T&L Support for HKU Teaching Staff

Message from Vice President (Teaching and Learning)

Dear colleagues

I’m writing with information about central T&L support this summer.

Chi Wah studios


Many colleagues are keen to make use of the summer to prepare online teaching materials. For the months of July and August, we’re therefore opening five studios in Chi Wah Learning Commons for recording and editing course content. All five rooms will be supported by experienced TeLi colleagues, and by summer interns recruited for their expertise. Teachers can book an initial one-hour consultation session at https://appointment.teli.hku.hk/. They can also arrange follow-up assistance if need be. When making your first booking, please provide a brief statement of the input you require. From September onwards, we’ll retain two of the five Chi Wah studios.

WhatsApp hotline

As before, TeLi will operate a WhatsApp hotline for e-learning queries. The number is 6437-8034. We aim to respond to all queries within 10 minutes during regular office hours. Please do not phone this number, as calls will not be answered. But please do send a text whenever you encounter any e-learning problems. This hotline will continue to function throughout Semester 1.

TechSmith Camtasia

We’ve purchased a TechSmith Camtasia 2020 site license for all HKU staff and students. ITS will send out access details in early July. Camtasia is an easy-to-use, all-in-one screen recorder and video editor. It enables you to create teaching videos with screen recording functions, and allows for easy editing of recorded videos for upload to Moodle.Online tutorials are at https://www.techsmith.com/tutorial-camtasia.html. We will retain our Camtasia license for at least the next three years.

Existing studios

All year round, we have bookable studios on the Centennial Campus and in the Main Library. They don’t have the dedicated support provided for the Chi Wah studios over the summer months, but they’re still an excellent resource for colleagues with some understanding of what they plan to do.

TeLi Studios, Centennial Campus (CPD1.46, Jockey Club Tower): https://tips.teli.hku.hk/

Editing Rooms, 2/F Main Library: https://libguides.lib.hku.hk/c.php?g=894602&p=6442213

Webinars

TeLi will conduct a series of webinars on online teaching and flipped classrooms on five successive Fridays during the summer. Registration details will be circulated by bulk email.


Virtual Flipped Classroom Design (Video production)

Date: 10 July (Fri)
Time: 11:30am – 12:30pm
Speakers: Dr Leon Lei, Ms Crystal Luo, Ms Sharon Keung
Registration: https://tl.hku.hk/elearningblog/?pid=30453

Virtual Flipped Classroom Design (Lecturing)
Date: 17 July (Fri)
Time: 11:30am – 12:30pm
Speakers: Dr Leon Lei, Ms Sharon Keung

Virtual Flipped Classroom Design (Group work)
Date: 24 July (Fri)
Time: 11:30am – 12:30pm
Speakers: Dr Wincy Chan

Virtual Flipped Classroom Design (Assessment)
Date: 31 July (Fri)
Time: 11:30am – 12:30pm
Speakers: Dr Leon Lei, Ms Sharon Keung

From Classroom to Remote Teaching
Date: 7 August (Fri)
Time: 11:30am – 12:30pm
Speakers: Dr Wincy Chan

Contact us

Technical questions: WhatsApp 6437-8034 or contact ITS at https://www.its.hku.hk/service-desk
Pedagogical issues: contact CETL at https://www.cetl.hku.hk/ or cetlhku@hku.hk
Policy issues: drop me an email at ian.holliday@hku.hk

Finally, a website with T&L resources for the coming academic year is here: https://tl.hku.hk/teachonline/

Best wishes, Ian
Professor Ian Holliday
Vice-President (Teaching and Learning)
The University of Hong Kong

HKU TPG Scholarship for UG Class of 2020, HKU Internship Programme

HKU launches two new programmes, the “HKU TPG Scholarship for UG Class of 2020” and the “HKU Internship Programme” for undergraduate students of the 2020 graduating class, to recruit and nurture aspiring graduates in pursuit of further education or a chance to gain experience in the workplace. For more information about the two programmes, please visit [https://www.hku.hk/press/news_detail_21197.html]

Teaching arrangements for Summer Semester and Academic Year 2020-21

Dear colleagues and students

I’m writing to inform you about our teaching arrangements for the Summer Semester and Academic Year 2020-21. Our core aim is to make a gradual and partial return to face-to-face (f2f) teaching. To do that, we will have to observe detailed health and safety protocols covering the entire campus, which will be announced well in advance. This email only addresses scheduling issues.

Parameters
The broad parameters we will observe for teaching are listed below. Where circumstances allow, there may be variation within individual programmes.

