Vice-President (Teaching and Learning)

Dear colleagues and students

I’m writing to inform you about our teaching arrangements for the Summer Semester and Academic Year 2020-21. Our core aim is to make a gradual and partial return to face-to-face (f2f) teaching. To do that, we will have to observe detailed health and safety protocols covering the entire campus, which will be announced well in advance. This email only addresses scheduling issues.

Parameters
The broad parameters we will observe for teaching are listed below. Where circumstances allow, there may be variation within individual programmes.

• Small-group classes (up to 25 students) will be scheduled as normal.
• Lectures will be scheduled in classrooms that can accommodate at least twice as many students as are in the class. Thus, a lecture with 60 students will be scheduled in a classroom that can accommodate at least 120 students.
• For TPG courses, our available teaching rooms will enable us to deliver f2f lectures for most classes of up to 90 students.
• For UG programme courses, our available teaching rooms will enable us to deliver f2f lectures for almost all classes of up to 90 students.
• For UG Common Core courses, our available teaching rooms will enable us to deliver f2f lectures for roughly half of our courses with 120 students.
• The Grand Hall will enable us to schedule a small number of large lectures (up to 300 students) for TPG and UG students.
• However, most courses with more than 90 students will deliver their lectures online.

Summer Semester
Building on these parameters, we will make a gradual return to f2f teaching for the Summer Semester. We will also offer a small number of online UG courses for students who would like to pick up some credits but will not be in HK.

Academic Year 2020-21
In 2020-21, we will continue with partial f2f teaching:

• TPG programmes
  Small-group classes of up to 25 students: f2f
  Most lecture classes of up to 90 students: f2f
  Other lecture classes: online (apart from a small number in the Grand Hall)
• UG programmes
  Small-group classes of up to 25 students: f2f
  Almost all lecture classes of up to 90 students: f2f
  Other lecture classes: online (apart from a small number in the Grand Hall)
• UG: Common Core
  Small-group classes of up to 25 students: f2f
  Lecture classes of up to 120 students: roughly half f2f, roughly half online
  Mega classes of up to 288 students: just a few f2f in the Grand Hall
• All TPG and UG courses
  For the first three weeks of S1, we will cater for the needs of TPG and UG students who are unable to come to campus because of visa, quarantine and other issues. Mostly this will be done by making course materials available both f2f and online for that period.

Technical support
As there will continue to be a significant element of online teaching in the months ahead, we are actively enhancing our technical support for both teachers and students.

With so many aspects of the future uncertain, we can’t be sure everything will unfold exactly as planned. As of now, though, this is how things look. Should there be any changes, we will inform you as quickly as possible. In the meantime, please do drop me a line with any queries (ian.holliday@hku.hk).

Best wishes for the summer – Ian

Professor Ian Holliday
VP/T&L

Dear colleagues

I’m writing to update you on our online examination arrangements through OLEX. All exams making use of the OLEX platform are required to follow guidelines prepared by the Examinations Office.

Basic information:-

• The Examinations Office guidelines are available at http://www.exam.hku.hk/.
• Teachers and invigilators please access ‘Forms and Links’.
• Students are asked to access ‘University Examinations and Examination Timetables’.
• Online proctoring will take place through Zoom, with students’ identities checked by invigilators.
• All colleagues are reminded to upgrade to Zoom 5.0 here.

We ask teachers and department administrators please to:-

• Ensure the student lists in Moodle sub-courses are clean. All sit-in students and duplicated guest accounts need to be removed.
• Upload exam papers to OLEX at anytime from Monday, May 11 to 30 minutes before the start of the exam.
• Inform students and invigilators before the exam about any course-specific instructions (including whether use of calculators is allowed, whether students should type or write their answers, which the type of script file (doc or pdf) is acceptable, how the webcam should be set up during the exam, and so on). Identical instructions should also be included in the exam paper.
• Maintain close teacher-invigilator communication throughout the exam period, and especially for the first 30 minutes of the exam (when students are allowed to raise questions of clarification about the exam paper).

