Category: e-learning

Designing In-class Activities for Flipped Classroom: A Step-by-step Guide

This blog post is part of the ‘Flipped Classroom Professional Development Series’.

A flipped classroom constitutes of two components – learning online and learning in face-to-face (F2F) sessions. In this blog post, we will discuss the steps and considerations in preparing in-class activities, especially group activities, in a flipped class, with reference to ideas from academic literature. We will also introduce good practices of in-class activity design shared by practitioners in the Flipped Classroom Learning Symposium – Sharing of Pedagogies and Practices.

The Flipped Classroom Learning Symposium – Sharing of Pedagogies and Practices on December 6, 2017

The steps to preparing in-class activities are as follows:

Designing the activities
Setting up the activities:
1. How to form groups
2. Preparation before class
3. What should be done in class
4. Useful tools to support the activities
5. How to set up infrastructure to support the activities

Step 1: Designing in-class activities
Throughout your 13-week course, it is ideal to blend different modes of learning and include diversified in-class activities to constantly stimulate your students. Here are some examples of in-class activity design shared by our practitioners:

In-class collaborative writing – a case shared by the Centre for Applied English Studies (CAES)
- In the pre-class stage, students have to access readings on Moodle, process the text, and make thorough notes on the readings.
- In the in-class stage, the instructors will look for proof of notes. Only students with notes will be allowed to participate in the in-class activities. They will form groups of 3 or 4 and collaboratively draft a 300-500 word text based on the readings. They will have one hour of lesson-time to discuss how to produce the text.
Weekly mass workshop sessions – a case in Mr. Mathew Pryor’s CCHU9001 Designs on the Future
- In the pre-class stage, students need to watch a series of online videos.
- In the in-class stage, students are expected to apply the content of online videos in problem-based activities and produce textual and visual responses. Examples of activities include:
  - Student-led discussions: Students are prompted to think about sustainability issues when given scenarios, or when given a role to emulate different stakeholders’ view on the same issue. They are sometimes instructed to research on cases at home and bring it to class, then discuss with their peers to identify common themes or make a collective argument.
  - Video making: Students provide individual and group response on their views on sustainability topics in form of a short documentary-like video. They are expected to pick up skills of basic storyboarding and cinematography, guided by mock exercises before producing graded work.
  - Gallery review and presentation: Students are invited to stick their coursework on walls, walk around, look at each other’s work and vote.
A gallery review of infographics designed by students.
- Features of Mr. Pryor’s activities:
  - Short (20 mins max): This is to ensure that there is a constant, strong dynamic in class.
  - Physically dynamic: Activities are designed in a way that require students to keep moving, post things on the board, and interact with their peers.
  - Many activities and output are internet-based. For example, in one activity, students are asked to sort a pile of words into categories based on a scenario prompt, take a photo of their sorting and upload it to an online forum. They will then compare their work in classroom discussions. Sometimes, students’ coursework will be posted online anonymously to encourage peer learning and discussion.
  Mr. Pryor prompts students to post a photo of their sorting activity results online, and immediately discusses with the whole class.
Advanced negotiations simulation – an activity designed by Dr. Courtney Fung, Faculty of Social Sciences, for teaching International Relations
- In this activity, students are expected to simulate real-world political negotiations. Individual groups assume roles of different nations, construct arguments from the perspectives of antagonizing stakeholders, and understand the constraints of international politics.
- Features of this activity:
  - Problem-based: The materials selected for the students in the course are ongoing real-world crises, such as the North Korean nuclear dilemma, and UN’s intervention in the South Sudan famine.
  - The activity design ensures all students have a role to play in class.
- Dr. Fung’s received the HKU Early Career Teaching Award in 2016 for her success in teaching. Learn more about her teaching approach here: video, PDF (Pg 26).

By designing activities of different nature, we can ensure students receive multiple stimulus and varied learning experience throughout the course.

Step 2: Setting up the activities

How to form a group (group-size, group roles)
How do you group students in in-class activities? What is the optimal group size? These questions may be difficult for many.If there are too many students in one group, some unmotivated ones may free-ride, piggy-back on groupmates’ effort and make minimal contribution; while a group too small would make the workload of individual students too heavy. The group size is critical in the design of in-class activities.

While there is no “magic number” regarding group size in designing activities, it is optimal for students’ learning if there are fewer than 6 in a group, according to Mr. Patrick Desloge from CAES and Mr. Pryor. In CAES’ course, students form groups of 3 or 4 during collaborative writing activities. In Mr. Pryor’s weekly workshops, he arranges students into small, mixed groups – 3 in one group, 6 in one table.3 in a group allows room for each student to contribute their ideas without overburdening them.

The rule of thumb is that we need to make sure each student in the group has his or her distinct role and own task(s) in the activity. This arrangement ensures that all group members are actively engaged and have their own contributions to make. Students will not be idle and bored, hence minimizing the chance of free-riding. Moreover, the workload for all students will be more balanced. It is also ideal to arrange students with different cultural or academic backgrounds into groups, giving them a chance to learn from each other.

Apart from allocating roles and tasks for members within a group, teachers can also assign specific roles and tasks to individual groups. For instance, in Dr. Fung’s negotiations simulation exercise, all students are assigned into group teams. Each group assumes the role of a particular nation. Within each group, students identify individual roles. As all students have a role to play, they can make unique contributions to the discussion.
Preparation before class
Learning aids
Apart from forming groups, what should teachers do before class? Most of the speakers prepared learning materials such as worksheets to be used in class. This is to check and reinforce students’ understanding of content delivered in pre-class materials, support in-class activities, and improve students’ engagement during class. In worksheet design, most of the presenters chose to use problem-oriented or case-based content to structure the materials. These worksheets can also be used after class as homework.

