To celebrate the launch of the first MOOC on dinosaur in Asia, our course instructor, Dr. Michael Pittman, hosted a party with Professor Yongqiang Zong, Head of Department of Earth Sciences and Professor Ricky Kwok, Associate Vice-President (Teaching and Learning) on February 8th, 2017. Almost 50 HKU colleagues and members of the general public celebrated this happy occasion with us at Stephen Hui Geological Museum.
Full house! Thank you for coming!
(Up left) Dr. Michael Pittman, (Up right) Professor Yongqiang Zong, (Bottom) Professor Ricky Kwok
Young Dinosaur Lovers
Dr. Pittman also took this opportunity to congratulate winners of “The Year of the Dinosaur” Drawing Competition and meet young dinosaur lovers in the community.
The drawing competition award goes to:
It was a delight to meet so many young faces passionate about dinosaurs and learning!
In December last year, we were excited to take over 200 local secondary students on the adventurous trip of our first SPOC – Critical Readings of Popular Culture! In the six-week self-paced course, students planned their learning sequence and schedule by themselves. They watched the required learning units to acquire the knowledge and skills needed, completed knowledge check quizzes to assess their understanding, and submitted their own critical analysis with reference to their own learning experience. More importantly, they were actively sharing their ideas with fellow learners in the discussion forums, supporting each other’s learning experience.
Watching all of these happening, we are proud to say: you are ready for university studies!
The course will launch again in May, with more up to date popular work introduced. Stay tuned with us and establish your critical thinking by viewing day-to-day popular culture works through new perspectives.
In the meantime, don’t miss out on two upcoming SPOCs from HKU: – Journey into Madness and Everyday Computing, launching on Mar 1st and 8th respectively.
Get ready for your future study, starting from HKU SPOCs. Register today!
Eligibility: Enrollment is only open for Secondary School Students.
Everyday Computing
This course aims to describe and explain various computational algorithms (e.g., Recursion, Google Map route finding, etc.). It will also help you in evaluating the pros and cons of computing services. At the end of the course, you will demonstrate your learning through a series of activities that will be held in a face-to-face session. This course will cover topics such as, divide and conquer, graphs, cryptography, and authentication protocols.
Journey into madness
Mental illness is often portrayed by mass media as a threat. But how much do we really know about mental illness? Mental health is fundamental to our overall well-being and influences us far more than we’d like to admit. This course will guide you through the considerations of defining abnormality and challenging the stigma attached to mental disorders. With the use of case studies and video lectures, you will gain a broadened understanding of those who struggle with mental illnesses.
Everyday Computing aims to teach you how to make informed decisions in this information age. It is expected that everyone needs to have an efficient way to sift through and evaluate the myriads of information that is available through the Internet. The ultimate objective of this course is to help students develop a “computational” state of mind for everyday events. Specifically, the course will enable students to answer the following questions:
What daily problems need to be solved by a computational method?
Are such problems solvable?
By what means can such problems be solved?
Is it worthwhile to compute such problems?
We will also discuss intensively the societal impacts of computing technologies on our daily life.
Online lectures would be available for the whole course, making room for more in-depth learning in lecture sessions. Specifically, a face-to-face session will be conducted in collaborative workshop formats, whereby students need to work in teams to complete hands-on tasks corresponding to the topics covered in the course.
Our Small Private Online Courses (SPOCs) are here to give you a real taste of university courses. HKU is now providing two SPOCs taught by our very own Professors – Journey into Madness and Everyday Computing.
A Certificate of Completion will be issued upon completing the first 5 basic badges. Each badge can be earned upon fulfilling these two criteria:
Watch all video lectures and read through all topic materials
Getting a 50% mark in each topic challenge questions
A Certificate of Excellence will be awarded to learners
Collected all 7 badges
Attended the Face-to-Face session
FAQs about HSST9003
Is it open to everyone? Yes and no. Yes, it is open to public but limited to secondary school students in Hong Kong.
Is this course free? Yes, It is absolutely free. And the best part is that there is another course “Journey into Madness” that is as good as HSST 9003 and it is also absolutely free.
Can I get a certificate out of it? Yes, it offers two levels of certificate. Certificate of Completion and Certificate of Excellence.
How do I register for this amazing course? You can click here to sign up and we will email you your free learning.hku.hk account.
I already signed up but I didn’t get any email, what should I do? Usually, it takes few hours for us to send a reply. But not to worry. You can also check your SPAM mail just in case.
