Organised by Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL) and Faculty of Education
Details of the workshop:
Date : 19 May, 2017 (Friday) Time : 12:45pm – 2:30pm Venue : Room 321, 3/F, Run Run Shaw Building (Main Campus), HKU Speaker : Dr. Abelardo Pardo, Associate Professor, The University of Sydney, Australia Facilitators : Prof. David Carless, Associate Dean, Faculty of Education, HKU
Dr. Cecilia Chan, Head of Professional Development, CETL, HKU
Abstract
The increasing presence of technology mediation offers an unprecedented opportunity to use detailed data sets about the interactions that occur while a learning experience is being enacted. Areas such as Learning Analytics or Educational Data Mining have explored numerous algorithms and techniques to process these data sets. Additionally, technology now offers the opportunity to increase the immediacy of interventions. However, not much emphasis has been placed on how to extract truly actionable knowledge and how to bring it effectively as part of a learning experience. In this talk, we will use the concept of feedback as the focus to establish a specific connection between the knowledge derived from data-analysis procedures and the actions that can be immediately deployed in a learning environment. We will discuss how there is a trade-off between low-level automatic feedback and high-level complex feedback and how technology can provide efficient solutions for the case of large or highly diverse cohorts.
Speakers
Abelardo Pardo is Associate Professor in the School of Electrical and Information Engineering at The University of Sydney, Australia. He is the director of the Learning and Affect Technologies Engineering Research Laboratory and deputy director of the Centre for Research in Learning and Innovation. His research interests include the design and deployment of technology to increase the understanding and improve digital learning experiences. More specifically, his work examines the areas of learning analytics, personalized active learning, and technology for student support.
Date : 15 May, 2017 (Monday) Time : 12:45pm – 2:00pm (Light refreshments will be provided.) Venue : Room 321, 3/F, Run Run Shaw Building (Main Campus), HKU Speaker : Dr. Tracy Zou (CETL) and Prof. Gray Kochhar-Lindgren (Common Core)
Abstract
Rated as both the ‘best and the worst learning experiences’ by both students and lecturers, groupwork is a complex matter. What, then, about intercultural groupwork? Doesn’t this complicate the matter even further? Students could, of course, potentially develop their cultural competence and gain multiple perspectives about each other and the subject matter, but the issue is how can we actually make it work its best for everyone?
During this workshop, we will explore together how we might make intercultural groupwork creative, energetic, and effective. A number of good practices identified from 15 Common Core courses, as well as those from the scholarly literature, will be shared.
Speakers
Dr. Tracy Zou is an assistant professor in the Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL) at HKU. She has been engaging in the development and promotion of effective university teaching and learning on a number of topics, for example, groupwork, assessment, and internationalisation of teaching and learning. She has also been involved in groupwork research at both course and curriculum levels.
Prof. Gray Kochhar-Lindgren: Director, Common Core
Want to join learners from all around the world to learn about how Chinese philosophers view humanity and nature? Register this free online course at edX.
The course was very well received by learners in its previous two runs, and now the third run will begin on June 13 2017!
Highlights of the course
In the format of a dialogue, Chad Hansen, Chair Professor of Chinese Philosophy, Emeritus, HKU, analyzes and discusses the essence of Chinese philosophy from his unique perspectives
Various animations and visual aids were used in post-production of the lecture videos to further help students learn the course content
Knowledge check questions and learning activities designed to relate to student daily lives so learning is applicable
Organised by Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL)
Details of the workshop:
Date : 6 April, 2017 (Thursday) Time : 1:00pm – 2:00pm Venue : Room 321, 3/F, Run Run Shaw Building (Main Campus), HKU Facilitator : Dr. Cecilia Chan, Head of Professional Development, CETL, HKU
Abstract
After the highly successful cross-institutional conference held on March 8 where innovations in higher education teaching and learning were shared and celebrated, CETL is planning a series of gatherings. As we go forward with the conversation on driving excellence in the Teaching and Learning agenda, the new “Chit-Chat, Mix and Match for T and L” series will provide an easygoing and stimulating platform for teachers to continue discussing, disseminating and discovering good pedagogies, assessment and issues.
