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
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
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
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
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
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/).
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 However, a number of approved courses from previous calls have been withdrawn due to unforeseen circumstances such as staff departure, sabbatical leave, etc, and a shortfall in enrollment places is anticipated.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.
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.
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.
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.
For details, please refer to the circular attached or visit the Teaching and Learning website.
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.
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.
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.
Video recordings of the first three Common Core Distinguished Lectures which took place last month are now available. Please visit this page for the video links, powerpoint slides and photos. For those of you who missed these great sessions, please note that the next one on the China: Culture, State & Society AoI will be in March 2013. Stay tuned for updates.
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.
Date: 30 October 2012 (Tue)
Time: 12:30 pm – 1:30 pm
Venue: LG-06, Hui Oi Chow Science Building
Speaker
Professor Harry Lewis
Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Harvard University
Abstract
Professor Harry Lewis will report on an experiment teaching in a “flipped classroom”, in which students watched lectures over the Internet in their dormitory rooms, and spent class time solving problems. The subject matter was discrete mathematics, which is well suited to this pedagogical style, but the class was so successful that he expects it will be widely adapted at Harvard—if a variety of serious practical problems can be managed.
About the Speaker
Professor Harry Lewis is Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. He served as Dean of Harvard College from 1995-2003. He holds A.B., A.M., and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard, all in Applied Mathematics.
Throughout his career, Professor Lewis has been actively involved in pedagogical innovation. He is the author of numerous books and articles in three areas of scholarship: theoretical computer science; the social implications of the development of the Internet; and the history and future of higher education. His recent books include Excellence Without a Soul: Does Liberal Education Have a Future?; Blown to Bits: Your Life, Liberty, and Happiness After the Digital Explosion; and What Is College For? The Public Purpose of Higher Education.
Lecture 3 – Excellence with a Soul: The Mission of Undergraduate Education (Common Core Curriculum)
Speaker: Professor Harry Lewis, Harvard University
Date: Tuesday October 30, 2012
Time: 5:30 – 6:30 pm
Venue: Rayson Huang Theatre (Main venue)
(Webcasting in other venues will be available)
Abstract
What should students get from their undergraduate education? Not just knowledge and skills, but habits, values, and ideals. A great education leaves students empowered by their knowledge and humble about its limits, curious to learn more and skeptical about what they have been taught. Well-educated people can place the problems of their society in the course of human history, and can face their personal challenges in the context of what others before them have wondered about themselves. True educational excellence does not just transmit information; it inspires students and awakens their souls.
About the Speaker
Professor Harry Lewis is Gordon McKay Professor of Computer Science in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Harvard University. He served as Dean of Harvard College from 1995-2003. He holds A.B., A.M., and Ph.D. degrees from Harvard, all in Applied Mathematics.
Professor Lewis is the author of numerous books and articles in three areas of scholarship: theoretical computer science; the social implications of the development of the Internet; and the history and future of higher education. His books have had a significant influence on the teaching of computer science to undergraduates.
During his almost forty years of teaching, Professor Lewis has helped launch thousands of Harvard undergraduates into careers in computer science. His former students include dozens of today’s computer science professors and many successful entrepreneurs, including both Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.
The lecture series is sponsored by Mr Alex CH Lai 賴振鴻 (BSc(Eng)1985).
