On 27th September, students, faculty staff, science and astronomy enthusiasts gathered at Professor Sun Kwok’s book launch party hosted by the Common Core Office to congratulate Professor Kwok’s release of the new edition of Our Place in the Universe. Professor Sun Kwok is a reowned astronomer who has made many important astronomical discoveries, particularly on nebulae, and is the former Dean of the Faculty of Science and Chair Professor of Physics.
What is this book about?
Professor Kwok explains that this book is not about technical knowledge on astronomy and physics. Rather, by following the footprints of 5000 years of astronomical development, it shows the evolution of humans’ way of thinking – demonstrating how humans developed rational thinking through their observations and understanding of the universe. Our Place in the Universe takes us on a journey, studying how the development and advancement in science continuously change humans’ perception of self and the world.
What other things do we learn about Professor Kwok?
At the book launch party, Professor Kwok shared his ideas on astronomy as an oldest and newest science, interesting bits of his journey of becoming an astronomer, thoughts on the future of science, and many more. To have a glimpse of the interesting questions raised by the audience, click on the link below:
Question: Do you think our current understanding of the Earth and the universe is correct?
Want to find out Professor Kwok’s answers to the audience’s other questions? Follow our facebook page for updates! https://www.facebook.com/ccst9012/
Guest blogger series: Dr. Yat Ming CHAN Dr. Yat Ming CHAN is a Lecturer at the Department of Mathematics, The University of Hong Kong. Chan specializes in differential geometry and is the developer of HKU GeoGebra resources. Check out this blog post to learn more about his teaching of mathematics.
The Department of Mathematics has been offering a range of courses to provide mathematics education to HKU students across faculties. We have designed courses specifically for students majoring in statistics, risk management, quantitative finance, actuarial science, engineering, business and economics. Almost all these courses involve the training of calculus at various levels. By means of introducing new dynamic and interactive instructional materials, it will be possible to improve students’ motivation and provide them with extra incentives in learning the underlying abstract mathematical concepts. With the support of HKU Teaching Development Grant, we have introduced GeoGebra resources on HKU Open edX for introductory-level mathematics courses.
This platform provides a library of GeoGebra applets to support teaching and learning for introductory-level mathematics courses. GeoGebra is a free and open-source dynamic mathematics software that can construct elements with points, vectors, polynomials and functions. The use of GeoGebra allows visualizations of mathematical ideas and creation of interactive instructional materials. The applets made in the platform will be designed to (i) supplement the concepts developed in class and (ii) prompt students to explore mathematics according to the guidelines.
For each learning object, students can learn or review one to two concepts and will be given opportunities to perform investigatory tasks. Students can click on checkboxes and follow the guidelines to achieve a specific goal, drag the points and move the sliders to observe the change, and input their own functions to examine different cases. All these activities, as well as follow-up questions, can foster student-centered learning and mathematical explorations.
Due to the versatility of GeoGebra, we expect that the materials in this platform will improve teachers’ capabilities to convey abstract and difficult mathematical concepts to students. Teachers and tutors can take advantage of this new resource to create complementary materials for their lectures and tutorials. We also expect that the use of GeoGebra applets in class will improve teacher-student interactions.
Students can drag the point and use the slider to adjust the increment to observe how the secant lines approach to the tangent line. They can also input different functions for further investigation.
Students can press the “Show more” button to check the details. They can then click to see and compare the area in the picture.
Students can click the checkbox and move the line to verify the theorem.
Using the slider students can change the value of k to obtain a continuous function.
Our online calculators allow users to get straight to the answers with easy inputs. Graphs will also be provided for reference. Students can take advantage of these calculators for getting immediate answers and for verification of their solutions.
We build. We innovate. We share. It is our team’s mission to support teachers in building useful learning resources and sharing knowledge with technology. One recent project is the enhancement of the Resources for Interpreting website (傳譯資源網), and the development of a mobile app “Newssary” instigated by Dr Eva Ng from the Translation Programme of the School of Chinese, Faculty of Arts. Dr Ng is also the recipient of Teaching Innovative Award for the University’s Teaching Excellence Awards in 2017.
