Vice-President (Teaching and Learning)

Dear colleagues and students

We’re continuing to monitor and analyse the COVID-19 situation and its implications for the University. Within this still uncertain framework, we’re trying to figure out the best way forward for teaching and learning. As before, our absolute priority remains the health and safety of both HKU members and the general public.

With this at the forefront of our minds, we’re announcing a series of updates to our plans for the remainder of the semester. We recognise that the choices we’re able to make at the present time are not ideal, but we believe they’re the best that are available to our campus community.

Until the end of the teaching period on May 16, all teaching and learning will be delivered online. There are just a few exceptions, including:

(1) Non-clinical laboratory, studio and practical skills components of courses for final-year students that have to be taught through face-to-face classes in order for students to graduate on time. We will arrange for these students to come on campus for low-density laboratory, studio and practical skills teaching sessions beginning no earlier than March 30. Their other classes will remain online. When required to come on campus, these students will be provided with face masks. Faculties will inform final-year students taking these courses of detailed arrangements at the start of next week.

(2) Clinical programmes in the Faculty of Dentistry and the Faculty of Medicine. These two Faculties will reach out separately to students enrolled in these programmes.

Assessment

Assessment components and weightings will conform to the arrangements already announced by course coordinators. However, for all courses taught online there will be no proctored, in-hall exams during the assessment period from May 18 to June 6. Instead, all ‘final exam’ components will be moved online. We’re asking teachers to rethink the tasks that will constitute the ‘final exam’ to ensure they’re suitable for online assessment.

Assessment choices

As in Semester 1, we’re offering all UG and TPG students three assessment choices:

–     Continue with letter grading, where applicable (contributing to GPA)

–     Change to pass/fail grading (not contributing to GPA)

–     Opt out of the course entirely through a late drop option

Students will be able to make these choices through a link on SIS from March 23 to April 30. Full details will be announced within the next two weeks.

Pass/fail

We strongly advise all students to think carefully when opting for pass/fail grading. Courses that are simply passed will be recorded as P on the transcript, with no GPA. For UG students in particular, this could have important knock-on effects. Internally, we rely on SGPA data for elective opportunities, such as academic exchange and other funded programmes. Externally, employers and universities around the world examine transcripts in some detail when taking decisions about jobs and postgraduate study. Students without solid SGPA data from 2019-20 may therefore place themselves at a disadvantage.

Late drop

Students returning to the University beyond the normative study period solely to make up late dropped credits from 2019-20 will not be asked to pay a composition fee. Normally, this policy will apply only in 2020-21. However, in cases where a student is unable to make up the dropped credits in 2020-21 because the requisite course is not on offer or, in special cases where personal circumstances stand in the way, an extension to 2021-22 may be permitted.

As ever, many thanks for working together with us to get through a challenging semester. Please do write to me with queries: ian.holliday@hku.hk.

Best wishes, Ian

Professor Ian Holliday
Vice-President (Teaching and Learning)
The University of Hong Kong

Dear students

Just a few updates about online T&L at HKU.

Add/drop

First, a reminder. We extended the add/drop period to 4:00pm on Friday, February 21. So the window remains open only for a couple more days.

Late drop

We understand that the current online learning experience, while good for some students, is not positive for everyone. We’re therefore offering UG and TPG students the opportunity to late drop any of their Semester 2 courses at any point until 11:59pm on Thursday, April 30. Please note that at present we’re not planning to offer students a pass/fail option for letter-grade courses. This is mainly because we have a system of GPA calculation and honours classification that relies on a solid base of data. If we switch too many courses to pass/fail, that base will start to erode. Provided we’re able to return to campus teaching on March 30, as scheduled, we’ll stick with letter grading for this semester.

Feedback

We’re eager to learn about your experience with online learning to improve our courses. We’ve therefore created a webpage for anonymous feedback: http://hku.to/onlinelearningfeedback. While we’ll read all the submissions from students, we won’t respond as we’re not requesting student identities and contact details. If you’d like to receive a response from us, you can send an email to hcm00101@hku.hk.

Engage!

Online learning is very different from campus teaching, but it does still provide students with multiple opportunities to engage with their courses. Please do participate as fully as possible in interactive classes. As you know, there are many ways to do that on platforms such as Zoom. Please do also keep in touch with your course teachers and academic advisers through any of the platforms they use. Teachers and advisers are happy to connect virtually with students.

Best wishes, Ian

Professor Ian Holliday

Vice-President (Teaching and Learning)
The University of Hong Kong

Message from Vice President (Teaching and Learning)

Dear colleagues

(Please also read our update on Online Teaching and Learning Resources dated February 7, 2020)

In the past couple of days I’ve had opportunities to discuss online learning with the Associate Deans (T&L) and, when visiting with the President, with colleagues in the Faculties of Arts and Social Sciences. In recent weeks I’ve also had many email conversations with colleagues and students. I figure it makes sense to circulate some of the lessons learned in the form of another FAQ list.

Can the assessment weightings for a course be changed?

This issue has already been discussed within Faculties. The answer is yes, but the window for making such changes will soon close. Normally by this point in the semester we would require full class consent (all students). However, until 4:00pm on February 21 we’re in the extended add/drop period, so as yet there’s no fixed class for each course. This means we can make changes more easily. All colleagues need to do is revise the assessment weightings as they see fit, inform all students registered for the class, update the relevant course information on SIS, and send a record of the change to Faculty Board for endorsement. Students who feel disadvantaged by the change will be able to drop the course. While this is not an ideal option, it is still a choice. Note that this must be done before February 21. Thereafter, full class consent will be necessary.

