Category: Blog

Asia’s First Interdisciplinary FinTech Professional Certificate Program From HKU

Trailer and sneak previews

The University of Hong Kong (HKU) presents to you Asia’s first interdisciplinary Professional Certificate Program in FinTech on edX platform starting on May 15 2018.

FinTech – short for Financial Technology – is transforming the world of finance, especially in Asia at a rate never seen before. It is essential that professionals working in finance, technology, regulation or FinTech and students studying related subjects are equipped with in-demand FinTech knowledge and skills in today’s world of finance.

The FinTech Certificate Program compiles a series of three courses providing students with the tools to understand the interaction of finance and technology across the financial system as well as insight into the major technologies involved and the emerging business models and players in the industry. The first course Introduction to FinTech commences on May 15 and will be followed by two courses, FinTech Ethics and Risks and Blockchain and FinTech: Basics, Applications and Limitations, which will open over the coming year.

Each course brings together leading experts in FinTech from a range of backgrounds, including professors, market professionals and entrepreneurs. Designed by leading academics from a range of disciplines with input from industry leaders including among others SuperCharger, the Centre for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship, Microsoft, PwC, the Asia Capital Markets Institute, the Standard Chartered Bank, Thompson Reuters, and other partners in financial services, FinTech startups and Techfins sectors. In each course, you will gain greater understanding of the key trends in finance, technology and regulation, to better prepare for not only the opportunities but also the risks and challenges, including to traditional financial institutions and business models and those working in them.

Details

About this course
Over the past decade emerging technologies, paired with massive changes in regulations, have driven an unprecedented transformation of finance around the world. This process is happening more rapidly in China and Asia than anywhere else. This course is designed to explore FinTech fundamentals and help make sense of this wave of change as it happens.

New players such as start-ups and technology firms are challenging traditional players in finance, bringing democratization, inclusion and disruption. Companies engaged in social media, e-commerce, and telecommunications, as well as, companies and start-ups with large customer data pools, creative energies, and technical capacities, have brought competition to the existing financial infrastructure and are remaking the industry.

These transformations have not only created challenges but also unprecedented opportunities, building synergies with new business and regulatory models, particularly in emerging markets and developing countries. To meet these changes, 21st-century professionals and students must be equipped with up-to-date knowledge of the industry and its incredible evolution. This course – designed by HKU with the support of SuperCharger and the Centre for Finance, Technology and Education – is designed to enable learners with the necessary tools to understand the complex interaction of finance, technology and regulation.

In this course, through a series of video lectures, case studies, and assessments you will explore the major areas of FinTech including, beginning with What is FinTech before turning to Money, Payment and Emerging Technologies, Digital Finance and Alternative Finance, FinTech Regulation and RegTech, Data and Security, and the Future of Data Driven Finance, as well as, the core technologies driving FinTech including Blockchain, AI and Big Data. These will set the stage for understanding the FinTech landscape and ecosystem and grappling with the potential direction of future change.

What you’ll learn

The major areas in FinTech, including Money and Payment, Digital Finance and Alternative Finance
Major technological trends, including cryptocurrencies, Blockchain, AI and Big Data
FinTech Regulation and RegTech
The fundamental role of Data and Security in data-driven finance
Business and regulatory implications of technology for the financial industry
How regulations and RegTech are applied
Ways to analyse and evaluate what is driving technology innovation in Finance
How new technology impacts economies, markets, companies, and individuals

The key instructors of the course are:

Course Director and Chief Instructor

Douglas Arner Kerry Holdings Professor in Law, The University of Hong Kong	Janos Barberis Founder SuperCharger FinTech Accelerator	Huy Nguyen Trieu CEO of The Disruptive Group & Co-founder of CFTE, Center for Finance, Technology and Entrepreneurship

Ross Buckley Professor of International Finance Law, University of New South Wales	Brian Tang Managing Director, Asia Capital Markets Institute (ACMI)	Henri Arslanian FinTech & RegTech Leader, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) – China & HK

Details

Don’t forget to join us on Facebook or Twitter for more updates.

Connecting Teaching and Learning with Technology: HKU EdTech Day 2018

Thank you for joining us at the HKU EdTech Day on April 26, 2018! In this event, we showcased HKU’s pioneering efforts in developing e-learning and introduced the latest (and coolest!) technology to teachers, students and visitors. We were overwhelmed by the enthusiasm of our guests!