  • Small-group classes (up to 25 students) will be scheduled as normal.
  • Lectures will be scheduled in classrooms that can accommodate at least twice as many students as are in the class. Thus, a lecture with 60 students will be scheduled in a classroom that can accommodate at least 120 students.
  • For TPG courses, our available teaching rooms will enable us to deliver f2f lectures for most classes of up to 90 students.
  • For UG programme courses, our available teaching rooms will enable us to deliver f2f lectures for almost all classes of up to 90 students.
  • For UG Common Core courses, our available teaching rooms will enable us to deliver f2f lectures for roughly half of our courses with 120 students.
  • The Grand Hall will enable us to schedule a small number of large lectures (up to 300 students) for TPG and UG students.
  • However, most courses with more than 90 students will deliver their lectures online.

Summer Semester
Building on these parameters, we will make a gradual return to f2f teaching for the Summer Semester. We will also offer a small number of online UG courses for students who would like to pick up some credits but will not be in HK.

Academic Year 2020-21
In 2020-21, we will continue with partial f2f teaching:

  • TPG programmes
    Small-group classes of up to 25 students: f2f
    Most lecture classes of up to 90 students: f2f
    Other lecture classes: online (apart from a small number in the Grand Hall)
  • UG programmes
    Small-group classes of up to 25 students: f2f
    Almost all lecture classes of up to 90 students: f2f
    Other lecture classes: online (apart from a small number in the Grand Hall)
  • UG: Common Core
    Small-group classes of up to 25 students: f2f
    Lecture classes of up to 120 students: roughly half f2f, roughly half online
    Mega classes of up to 288 students: just a few f2f in the Grand Hall
  • All TPG and UG courses
    For the first three weeks of S1, we will cater for the needs of TPG and UG students who are unable to come to campus because of visa, quarantine and other issues. Mostly this will be done by making course materials available both f2f and online for that period.

Technical support
As there will continue to be a significant element of online teaching in the months ahead, we are actively enhancing our technical support for both teachers and students.

With so many aspects of the future uncertain, we can’t be sure everything will unfold exactly as planned. As of now, though, this is how things look. Should there be any changes, we will inform you as quickly as possible. In the meantime, please do drop me a line with any queries (ian.holliday@hku.hk).

Best wishes for the summer – Ian

Professor Ian Holliday
VP/T&L

OLEX Exam Arrangement (for Teachers, Staff and Invigilators)

Dear colleagues

I’m writing to update you on our online examination arrangements through OLEX. All exams making use of the OLEX platform are required to follow guidelines prepared by the Examinations Office.

Basic information:-

  • The Examinations Office guidelines are available at http://www.exam.hku.hk/.
  • Teachers and invigilators please access ‘Forms and Links’.
  • Students are asked to access ‘University Examinations and Examination Timetables’.
  • Online proctoring will take place through Zoom, with students’ identities checked by invigilators.
  • All colleagues are reminded to upgrade to Zoom 5.0 here.

We ask teachers and department administrators please to:-

  • Ensure the student lists in Moodle sub-courses are clean. All sit-in students and duplicated guest accounts need to be removed.
  • Upload exam papers to OLEX at anytime from Monday, May 11 to 30 minutes before the start of the exam.
  • Inform students and invigilators before the exam about any course-specific instructions (including whether use of calculators is allowed, whether students should type or write their answers, which the type of script file (doc or pdf) is acceptable, how the webcam should be set up during the exam, and so on). Identical instructions should also be included in the exam paper.
  • Maintain close teacher-invigilator communication throughout the exam period, and especially for the first 30 minutes of the exam (when students are allowed to raise questions of clarification about the exam paper).

We ask invigilators please to:-

  • Login to Zoom at https://hku.zoom.us before Thursday April 30 if you have not used Zoom before.
  • Launch the Zoom meeting and start the Panopto recording at least 30 minutes before the start of the exam and admit students from the waiting room. The student list for each exam can be obtained from OLEX.

We ask colleagues to make note of these additional points:-

  • Teachers and invigilators are asked NOT to host any other Zoom meeting during the exam timeslot to avoid any unwanted interference with the exam.
  • Invigilators are not allowed to open the exam paper before the start of the exam.
  • Students’ script files will be available for download six hours after the end of the exam.
  • In case an invigilator is unable to invigilate an allocated exam session, the teacher should assume the invigilation duties or arrange for a delegate to do so. If no delegate is available, please send an urgent email to olexhelp@hku.hk to seek assistance in finding a backup invigilator.
  • Administrators from the Examinations Office may enter any Zoom meeting at any time for any exam for inspection purposes.
  • While the University will remind the students to register on OLEX, it would be good if teachers could reinforce the message by reaching out to their students. It would also be helpful if teachers and administrators could check before the examination to ensure that students have registered on OLEX.