Reminders before class
Another preparation that needs to be done in advance is to send out reminders to students to go through the pre-class materials in preparation for the in-class activities. Check out this article for more tips on how to prompt students to prepare for class.
What should be done in class?
The basic structure of in-class activities usually involves three stages:
1. The input stage, where teachers brief students of the background information,
2. The processing stage, where students process information and construct ideas, and
3. The output stage, where students present their work and obtain feedback.
1. Briefing
  Teachers should introduce the topic and provide background information of the learning activities through a short briefing. In Dr. Fung’s negotiations simulation activity, all students receive a one-page brief and a 10-minute presentation by Dr. Fung on the background of the scenario before they start working on their tasks.
2. Building ideas
  After the briefing stage, students should be ready to process the information, explore the topic and generate ideas, in groups or individually. Examples of activities are case analysis, brainstorming, discussion, peer teaching, co-writing, and co-creating projects. This part should be led by students themselves, with teachers acting as facilitators and/or monitors. Teachers should take an active role in communicating with students from time to time, in order to provide timely support and suggestions.
3. Presentation and feedback
  Lastly, students are encouraged to present their work for feedback and suggestions from peers and teachers. The presentation can be conducted in class or online. The following are some examples showcased in the symposium:
  - In Mr. Pryor’s course, students post their work on walls, transforming the classroom into a gallery. Students responded positively towards this approach – they enjoyed this activity as they were inspired by others’ work in an intuitive way.
  Reading each other’s work and commenting using post-its and stickers.
  - Professor Ricky Kwok suggested that game elements can be included in this stage to excite students, such as competition among groups as “that is where learning happens”. Find out how students learn in Professor Kwok’s class in this video: https://youtu.be/pm-W_0f-bkE
  - Check also this article on the 4Cs principles proposed by Professor Kwok in creating engaging in-class activities.
Tools to facilitate in-class group activities
Our speakers recommended the following online tools to facilitate cooperation and collaboration among learners, as well as communication between teachers and students:
- Google Docs or Google Drive: In CAES’ in-class collaborative writing activity, students co-compose their work using Google Doc. This tool allows several students to work together simultaneously and to share individual input with teammates in real time.In Mr. Pryor’s course, Google Drive folders and Google Docs are created as portfolios for each group. Students are instructed to post their coursework using these tools. This practice allows students to review their peers’ work conveniently on one single platform and give honest feedback to each other.
- Mentimeter: This is an easy-to-use, visual tool useful for assessment and presenting results. For example, it allows teachers to set Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) and students to respond using their mobile devices. The results of students’ choices will be shown to teachers immediately, so that teachers can know students’ understanding of the learning contents and offer timely support and clarification. Teachers can also choose to display students’ choices in real time to the whole class, prompting further discussions based on the presentation.
Mentimeter
Using Mentimeter in a large scale flipped class.
Setting up infrastructure to support in-class group activities
Most presenters in the symposium, including Professor Kwok, Dr. Fung, Mr. Pryor, Dr. Ming-Yen Ng, Dr. Michael Botelho and Professor Rick Glofcheski mentioned that the physical setting of the classroom is essential in providing a better flipped classroom experience for students. An ideal setting would be a cafe-style classroom, i.e., a flat classroom with movable furniture, and the classroom should also be adaptable for a workshop format. As there are a lot of group activities in a flipped class, such a setting allow greater flexibility in grouping students. Also, seat arrangement planned in advance is greatly helpful for classes with a large number of students, as in Professor Glofcheski’s flipped Tort Law classroom with more than 200 students.

These are just some of the many possibilities of what you can do in class. Be creative and design your very own in-class activities. Contact us if you are interested in bringing technology into your classroom.

This blog post is part of the Flipped Classroom Professional Development Series. More articles from the series:

Flipped Classroom: A Grassroot Movement of T&L Change
Designing Your Own Flipped Classroom: Online and Pre-class Elements
Getting Students Ready for Your Flipped Class
Designing In-class Activities for Flipped Classroom: A Step-by-step Guide
Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Flipped Class

MOOC experience sharing with delegates of Anhui Medical University

“Knowledge Transfer” has long been described as the “third mission” of higher education institutions, with teaching and research being the first two missions. HKU TeLi has been actively engaged in the sharing of knowledge, including technology, expertise and skills with global, regional and local institutions in innovations in methods and pedagogies for the enhancement of efficient teaching for teachers and effective learning of students.

On January 25, 2018, 30 delegates of teachers, students and young professionals from the Anhui Medical University (AHMU) gathered at the Prince Philip Dental Hospital for an introduction to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and an intellectual exchange on MOOC-based learning and HKU examples of MOOC development.

MOOCs which make use of the concept of bite-sized learning, are efficient in sharing knowledge to a critical mass of learners, any time, anywhere and with any device; encouraging self-regulated learning, as well as, lifelong-learning. The global interest for MOOC’s potential is on the rise, and China’s MOOC market has expanded exponentially in recent years. Our team illustrated HKU’s endeavours in e-learning with two of TeLi’s professional MOOCs, Materials in Oral Health and Implant Dentistry, addressing how MOOCs couple innovation with technology and on-campus teaching pedagogy i.e. PBL brings global learning to the next level.

Explaining the advantages of MOOC over chalk-and-board education.

During the session with our guests, TeLi showed and demonstrated how MOOC videos serve as one of the core vehicles in delivering contents and information. We demonstrated how frontier technology can be incorporated into course materials to make learning more visual and effective. This includes 3D rendered scans of mouth cavities, 3D printing, stereo-photogrammetry, as well as, close range video demonstrations of step-by-step surgery techniques. Our guests were also guided through the MOOCs’ online courseware on Coursera, navigating and observing the design of an online course and its integrated components. Some features new to our guests are prompting questions embedded in videos (used to check the learners’ understanding), forum questions built by the learner community, and authentic clinical implant cases based on on-campus problem-based learning (PBL).

Showing our guests the use of close-range suturing demonstrations in MOOC videos.

The two-hour session was not only a great opportunity for us to share and showcase HKU’s experience in professional MOOC development and production with dental practitioners and educators at AMHU, it was nonetheless, a meaningful intellectual exchange with mainland institutions. We hope that our visitors are empowered to build their own MOOC courses, and are encouraged to inspire others in China’s teaching and learning community to explore MOOCs. May this exchange lead to a better teaching and learning experience for all.
Contact us if you are interested in learning more about MOOC production, MOOCs based learning or in producing your own MOOC!

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Getting Students Ready for Your Flipped Class

This blog post is part of the ‘Flipped Classroom Professional Development Series’.