These gatherings require your participation to be successful, come and join us, I guarantee you fun, challenging and rewarding conversation.
Registration will be on a first come, first served basis.
There are two things higher education institutions must do when guiding their students in learning. First, we should teach students how to transfer their critical thinking skills from one context to another. Second, we must engage students in active learning and deep processing to develop their capabilities.
Minerva is a non-conventional college startup where students live in seven world cities and interact with teachers and peers via live videos on an online platform in their four-year education. With its growing popularity and low admission rate, it is described by some as a college “tougher to get into than Harvard”. On 17 February 2017, Mr. Ben Nelson, Founder and CEO of the Minerva project shared his secrets of success in Minerva in a seminar titled “How to save higher education in twenty seven easy steps?” at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).
What should we teach?
Minerva believes that higher education institutions should teach students how to transfer their critical thinking skills from one context to another. Their teaching philosophy focuses on providing students with a framework of thinking applicable in different situations. Education is not meant to provide rote solutions, but ideas and patterns, so that when students encounter a novel situation, they can come up with a novel solution.
The fundamental problem in higher education is that we spent years learning things in an unstructured environment before we learn how to transfer. The goal of Minerva is to alter students’ way of thinking and interpreting the world. “It’s like doing brain surgery,” said Mr. Nelson. He agrees that studying in Minerva can be challenging, but by the 3rd or 4th year, students will have learnt how to parachute into any location and make the most out of any situation.
How should we teach?
We must engage students in active learning and deep processing instead of simply lecturing them because deep processing leads to better retention of knowledge. Mr. Nelson perceives passive lectures as an ineffective way to disseminate information as it does not encourage deep processing – students’ knowledge retention rate drops to 10% by the end of the 6th month, meaning a 90% failure rate.
Based on his examination of empirical evidence, he came to the conclusion that “when you go through deep processing, you get memory for free.” If you only push students to memorize something without going through deep processing, the retention rate will most likely be very low.
Higher education is “the gatekeeper between citizenry and leadership.” It is necessary for universities to keep up with changes, or else we may be in the peril of not existing.
A big thank you to HKUST for inviting us to join this thought-provoking seminar.
“[The] place where knowledge formation occurs is right at that edge where you do not know what’s going to happen. If you did, it would just be repetition, it wouldn’t be discovery […] students get very excited at that moment,” said Professor Gray Kochhar-Lindgren, Director of Common Core (CC), after Professor Ricky Kwok’s sharing on March 7, 2017 about his experience of flipping the course CCST9003 Everyday Computing and the Internet.
Last semester, Ricky and his course team began a new teaching and learning experiment. They have developed a series of videos to replace traditional lectures; and delivered 5 game-based workshops for students in their CC class (e.g., solving the Rubik’s cube, defusing bombs in a computer game, and solving encrypted codes). The main driver of the flipped approach was the dissatisfaction with the low energy level observed in lectures. “We (teachers) are just sending out sound waves that nobody cares to receive,” Ricky said.
Participants of the sharing session had to experience this new way of learning first-hand. Prior to the meet-up, they were asked to watch several video clips on “recursion”, one of the algorithms that Ricky taught in his course. When they came in, they had to “compete” in an online game powered by Kahoot to check their preparedness, followed by a team-based, hands-on activity of solving a recursion problem with lego pieces. While groups of students in the actual CC course need to produce a video on the solution by the end of the two-hour class as a deliverable, our teacher-participants were asked to explain their solution to Teaching Assistants within 10 minutes. Feel the adrenaline? That’s what Ricky meant by “learning begins at the end of your comfort zone”.
Ricky learnt from his own experience that the 4Cs – credit, collaboration, competition, and co-creation – were important in providing the motivation that students need. Here is his recipe:
Application in CCST9003
Advantage
Credit
All classwork activities counted towards students’ final grade.