To familiarize everyone with the OLEX system, TeLi, ITS and the Examinations Office will co-host three identical online training sessions for staff. Dates and registration details are as follows:-

Session 1: May 5, 2020 (Tuesday) 16:45-17:45
Session 2: May 7, 2020 (Thursday) 10:45-11:45
Session 3: May 8, 2020 (Friday) 16:45-17:45
Registration: https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?ueid=69633 

A Teacher Drill Platform will be available for two weeks from Tuesday, May 5 at https://drill-epload.hku.hk/exam/. Teachers will be able to view their courses on OLEX from Monday, May 11. Invigilators will only be allowed access to courses they will invigilate, together with the relevant Zoom links. Demonstration videos for students and invigilators can also be found at https://hku.to/exam1920_training. Later this week we will email all students about the exam guidelines, online training sessions and other related matters.

For questions about exam arrangements, please contact the Examinations Office at exam@hku.hk. For technical questions about OLEX, please contact ITS at olexhelp@hku.hk. For questions about e-learning, please contact Dr Tyrone Kwok (tyrone.kwok@hku.hk) or Dr Leon Lei (culei@hku.hk) of TeLi. For other matters, please drop me a line (ian.holliday@hku.hk). Many thanks to all, as ever.

Best wishes, Ian

Professor Ian Holliday
Vice-President (Teaching and Learning)

2019-20 Student Learning Experience Questionnaire (SLEQ) is now open!

Update: The 2019-20 SLEQ is now closed.
We thank all students for your participation. For further news about SLEQ, please visit https://tlem.hku.hk/sleq/.

HKU conducts institutional surveys on students’ learning experiences regularly to yield information for analysis and renewal of curriculum and pedagogy. The findings help ensure and enhance the quality of learning experiences.

We now invite all first, second and final year undergraduate students to complete the Student Learning Experience Questionnaire – Undergraduate (SLEQ – UG); and all final year taught-postgraduate students to fill out the Student Learning Experience Questionnaire – Taught Postgraduate (SLEQ – TPG). Both surveys are conducted online. While different curricula may have different start times for the survey, all targeted students should have received / will receive an e-mail invitation on the start day which provides you with a link that directs to the survey. You can also access the questionnaire through the “My e-learning” tab in HKU Portal, as well as this direct link: http://sleq.hku.hk/1920.

It takes about 10 minutes to complete the questionnaire. Please rest assured that all information collected will remain strictly confidential. Your opinions are of great importance and are highly appreciated and valued. For more details about SLEQ, please visit our Frequently Asked Questions page here. Should you have any enquiries or technical problems, please do not hesitate to contact the Teaching and Learning Evaluation and Measurement Unit at surveytl@hku.hk or 3917- 4787.

All face-to-face teaching delayed for two weeks

Important message from Professor Ian Holliday, Vice-President & Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching & Learning)

Dear students

In light of the recent surge in the number of COVID-19 infection cases and following the HK government’s advice, the University has decided that final year Undergraduate face-to-face teaching and any Taught Postgraduate face-to-face teaching will be delayed for two weeks, in order to minimise the chance of infection in the community.

The pandemic situation is changing rapidly and we are committed to ensuring that teaching and learning can be conducted as safely as possible. We very much appreciate your understanding and cooperation. Please stay vigilant and continue to make personal health your top priority.

Professor Ian Holliday
Vice-President & Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching & Learning)

Supplementary Information for Staff (March 5)

Dear colleagues

Just a quick supplement to my earlier email sent to both colleagues and students.

Zoom

We’ve upgraded our Zoom licence for the next 12 months. Previously, HKU Zoom accounts each had 500MB storage for cloud recordings. Now there’s no storage limit, though any recording uploaded by a teacher to the Zoom cloud will be removed after six months. Before this happens, ITS will send a notification to remind the account holder to download the relevant file to a PC or laptop.

Storing files

For storing files, teachers may make use of the HKU Video Streaming Server, which offers 150GB to each account holder. Teachers can apply for an account via CF43. A user guide can be found here.

Teaching rooms

A reminder, more for future semesters than the current one: the University has 159 centrally-managed classrooms, and all are fully equipped with Panopto and Zoom facilities.

 

Best wishes, Ian

Professor Ian Holliday
Vice-President (Teaching and Learning)
The University of Hong Kong

Updated Teaching and Learning Arrangement (March 5)

Dear colleagues and students

We’re continuing to monitor and analyse the COVID-19 situation and its implications for the University. Within this still uncertain framework, we’re trying to figure out the best way forward for teaching and learning. As before, our absolute priority remains the health and safety of both HKU members and the general public.