For a flipped class to work, it is essential for students to prepare before class. Unfortunately, some teachers reported that some students did not prepare for class as instructed, no matter how much effort they made in designing pre-class activities. This lack of engagement can usually be attributed to (1) students’ resistance to flipping, a non-conventional style of teaching, and (2) their lack of motivation to prepare for class. To overcome these challenges, various solutions were proposed by practitioners in the Flipped Classroom Learning Symposium – Sharing of Pedagogies and Practices on December 6, 2017.

The challenges of engaging students with the pre-class activities

Students’ resistance to the new form of learning: Many students in Hong Kong are used to learning in conventional lectures. In traditional lectures, it is often possible for students to sit through a class without prior preparation. Therefore, the pre-class learning which is mandated in a flipped class may seem like an extra burden for some students. In extreme cases, some students even formulated a mistaken impression that the teaching staff who use flipped approach are for “not doing their job”, according to Professor Rick Glofcheski from the Department of Law, one of HKU’s flipped classroom pioneers.
Students’ lack of motivation to complete pre-class activities: There are many possible reasons behind, for example:
1. Lack of assessments in-class to check whether students have done preparations;
2. Unclear connections between pre-class and in-class activities;
3. Repetition of pre-class materials in class.

A lack of engagement with the pre-class activities results in varied student preparedness, which greatly affects the flow of planned in-class activities. It is essential to ensure students understand the basic knowledge, without which class work and interaction with peers would be less meaningful. We have come up with a list of possible solutions to counteract these challenges and to ensure students prepare for a class.

How to minimize students’ resistance to this new mode of teaching?
As shared by Professor Glofcheski, the first step is to “consult the students with the model.” In particular,

Let your students know why you use flipped classroom approach;
“Explain it in terms of the outcomes, not only how this will help them achieve success in assessment, but also how this is relevant and aligned perfectly to what is needed in the future”;
Explain the importance of taking ownership of their learning.

“For this to work, you have to consult the students with the model. Let them have input and they agree to go with this,” says Professor Rick Glofcheski.

Before your flipped class sets sail, make sure your students are all on board with the new learning approach, and are well informed with the expectations for them to paddle with you.

Mr. Sam Cole from the Centre for Applied English Studies also suggested that teachers need to explicitly tell students about the consequence of not preparing for class, as this will severely hinder the learning progress of those who have prepared. In Mr. Cole’s classes, students who have not prepared their notes as expected will be “separated” from their peers. “[They] won’t be collaborating with others, and … won’t benefit from that collaboration.”

How to motivate students to complete pre-class activities?

Create incentives for pre-class preparations. In Professor Ricky Kwok’s class, CCST9003 Everyday Computing and the Internet, the pre-class lecture videos are followed by knowledge check quizzes, which contribute to a small proportion (say 10%) of the final course grade. By using these formative assessments, students are not only incentivized to prepare for class, but also presented with the opportunity to test their own understanding of the video lecture content.
Use peer pressure. Mr Mathew Pryor said that peer pressure is a powerful tool to ensure online participation. To motivate students to watch videos before class, he arranged students to “work in small groups and … lead discussions based on the videos.” Students may feel embarrassed if they did not complete the pre-class work that are required to accomplish in-class activities through collaborating with their group mates.
Utilize video analytics. Video analytics tools provide us with concrete data about students’ engagement with pre-class activities. The data can be used in motivating students to catch up. For example, Dr. Rachel Ka Wai Lui and Dr. William Man Yin Cheung, coordinators of SCNC1111 Scientific Method and Reasoning, checked YouTube Analytics before class to see how many students had watched their videos. In class, they would mention the figures and remind those who had not watch the videos to do so. For example, “200 students have already watched the video. Catch up if you don’t want to lag behind!” By giving students the actual figures, they would know their progress in relation to their peers. They might then be more motivated to catch up under peer pressure.
(The SCNC1111 teaching team received the Faculty Award for Teaching Innovations in E-learning, Faculty of Science in 2016-17. Learn more about their story here.)

On top of the number of students having watched the videos, video analytics can give teachers important information about student behaviour while watching the videos. For example, sections of a clip that records a significantly higher number of viewing reflects points of interest or confusion. Teachers can then follow up with students in class to identify the reasons behind and provide further clarification when necessary. This shows students that the teacher monitors their pre-class activities. When students see the connection between pre-class and in-class learning, they would feel more motivated to prepare for future classes. To learn more about video analytics, check out this article: Data-assisted instructional video revision via course-level exploratory video retention analysis (Lei et al., 2017).

Key underlying strategies for designing pre-class activities

Constructive alignment. It is essential to have a holistic planning to align the pre-class activities with face-to-face in-class activities, the assessment and learning outcomes. So that students would appreciate and adapt to self-learning and preparation before class (Wang, Su, Cheung, Wong & Kwong, 2013). One way to achieve this is to design in-class activities that require students to apply the content they have learnt from the video. This will create a washback effect that motivates students to complete the pre-class work beforehand. If students do not see how the activities are linked to or could help them to complete the in-class activities and assessment, they would be less motivated to prepare for class. If you are interested in further exploring the concept of constructive assignment and student preparation, check out the following video and our free online course University Teaching.

Create and implement a mechanism to assess students’ understanding when they interact with online learning materials. Always follow up with students’ online responses and check their learning progress in class to consider if further review or explanation is required for the whole class or individuals. Students are less motivated if they know that teachers do not check their pre-class preparation work.
When designing the pre-class activities, be realistic about what students can learn on their own, and also be considerate about the time and effort that students need to complete the work.

One step further

Interested in learning more about the topic? Here is a perfect opportunity for you to dig deeper and discuss with fellow teachers and researchers – On February 28, 2018, Dr Lily Min Zeng will talk about how to engage students in the pre-class preparation for flipped classroom and potential options from adaptive learning in a seminar organized by the Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL).

Dr Zeng is also running a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) entitled University Teaching. New sessions start every month. Don’t miss!

Got more ideas to share? Contact us.