Highlights of the day

AR Sky Lantern
Make a wish

Wish upon a lantern

AR Dinosaur
Free photo taking with our 3D Gigantoraptor

Filming Station Photo-taking
Free photo taking in our mini studio
A unique souvenir to bring home!

VR Tilt Brush

Unleash your creativity – 3D painting in the air!

VR Rock Climbing

Fire up your adventurous spirit!

Our Place in the Universe

Explore the wonders of the Universe with the Armillary Sphere app
* This app will be used in our upcoming Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) Our Place in the Universe, which will be launched in June 2018. Learn more about the MOOC here. More details will be announced on Facebook.

HKU Online Learning – Courses and tools
A showcase of our online courses and the Video Vox Platform

EdTech Tools Showcase
Experience instant online polling with Mentimeter

Student Initiative

eLearning services provided by ITS

imseCAVE visit

Thank you once again for joining us in this joyous occasion. Check out our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more photos!

We hope to see you all again in our upcoming events! The next one will be the Authentic Assessment Symposium on May 3!

AR e-learning EdTech Events HKU EdTech Day TELI VR

Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Flipped Class

This blog post is part of the ‘Flipped Classroom Professional Development Series’.

There are multiple ways to assess the effectiveness of your flipped class. While there is no single perfect way to measure teaching effectiveness, practitioners from HKU have come up with a few useful methods and tips for evaluation, which they shared in the Flipped Classroom Learning Symposium – Sharing of Pedagogies and Practices. In general, adopting a mixed approach allows you to evaluate your class more comprehensively.

How Researchers Measured Effectiveness in the Literature

Criteria of evaluation
Effectiveness of the flipped classroom has been measured by multiple ways in the literature, most palpably by examining the course’s direct and indirect educational outcomes. A scoping review conducted by O’Flaherty and Phillips (2015) summarized how educators evaluated the effectiveness of a flipped class by measuring various direct and indirect educational outcomes.

While different researchers may have different definitions of “educational outcomes”, direct educational outcomes usually refer to (i) students’ scores and grades in traditional summative assessment and (ii) attendance. In particular, students’ performance in tests, exams, group work and group presentations are often used for evaluation in research (Cheng, Lee, Chang & Yang, 2017; Cotta, Shah, Almgren, Macías-Moriarity & Mody, 2016; Gilboy, Heinerichs & Pazzaglia, 2015). In contrast to direct outcomes, indirect educational outcomes include (i) students’ course experience; (ii) their attitudes, perceptions, and feelings towards the course; (iii) student engagement and learning behavior (measured by learning data); and (iv) student empowerment and development in the course, e.g., development of high order thinking skills, such as creativity, problem-solving and critical thinking skills, etc.

According to O’Flaherty and Phillips (2015), limited research had been conducted on evaluating student learning outcomes in terms of their development of high order thinking skills; more researchers chose to evaluate (i) student satisfaction of the flipped class; (ii) student-teacher interactions; (iii) student engagement in using e-learning gadgets such as apps in mobile devices; and (iv) the opportunity for real-time and immediate feedback (Gilboy et al., 2015)
Tools for data collection
Apart from evaluating students’ performance in assignments and reports, various tools can be used to collect data. Examples include student evaluation surveys and interviews. Some researchers also supplement their findings with their own observations.

Strategies Used by Practitioners in HKU
In the Flipped Classroom Learning Symposium, practitioners from HKU shared with us how they evaluate the effectiveness of their flipped classes. In general, they tend to adopt a mixed approach in evaluating the effectiveness of flipped classes, i.e. analyzing both direct and indirect educational outcomes, instead of only using one instrument to evaluate a course. This allows them to evaluate their courses more comprehensively.

Criteria of evaluation
When evaluating the effectiveness of their courses, the practitioners usually collect the following types of information:

Students’ grades: For example, Mr. Mathew Pryor, course instructor of CCHU9001 Designs on the Future, considered grades as strong evidence of students’ improvement.
Students’ comments and perceptions on (i) quality of teaching (in terms of clarity of delivery, clarity of goals and standards, opportunities for skill development, etc.); and (ii) assessment design and workload.
Students behaviour in face-to-face interactions and online

Methods of data collection
Students’ feedback can be obtained through formal and informal means.