The Interpreting Website
Funded by the Knowledge Exchange (KE) Office of HKU, this website provides free learning and training resources for anyone interested in interpreting. One star feature of the website is a glossary of bilingual Chinese-English terms on current affairs. It is a constantly udpated database of thousands of entries collected by students from the news over many years. This database is not only useful for professional interpreters, but also anyone interested in learning buzzwords in the news.
Website Enhancement
For all glossaries and databases, a user-friendly searching function is indispensable. The database now supports searching by Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. An intelligent search function has also been added recently. For example, if you input “appr h” in the search bar, it will prompt you with “Appreciate Hong Kong”. In other words, even if the input information does not correspond exactly with the entries in the database, you will still be prompted with possible matching items and related terms.
Our team further enriched the website by producing a video on what is interpreting. We also set up a server and advised Dr Ng’s team on website architecture and theme development.
Achievement
The website received an overwhelmingly positive response from its users, ranging from academics, PhD candidates and members of the general public:
“[The website] has everything that an interpreter, or anyone who teaches interpreting, or anyone who wants to use it for client education would want.” – Professor Holly Mikkelson, Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, USA
“It’s a wonderful contribution for today’s students and practitioners of interpreting and translation.” – Professor Claudia Angelelli, Heriot-Watt University, UK
The Mobile App
Furthering our effort in revolutionizing the website, we have successfully transformed the glossary into an app, “Newssary”, to increase the accessibility of this useful learning resource. One key feature of the app is game-based learning – it is not just a dictionary, but made interactive for users to learn new vocabulary items through games.
葉青霞：殺無赦點譯好 港大研發時事詞彙app有答案 [Translation: How to translate ‘kill without mercy’? Find out the answer in the glossary of current affairs app developed by HKU] (Ming Pao Weekly, 29 September 2017)
港大研手機應用程式 提供中英對照時事詞彙 [Translation: Mobile app developed by HKU offers bilingual Chinese-English terms on current affairs] (Epoch Times, 25 September 2017)
港大推翻譯App 含7700中英時事詞彙潮語 殺無赦、火箭人都有 [Translation: HKU’s translation app includes 7700 Chinese-English terms on current affairs, including ‘kill without mercy’ and ‘Rocket Man’] (Ming Pao, 24 September 2017)
It’s always good to recognize your own achievement after reaching a goal. Same for completing a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) – After working so hard for a course, the best way to reward yourself is to get a unique certificate. With a certificate, you can easily share your achievement with your employers and friends.
Q: How to get one?
A: As we offer courses on both edX and Coursera, the process of application differs for the two platforms. But in general, you will need to complete the following 3 steps to get the certificate:
Q: How much is a certificate?
A: It depends on the course. Usually USD 50.
Q: Is it printed?
A: You will receive an e-certificate on the edX or Coursera platform. You will NOT receive a printed copy but you are welcome to print it. Check out these links for more details on where to find your Certificate on edX and Coursera.
You may also add your certificate to your LinkedIn profile (edX, Coursera).
Q: I followed all the steps but still can’t purchase / download it. What’s wrong?
A: Please contact us at enquiry@teli.hku.hk and let us know your name, the email you used to register at edX and/or Coursera, and the issue involved. You may also include a screenshot of the problem you encountered.
Q: Is the certificate issued by the University of Hong Kong?
A: It is jointly issued by the platform (edX or Coursera) and HKU. However, please note that the certificate does not count as credit towards a degree from our university.
Q: I can’t afford to pay for a certificate. What should I do?
A: You can file an application for financial aid from edX and Coursera.
Q: Can I still take the course without buying a certificate?
A: Yes of course! Most of our course content is free (except the Honours track in Materials in Oral Health). You are more than welcome to join our courses without buying a certificate. You can choose to upgrade to a verified certificate later if you change your mind. The verification upgrade deadline may be different for different courses. More details can be found here: edX, Coursera.