Students had the incentive to participate in the first place.
Collaboration
It is one of the criteria in the grading rubrics. Every group member needs to participate and demonstrate collaboration.
Creates room for dialogue and peer-to-peer learning; where stronger students are motivated to help weaker students.
Competition
Each group competed with the 29 other groups in the class.
Competitive elements, e.g., the fastest and most accurate team wins, students can leave the class once they completed the task.
An essential element to push for and maintain a high energy level, competition is a good motivator for an individual to strive for the better.
Co-creation
A video had to be produced on the spot at the end of each class, showing how the solved the problem.
Learning by teaching is encouraged; students can have solid take-aways and a sense of satisfaction when leaving the classroom.
“Just enjoy that learning and don’t care about the marks,” one of the CCST9003 students said in the video interview done after the last classwork activity. Perhaps this is great testimony that all the hard work of Ricky and his team paid off at the end.
The Common Core continued to be a sandbox of experimentation of new pedagogies. This semester, Mr. Matthew Pryor is also flipping his CCHU9001 Designs on the Future: Sustainability of the Built Environment.
Last but not least, feel the beat of CCST 9003 through this video.
Organised by Technology-Enriched Learning Initiative (TELI)
Date : March 7, 2017 (Tuesday) Time : 12:45pm – 2pm Venue : Room 321, 3/F, Run Run Shaw Building (Main Campus) Speakers : Professor Ricky Kwok (Course Co-ordinator and Teacher), Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Faculty of Engineering Facilitators: Teaching Assistants – Ms. Yuqian Chai, Mr. Xiangyu Hou, Dr. Tyrone Kwok, Dr. Leon Lei (Chief), Mr. Victor Wong; Course Manager – Mr. Donn Gonda Respondent: Professor Gray Kochhar-Lindgren, Director of Common Core Curriculum
The Common Core Curriculum Committee granted approval for running CCST 9003 – Everyday Computing and the Internet in the Scientific and Technological Literacy Area of Inquiry – as a Small Private Online Course (SPOC) in the first semester of 2016-17. Traditional in-class lecture materials were replaced by video recordings and other online learning materials, leaving more time for interactions in face-to-face sessions. For those of you who would like to know more about what happened, please sign up for this sharing session. The teacher-in-charge and TAs will show you how the course was re-designed, what in-class activities were used, and perhaps most importantly – the pains and pleasures of running this SPOC.
Please note that participants are required to watch a few short videos and send in some questions before coming to the face-to-face sharing. They will also be given hands-on exercises during the 75-minute session (so, we are serving light refreshment). Come prepared.
Organised by Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL)
Details of the workshop:
Date : 9 March, 2017 (Thursday) Time : 1:00pm – 2:00pm Venue : Room 321, 3/F, Run Run Shaw Building (Main Campus), HKU Speaker : Chair Prof. Haydn Chen, Vice Rector (Student Affairs), University of Macau Facilitator : Dr. Cecilia Chan, Head of Professional Development, CETL, HKU
Abstract
Evaluation of the overall student performance in the Residential College (RC) System of the University of Macau (UM) is reported under the “4-in-1”* education model which commenced in August 2014. The evaluation methodology included the grade points average (GPA), the counselling cases, sports competition, employment data, plus specially-designed surveys to measure the learning outcomes of the competencies** that the RC education focused on. Particularly noteworthy is this study included undergraduate students with and without the RC experience so a comparison of the two groups of students can be made.