Formal feedback can be obtained through surveys and interviews.
- In HKU, the Student Evaluation of Teaching and Learning (SETL) questionnaire is issued at the end of each course as an official way to evaluate course and instructor effectiveness. In Mr. Pryor’s case, SETL scores served as useful reference for his own performance. Both the quantitative scores (direct ratings by students) and the qualitative response (in the form of open-ended comments) provide vital information for him to improve his course. Using this questionnaire, he discovered that his student evaluations “go up by 10%” after flipping his class. The questionnaire provides concrete evidence that proves the effectiveness of the flipped class approach.
- In 2014, Professor Rick Glofcheski collected students’ feedbacks on his Tort Law flipped class using a survey with TeLi’s support. The survey collected both quantitative and qualitative evidence of the effectiveness of his flipped classes. Below are some examples:
  Quantitative evidence:
  60% students found the classes “useful”, and 34% “very useful”.
  (Image credit: Professor Rick Glofcheski)
  
  Qualitative evidence (anonymous comments from students):
  - “It helps me better understand and remember the consideration factors of duty of care.”
  - “It also is an opportunity to discuss with other classmates and get ideas and inspirations from them.”
  - “The class also acts as a useful preparation for future legal practices as it encourages students to articulately express themselves in both oral and written forms.”
  - “Very useful, made me understand the problems better and engage in debate with other students.”
- Dr. Ng Ming Yen from the Department of Diagnostic Radiology also collected feedback from students in his tutorials on chest pain imaging using a questionnaire. It was part of an experiment he conducted in 2016-2017 to examine the effectiveness of the flipped class approach. 60 students first attended lectures and completed a questionnaire. They then attended flipped classes 6 months later and filled in the questionnaires again. The result showed that the students generally appreciated the videos and over 75% of them thought that the flipped class was an improvement.
  
  Apart from quantitative data, Dr. Ng also collected qualitative comments from students. For example, some students asked for more cases and more time for discussion. These comments provide references for improvement in the next cohort.
Informal feedback can be quickly obtained by teachers in class and online. For example, a quick show of hands gives teachers a rough impression of whether students enjoy an activity. Teachers can also invite students to give anonymous feedback using discussion forums or online polling tools, such as Mentimeter.
In Mr. Pryor’s case, he highly valued and respected students’ feedback. To understand how students perceive his teaching, he collected informal feedback by asking simple, straight-forward questions such as “Which activity do you like or not like?” or even “Are you happy?” on discussion forums or with Mentimeter. These immediate feedback from students are pivotal in course planning and strategizing.
Observation of students’ behaviour in face-to-face interactions: It is also important for teachers to observe students’ response and behaviour in class, as their body language honestly reflects their extent of engagement and satisfaction. They provide alternative evidence to support findings generated in formal surveys. For example, For example, Dr. Courtney Fung evaluated the effectiveness of her teaching by observing students’ behaviour and response. In class, students assume roles of different nations and simulate real-world political negotiations to resolve crises. Since this activity was student-led, Dr. Fung acted as a facilitator and an observer during the process of negotiation. She observed that not only students were engaged in class, they even self-initiated further discussions over lunch after class. The level of engagement was high, which in turn reflected the effectiveness of the class.
Dr. Courtney Fung

To sum up, it is best to evaluate a course from multiple dimensions, as different scales of measurement shed light on different aspects of a course. Direct and indirect educational outcomes, as well as students’ feedback, engagement and learning behavior, all have different advantages in telling how effective a flipped class is based on the nature of the course. Aligning your expected students’ learning outcomes with appropriate ways of measurement is crucial for effective evaluation.

Building a flipped class is a long process of development. From preparing online and pre-class elements, encouraging student participation, designing in-class activities, to evaluating effectiveness, a lot of support and resources may be needed. It is our mission to support teachers in developing e-learning materials and flipping their classes. Contact us if you need help!

Next step
If you are interested in further exploring teaching and learning with us, don’t miss the Authentic Assessment Symposium: The Transformation of Learning in Higher Education on May 3!

This blog post is part of the Flipped Classroom Professional Development Series. More articles from the series:

Flipped Classroom: A Grassroot Movement of T&L Change
Designing Your Own Flipped Classroom: Online and Pre-class Elements
Getting Students Ready for Your Flipped Class
Designing In-class Activities for Flipped Classroom: A Step-by-step Guide
Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Flipped Class

References
Cheng, X., Lee, K. H., Chang, E. Y., & Yang, X. (2017). The “flipped classroom” approach: Stimulating positive learning attitudes and improving mastery of histology among medical students. Anatomical Sciences Education, 10(4), 317-327. Retrieved from https://search-proquest-com.eproxy1.lib.hku.hk/docview/1969022918?accountid=14548

Cotta, K. I., Shah, S., Almgren, M. M., Macías-Moriarity, L. Z., & Mody, V. (2016). Effectiveness of flipped classroom instructional model in teaching pharmaceutical calculations. Currents in Pharmacy Teaching and Learning,8(5), 646-653.

