Common Core Staff Seminar: Reimagining the General Education Core

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Speaker: Dr Gary Scudder, Professor of History, Champlain College, Vermont
Date: July 5, 2013 (Friday)
Time: 2 pm – 3:15 pm
Venue: Room 321, Run Run Shaw Building, HKU

Overview

Dr Gary Scudder will discuss opportunities and challenges in implementing a General Education curriculum, focusing on his role as Assistant Dean of Global Engagement in initiating the innovative Global Modules program at Champlain College and as Assistant Dean of Curriculum in heading up the transformation of the Global Appreciation sequence at Zayed University.

About the Speaker

Gary Scudder received his doctorate from the University of Cincinnati and wrote his dissertation on Tudor national security. He has received numerous teaching awards, including the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching Vermont Professor of the Year and the Institute for International Education Community Award. Over the years he’s held several administrative posts, including Assistant Dean of Global Engagement at Champlain College, Assistant Dean of Curriculum at Zayed University, and Interdisciplinary Studies Coordinator at Georgia Perimeter College.

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Enquiries can be made with Miss Scarlet Poon (tel: 2219 4957; email: scarletws@hku.hk).

Instructional Videos for CC Teachers & Tutors: Supporting Student Learning through Feedback and Assessment

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Instructional videos for Common Core teachers/tutors outlining how technology can be used to aid feedback are now available on our CC teacher support page. The series comprises the following videos:

  • Introduction: Supporting Student Learning through Feedback & Assessment
  • 1: Five Quick Feedback Tips
  • 2: Moodle Assignment – Feedback Basics
  • 3: Peer Feedback & Reflection
  • 4: Giving Feedback Using Moodle Rubric and Turnitin
  • 5: Giving Feedback by Annotating PDFs

The e-learning Pedagogical Support Unit will be organizing workshops to support teachers in their use of technology to support the feedback process. For any further inquiries about giving feedback and e-learning in general, please contact Darren from the EPSU on dharbutt @ hku.hk

Common Core Forum on May 28, 2013

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Issues/Concerns/Questions raised at the Forum

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To celebrate the successful launching of the full Common Core (CC) Curriculum in 2012-13, a CC Forum was held on May 28, 2013 for course teachers to share experience and innovative/good practices of teaching CC courses.

The forum programme

2:00 – 2:30 pm Presentation: Review of Common Core Courses 2012 and Preparation for 2013 – Mr Gwyn Edwards

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2:30 – 3:00 pm Sharing Session 1: Innovative/Good Practices of teaching/assessing Common Core Courses I
Shaping the Landscape: A Quest for Harmony between Nature and the City (CCHU9023) – Ms Vincci Mak

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3:00 – 3:30 pm Sharing Session 2: Innovative/Good Practices of teaching/assessing Common Core Courses II
Music and the Human Body (CCHU9038) – Dr Giorgio Biancorosso

Course Website
3:30 – 3:50 pm Tea/coffee Break
3:50 – 4:20 pm Sharing Session 3: Innovative/Good Practices of teaching/assessing Common Core Courses III
Protests, Rebellions and Revolutions in Modern China: From 1840 until Today (CCCH9009) – Dr Xiaojun Yan

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4:20 – 4:50 pm Sharing Session 4: Innovative/Good Practices of teaching/assessing Common Core Courses IV
Media in the Age of Globalization (CCGL9011) – Professor Ying Chan
4:50 – 5:00 pm Summing Up and Way Forward – Professor Joseph Chan

