Seminar: E-learning Strategy and Philosophy

Date: September 7, 2011 (Wednesday)

Time: 12:30pm – 2:00pm

Venue: Room 322, Run Run Shaw Building

Facilitator: Dr. Iain Doherty, Director of the Learning Technology Unit, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland

In this seminar Dr Iain Doherty will discuss the necessity of taking an approach to technology use that presages good teaching and learning principles. From this perspective e-learning is ‘learning led and technology enabled’ and ‘e’ can be understood to refer to ‘enhancement’ rather than ‘electronic’. Dr Iain Doherty will also discuss the challenges of supporting teaching in a research-intensive university in which academics are time poor with positions defined in terms of the traditional triad of teaching, research and service. He will outline the strategies that he has implemented in order to work effectively with academics in a way that leads to sustainable e-learning development.

About the Facilitator: Dr. Iain Doherty is Director of the Learning Technology Unit, Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences, University of Auckland. He has been responsible for establishing and managing a unit with the remit to meet the flexible and distance learning needs of a large and diverse Faculty. This process has included defining and articulating an e-learning vision for the Faculty in line with University and Faculty strategic goals.

For details and online registration, please go to http://www.cetl.hku.hk/workshop110907.

For enquiries, please contact Ms Eva Poon by email evapoon@hku.hk.

TEAS Workshop

A workshop on Teaching Excellence Award Scheme (TEAS) will be held on June 28, 2011 from 12:30 to 2:00 pm at Room 322, Run Run Shaw Building. This workshop is offered to all teaching staff members who are preparing an application for the 2011 Teaching Excellence Awards. It will provide an overview of the TEAS and an introduction to the application process. A previous awardee will be attending to offer advice and answer questions. Prof Michael Prosser and Dr Diane Salter from the Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning will be facilitating the workshop.

For more details about the workshop and online registration, please visit http://www.cetl.hku.hk/teas110628. Enquiries may be sent to Ms Eva Poon at evapoon@hku.hk.

For more details about TEAS, please visit https://tl.hku.hk/tl/teaching-excellence-awards/teas2011/.

Common Core Forum on May 27, 2011

Following two successful forums held in May and December 2010, a new Common Core Forum has been held on May 27, 2011 for teachers and tutors to share experiences and discuss issues arising from teaching and assessing Common Core courses. The overall aim of this forum is to explore the challenge of maintaining academic rigour in the Common Core Curriculum while teaching large and diverse groups of students. Approximately 80 participants, including over 70 teachers and tutors plus some students, attended the event.

Professor Amy B.M. Tsui, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning), opened the forum and thanked all teachers and tutors for their great efforts in teaching Common Core courses. Having observed a number of Common Core lectures in the past semester, Prof Tsui told the audience how impressed she was with the delivery of those courses and the alignment exhibited between the Common Core goals and the University’s six educational aims.

The forum consisted of a review presented by Mr Gwyn Edwards, Director of Common Core Curriculum, and four sharing sessions presented by Common Core teachers representing the four Areas of Inquiry. In Mr Edwards’ review, 2010-2011 Student Evaluation of Teaching and Learning (SETL) scores and qualitative comments were presented. Overall, improvements in the SETL scores of Common Core courses from semester 1 to semester 2 are very encouraging.

In the sharing sessions, exemplar courses from all four Areas of Inquiry were presented and participants were eager to share their views at the end of each session. To access presentation slides used at the sessions, please click the links below.

Mr Gwyn Edwards Review of Common Core Courses 2010
Sharing Sessions: exemplar courses from all Areas of Inquiry
Professor Sun Kwok Human’s Place in the Universe
Dr Robert Peckham Battle for Bodies: Public Health in the Modern World (coming soon)
Dr Michael Adorjan Cybersocieties: Understanding Technology as Global Change
Students’ videos
Dr Petula Ho Love, Marriage and Sex in Modern China

Tools and Resources of Academic Literacy

The second of two seminars in the English-in-the-Disciplines and Academic Literacy Seminar Series has been held on May 20, 2011. The seminar was jointly organized by the Steering Committee on 4-Year Undergraduate Curriculum, Centre for Applied English Studies (CAES), and Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL).

Professor Ken Hyland, Director of CAES, and three other CAES staff members Dr Lisa Cheung, Mr Patrick Desloge, and Mr Peter Voller spoke at the seminar which focused on exploring various tools and resources that help students achieve academic literacy. In HKU’s new undergraduate curriculum, all English-in-the-Disciplines courses will be supported by web-based and self-access learning resources. Through the use of these tools, students will be able to consolidate their knowledge of academic disciplinary communication in an individualized and targeted manner.