Educators, wherever we are, should keep up with the challenges and trends in higher education worldwide. One effective way to stay informed is to engage in dialogues with colleagues from around the world. On 20 June, 2017, we learnt about the top 10 challenges and trends in Australian universities in a seminar delivered by Dr Caroline Steel, Strategic Educational Consultant, APAC, Blackboard International ASCILITE Life Member Awardee and Past President Adjunct Academic, The University of Queensland.
The following is the list of key challenges and trends ranked by Australian academic leaders in a study led by Dr Steel:
10 Teaching and Learning Challenges
10 Teaching and Learning Trends
Student career development and employability
Student engagement and satisfaction
Assessment and feedback
Technology-enhanced pedagogical practice
Student attrition
Improving work-integrated learning
First year experience and transition
Personalized adaptive learning
Academic adoption of educational technologies
Academic misconduct
Learning analytics;
Unbundling qualification
(both items ranked number one)
Teaching quality standards;
Fully online courses;
Students as partners
Key Challenges in Teaching and Learning Student career development and employability is considered to be the biggest challenge in the Australian higher education context. In the past, universities mainly focused on training students into critical thinkers. In today’s rapidly changing society, educators should take one step further to educate both the ‘thinker’ and the ‘worker’. Given the rapid development of automation, AI and cognitive computing, some jobs may no longer exist in 10 years’ time. Students may not be fixed to one career throughout their lives. To prepare students for this highly uncertain future, HE institutions should help them acquire various employability skills and develop cross/trans-disciplinary thinking.
The second challenge is student engagement and satisfaction, in both on-campus & online teaching. According to Professor Karen Nelson, an interviewee in the study, student engagement constitutes of three parameters: behavioural, cognitive and affective. The challenge for universities is to “create the educational conditions that will trigger emotion and motivation so that students are engaged.”
Major Trends in Higher Education
The two most prominent trends in Australian higher education are learning analytics and unbundling qualification.
Learning analytics is a potential game changer in higher education. ‘There is enormous potential in learning analytics,’ said Professor Martin Carroll in an interview for the study. However, even though analytics have been used by lots of industries in Australia, high education is falling behind. It is necessary for institutions to keep up with the trend and look for ways to use analytics to improve teaching and learning.
Unbundling qualifications is another prominent trend in Australian higher education. Universities are now looking into the possibility of unbundling qualifications and micro-credentialing as alternative ways to provide learning, so that learners can obtain the skills they need as quickly as possible. For example, instead of completing an entire MBA programme, some professionals may only want to learn certain components of the degree. If universities are able to repurpose some of the content, then more choices will be available to learners. After obtaining skills and credits from various programmes and fields, learners can demonstrate their expertise in their e-portfolios.
Technology
It is worth noting that, among the top 10 T&L trends, 6 are tech-related, namely
Fully online courses
Mobile-enabled learning
Adaptive learning technology
Digital examinations
MOOC’s
Open Education Resources (OER’s)
This finding is certainly encouraging as the use of technology enhances teaching and learning and better prepares institutions for the challenges in higher education. Technology allows flexibility in learning and makes personalized learning possible. Learning management systems and grading tools such as Turnitin make it easier for teachers to assess students and provide feedback. The blending of face-to-face lectures with e-learning tools, such as Mentimeter and Kahoot!, caters for students’ diversified learning needs, which potentially enhances student engagement.
What about Hong Kong?
We are embracing the same challenges in Hong Kong and are working along similar lines. Here at HKU, we strive to cultivate students’ employability skills (e.g. cognitive flexibility, negotiation) and develop cross-disciplinary thinking through events such as Inter-professional Team-based Learning (IPTBL) and Girls4Tech. To enhance student engagement, we are constantly designing new in-class activities, apps and games. To ensure the best learning experience for our students, our efforts in course development is paralleled by research efforts in learning analytics.
More and more teachers are joining the ride in developing MOOCs (on edX and Coursera) and SPOCs to enrich students’ blended learning experience. To further open up learning opportunities to a wider range of learners, we are also exploring the possibilities of unbundling qualifications and MicroMasters and getting ourselves ready for e-portfolios. More initiatives will be in place to shape the T&L landscape in Hong Kong in response to challenges and trends in higher education.
What do you think? How will you respond to these challenges and trends? Share your views with us.
