Vice-President (Teaching and Learning)

Message from Vice President (Teaching and Learning)

Dear colleagues

I’m writing with information about central T&L support this summer.

Chi Wah studios

Many colleagues are keen to make use of the summer to prepare online teaching materials. For the months of July and August, we’re therefore opening five studios in Chi Wah Learning Commons for recording and editing course content. All five rooms will be supported by experienced TeLi colleagues, and by summer interns recruited for their expertise. Teachers can book an initial one-hour consultation session at https://appointment.teli.hku.hk/. They can also arrange follow-up assistance if need be. When making your first booking, please provide a brief statement of the input you require. From September onwards, we’ll retain two of the five Chi Wah studios.

WhatsApp hotline

As before, TeLi will operate a WhatsApp hotline for e-learning queries. The number is 6437-8034. We aim to respond to all queries within 10 minutes during regular office hours. Please do not phone this number, as calls will not be answered. But please do send a text whenever you encounter any e-learning problems. This hotline will continue to function throughout Semester 1.

TechSmith Camtasia

We’ve purchased a TechSmith Camtasia 2020 site license for all HKU staff and students. ITS will send out access details in early July. Camtasia is an easy-to-use, all-in-one screen recorder and video editor. It enables you to create teaching videos with screen recording functions, and allows for easy editing of recorded videos for upload to Moodle.Online tutorials are at https://www.techsmith.com/tutorial-camtasia.html. We will retain our Camtasia license for at least the next three years.

Existing studios

All year round, we have bookable studios on the Centennial Campus and in the Main Library. They don’t have the dedicated support provided for the Chi Wah studios over the summer months, but they’re still an excellent resource for colleagues with some understanding of what they plan to do.

TeLi Studios, Centennial Campus (CPD1.46, Jockey Club Tower): https://tips.teli.hku.hk/

Editing Rooms, 2/F Main Library: https://libguides.lib.hku.hk/c.php?g=894602&p=6442213

Webinars

TeLi will conduct a series of webinars on online teaching and flipped classrooms on five successive Fridays during the summer. Registration details will be circulated by bulk email.

Virtual Flipped Classroom Design (Video production)

Date: 10 July (Fri)
Time: 11:30am – 12:30pm
Speakers: Dr Leon Lei, Ms Crystal Luo, Ms Sharon Keung
Registration: https://tl.hku.hk/elearningblog/?pid=30453

Virtual Flipped Classroom Design (Lecturing)
Date: 17 July (Fri)
Time: 11:30am – 12:30pm
Speakers: Dr Leon Lei, Ms Sharon Keung

Virtual Flipped Classroom Design (Group work)
Date: 24 July (Fri)
Time: 11:30am – 12:30pm
Speakers: Dr Wincy Chan

Virtual Flipped Classroom Design (Assessment)
Date: 31 July (Fri)
Time: 11:30am – 12:30pm
Speakers: Dr Leon Lei, Ms Sharon Keung

From Classroom to Remote Teaching
Date: 7 August (Fri)
Time: 11:30am – 12:30pm
Speakers: Dr Wincy Chan

Contact us

Technical questions: WhatsApp 6437-8034 or contact ITS at https://www.its.hku.hk/service-desk
Pedagogical issues: contact CETL at https://www.cetl.hku.hk/ or cetlhku@hku.hk
Policy issues: drop me an email at ian.holliday@hku.hk

Finally, a website with T&L resources for the coming academic year is here: https://tl.hku.hk/teachonline/

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

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