3-Day Orientation to Learning & Teaching

A three-day orientation workshop will be held on June 21 to 23, 2011 from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm at Room 321, Run Run Shaw Building for professional staff who are either new or experienced in teaching at HKU. The overall aim of the workshop is to provide participants with both knowledge and strategies in developing skills in course design. The workshop will also help participants consider the relationship of their Faculty or programme learning outcomes to the University’s six educational aims. Upon completion of the full three days, participants will receive a certificate of attendance that can be used in the Performance Review Development process. For more details and online registration, please access http://www.cetl.hku.hk/orientation1106.

For enquiries, please contact Ms Eva Poon at evapoon@hku.hk.

Understanding English-in-the-Disciplines

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The first of two seminars in the English-in-the-Disciplines and Academic Literacy Seminar Series has been held on May 6, 2011. The seminar was jointly organized by the Steering Committee on 4-Year Undergraduate Curriculum, Centre for Applied English Studies (CAES), and Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL).

Professor Ken Hyland, Director of CAES, pointed out at the seminar that communicative demands driven by learning at the university level represent a challenge to undergraduate students worldwide. The way to help students is to enhance their academic literacy skills through collaboration with Faculty subject experts in the materials design and curriculum development of English enhancement courses.

Other speakers at the seminar include Dr Max Hui-Bon-Hoa, Mr Jon Hui, Dr Claudia Wong and Ms Tse Lai Kun, who shared with the audience examples of courses developed in collaboration with the Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Engineering and Faculty of Medicine.

Induction to Learning & Teaching

A one-day workshop on “Induction to Learning and Teaching at HKU” will be conducted on May 31, 2011 at Room 321, Run Run Shaw Building. This workshop, organized by the Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL), will focus on providing participants with knowledge, strategies and applied skills needed for teaching at the University level.

All new teaching staff members at HKU are expected to attend the workshop. Upon completion participants will receive a certificate of attendance that can be used for their teaching portfolios and the Performance Review Development process. For course details and online registration, please access http://www.cetl.hku.hk/induction110531.

For enquiries, please contact Ms Eva Poon at evapoon@hku.hk.

Assessment Workshop Series

The fifth of the Assessment Workshop Series will be held on May 11, 2011 from 12:30 to 2:00 pm at Room 321, Run Run Shaw Building. The title of this workshop is “Have Your Say: Current Assessment Issues – A Roundtable Discussion”. Dr Cecilia Chan from the Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL) will be facilitating this workshop, in which a panel of experts in the area of assessment will be brought together to discuss current assessment issues. The discussants are Dr David Carless, Mr Rick Glofcheski, Prof David Kember and Dr Bruce Macfarlane.

For more details, please click here.
For enquiries, please contact Ms Eva Poon at evapoon@hku.hk.

CAES Seminars

As part of the English-in-the-Disciplines and Academic Literacy Seminar Series, two seminars will be jointly organized by the Steering Committee on 4-Year Undergraduate Curriculum, Centre for Applied English Studies (CAES), and Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL). Both seminars will be held from 12:30 to 2:00 pm at lecture theatre T3, G/F Meng Wah Complex.

The first seminar “Understanding English-in-the-Disciplines” will be held on May 6, 2011 and the second one “Tools and Resources of Academic Literacy” will be held on May 20, 2011. For details of these seminars, please click on the poster below.

To register, please access http://www.cetl.hku.hk/caes2011.

Download poster

CR Seminar by Dr Jenny Moon

As part of the Curriculum Reform Seminar Series jointly organized by the Steering Committee on 4-Year Undergraduate Curriculum and Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL), a seminar entitled “Making Sense of Experiential and Reflective Learning, an Exploration of Ideas” was given by Dr Jenny Moon on April 19, 2011. Dr Moon is Associate Professor, Centre for Excellence in Media Practice at Bournemouth University.

In the seminar, some general issues about Experiential Learning and Reflective Learning as constructed terms were shared. The four stages of thinking described by Baxter Magolda (1992) were explored using examples of quotations from students. Based on a crucial piece of subsequent research by Baxter Magolda, students shift from independent knowing (the third stage) to contextual knowing (the fourth and highest stage) either through postgraduate study or through being in good placement experiences. Dr Moon pointed out that three crucial qualities of a situation of good experiential learning are that:

  • it involves the student in making independent judgments in situations of ill-structured knowledge
  • there is learning from the representation of learning – learning from doing
  • the student is required to reflect on his/her learning

For more details on Dr Moon’s recent insights, please access
www.CEMP.ac.uk/people/jennymoon.php.

Click here to access the presentation slides used by Dr Jenny Moon at the seminar.
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