The major findings show a positive and encouraging trend in the impact of RC education on students is significant and noticeable, despite the fact that the RC system was launched only two years ago. Some highlights of the study are: 1) the five areas of competencies that RC nurtures have clearly shown the learning outcome; 2) a significant correlation of academic achievement in terms of cumulative GPA with RC experience is found, also for the low-performance students (GPA<2) RC experience clearly helps students to improve more effectively; 3) the pastoral care and the peer support that students received in the RCs have resulted in a significant decrease of counselling cases; 4) team spirit cultivated for student athletes show its impact on the awards; 5) employment profile in recent years show steady improvement. The values of the RC experience on the students’ overall achievements are reflected in this evaluation report. Conclusions are drawn to reflect the impact of the “Community and Peer Education” on the growth of students, which, in turn, supports the vision of the University of Macau who has pioneered the unique 4-in-1 education model together with the university-wide RC System.
*4-in1 Education Model: It includes “discipline”, “general”, “research & internship” and “community & peer” education. Undergraduate students must receive passing grades in all four area before they can graduate.
** Competencies: The five competencies in the experiential learning of the RC education are: “healthy living”, “interpersonal relationship & teamwork”, “leadership & service”, “culture engagement”, and “citizenship with global perspective”.
About the Speaker:
Prof. Haydn H. D. Chen’s education background has taken him through prestigious schools via the Tsing Hua University (Taiwan) for his BS degree, then the MS and PhD in the Department of Materials Science, Northwestern University in US. Dr. Chen’s professional career commenced with a Research Associate appointment at the Argonne National Laboratory before joining the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) (1978 to 2000). Since 2000, Dr. Chen has spent over 16 years in teaching, research and academic administration in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macau, in the capacity as Chair Professor, Head of the Department, Vice President for Student Affairs or President of Tunghai University. These experience put him in a very unique group of educators who have held key positions as an academic faculty and concurrently an academic administrator in four universities across the Pacific ocean.
Having supervised over 50 MS and PhD students and worked closed with more than 20 research associates and visiting scholars in four universities, Prof. Chen has authored or co-authored over 300 journal articles and delivered more than 200 technical presentations. At UIUC, Dr. Chen’s research focused primarily on metals and alloys in which he pioneered x-ray diffraction studies of kinetic processes of ordering or coarsening in technologically important Ni-based super-alloys, Fe-based shape memory alloys and Al-based light metal alloys. Dr. Chen and his team had invented a grazing incidence x-ray diffraction method for the nondestructive measurements of residual stresses in thin films; this technical paper was downloaded/viewed over 8000 times, and cited over 130 times. Further, in a period of 10 years, Dr. Chen had led, as the Director of a Collaborative Access Team, with partnership between UIUC and national laboratories, industrial firms for a major project to have designed and constructed two sectors of beamlines, along with six experimental stations, at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory. These instruments are rated most outstanding apparatus at APS today.
At the City University of Hong Kong, Dr. Chen has expanded his research into thin films and coatings with particular emphasis on electric ceramics such as ferroelectrics, nitrides, etc. Over a span of four years more than 60 articles were published which represent the most highly cited collection of papers. As the Head of the Applied Physics and Materials Department at CityU, Dr. Chen has led the Department to become the flag ship of the materials program in Hong Kong and propelled the advancement of world ranking of the university. Dr. Chen continued to maintain scholarly work during the 8 year period as the President of Tunghai University in Taiwan. At the University of Macau, Dr. Chen was responsible for the establishment of the Graduate Institute of Applied Physics and Materials Engineering and supervised the first cohort of doctoral degree students. This was in addition to his official duties as the Vice Rector for Student Affairs with primary responsibilities for the creation of a Residential College system for experiential collegiate learning of soft skills.
Prof. Chen’s trajectory of research on materials science has won himself the Humboldt Research Award in Germany (2000) and Award for Outstanding Scholar in Taiwan (2005-2010). He is a Fellow of ASM-International since 1989, a Fellow of Japan Society for Promotion of Science and a Fellow of Hong Kong Institution of Engineers. He was chief editor and key reviewers of many journals and participated actively in several professional societies.