We ask invigilators please to:-

• Login to Zoom at https://hku.zoom.us before Thursday April 30 if you have not used Zoom before.
• Launch the Zoom meeting and start the Panopto recording at least 30 minutes before the start of the exam and admit students from the waiting room. The student list for each exam can be obtained from OLEX.

We ask colleagues to make note of these additional points:-

• Teachers and invigilators are asked NOT to host any other Zoom meeting during the exam timeslot to avoid any unwanted interference with the exam.
• Invigilators are not allowed to open the exam paper before the start of the exam.
• Students’ script files will be available for download six hours after the end of the exam.
• In case an invigilator is unable to invigilate an allocated exam session, the teacher should assume the invigilation duties or arrange for a delegate to do so. If no delegate is available, please send an urgent email to olexhelp@hku.hk to seek assistance in finding a backup invigilator.
• Administrators from the Examinations Office may enter any Zoom meeting at any time for any exam for inspection purposes.
• While the University will remind the students to register on OLEX, it would be good if teachers could reinforce the message by reaching out to their students. It would also be helpful if teachers and administrators could check before the examination to ensure that students have registered on OLEX.

To familiarize everyone with the OLEX system, TeLi, ITS and the Examinations Office will co-host three identical online training sessions for staff. Dates and registration details are as follows:-

Session 1: May 5, 2020 (Tuesday) 16:45-17:45
Session 2: May 7, 2020 (Thursday) 10:45-11:45
Session 3: May 8, 2020 (Friday) 16:45-17:45
Registration: https://hkuems1.hku.hk/hkuems/ec_hdetail.aspx?ueid=69633 

A Teacher Drill Platform will be available for two weeks from Tuesday, May 5 at https://drill-epload.hku.hk/exam/. Teachers will be able to view their courses on OLEX from Monday, May 11. Invigilators will only be allowed access to courses they will invigilate, together with the relevant Zoom links. Demonstration videos for students and invigilators can also be found at https://hku.to/exam1920_training. Later this week we will email all students about the exam guidelines, online training sessions and other related matters.

For questions about exam arrangements, please contact the Examinations Office at exam@hku.hk. For technical questions about OLEX, please contact ITS at olexhelp@hku.hk. For questions about e-learning, please contact Dr Tyrone Kwok (tyrone.kwok@hku.hk) or Dr Leon Lei (culei@hku.hk) of TeLi. For other matters, please drop me a line (ian.holliday@hku.hk). Many thanks to all, as ever.

Best wishes, Ian

Professor Ian Holliday
Vice-President (Teaching and Learning)

Important message from Professor Ian Holliday, Vice-President & Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching & Learning)

Dear students

In light of the recent surge in the number of COVID-19 infection cases and following the HK government’s advice, the University has decided that final year Undergraduate face-to-face teaching and any Taught Postgraduate face-to-face teaching will be delayed for two weeks, in order to minimise the chance of infection in the community.

The pandemic situation is changing rapidly and we are committed to ensuring that teaching and learning can be conducted as safely as possible. We very much appreciate your understanding and cooperation. Please stay vigilant and continue to make personal health your top priority.

Professor Ian Holliday
Vice-President & Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching & Learning)

Dear colleagues

Just a quick supplement to my earlier email sent to both colleagues and students.

Zoom

We’ve upgraded our Zoom licence for the next 12 months. Previously, HKU Zoom accounts each had 500MB storage for cloud recordings. Now there’s no storage limit, though any recording uploaded by a teacher to the Zoom cloud will be removed after six months. Before this happens, ITS will send a notification to remind the account holder to download the relevant file to a PC or laptop.

Storing files

For storing files, teachers may make use of the HKU Video Streaming Server, which offers 150GB to each account holder. Teachers can apply for an account via CF43. A user guide can be found here.

Teaching rooms

A reminder, more for future semesters than the current one: the University has 159 centrally-managed classrooms, and all are fully equipped with Panopto and Zoom facilities.

Best wishes, Ian

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

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