitive and learning issues related to understanding new scientific perspectives emerging from the study of complex systems. Professor Jacobson has published extensively in areas related to the learning sciences and technology, including numerous scientific papers, book chapters, and two books. His 2006 paper in the highly ranked The Journal of the Learning Sciences (with Uri Wilensky) was the most cited paper in the journal between 2006 and 2011. He has given talks and invited addresses at national and international conferences and served as an educational and business consultant both in the United States and abroad.

Groups such as the Australian Research Council, Singapore Ministry of Education, Korean Ministry of Information and Communication, and U.S. National Science Foundation, have funded his research. In addition, he is an Affiliate of the New England Complex Systems Institute. In July 2012, he served as the Chair of the 10th International Conference of the Learning Sciences, which had the conference theme of “the future of learning.”

Professor Jacobson received his Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1991.

Sandwiches will be provided.

For information on registration, please contact:
Ms Ivy Lai , CETL
Phone: 3917 8996; Email: laichun2@hku.hk..

e-learning News from EPSU – March 2015

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Panopto and Moodle Hands-On Workshops

The ITS Panopto and Moodle hands-on workshops in March are now open for registration.  A new Moodle workshop “Using Scales and Outcomes” will be offered on Wednesday 11 March, 2015. Teachers can easily link outcomes to the Moodle activities and measure student performance. Details can be found in the online training schedule.

New Moodle and Panopto Usage Report of Individual Courses

A new Moodle and Panopto usage report for teaching staff is now available inside the one-stop eLearning hub under the My eLearning tab of the HKU Portal. This new report provides teachers and class instructors with useful data on students’ usage patterns of different e-learning resources of a Moodle course. Detailed information about this new report can be found on the ITS E-learning resources website.

Upcoming Seminar – Broadening Horizons: Knowledge gained, experiences shared and lessons learned from HKU’s first MOOC HKU01x Epidemics

To celebrate the successful running of HKU01x Epidemics, EPSU has announced a seminar on Tuesday 17 March at 12.45pm in Run Run Shaw Building in which the course team and the design team share their experiences, reflect on what transpired during those hectic ten weeks and look towards the future, both the Epidemics re-run and other upcoming HKUx MOOCs. Register online for the seminar and we’ll see you there.

MOOC Development

Work continued on HKU’s upcoming MOOCs HKU02.1x The Search for Vernacular Architecture of Asia, HKU04x Making Sense of News, HKU03x Humanity and Nature in Chinese Thought.  Additionally, HKU’s first MOOC, HKU01x Epidemics, which ran so successfully between September and December 2014, is now confirmed as HKU’s first MOOC re-run. The second iteration of this course will start in September 2015 and you can register now at edx.org.

Educational Video Production: a seminar on design principles for meaningful learning

With video playing an increasingly dominant role in online education, Steve Roberts, Instructional Designer from the EPSU, delivered a fascinating and timely seminar looking at how we can follow best practices in our own educational video production, whether for high-profile MOOCs or own more humble productions. Steve considered the importance of a learner-centred approach, the need to reduce unnecessary cognitive processing and offered a set of guiding principles based on the work of Richard Mayer (2012). Read more about it on e-learning Blog.

New Appointment

Professor Ricky Kwok of the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, currently the Chairman of the HKU MOOC Working Group, has been appointed as the new Associate Vice-President (Teaching & Learning) from January 1, 2015. Furthermore, Ricky has also been appointed as the Director of the E-learning Pedagogical Support Unit (EPSU). Ricky receives a very warm welcome at this exciting time in HKU’s E-learning journey and we look forward to future developments in this area.

CETL Workshop – MCQ workshop

Organized by
Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL)

Speaker: Mr Neville Chiavaroli, Senior Lecturer in Clinical Education, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences, the University of Melbourne, Australia
Chair: Dr Susan Bridges, Associate Professor, Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning/ Faculty of Education, HKU
Date : 14th April, 2015 (Tuesday)
Time : 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Venue : Room 321, Run Run Shaw Building

Abstract

MCQ examinations are often seen as a concession to modern-day realities of universities – a way of assessing large numbers of students, reliably, and without the hassle of hands-on marking. If the result is the reduction of our assessments to isolated fact recall, with a consequent loss of validity for the purpose of the assessment, then this is far too high a price to pay. It also greatly underestimates the potential of the ‘single best answer’ MCQ form to assess higher levels of thinking, reasoning and judgement. MCQs are not easy to write, but this short workshop aims to show that the effort required to write scenario-based, ‘higher order’ MCQs is well worth the benefits of broad sampling and automated marking, without having to sacrifice validity. Participants will also be guided through how to evaluate the quality of MCQs, including the use of relatively simple statistical data.