With this at the forefront of our minds, we’re announcing a series of updates to our plans for the remainder of the semester. We recognise that the choices we’re able to make at the present time are not ideal, but we believe they’re the best that are available to our campus community.

Until the end of the teaching period on May 16, all teaching and learning will be delivered online. There are just a few exceptions, including:

(1) Non-clinical laboratory, studio and practical skills components of courses for final-year students that have to be taught through face-to-face classes in order for students to graduate on time. We will arrange for these students to come on campus for low-density laboratory, studio and practical skills teaching sessions beginning no earlier than March 30. Their other classes will remain online. When required to come on campus, these students will be provided with face masks. Faculties will inform final-year students taking these courses of detailed arrangements at the start of next week.

(2) Clinical programmes in the Faculty of Dentistry and the Faculty of Medicine. These two Faculties will reach out separately to students enrolled in these programmes.

Assessment

Assessment components and weightings will conform to the arrangements already announced by course coordinators. However, for all courses taught online there will be no proctored, in-hall exams during the assessment period from May 18 to June 6. Instead, all ‘final exam’ components will be moved online. We’re asking teachers to rethink the tasks that will constitute the ‘final exam’ to ensure they’re suitable for online assessment.

Assessment choices

As in Semester 1, we’re offering all UG and TPG students three assessment choices:

–     Continue with letter grading, where applicable (contributing to GPA)

–     Change to pass/fail grading (not contributing to GPA)

–     Opt out of the course entirely through a late drop option

Students will be able to make these choices through a link on SIS from March 23 to April 30. Full details will be announced within the next two weeks.

Pass/fail

We strongly advise all students to think carefully when opting for pass/fail grading. Courses that are simply passed will be recorded as P on the transcript, with no GPA. For UG students in particular, this could have important knock-on effects. Internally, we rely on SGPA data for elective opportunities, such as academic exchange and other funded programmes. Externally, employers and universities around the world examine transcripts in some detail when taking decisions about jobs and postgraduate study. Students without solid SGPA data from 2019-20 may therefore place themselves at a disadvantage.

Late drop

Students returning to the University beyond the normative study period solely to make up late dropped credits from 2019-20 will not be asked to pay a composition fee. Normally, this policy will apply only in 2020-21. However, in cases where a student is unable to make up the dropped credits in 2020-21 because the requisite course is not on offer or, in special cases where personal circumstances stand in the way, an extension to 2021-22 may be permitted.

As ever, many thanks for working together with us to get through a challenging semester. Please do write to me with queries: ian.holliday@hku.hk.

Best wishes, Ian

Professor Ian Holliday
Vice-President (Teaching and Learning)
The University of Hong Kong

 

Updates on Online Teaching and Learning (for UG and TPG students) – Feb 19th

Dear students

Just a few updates about online T&L at HKU.

Add/drop

First, a reminder. We extended the add/drop period to 4:00pm on Friday, February 21. So the window remains open only for a couple more days.

Late drop

We understand that the current online learning experience, while good for some students, is not positive for everyone. We’re therefore offering UG and TPG students the opportunity to late drop any of their Semester 2 courses at any point until 11:59pm on Thursday, April 30. Please note that at present we’re not planning to offer students a pass/fail option for letter-grade courses. This is mainly because we have a system of GPA calculation and honours classification that relies on a solid base of data. If we switch too many courses to pass/fail, that base will start to erode. Provided we’re able to return to campus teaching on March 30, as scheduled, we’ll stick with letter grading for this semester.

Feedback

We’re eager to learn about your experience with online learning to improve our courses. We’ve therefore created a webpage for anonymous feedback: http://hku.to/onlinelearningfeedback. While we’ll read all the submissions from students, we won’t respond as we’re not requesting student identities and contact details. If you’d like to receive a response from us, you can send an email to hcm00101@hku.hk.

Engage!

Online learning is very different from campus teaching, but it does still provide students with multiple opportunities to engage with their courses. Please do participate as fully as possible in interactive classes. As you know, there are many ways to do that on platforms such as Zoom. Please do also keep in touch with your course teachers and academic advisers through any of the platforms they use. Teachers and advisers are happy to connect virtually with students.

Best wishes, Ian

Professor Ian Holliday

Vice-President (Teaching and Learning)
The University of Hong Kong

Online learning FAQs (for Staff)

Message from Vice President (Teaching and Learning)

Dear colleagues

(Please also read our update on Online Teaching and Learning Resources dated February 7, 2020)

In the past couple of days I’ve had opportunities to discuss online learning with the Associate Deans (T&L) and, when visiting with the President, with colleagues in the Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences. In recent weeks I’ve also had many email conversations with colleagues and students. I figure it makes sense to circulate some of the lessons learned in the form of another FAQ list.