I’ve waited for hours, check my SPAM, but I still cannot find the email. What should I do? You can email the course team directly through it CCST9003@teli.hku.hk
What is it like in the original Hong Kong class?
About the face to face session:
There will be two classwork activities for this online course and this will be part of the requirement to earn the certificate of excellence.
Classwork #1 Keep Talking Game
In this classwork activity, your group will collaborate to solve a series of puzzles and make sure that every bomb will not explode. So you need to keep talking so that nobody will explode.
Classwork #2 Finding Dr. X
In this classwork activity, your team will travel back in time to help the justice alliance to decrypt the messages left by Dr. X. Your team needs to find his whereabouts and help Prof. Kwok arrest him.
These classwork activities will be held on 8 April 2017, from 10:30 – 12:30, at CPD 3.41, 3/F, Centennial Campus, University of Hong Kong.
The course begins on 8 March, 2017. Registration is open until 22 March, 2017.
Eligibility: Enrollment is open only for Secondary School Students.
Are you a prospective university student? Have you thought of what major you want to study in the future? What do HKU students learn in class?
Our Small Private Online Courses (SPOCs) are here to give you a real taste of university courses. HKU is now providing two SPOCs taught by our very own Professors – Journey into Madness and Everyday Computing.
Journey Into Madness: A Free Online Course on Mental Health
About the course
When you hear the word ‘mental illness’, what kind of image comes to mind? Do you think of a homeless person babbling to a tree or wonder about that emo kid sitting in a dark room?
Mental health is fundamental to our overall well-being and influences us far more than we’d like to admit. Because mental illness is often portrayed as a threat, we immediately fear those who are associated with it. This course will help you unlearn those misconceptions about mental illness by examining the definitions of abnormality and challenging the stigma attached to mental disorders. Together, we will delve deeper into the following topics:
Madness: What is considered abnormal?
Diagnosis: How is one diagnosed with a mental disorder?
Depression: What impact does this growing illness have on youth suicide?
Stigmatization: What measures can you take to reduce stigma associated with mental health problems?
Through online lectures, discussion forums and a peer-review assignment, you will have a better understanding of what constitutes an individual’s mental health status.
Assessment criteria for certificates
A Certificate of Completion will be issued upon completing the following tasks:
Attempt all quizzes in the course, and get above 60% correct.
A Certificate of Excellence will be awarded to learners
Attempt all quizzes in the course, and get above 60% correct.
Submit an Anti-Stigma Campaign proposal to raise awareness of mental illness among Secondary School students (no more than 300 words)
Perform two peer reviews by marking your classmates’ work
Registration: http://bit.ly/hku_spoc The course begins on 1 March, 2017. Registration is open until 15 March, 2017.
Eligibility: Enrollment is only open for Secondary School Students.
Among your five senses, what triggers your learning the most?
You and I will probably agree that visuals would be a popular answer.
Artwork, or visual aids, are most definitely a key component of learning. When creating online content that reaches learners of different cultures, visuals speak a thousand words and can boost the learning experience. Good visuals make learning simple and direct.
Let’s take making a MOOC as an example. From small course logos to big posters, short trailers to illustrations in videos, we strive to take care of every artistic detail to create the most enjoyable learning experience. Our in-house artist, Ray, is here to share with you the artistic journey of crafting MOOCs.
The first rule of drawing for MOOCs is to ensure the accuracy of the illustrations, says Ray. “Always remember that you are drawing for an academic purpose, which is different from leisure drawing.” Academic drawings are more than just decorations. Students learn from these visual aids consciously or subconsciously.
For instance, take a look at this course logo designed by Ray for our Dinosaur Ecosystems MOOC.
It may appear as an easily drawn dinosaur, yet in fact, the design went through several rounds of modifications as the dinosaur neck in the original design did not align with archaeological findings. Sometimes the artist may have to negotiate with the course instructor so as to strike the right balance between visual appeal and accuracy.
As MOOCs serve a global audience, artists may sometimes need to use examples and visual elements that speak a common message to learners of different cultures as much as they can.
For example, take a look at the illustrations below, can you tell what it is portraying and which MOOC it was used in? What would be your choice:
The correct answer is Humanity and Nature in Chinese Thought! Ray and the course team chose Star Wars, a worldwide known movie, as an example to illustrate abstract Chinese philosophical concepts to the audience. Did you guess the correct answer?
Our students commented positively on Ray’s animations.
These are just some examples to illustrate the flexibility and creativity of visual aids that can enhance learners’ participation. Thanks to Ray, our elearning journey has been made more colourful!