This blog post is part of the Flipped Classroom Professional Development Series. More articles from the series:

Flipped Classroom: A Grassroot Movement of T&L Change
Designing Your Own Flipped Classroom: Online and Pre-class Elements
Getting Students Ready for Your Flipped Class
Designing In-class Activities for Flipped Classroom: A Step-by-step Guide
Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Flipped Class

Further reading

Wang, X., Su, Y., Cheung, S., Wong, E., & Kwong, T. (2013). An exploration of Biggs’ constructive alignment in course design and its impact on students’ learning approaches. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 38(4), 477-491.

If you are interested in learning more about Professor Rick Glofcheski and his experience in flipping, check out these two articles:

Flipping the Classroom (HKU Bulletin, May 2016, Volume 17, No. 2.)
EdTech Flips Out: The developing needs of students are at the centre of the expanding flipped learning model (Education Technology, Issue 30, Aug-Sept 2017)

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Creating Videos and Authentic Learning Experience with Smart Gadgets for Flipping Chemistry

New tech gadgets enable us to teach better. By using GoPro cameras, Google Glass and the Lightboard, Mr Fun Man FUNG from the National University of Singapore (NUS) transformed his Chemistry course into an exciting blended learning experience. As an enthusiastic instructor and a member at the Institute for Application of Learning Science and Educational Technology (ALSET) at NUS, Fun Man constantly experiments with different educational technology. He shared his successful pedagogies in a seminar entitled “Inspiring and Innovating with Technology-Enabled Blending Learning Experience (TEBLE)” on January 25, 2018.

Filming instructor’s point of view (IPOV) videos using GoPro cameras

One key component of Fun Man’s flipped Chemistry Course is his self-produced lab-instructional videos. These videos demonstrate laboratory experiments step-by-step, and are filmed by the instructor himself using GoPro cameras – one strapped on his chest and another on his forehead. IPOV means first person point of view – You will only see the instructor’s hands, but not the person, on screen. As you watch these videos, you will go through the steps as if you did the experiment yourself. Fun Man borrowed this filming idea from first person perspective video games, and this filming perspective has been proven to be facilitative in learning by research (Green and Bavelier, 2006).

A demo video produced by Fun Man.

IPOV videos are also more realistic and engaging, compared to third person point-of-view videos where the instructor is filmed by a cameraman. Before switching to IPOV videos, Fun Man had a cameraman film him demonstrating laboratory experiments . The videos were staged and scripted, hence less authentic and relatable. The process of filming was also challenging – as the cameraman did not have a background in Chemistry, he did not know what to focus on while filming, and Fun Man had to go through an extra hurdle of giving him filming instructions. It is more straightforward and efficient for Fun Man to film the demonstration himself using GoPro. Thanks to this IPOV technique, the instructional videos became livelier and more authentic. They also served as a useful resource for students to refer to for after-class revision.

The videos were well-received by students. The table below summarizes students’ feedback – all students agreed that the videos improved their confidence and skills in conducting experiments.

Students’ Perception on GoPro Lab

Questions	Disagree very much	Disagree	Agree	Agree very much
I find the GoPro video on experimentals enhanced my learning.	0	0	8 (38%)	13 (62%)
I am eager to try the experiments after watching the videos.	0	0	11 (52%)	10 (48%)
I would have preferred to enter the laboratory without watching any video demonstrations.	14 (67%)	7 (33%)	0	0
The GoPro videos improves my confidence in conducting the experiments on the actual day.	0	0	11 (52%)	10 (48%)
The GoPro videos improves my ability to operate the instruments and machine in the actual lab.	0	0	11 (52%)	10 (48%)
Overall, GoPro lab teaching is more effective than direct instructions from the lab manual.	0	1 (5%)	9 (43%)	11 (52%)

A few tips from Fun Man when using GoPro:

The major challenge of using GoPro is movement and camera shake. Some footage may be blurred as a result, or the camera focus may not be what you intended. To minimize camera shake, you need to move very slowly during filming and have a sense of physical awareness. You may also need to spend more time editing your footage.
Footages filmed by cameras mounted on different parts of the body are good for different purposes – “GoPro mounted on forehead gives better capture for lab demonstration,” but the view is shakier. “GoPro mounted on chest is excellent for tutorial capture,” except in a dim classroom.
One limitation of GoPro is that it is mainly designed for outdoor filming. So the quality of indoor footages may not be as satisfactory as outdoor ones.

Live-streaming IPOV video using Google Glass

In addition to GoPro, Fun Man also uses Google Glass to conduct live demonstrations in class. The aim is to offer consistent teaching to all students within the same lab group.

Live-streaming IPOV videos using Google Glass.

Google Glass. (Image credit: Mr Fung Fun Man)

Conducting live demonstrations facilitate learning by:

Allowing all students to observe the demonstration setup clearly, without being blocked by taller classmates. This also enables more students to observe in case of large classes, as students at the outer edge of a large huddle may experience difficulty in seeing the demonstration clearly.
Addressing students’ common questions and offering early support to all of them: In the lab sessions, students work in groups and Fun Man walks around to respond to their questions. It is not uncommon for multiple groups to have the same questions. While the teacher is willing to respond to individual groups repeatedly, he can at most interact with one group at a time. The last group Fun Man attended to will obtain help way later than their peers. By live-streaming through Google Glass, students’ common questions can be addressed at the same time.
Stimulating students to think about previously unconsidered points and/or raise more questions. This creates a constructive platform for both students and teachers to build knowledge upon each other’s ideas.
Raising students’ confidence and interest while working.

Having discovered the usefulness of Google Glass, Fun Man further suggests that it could be explored in real-time teaching for distance learning curricula.

Producing DIY videos using Lightboard

Apart from pre-lab videos, Fun Man also produced talking head videos for his flipped class using Lightboard. Lightboard allows teachers to write down notes and diagrams on a glass board before them, while maintaining natural eye contact with the audience. Fun Man believes that this is a dynamic and engaging way to convey knowledge. It is also a very convenient way to produce videos as there is no need for post-video processing. All you need to do is to simply teach in front of the camera and upload the recording.

The only minor problem with Lightboard is an inversion of your hand gesture since the video is a mirror image. For example, when you explain a clockwise movement with your hand movement, it will appear as anti-clockwise in the video.