Common Core: Special Call Circular for Course Proposals for 2013-14

box-feature2To: Academic and Academic-related Staff

Dear colleagues

  1. The Common Core Curriculum Committee has recently issued a circular to invite submission of course proposals specifically for offer in 2013-14. The circular is attached and is also accessible via the Teaching and Learning Website (https://tl.hku.hk/staff/support-for-cc-teachers/).
  2. It is anticipated that the demand for CC enrollment places will reach its peak in 2013-14. To cope with the demand, the University has approved funding for offering a total of 173 sections for the full menu of CC courses to be offered in 2013-14. However, a number of approved courses from previous calls have been withdrawn due to unforeseen circumstances such as staff departure, sabbatical leave, etc, and a shortfall in enrollment places is anticipated. Therefore, having regard to the demand on CC courses by the double cohort, the Committee has decided to issue this special call for proposals for CC courses to be mounted in the 2013-14 academic year either as new regular courses for a period of three years (i.e., 2013-14 to 2015-16 academic years) or as replacement courses for substituting courses already approved for offer either temporarily or until the expiry of the cycle of the original courses.
  3. Faculties are reminded that withdrawal of courses without being replaced will result in a corresponding loss of funding. To retain the resources, Faculties with courses withdrawn are strongly encouraged to submit proposals in this special call in order to maintain their offering of CC courses at the level on which the resource allocated to them was calculated.
  4. In order to expedite the selection process, application procedures for this special call will only involve submitting a detailed full proposal. Course proposers will be informed about the outcome of the selection by early June 2013 and resources will be allocated accordingly.
  5. To further expedite the selection process, proposers are requested to submit their course proposals to the Common Core Curriculum Office in: (a) softcopy via e-mail (commoncore@hku.hk) by May 24, 2013; and (b) hardcopy duly signed by the Head(s) of Unit(s) and Dean(s) concerned by May 31, 2013.
  6. For details, please refer to the circular attached or visit the Teaching and Learning website.

Professor David Held takes you through the global gridlock

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Politics and International Relations Professor David Held, whose work has been hugely influential in the areas of political theory, globalization and governance, shared with nearly 200 students, staff, and alumni on the underlying reasons for failures in global cooperation in the 21st century in his lecture “Gridlock: Why global cooperation is failing when we need it most”, which was held on March 19, 2013 in the Rayson Huang Theatre.

Professor Held pointed out that failure in global cooperation could be explained by a number of underlying factors coming together, and he called this situation “the gridlock”. Getting out of the gridlock is inherently difficult, not only because agreement on global policy is difficult, but that the previous phases of successful globalization had made many states increasingly inward-looking, which further exacerbated the mechanisms of the gridlock.

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Professor Jeffrey Wasserstrom tells you 5 things you need to know about China

History Professor Jeffrey Wasserstrom from UC Irvine offered some valuable advice to students on putting China issues into perspective at the fourth Common Core Distinguished Lecture held on March 4, 2013.

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Result of 2012 Call for Common Core Stage I Proposals

In response to the September 2012 call for Common Core Stage I proposals, 16 proposals were received and each reviewed by two reviewers from two different Faculties, the relevant Area of Inquiry Working Group and finally by the Common Core Curriculum Committee. Upon the rigorous selection process, 9 proposals were selected to proceed to Stage II. Successful Stage I proposers are invited to submit their full proposals online before January 11, 2013.

Seminar: The Leshan Buddha Takes a LEAP: Contemporary Crosscurrents in American Higher Education – Nov 15

Speaker:
Professor Douglas Roscoe
Director of General Education and Associate Professor of Political Science
University of Massachusetts Dartmouth

Date: November 15, 2012 (Thursday)
Time: 12:45 pm – 2 pm
Venue: Room 321, Run Run Shaw Building, HKU

Abstract
In the latter years of the 20th Century, several major crosscurrents in American higher education created a sense of discontent and a corresponding desire to reform undergraduate curricula.  Out of this period, a new model of general education emerged that has become broadly embraced throughout the US.  What is this new model and how does it differ from those of the past?  Has it, like the Leshan Buddha, managed to calm the waters?  What lessons can institutions promoting liberal education take away from the American reform experience?

About the Speaker
Douglas Roscoe is the Director of General Education and Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.  Professor Roscoe’s academic interests center upon Congress, the president, interest groups, and political parties. He is especially interested in the dynamics of the electoral process, and how interest groups and parties shape lawmaking and public policy through electoral politics. His research has been published in the Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Social Science Quarterly, the American Review of Politics, and the Journal of Applied Social Psychology.  His most recent work, “Comparing Outcomes in Blended and Face-to-Face Courses,” appears in the Journal of Political Science Education.  In 2011 Professor Roscoe was a Fulbright Scholar at Lingnan University.

All are welcome.
For registration, please visit
http://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?ueid=20447.
Enquiries can be made with Ms Emily Chan at 2219 4790 or chiting@hku.hk.