Should the assessment weightings for a course be changed?

If a course taught this semester relies heavily on a proctored final exam, it would be a good idea, where possible, to reduce the weighting for that component and boost the weighting for other assessed tasks. At this stage in the unfolding coronavirus situation, we remain committed to holding in-person exams in examination halls at the end of the semester. However, if the disruption becomes more severe, we may have to revise our assessment arrangements. Were that to happen, it would be good not to be too reliant on final exams, which we know generate issues that are difficult to manage.

Should teachers require students to switch on their camera and microphone for interactive classes?

I discussed this issue at length with the Associate Deans. We agreed that at the level of University policy we should not require this because it could be intrusive in the home environment in which many students study (even though Zoom has a function enabling the background to be blurred or replaced). At the same time, we recognized that teachers may have strong reasons to encourage students to adopt this practice. A colleague in Arts also made the point that in some courses it may be necessary to ask students to do this because of the nature of the learning materials and tasks.

How can students be encouraged to view online lectures?

One suggestion made by a colleague in Social Sciences is to ask students to complete a weekly assignment consisting of a brief account of the lecture and a short list of questions related to the material covered in it.

How are students currently located in the Mainland connecting with HKU?

For our online exam (OLEX) platform at the end of the first semester, we secure a leased line from Alibaba. This enables students located in the Mainland to connect with HKU as if they were in Hong Kong. The line is not monitored because it uses a point-to-point https protocol, where the ‘s’ stands for ‘secure’. All traffic between the two points is encrypted. For online T&L in this semester, we have again secured a leased line from Alibaba.

How can teachers stay in touch with their students during this period of online T&L?

Moodle remains the best way to keep in touch with students. In addition to any uploaded materials, please do post weekly consultation hours for students to schedule individual conversations with you (using, say, WhatsApp or Zoom). Many students have questions, but they no longer have the option of catching hold of a teacher after a lecture or calling by during office hours. This is also a way to keep the academic advising function going.

How can colleagues share good practice and lessons learned from online T&L?

Some Faculties have created online platforms for teachers to post good and bad experiences of online learning. This is also something we could consider doing for HKU as a whole, linked to Faculty pages. In many Faculties informal groups of colleagues are coming together to share experience and provide mutual support. This is clearly a very welcome development.

How can upload speeds on Zoom be enhanced?

We recognize that Zoom is an outstanding T&L platform and we’re keen to ensure it’s fully available to colleagues. At present we’re exploring options for enhancing Zoom functionality at HKU. In the meantime, however, for obvious reasons upload speeds are better at the ends of the day. It’s also possible to download, say, a recorded lecture from Zoom to a desktop computer or laptop and then upload for students to view through Microsoft OneDrive. Details are available here: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us/articles/201362473-Local-Recording?mobile_site=true .

How can teachers learn more about online T&L?

We offer support to teachers through:

– TELI training sessions scheduled by some Faculties, and hopefully ultimately by all Faculties since the feedback is uniformly excellent;
– Updates on TELI website: https://tl.hku.hk/2020/02/online-teaching-and-learning-for-staff-updated-february-7-2020/ ;
– TELI gadgets and tools: https://teli.hku.hk/e-learning-resources/ ;
– TELI e-learning quick start guide;
– TELI e-learning demonstration videos;
– TELI individual consultation sessions with Leon Lei (9162 3384) and Tyrone Kwok (5964 8396), who can both be reached via WhatsApp;
– CETL website: https://www.cetl.hku.hk/ ;
– CETL designated Faculty liaison persons: visit https://www.cetl.hku.hk/ , then click “Support for online teaching and learning” (the first iconic picture on the left-to-right scrolling banner).

As before, many thanks to all and please drop me a line with queries.

Best wishes, Ian

Professor Ian Holliday
Vice President (Teaching and Learning)

Dear colleagues and students

The University is continuing to draw on expert medical knowledge in monitoring the coronavirus situation in Hong Kong. While all of us are eager to return to teaching and learning in early March, we realize that it is now unlikely that scheduled classes on campus will be able to resume so quickly. As long as there is risk of infection in a crowded classroom, we cannot deliver face-to-face teaching. I’m writing to inform you of how we envisage the remainder of the semester unfolding.

Please note that the teaching and assessment schedules for professional undergraduate programmes may differ from those described below, and will be announced separately by programme directors.

Undergraduate programmes

Taught postgraduate programmes

We are adopting a flexible approach to the scheduling of taught postgraduate programmes. Faculties or programme teams will announce the detailed teaching arrangements to their own cohorts of taught postgraduate students.

Research postgraduate programmes

University policy encourages research postgraduate students with no immediate need to visit the campus to undertake their research, and liaise with their supervisors, remotely. Students who need to conduct their research in a campus setting, such as a laboratory, must adhere to Government and University infection control protocols before returning to campus. All research postgraduate students should discuss their study plans in detail with their supervisors. We will respond sympathetically to requests for candidature extensions necessitated by disruptions experienced during this semester, and for tuition waivers for the extended period of studies.

Visiting campus

One general reminder during the current coronavirus situation in Hong Kong: colleagues and students who visit the campus must adhere to Government and University infection control guidelines. We will have no alternative but to take strict disciplinary action against anyone not adhering to them.

Once again, many thanks for your understanding and cooperation as we seek to navigate the remainder of an unprecedented and unpredictable semester. As before, please stay vigilant and continue to make personal health your top priority.

Professor Ian Holliday

Vice-President & Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching & Learning)