About the Speaker

Neville is a Senior Lecturer in the Medical Education Unit of the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne, where his responsibilities include the development and review of assessment philosophy and practices. He originally trained and practiced as a physiotherapist for several years, before completing a Masters of Education and subsequently moving into educational research. He worked for many years at the Australian Council for Educational Research, where he was involved in developing various school and university-based assessments, as well as overseeing the development and production of the Humanities and Social Sciences sections of the medical and health professional selection tests, UMAT and GAMSAT. Since joining the university in 2006, he has conducted assessment workshops for various educational and credentialing organisations, including several medical colleges, the Optometry Council of Australia and New Zealand, the Dietitians Association of Australia, the Australian Dental Council, and the Australasian Veterinary Boards Council. He has acted as an educational consultant to the Australian Medical Council’s programme of MCQ writing workshops, and is currently the Health Professions Education Representative on the DAA Dietetics Credentialing Council.

Sandwiches will be served with coffee and tea.

or information on registration, please contact:
Ms Ivy Lai , CETL
Phone: 3917 8996; Email: laichun2@hku.hk.

The Malleability and Value of Intellectual Styles: Implications for Higher Education

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Organized by Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL)

Speaker: Professor Li-fang Zhang, Head of Division of Learning, Development and Diversity, Faculty of Education, HKU
Date : 9th April, 2015 (Thursday)
Time : 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Venue : Room 321, Run Run Shaw Building

Abstract:

Intellectual styles are people’s preferred ways of using their abilities. The principal objective of this talk is to demonstrate that in an increasingly globalizing era when student populations are more diverse than ever before, intellectual styles play an even more critical role in higher education. To achieve this objective, the talk showcases chief research evidence suggesting that students’ and academics’ styles, particularly styles that are creativity-generating and that require higher levels of cognitive complexity (known as Type I intellectual styles), matter significantly in teaching and learning as well as in student and faculty development. It presents empirical evidence revealing that styles can be modified through both socialization and deliberate training. Finally, implications of research findings are proposed respectively for students, academics, student development educators, and for university senior managers.

About the Speakers:

Li-fang Zhang is Professor of Psychology and Education in the Faculty of Education at The University of Hong Kong, where she served as Associate Dean (Research Higher Degrees) from 2007 to 2010 and is currently Head of the Division of Learning, Development, and Diversity. Professor Zhang is the author of over 100 peer-reviewed journal articles and encyclopedic entries as well as dozens of academic book chapters and books. Her most recent book is entitled “The Malleability of Intellectual Styles” (Zhang, 2013; Cambridge University Press). The title of her forthcoming monograph is “The Value of Intellectual Styles” (Cambridge University Press).

Apart from publishing on intellectual styles, she has also published works in such diverse research areas as creativity, giftedness, personality, student development, teacher education, higher education, multicultural education, and the academic profession. She is Associate Editor of Journal of Educational Psychology and that of Educational Psychology and serves on the editorial boards of Educational Psychology Review, Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology, Asian Journal of Education, and PsyCh Journal.

Sandwiches will be served with coffee and tea.

For information on registration, please contact:
Ms Ivy Lai , CETL
Phone: 3917 8996; Email: laichun2@hku.hk.

TDG Project Seminar – Project-Based Experiential Learning for Sustainability Embedded Higher Education

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Date : 16 February 2015 (Monday)
Time : 12:30pm – 1:30pm
Venue : Room 6-12B (Conference Room), Haking Wong Building, The University of Hong Kong

About the seminar

Experiential learning and project-based learning share their pedagogic foundation, while there is insucient research on exploring their integration for enhancing student learning in real-life projects. This gap in knowledge is coupled with a paucity of sustainability pedagogy in higher education. While project-based learning and experiential learning are sometimes found to be used interchangeably both in literature as well as in practice, there are dierences between the two, particularly in the areas of construction and sustainability.

This seminar reports on a HKU Teaching Development Grants (TDG) project in which Project-Based Learning (PjBL) and Experiential Learning (EL) are integrated to enhance learning in sustainability embedded higher education. PjBL may involve real-life projects, with examples like case studies, eld trips and site visits. EL may include in-class demonstrations, eld trips, site visits and other forms of hands-on student participation as part of the learning process but may not necessarily be based on real-life projects. The project team and supporters will share the research ndings as well as the latest thinking and practice of project-based experiential learning for sustainability education across the University.