Despite this minor drawback, Lightboard videos were popular among students in the 2016/17 cohort and “resulted in a significant improvement in overall student performance”, compared to students in the 2015/16 cohort who did not learnt through Lightboard videos, comments Fun Man. Students who learnt using Lightboard videos achieved higher Average Grade Point. More students managed to reach A-grade standards, and fewer failed. They also commented more positively on the module and teacher effectiveness than their peers in the previous cohort.

	AY15/16(Without Lightboard videos)	AY16/17(With Lightboard videos)
Enrolment size	641	456
Average Grade Point	3.51 (sd=1.1)	3.85 (sd=0.86)
Students in Band 1 (A+/A/A-)	26.05%	29.17%
Failures (D+/D/F)	7.96%	2.85%
Overall opinion of the Module	3.586 (response rate = 76%)	3.8 (response rate = 90%)
Overall effectiveness of the teacher	4.225	4.3

Listening to Fun Man sharing his experience and practical tips in using various filming devices was very rewarding. We would like to express our gratitude to him for inspiring us to further explore the ways to enrich students’ blended learning experience with technology.

If you are interested in using technology in class, or simply want to try using GoPro or new gadgets, contact us.

Further reading

Learn more about Fun Man’s work from his Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
If you are eager to dig deeper into how he uses GoPro, Google Glass and the Lightboard, check out his publications below:
- Fung, F. M. (2015). Using first-person perspective filming techniques for a Chemistry laboratory demonstration to facilitate a flipped pre-lab. J. Chem. Educ., 92 (9), 1518-1521. [Link]
- Fung, F. M. (2016). Explore technology-enhanced learning using Google Glass to offer students a unique instructor’s point of view live laboratory demonstration. J. Chem. Educ., 93 (12), 2117-2122. [Link]
- Fung, F. M. (2017). Adopting Lightboard for a Chemistry flipped classroom to improve technology-enhanced videos for better learner engagement. J. Chem. Educ., 94 (7), pp. 956-959. [Link]
Dr. Rachel Lui, Faculty of Science, also uses the Lightboard in teaching Mathematics. Check out her example here.
Fung Fun Man (2016). Seeing through my lenses: A GoPro approach to teach a laboratory module. Asian Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 6(1), 99-115. [Link]

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Designing Your Own Flipped Classroom: Online and Pre-class Elements

This blog post is part of the ‘Flipped Classroom Professional Development Series’.

Successful lessons begin with intentional, detailed, and pedagogy-embedded planning. In designing your flipped class, it is important to think from students’ perspectives right from the planning stage. This is to ensure they feel prepared for engaging in an active flipped classroom. In the Flipped Classroom Learning Symposium – Sharing of Pedagogies and Practices on December 6, 2017, practitioners from multiple disciplines in HKU shared their very own experience in designing pre-class activities. This blog post is a toolbox of effective pre-class activities and useful tips in planning a flipped class.

Benefits of Pre-class Preparation by Students
One of the key dimensions of flipped learning is the preparation students need to do before class in readiness for deeper exploration of the subject content and application of their knowledge and skills in class. This is the essential stage for students to acquire foundational knowledge.

Yaya, a Year 5 medical student points out that, “If you do sit down and watch the video and you go to the flipped classroom, it’s very rewarding because you know you can apply the knowledge. And when you can answer the questions, you know I’ve grasped some of the key knowledge.”

One major benefit shared by the teachers at the symposium is the availability of pre-class resources and activities on the online platform that allow students to personalise learning. Students can access the content anywhere, anytime, and can study it at their own pace. They have the control and flexibility of when and how the learning materials are used to suit their learning styles. This mode of learning gives them an opportunity to learn to take the ownership of learning.

Furthermore, as students acquire the foundational knowledge before class, more class time can be devoted to interactive activities that requires actual application of knowledge and higher-order thinking skills. It allows more time for student-teacher as well as student-student interactions, which students and teachers greatly appreciated. Freeing up class time enabled teachers to go beyond fundamental concepts, run collaborative group activities and prompt discussions.

“It takes time in class to explain the abstract concepts to students There was no room for them to ask questions and to talk about what they understand… It can now be more flexible because students take their own time and complete it [pre-class activities] at their own pace and then in class there is real discussion happening. We focus on what students don’t understand from the packages [pre-class activities],” says Ms. Heidy Wong, Assistant Lecturer, Centre for Applied English Studies (CAES).

Recommended Pre-class Elements: What to Prepare
Online learning platform

Create / Provide an online learning platform where students can have access to all learning materials. You may choose to use Moodle, a platform which has been adopted by most teachers in HKU. An alternative is Open edX, a newer, more flexible platform for blended learning, where teachers can host a wide range of file types, including videos, polls, and even code their own plugins to suit their teaching needs.
Maximize student interaction by embedding a tool or component to the platform that promotes multiple ways communication, either synchronised or real-time, such as a discussion forum. This encourages all students to share their thoughts and ask questions about the pre-class learning materials and activities. It also gets everyone involved in knowledge-building and cultivates a sense of belonging among students in the online community.
Go through the online platform with the students and teach them how to use the resources. Some students may need the demonstration on how to find and use the materials as they will need to adapt their learning strategies.

Pre-class videos
Flipped learning is often associated with the use of pre-class video as they can motivate students to learn and help them build their conceptual understanding (Long, Logan & Waugh, 2014). At the symposium, most teachers have used videos as the main vehicle to deliver course content before class.

Condense lecture content into short videos. Shorter videos are much more engaging than long explanatory videos (Guo, Kim & Rubin, 2014). In Mr. Mathew Pryor’s experience, he redesigned his original 90 mins lecture down to two 8-10 mins videos for his course, CCHU9001 Designs on the Future. He commented that it is a “valuable instructional design exercise”.
When speaking in the video, be concise, animated and enthusiastic (Guo et al., 2014). Along with meaningful audiovisual aids, this keeps students interested and focused while watching.
Use different types of videos (e.g., talking head, learning glass, whiteboard and tutorial demonstration videos) and integrate the videos with graphics and animations.
Add interactive components and knowledge checkpoints to the videos. Various forms of knowledge check questions can be embedded at the end or at any point of the videos. This increases students’ attention span and provides better engagement (Santiago, Kasley, Guo & Phillips, 2017). Examples of interactive components introduced in the symposium include:
- The SCORM package: Introduced by Mr. Sam Cole, Ms. Heidy Wong and Mr. Patrick Desloge from CAES, SCORM is an interactive online package which allows teachers to embed questions around the video. The short quizzes with instant feedback provide students with formative self-evaluation for their understanding of the content and learning progress.