Organised by Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL)
Details of the Conference:
Date : 8th March, 2017 (Wednesday) Time : 10:00am – 4:45pm Venue : CPD 2.42, The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus Chair : Dr Cecilia Chan, Head of Professional Development, Associate Professor, CETL, HKU Deputy Chair : Dr Tracy Zou, Assistant Professor, CETL, HKU
Abstract
The purpose of this one-day conference is to share and celebrate innovative pedagogies in higher education teaching and learning, from their discovery through to their dissemination. Specifically, the event will facilitate the sharing and discussion of innovative practices that have emerged from Teaching Development Grant-funded projects and projects conducted by Teaching Excellence Award Winners across the eight publicly funded universities in Hong Kong. Bringing together experienced teachers who have pursued innovations in pedagogy, assessment, curriculum design and flexible learning, the event will provide an opportunity for universities in Hong Kong to learn from each other, and to share their commitment to achieving teaching and learning excellence in an ever-changing educational context. Alongside input sessions, the event will also feature sessions that provide opportunities for future teaching and learning collaboration across universities, including ‘Speed Dating’ Poster Sessions and the Join-the-Conversation Roundtables.
Organised by Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL)
Details of the workshop:
Date : 24 February, 2017 (Friday) Time : 12:00nn – 1:00pm Venue : Room 321, 3/F, Run Run Shaw Building (Main Campus), HKU Speaker : Dr Tanja Sobko, Assistant Professor, School of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, HKU Chairman : Ms Alice Lee, Associate Professor, Department of Law, HKU Facilitator : Dr Luke Fryer, Associate Professor, CETL, HKU
Abstract
This Teaching Exchange Fellowship Scheme (TEFS) was focused on ‘ePortfolio as tool for reflective, autonomous learning and the assessment of it.” Dr Sobko has been working on a TDG project “ePortfolio – developing a discipline-based tool for reflective, autonomous learning” and the TEFS was a well-suited complimentary part of the project. The outgoing visit was to another reputable University (University of Auckland), whith a group, working on a similar topic. The purpose of visit was to compare practices and to evaluate the currently running ePortfolio platform (HKU) and to further improve it. The HKU ePortfolio platform, adopted during the pilot project, positions ePortfolios, as a personalised digital collection of artefacts, which are organised in a purposeful way to assess growth over time and scaffold through continuous formative feedback from the tutor. The TEFS experience contributed to the final improved version the ePortfolio, which provides a unique virtual learning environment, rich and diverse learning experience, complementary to face-to-face modes of learning. This in turn will is expected to enhance students’ experiential and lifelong learning process. The finalised ePortfolio platform is now available for the general use, not only at the Faculty level, but also to any tutor/student at HKU.
Grants for overseas reciprocal visits through ‘Teaching Exchange Fellowship Scheme’
To promote HKU staff to bring in new ideas and teaching methods to improve teaching through interaction with overseas university teachers, HKU will award up to $50,000 for reciprocal staff visits. This funding is provided through the “Teaching Exchange Fellowship Scheme”. The seminar provides an overview of this funding scheme and information on the application process. Staff will be guided on how to go about planning exchange visits to enhance the scholarship of teaching at HKU, which is the aim of the scheme. It will explain, and also showcase examples, on how this funding opportunity can be used by HKU teaching staff to share experience and to collaborate on teaching and curriculum development initiatives with overseas reputable universities through reciprocal visits.
The seminar is open to all teaching staff interested in finding out more about this Teaching Exchange Fellowship Scheme. Staff will be provided an overview of the scheme, how to lodge an application, the key objectives, amounts they can apply for, eligibility and advice in preparing an application. Staff who are thinking about applying are strongly encouraged to attend. Staff who attended the last seminar but found they had insufficient time to make overseas contacts, or who are thinking of planning ahead, in time for the second round (having a March 17th, 2016 closing date), would also find the seminar useful. If you are not sure whether this scheme would be relevant to teaching innovations you have in mind, or would simply like to know more about the scheme, you are welcome. The Circular on this scheme can be found at http://intraweb.hku.hk/reserved_2/cdqa/doc/TEFS/TEFS_2016-17.pdf