Registration of seminar

Attending this seminar is FREE, but advanced online registration is required on the first come, first served basis via https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?guest=Y&ueid=35322, where further information is also available. For enquiry on this seminar, please contact Dr Kelwin Wong (kelwin.wong@connect.hku.hk), or Dr. Wei Pan (wpan@hku.hk, +852 2859 2671) of the Department of Civil Engineering, The University of Hong Kong.

Deadline of registration: Thursday 12 February 2015.

Seminar rundown

12:15 – 12:30noon Registration
12:30 – 12:35 Welcome Remarks
Prof S C Wong, Head of Department of Civil Engineering, HKU
12:35 – 12:40 Introduction
Dr Wei Pan, Department of Civil Engineering, HKU
12:40 – 12:45 Overview of Project-Based Experiential Learning in The Common Core Courses at HKU
Prof Gray Kochhar-Lindgren, Director of The Common Core Course Programme, HKU
12:45 – 12:50 Project-Based Experiential Learning for Sustainability Embedded Higher Education: The Perspective of CETL
Dr Cecilia Chan, Head of Professional Development, Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL), HKU
12:50 – 1:10pm Project-Based Experiential Learning for Sustainability Embedded Higher Education
Dr Wei Pan and Dr Kelwin Wong, Department of Civil Engineering, HKU
1:10 – 1:25 Q & A
All participants
1:25 – 1:30pm Closing Remarks
Dr Wei Pan, Department of Civil Engineering, HKU

Project team members and supporters

The project underlying this seminar is carried out and supported by a
University-wide team including:

  • Faculty of Engineering
  • Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning
  • University Common Core Course Programme
  • Gallant Ho Experiential Learning Centre
  • Estates Office

CETL Seminar – Assessing the stages of scientific inquiry: An assessor’s toolkit

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Organized by Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL)

Speakers: Dr Vikki Burns, Director of Teaching Quality Enhancement for the College of Life and Environmental Sciences, The University of Birmingham, UK
Chair: Dr Susan Bridges, Associate Professor, Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning/ Faculty of Education, HKU
Date : 17th February, 2015 (Tuesday)
Time : 12:30pm – 2:00pm
Venue : Room 321, Run Run Shaw Building

Abstract:

It is clear that science, health sciences and engineering students need to be able to understand and engage with all stages of the scientific process to become effective graduates. However, many of our traditional assessments still focus on subject specific knowledge, rather than the broader skills and understanding necessary for scientific inquiry.

This seminar will explore how we can construct novel, valid tasks that assess each stage of the scientific process. It will focus on specific, pragmatic examples of assessments that can be adapted for the basic, clinical, and applied sciences and engineering. Through these examples, the seminar will illustrate how the nature of the assessment task can guide student behaviour and promote more effective learning.

The seminar will be relevant to any member of staff involved in assessing students in science, health sciences or engineering, particularly those looking for ideas to move beyond more traditional assessments. Anyone with more experience or expertise in innovative assessments is encouraged to attend and contribute to the general discussions after the presentation.

About the Speakers:

ESP-UoB-7499.jpgDr Vikki Burns is Director of Teaching Quality Enhancement for the College of Life and Environmental Sciences at the University of Birmingham, UK. She is currently visiting The University of Hong Kong on a Universitas 21 fellowship.

Dr Burns has recently rewritten the classic book ’53 Interesting Ways to Assess Your Students’, which will be published by Frontinus Ltd in 2015. This accessible book provides ideas and considerations for different types of assessment. It focuses on tips for practitioners rather than in depth theoretical discussions. As such, it’s the ideal companion for a new member of academic staff, or anyone who wants evidence based ideas but who doesn’t have the time to search them out from the primary literature.

Dr Burns is also on the management group for the University of Birmingham’s new Teaching Academy, and supports other academic staff to develop and evaluate their teaching practices. She has recently established a national network for Sport and Exercise Sciences departments at research-led universities to share good practice and build collaborations, and is looking forward to building more international links during her sabbatical in 2015.

Sandwiches will be served with coffee and tea.

For information on registration, please contact:
Ms Ivy Lai , CETL
Phone: 3917 8996; Email: laichun2@hku.hk.