The SCORM package for formative self-evaluation.

Video commenting tool: Dr. Michael Botelho from the Faculty of Dentistry and Mr. Mathew Pryor are developing a video commenting tool where students can add reaction tags and textual comments directly at specific points of the video, which the teacher and fellow students can respond to. This also maximizes the learning experience by allowing students to share their opinions and ideas as they prepare for class, socializing the online pre-class stage.

Other online learning resources
While videos can be a useful resource, it is not the only way of engaging students in pre-class learning. Think about how best to engage your students before coming to class. It may involve using different digital media and activities, but the focus should always be on what the student needs to learn and not on what media to use.

Provide relevant and authentic reading materials. Besides getting students to read sections from the textbook, the teachers found that authentic reading materials (e.g., news articles, websites, blogs) can help students to better understand the topics and relate to their everyday life.
Look for open-source educational resources. Some examples include documentaries, infographics, websites, blogs, news clips, journal articles, Khan Academy videos, Youtube trending clips, movies and TV clips. Teachers can customise and integrate them into their curriculum, which help to widen students’ perspectives and enhance their learning experience.
Utilise and integrate specific technologies (e.g. Kahoot!, Google forms, Google docs, mind maps) to engage students and create a cohesive learning experience.

Examples of Pre-class Activities
Below are some examples of pre-class activities that our teachers employed in their courses or planned on implementing.

Initiate short discussion before class. This can arouse student interest on the topics as they prepare for further discussion in class, which encourages deep learning and helps students work towards mastery of the content.
Get students to submit online polls and surveys. Not only can interesting pre-class polls and surveys arouse students interest for the content, but they also help the teacher to assess students’ understanding and gauge their perspectives of the topics.
Design pre-class activities that require students to collaborate in groups before class. This encourages students to help each other to understand the materials and start building knowledge upon one another’s ideas.
Ask students to do preliminary research or analysis for acquiring the basic knowledge of certain topics. Teacher can then dive into activities that develop higher order thinking for specific topics in class. Students may read different materials or do research on different assigned topics. Then they can share their findings in class with other students in small groups.

For a flipped classroom to work, both teachers and students have their part to play in the pre-class stage. Teachers need to plan pre-class activities carefully, and students need to make preparation accordingly. Find out how to ensure students prepare for class in our next blog post in the series.

This blog post is part of the Flipped Classroom Professional Development Series. More articles from the series:

Flipped Classroom: A Grassroot Movement of T&L Change
Designing Your Own Flipped Classroom: Online and Pre-class Elements
Getting Students Ready for Your Flipped Class
Designing In-class Activities for Flipped Classroom: A Step-by-step Guide
Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Flipped Class

Reference
Guo, P. J., Kim, J., & Rubin, R. (2014). How video production affects student engagement: An empirical study of MOOC videos. In Proceedings of the first ACM conference on Learning@ scale conference (pp. 41-50). ACM.

Long, T., Logan, J., & Waugh, M. (2014). Students’ perceptions of pre-class instructional video in the flipped classroom model: A survey study. In Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 920-927). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE).

Santiago Jr, J. M., Guo, J., Eng, D., Kasley, K., & Phillips, P. (2017, April). Introduction to Engineering Using Google Docs and Interactive Video in Support of an Online Flipped Classroom Approach. In 2017 ASEE Pacific Southwest Conference, Tempe, Arizona.

e-learning flipped classroom Flipped Learning TELI

Flipped Classroom: A Grassroot Movement of T&L Change

This blog post is part of the ‘Flipped Classroom Professional Development Series’.

Flipped classroom encourages deep learning. In today’s fast-paced world, students are confronted by an increasingly complex and uncertain future. How are we going to prepare them for these challenges? Flipped classroom might be the key.

What is ideal learning like? We may have different ideas in mind, but some key aspects of learning better include improving efficiency, effectiveness, quality, and perhaps satisfaction. One of our endeavours to ameliorate our ways of learning and teaching is employing the flipped classroom approach. “At HKU, flipping the classroom has been a grassroot movement of T&L change,” said Professor Ian Holliday in the Flipped Classroom Learning Symposium – Sharing of Pedagogies and Practices on December 6, 2017. In this blog post series, we will introduce key concepts of flipping with real cases in HKU.

The Flipped Classroom Learning Symposium – Sharing of Pedagogies and Practices, December 6, 2017.

What is Flipped Classroom?
Flipped classroom is “the practice of assigning lectures outside of class and devoting class time to a variety of learning activities,” (DeLozier & Rhodes, 2017, p. 141). Students take an active role in exploring new ideas, investigating complicated cases, constructing arguments, solving real-life problems, and creating a synergetic learning community with fellow learners. In a flipped class, “[students] are no longer recipients of just passive learning, but active shapers of their own learning and problem solvers in the class,” said Professor Holliday.

Flipping in HKU: A Grassroot Movement of T&L Change
In HKU, flipping the classroom has been a grassroot movement jointly initiated by practitioners in a wide range of disciplines. These pioneers showcased their fruits of their endeavours at the Flipped Classroom Learning Symposium, with more than 200 teaching staff and researchers from various faculties and institutions attending. In particular, they shared the highlights of their courses, and discussed the effectiveness as well as scalability of the pedagogies used. Students benefiting from flipped learning also shared their views in the discussion panel.

