Here is a chance for you to explore the endless possibilities of e-learning with us. HKU will be launching an open online course on the basics of e-learning for teachers of all sectors on Apr 14. This course will teach you how to create educational videos, flip your classroom and improve your teaching through analyzing students’ online behaviour. You will also gain exposure to the latest EdTech used in both on-campus teaching and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). You will have a chance to create your own videos with our e-learning technologists at HKU. This course, entitled “Scale Out Teaching; Scale Up Learning”, includes both interactive online lectures and face-to-face video-making workshops. The course schedule is as follows:

Date	Session	Topics
14 Apr	Online Session 0 Online Session 1	E-learning Ecosystem: Setting the Scene Interactive Online Learning: Getting Started
22 Apr	Face-to-Face Session A	Creating Your Online Video
28 Apr	Online Session 2	Blended Learning: Teaching On-Campus
5 May	Online Session 3	MOOC: Teaching The World
12 May	Online Session 4	Learning Analytics: Using Learner’s Data To Improve Teaching
20 May	Face-to-Face Session B	Show and Tell

The course is part of the Blended & Online Learning & Teaching (BOLT) Project, which aims at supporting professional development of teachers’ skills in online and blended teaching. The project is a collaborative effort of five institutions – PolyU, HKIEd, HKBU, HKU and HKUST. All teachers are welcome to join this vibrant learning community. Embark your e-learning journey with us now!

Jointly Organised by Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL), E-learning Pedagogical Support Unit (EPSU) and Technology-Enriched Learning Initiative (TELI)

About the Joint Event

Like many other leading universities, HKU is seeking to enhance the internationalisation of its curricula and its teaching. But what can be done in a course or a programme to bring the international learning experiences to students without the need to travel? A recent policy paper (2015) by European Parliament advocates that digital and virtual learning offers a promising way to realise international collaborative experiences and achieve ‘internationalisation at home’.

During the first join-the-conversation in January, we identified digital and virtual learning as one of the eight learning challenges and opportunities associated with the internationalisation of teaching and learning in HKU. In this joint event, we will further look at the ways that recent advances in information and communication technologies open up new possibilities to enrich international experiences in courses and programmes. Participants will be able to review a range of approaches and techniques whereby digital learning may facilitate international learning experiences for students, evaluate the value and feasibility of these approaches in HKU’s context, and discuss the possible applications of some of the approaches in their courses or programmes.

Registration

For information on registration, please contact:
Ms. Noranda Zhang , CETL
Phone: 3917 4729; Email: noranda@hku.hk​

We all know that nuclear accident is a dreadful disaster. But do you know what actions should be taken if such a disaster strikes today? Learn how to respond to nuclear emergencies in our new online course, Radiation Emergencies. This online course will take you on a journey to explore the fundamentals of radiation and Chemical Biological Radiation Nuclear (CBRN) emergencies. You will learn the proper ways to detect radiation and develop an in-depth understanding of the effects caused by acute exposure to radiation. Enriched by a wide range of learning resources, including videos of clinical demonstration on how to don and remove protective equipment, as well as survey and decontaminate nuclear victims, this course will teach you how to protect yourself from radiation and help nuclear victims. Clinical demonstration on radioactive measurement and decontamination.

This self-paced free online course is suitable for first responders to radiation emergencies and members of the general public interested in the topic. Jointly developed by the Emergency Care Unit of HKU and the Hong Kong Jockey Club Disaster Preparedness and Response Institute, it is the first in our series of e-learning modules on CBRN emergencies. Join us now and earn a certificate!

Flipping the classroom allows teachers to present instructional materials before class mostly via short videos, freeing class time for interactive activities in the face-to-face sessions. But, what is the definition of quality in-class activities? Dr. Lily Zeng and Professor Ricky Kwok shared their insights in a workshop on 8 March 2016.

The 4Cs

Ricky’s formula of engaging class activities comprises 4Cs:

Collaborative
Collaborative work promotes mutual scaffolding and peer-to-peer learning. For example, in Professor Rick Glofcheski’s Tort Law class, students had to analyze legal cases together.