Can the assessment weightings for a course be changed?

This issue has already been discussed within Faculties. The answer is yes, but the window for making such changes will soon close. Normally by this point in the semester we would require full class consent (all students). However, until 4:00pm on February 21 we’re in the extended add/drop period, so as yet there’s no fixed class for each course. This means we can make changes more easily. All colleagues need to do is revise the assessment weightings as they see fit, inform all students registered for the class, update the relevant course information on SIS, and send a record of the change to Faculty Board for endorsement. Students who feel disadvantaged by the change will be able to drop the course. While this is not an ideal option, it is still a choice. Note that this must be done before February 21. Thereafter, full class consent will be necessary.

Should the assessment weightings for a course be changed?

If a course taught this semester relies heavily on a proctored final exam, it would be a good idea, where possible, to reduce the weighting for that component and boost the weighting for other assessed tasks. At this stage in the unfolding coronavirus situation, we remain committed to holding in-person exams in examination halls at the end of the semester. However, if the disruption becomes more severe, we may have to revise our assessment arrangements. Were that to happen, it would be good not to be too reliant on final exams, which we know generate issues that are difficult to manage.

Should teachers require students to switch on their camera and microphone for interactive classes?

I discussed this issue at length with the Associate Deans. We agreed that at the level of University policy we should not require this because it could be intrusive in the home environment in which many students study (even though Zoom has a function enabling the background to be blurred or replaced). At the same time, we recognized that teachers may have strong reasons to encourage students to adopt this practice. A colleague in Arts also made the point that in some courses it may be necessary to ask students to do this because of the nature of the learning materials and tasks.

How can students be encouraged to view online lectures?

One suggestion made by a colleague in Social Sciences is to ask students to complete a weekly assignment consisting of a brief account of the lecture and a short list of questions related to the material covered in it.

How are students currently located in the Mainland connecting with HKU?

For our online exam (OLEX) platform at the end of the first semester, we secure a leased line from Alibaba. This enables students located in the Mainland to connect with HKU as if they were in Hong Kong. The line is not monitored because it uses a point-to-point https protocol, where the ‘s’ stands for ‘secure’. All traffic between the two points is encrypted. For online T&L in this semester, we have again secured a leased line from Alibaba.

How can teachers stay in touch with their students during this period of online T&L?

Moodle remains the best way to keep in touch with students. In addition to any uploaded materials, please do post weekly consultation hours for students to schedule individual conversations with you (using, say, WhatsApp or Zoom). Many students have questions, but they no longer have the option of catching hold of a teacher after a lecture or calling by during office hours. This is also a way to keep the academic advising function going.

How can colleagues share good practice and lessons learned from online T&L?

Some Faculties have created online platforms for teachers to post good and bad experiences of online learning. This is also something we could consider doing for HKU as a whole, linked to Faculty pages. In many Faculties informal groups of colleagues are coming together to share experience and provide mutual support. This is clearly a very welcome development.

How can upload speeds on Zoom be enhanced?

We recognize that Zoom is an outstanding T&L platform and we’re keen to ensure it’s fully available to colleagues. At present we’re exploring options for enhancing Zoom functionality at HKU. In the meantime, however, for obvious reasons upload speeds are better at the ends of the day. It’s also possible to download, say, a recorded lecture from Zoom to a desktop computer or laptop and then upload for students to view through Microsoft OneDrive. Details are available here: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362473-Local-Recording?mobile_site=true .

How can teachers learn more about online T&L?

We offer support to teachers through:

– TELI training sessions scheduled by some Faculties, and hopefully ultimately by all Faculties since the feedback is uniformly excellent;
– Updates on TELI website: https://tl.hku.hk/2020/02/online-teaching-and-learning-for-staff-updated-february-7-2020/ ;
– TELI gadgets and tools: https://teli.hku.hk/e-learning-resources/ ;
– TELI e-learning quick start guide;
– TELI e-learning demonstration videos;
– TELI individual consultation sessions with Leon Lei (9162 3384) and Tyrone Kwok (5964 8396), who can both be reached via WhatsApp;
– CETL website: https://www.cetl.hku.hk/ ;
– CETL designated Faculty liaison persons: visit https://www.cetl.hku.hk/ , then click “Support for online teaching and learning” (the first iconic picture on the left-to-right scrolling banner).

As before, many thanks to all and please drop me a line with queries.

Best wishes, Ian

Professor Ian Holliday
Vice President (Teaching and Learning)