The Symposium at a Glance

Welcome Speech
Professor Ian Holliday, Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning)
What is Flipped Classroom and Why We Flip it?
Dr. Lily Zheng, Assistant Professor, Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning
Classroom Flipping in CAES
Ms. Heidy Wong (Assistant Lecturer), Mr. Sam Cole (Senior Lecturer) and Mr. Patrick Desloge (Senior Lecturer), Centre for Applied English Studies
Flipping a Science Foundation Course – Experience and Challenges
Dr. Rachel Ka Wai Lui (Lecturer) and Dr. William Man Yin Cheung (Lecturer), Faculty of Science
Common Core: New Approach – The (re-)making of CCHU9001 ‘Designs on the Future’
Mr. Mathew Pryor, Head of Division of Landscape Architecture, Associate Professor (Teaching), Faculty of Architecture
Flipping a Classroom like Solving a Rubik’s Cube
Professor Ricky Y.K. Kwok (Associate Vice-President (Teaching & Learning)) and Ms. Andrea Qi (Honorary Lecturer), Faculty of Engineering
Flipped Classroom – Chest Pain
Dr. Ming-Yen Ng, Clinical Assistant Professor, Faculty of Medicine
Advanced Negotiations Simulation
Dr. Courtney Fung, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Social Sciences
Flipping a Dental Classroom
Dr. Michael Botelho, Clinical Associate Professor, Faculty of Dentistry
Flipping a Large Class with Authentic Materials
Professor Rick Glofcheski, Professor, Faculty of Law
Student Panel
Discussant Panel
All speakers

Discussant panel

Closing Remarks
Dr. Susan Bridges, Assistant Dean (Curriculum Innovation), Associate Professor, Faculty of Education

Flipped Classroom and Deep Learning
Flipped classroom encourages deep learning, in contrast to surface approaches – a recurring theme in all presentations. In today’s fast-paced world, students are confronted by an increasingly complex and uncertain future. It is our responsibility as educators to prepare them for these challenges. Flipped classroom, an approach that facilitates deep enquiry, helps prepare our students for the future.

Speed, complexities and uncertainties are three major challenges that the current generation faces. In this digital age when information is at an arm’s reach, many students want to obtain more information in a shorter time. However, this convenient access to information may numb the need to deeply engage with the content, causing a shallow acquisition of information and sacrificing quality for quantity.

In a world that is moving increasingly faster, the job market is also rapidly transforming. Despite alternate opportunities emerging, the fast evolution of market trends and new technologies makes the future of the working world less predictable. It will only become more difficult for students to foresee and prepare for the future by the time they graduate.

Critical thinkers and problem solvers, however, will adapt to changes and thrive in every field. Deep learning is the key to help students become good problem solvers. In particular, we should

prompt students to interact with content and engage in deep enquiry
generate ample opportunities for meaningful F2F interactions with peers and the teaching staff.

How can we achieve this? Flipped classroom might be the answer, due to its emphasis on deep learning. Unlike traditional lectures where the professor stands on stage to deliver content, students in a flipped class enjoy substantial opportunities to actively learn through discussing and exploring with their peers and teachers.

“Flipped classroom is reacting to the issues of speed, complexities, and uncertainties in this modern world”, summarizes Dr. Susan Bridges in her closing remarks.

One step further
To further expand the flipped classroom movement within and beyond HKU, we have prepared a series of blog posts summarizing various key aspects of flipped classroom.

Check out also our newly developed online repository of case documentation, useful resources and research findings related to flipped classroom.

Interested in flipping your class? Contact us.

Reference

DeLozier, S. J., & Rhodes, M. G. (2017). Flipped classrooms: A review of key ideas and recommendations for practice. Educational Psychology Review, 29 (1), 141-151. [Link]

e-learning flipped classroom Flipped Learning TELI

University Teaching MOOC

Click here if you cannot access Youtube.

Registration

Introduction to the course (Course outline)
University Teaching is an introductory MOOC on teaching and learning in tertiary education, designed by staff at CETL and offered through Coursera. Whether you have just started your first university teaching post, you are thinking about becoming a university teacher, or you just have an interest in understanding the essentials of university teaching, this course is definitely for you.

University Teaching will help you to address the following questions:

What is it like teaching in higher education?
What does research evidence tell us about effective teaching in higher education?
How can we ensure that our instructional design helps our students achieve their intended learning outcomes?
What pedagogic options do we have to make our teaching successful?
What assessment and feedback practices can help our students learn effectively?

With input from instructors, guest speakers and interviewees, including teaching award winners, students and experts in the fields, you will be exposed to research evidence in relation to effective university teaching and instructional design. Throughout the course, you will learn from teachers whose teaching has been judged to be excellent, and you will see many examples of their teaching in practice.

After completing the learning tasks in this course, you will be able to:

Discuss the teaching and learning context in higher education and reflect on the challenges and opportunities you might encounter as a university teacher.
Explain key teaching and learning concepts and relevant evidence in relation to effective university teaching.
Analyse the relationships between various aspects of teaching and student learning.
Identify a range of instructional strategies to support effective student learning.
Apply key concepts to the structuring of course outlines and lesson plans in order to support successful student learning.

Join our professional development community on Facebook
Check out our University Teaching Facebook page for updates and extra content on teaching and learning!

CETL e-learning MOOC TELI University Teaching

HKU The Review 2017

We are excited to share some highlights of Technology-Enriched Learning Initiative’s (TELI) involvement in HKU The Review 2017!

#Innovative #Testing New Waters

TELI Vision
Online content and new technology are becoming ever more prominent in university education, creating alternatives to standard lectures such as flipped classrooms. TELI strives to help teachers explore new ways to teach. We support and promote e-learning across HKU, for example by developing games and apps with teachers and producing online learning materials. We also:

Produce courses

Eight Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) through the edX and Coursera platforms in 2016-17
Six on-campus Small Private Online Courses (SPOCs) that blend MOOC-style online learning with on-campus classes

Collaborate

A University Grants Council (UGC) funded project to produce 10 SPOCs with three local universities, namely the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Hong Kong Polytechnic University. The content (general education or common core-type course) will be shared among the four universities.
A new mode of collaboration: a commission from Mass Transit Railway Corporation to produce videos about its operations for public consumption.

Encourage innovative teaching

Professor Ricky Kwok (who oversees TELI) launched a summer edition of his Common Core course, Everyday Computing and the Internet, creating an opportunity for students to experience flipped classroom in Peking University. It was a brand new experience for our students. It included three weeks online learning and two intensive weeks at Peking University with Mainland students.