Competitive
It is also a good idea to balance collaboration with healthy competition in the classroom. We should provide students with a platform to race with each other and achieve a given goal within limited time. For example, In CCST9003 Everyday Computing and the Internet, students are challenged to solve a Rubik’s cube in the shortest time possible.

Co-creation
By giving students a chance to co-create content, we are prompting them to learn from each other. For example, Professor Benson Yeh asked students to design their own questions for the class.

Credits
Students should be given credits for their effort; where possible, their participation should be appropriately assessed. This will incentivize students to constantly improve their performance. For example, participation in the Interprofessional Team-based Learning (IPTBL) for health professional students would contribute to the grade of some students.

Gamification

The 4Cs can take many different forms. One possibility is to engage your students with learning games during the lesson.

As Ricky pointed out in the workshop, “Gamification is all about how to engage students; how we can incentivize them to take desirable actions. And desirable actions in our context today, is to make learning happen; it’s to achieve the learning outcomes.” “With a good design, you can … engage your students [to] learn the things that you want them to learn. And if you can structure that learning activity as a game, then it will be even better.”

Developing a learning game may seem an impossible challenge to some. But don’t worry. TELI is here to work with you. You can always bring your rough ideas to us and we can brainstorm together. The following questions may help you get started:

1. Which topic do you want to work on?
2. Do you want students to play the game as pre-class or in-class activity?

It is possible to begin with a rough idea and develop it into something big. In fact, it is okay even if you don’t have any idea about gamification at all. Come to us. We will show you game prototypes we are currently developing and offer you suggestions.

Further reading

1. Sharing by Rick Glofcheski on Flipped Learning
2. The Successful Story of Professor Benson Yeh, a Teacher-turned-Entrepreneur
3. Not just for fun: Gamify your class

Effective communication and collaboration is one of HKU’s educational aims. In our healthcare-related curricula, we strive to offer students a range of opportunities to work together and build a professional network on campus. One recent attempt was a UGC-funded programme entitled “Interprofessional Team-based Learning (IPTBL) for Health Professional Students,” launched in January 2016.

The main purpose of IPTBL is to facilitate deeper learning experiences and interactions of health professional students in their roles and responsibilities; and to enable them to actively learn in small groups. During the session, teams of students from Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, Chinese Medicine and Biomedical Sciences from HKU and PolyU completed tests based on suggested readings, first individually and then as a cross-disciplinary team. Team members then worked together on case-based application exercises. The way teams were arranged reflected the realities of the healthcare sector, where professionals from a variety of disciplines work together to improve the well-being of patients.

“It’s a great way for healthcare professionals to meet when they are studying, and then build relationships, friendships, so that when they go to the HA [Hospital Authority] or the community, they are familiar with each other, and they know how each other works [and] thinks,” said Dr. Alan Worsley, who served on the teacher panel as a Pharmacy content expert.  

In fact, teachers also mirrored the process their learners went through in the face-to-face sessions when they collaboratively examined clinical cases and addressed questions from students.

Collaborative learning in the IPTBL programme is further enhanced by the use of the Learning Activity Management System (LAMS), which provided instant statistics that help facilitators check the progress of individuals and teams. The system also came with an online discussion forum designated for interactions after the face-to-face sessions. According to the Principal Investigator of this project, Dr Lap Ki Chan (Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine), “in each of the sessions of this team-based programme we’re talking about 500 to 600 students. Without the use of technology it is difficult to manage such a large number of students.” TELI collaborated with the IPTBL team to ensure that the LAMS functioned smoothly and that the face-to-face sessions were conducted effectively.

More than 500 students across 7 programmes from 2 universities participated in the first two IPTBL days on January 16 and February 20, 2016. The programme is growing continuously and is expected to serve over 1000 students in total from 12 programmes by 2017. This would be the first large-scale interprofessional education programme in Hong Kong.