Want to know more about e-learning or teaching in innovative ways? Contact us at enquiry@teli.hku.hk! Don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

HKU The Review Innovation MOOC SPOC TELI UGC

Be Bold and Make a Change: the Influence of Technology Development in UPenn

“To provide a more effective learning experience, you have to adapt course material for a new generation. They are learning in a different way than we did in the past,” said Mr. Chia-Wei Wu, Director of Learning Sciences and Technologies of School of Dental Medicine, University of Pennsylvania (UPenn), in the seminar “Penn Dental Medicine Academic Initiative and the Influence of Technology Development in Medical Science” on November 7, 2017. In this seminar, Mr. Wu shared his successful experience in changing the teaching and learning environment at UPenn DMD programme, through introducing iPedagogy and incorporating the latest technological approaches.

Mr. Wu introducing iPedagogy to HKU students and staff

iPedagogy at UPenn DMD
Four technology-empowered initiatives have been introduced to improve student engagement and facilitate teachers in monitoring students’ performance:

The iPad initiative
- Starting from 2014, every newly admitted DMD student from School of Dental Medicine is given an iPad and they are required to bring the iPad to school on a daily basis for learning. Several apps essential for learning have been remotely installed for easy access to course information and materials. Students can keep the iPads even after graduation.
iBooks
- An e-book app, iBooks, was introduced as an teaching and learning platform in the DMD programme. It allows teachers to conveniently import teaching materials. Traditional textbooks used in the programme have been converted to an electronic format with better visuals. iBooks also enables students and teachers to access content of different media types at the same time, such as instructional videos, course schedules and published journal articles. Interactive online worksheets and quizzes are also included in the app. Furthermore, students can download the most up-to-date version of course books through iBooks anytime anywhere. What is more, email notifications are automatically disseminated to students regarding course content updates. As of this year, 24 electronic textbooks are now available on iBooks and most of them are clinical manuals and course documents for the 4-year study programme.
The visual and graphic presentations of iBooks of DMD programme
Online lectures
- Tailor-made online lecture videos have been designed to cover various topics in one learning module, which concentrates the course, making its content more concise and efficient in content delivery. While using the iBooks app to watch lecture videos, simultaneous note-taking is also supported, hence students do not have to keep jumping from one app to another to jot notes. According to the feedback of course teachers and students, online lectures enabled them to have much more time to engage in in-class discussions*, as students are required to familiarize themselves with the course content by watching lecture videos before coming to class for in-class activities.
Gamification
- Merging game and studies – Various interactive platforms, such as Poll Everywhere and PaGamo, are used to engage students in classroom activities. Students’ feedback showed that they were very content with the use of games to learn as well as study for tests.

Success of iPedagogy
iPedagogy in UPenn received wide acclaim from students and academic staff. Students found that learning with iPads greatly enhanced their lab experience and practice, since they could easily refer back to demonstration videos and chapter content during laboratory experiments. They found carrying their iPads rather than heavy textbooks to class much more convenient. Teachers also noted that technology stimulated students’ in-class engagement – students were more likely to participate in anonymous polling and other interactive online activities in lectures. In addition, it was easier for teachers to closely monitor students’ performance and their learning progress with a centralized learning platform, so they could adjust their teaching plans and improve the syllabus conveniently.

On top of pursuing academic achievement in university, proficiency in technology literacy is an important skillset that students should acquire in university education nowadays. You and your department can take an initiative to make a change in your school! Contact us if you have an idea in mind.

Further reading

Debbie Goldberg. “Academic Initiatives: Penn Dental Medicine Furthers News Aspects in Curriculum, Technology and Wellness.” Penn Dental Journal, Fall 2016, p. 32.

e-learning

E-learning Support in HKU: Who to Contact

Thinking of incorporating technology in teaching but not sure where to start? We are here to help!

The TELI team, together with Information Technology Services (ITS), Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL) and HKU Libraries (HKUL) endeavour to provide diverse and extensive e-learning support services to teachers.

Our team specializes on providing

support in instructional design and content production, such as developing Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), Small Private Online Courses (SPOCs), flipped classrooms and instructional videos;
pedagogical support in e-learning;
support in using e-learning technologies in teaching, such as mobile applications, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), Moodle, e-portfolio, etc;
professional development training for teachers;
data analysis for teaching and learning.

You may also reach out to:

CETL for face-to-face professional development training;
ITS for Moodle-related enquiries, classroom lecture capture services and any technical enquiries in general; and
the Libraries for Turnitin- and Endnote-related enquiries.

Empower yourself. Empower HKU. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you are looking for ways to innovate your teaching!

E-Learning Support in HKU
Contact List
We are here to help!

Strategic development and content creation
University’s e-learning strategy and associated policies	Prof. Ricky Kwok	Ricky.Kwok@hku.hk
Development of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and Small Private Online Courses (SPOCs)	Prof. Ricky Kwok	Ricky.Kwok@hku.hk
Development of flipped classroom and classwork activities	Dr. Leon Lei	culei@hku.hk
Production of instructional videos
Application of e-learning technologies (including apps, AR, VR, 360-degree photography)
Application of e-portfolio and mobile learning

Professional development
Face-to-face training	Dr. Leon Lei / Dr. Luke Fryer	culei@hku.hk / fryer@hku.hk
Online training	Dr. Leon Lei	culei@hku.hk
Coaching for DIY e-learning development	Dr. Leon Lei	culei@hku.hk

Moodle
General enquiries	eLearningTeam@hku.hk
Google Drive service in Moodle	eLearningTeam@hku.hk
Face-to-face training	Ms. Ada Yau	adayau@hku.hk
Adoption of Moodle in a new pedagogical setting	Dr. Leon Lei / Dr. Luke Fryer	culei@hku.hk / fryer@hku.hk

Turnitin
General enquiries (Turnitin.com)	turnitin@hku.hk
General enquiries (Moodle)	eLearningTeam@hku.hk
Cloud-based essay marking (GradeMark / Feedback Studio)	Dr. Leon Lei	culei@hku.hk

Others
Classroom lecture capturing via Panopto	eLearningTeam@hku.hk
Data analysis and data mining for teaching and learning	Dr. Leon Lei	culei@hku.hk
Adoption of Google tools in a new pedagogical setting	Dr. Leon Lei	culei@hku.hk

General enquiries
Pedagogical enquiries	enquiry@teli.hku.hk
Technical enquiries	eLearningTeam@hku.hk

You may also download the PDF version here.

CETL E-learning Support HKUL ITS TELI