Gilboy, M. B., Heinerichs,S., & Pazzaglia, G. (2015). Enhancing student engagement using the flipped classroom. Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior,47(1), 109-114.

O’Flaherty, J. & Phillips, C. (2015). The use of flipped classrooms in higher education: A scoping review. Internet and Higher Education, 25(8), 85-95. Doi: 10.1016/j.iheduc.2015.02.002.

The University of Hong Kong (2018). Educational aims and institutional learning outcomes. In Undergraduate Handbook. Retrieved from http://www.handbook.hku.hk/ug/full-time-2017-18/important-policies/educational-aims-and-institutional-learning-outcomes

e-learning flipped classroom Flipped Learning TELI

Authentic Assessment Symposium

Organised by Technology-Enriched Learning Initiative (TELI)

Details of the event:

Date : 3 May, 2018 (Thursday)
Time : 9:30am – 1:00pm
Venue : CPD-LG.18, LG/F, Central Podium, Centennial Campus, HKU

Abstract

In the higher education sector, assessment has been characterized as “driving student learning” – it determines students’ learning strategies and affects their learning outcomes. Authentic assessment strategies, which draw connections between the subject matter and real-world problems, have demonstrated high effectiveness and efficiency in clinical education. But is that the only context where authentic assessment could be applied? Can authentic assessment be adopted in day-to-day classroom teaching and learning across different subjects?

In this symposium, practitioners from law, medicine, dentistry, education, science, social sciences, architecture, arts and CAES will share their philosophy and practices in applying authentic assessment in their classroom. Student representatives will also be invited to share their learning experience and how authentic assessment has enabled deeper learning.

Registration

Enquiries should be directed to enquiry@teli.hku.hk.

Authentic assessment e-learning TELI

Implementing Large-Scale Classwork Activities: Lessons Learned in “Inter-Professional Team-Based Learning”

Inter-professional team-based learning (IPTBL) is an innovative teaching approach initiated by the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine in the University of Hong Kong (HKU). It is a pioneering effort to promote peer-to-peer learning and inter-professional education across healthcare disciplines using team-based learning (TBL), flipped learning and e-learning. First piloted in 2016, the initiative engaged 500+ students across 7 programmes from HKU and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU). Based on the feedback collected, the event was further scaled out in 2017, serving more than 1,000 students (and as many as 501 students in one particular session) from 12 programmes from the two universities.

In this large-scale flipped classroom implementation, we have demonstrated the following attributes:

Implementation of an entirely new mode of teaching, pushing teachers and students to step out of their comfort zone;
Use of technologies to facilitate teacher-student/student-student interactions; and
Effective collaboration among teaching units and teaching-support units.

The event served more than 1,000 students (and as many as 501 students in one particular session) from 12 programmes from the two universities.

We are happy to share that the initiative has been recognized locally and internationally. In 2016, the IPTBL team won the Bronze Discipline Award (Life Sciences) in the prestigious QS Stars-Wharton Reimagine Education Awards. Taking one step further in 2017, we had been shortlisted for the HKU Professional Services Awards 2017 (Team category), an annual award programme at the University level to recognise and promote excellence in professional services. We would like to express our gratitude to the University, our colleagues and students for their support, without which our work would not have been possible.

Raising Standards of Classwork Activities

The motivation behind implementing this initiative is to enhance the quality of teaching and learning by pushing both teachers and students out of their comfort zone.

Facilitating teachers to step out of their comfort zone

Traditionally, many teachers tend to focus on their own discipline in teaching or even a particular topic when delivering a lecture. In the case of IPTBL, all members of the teaching team stepped out of their disciplinary silos and collaborated with teachers from different disciplines and institutions.

Facilitating students to step out of their comfort zone

Many health professional graduates in the work field found it difficult to communicate with their colleagues with different backgrounds, as they mainly received training with students from the same discipline in university. In IPTBL, students from multiple disciplines were grouped in ways that reflected the realities of the healthcare sector. This created ample opportunities for them to develop communication and collaboration skills essential for their future career.

Enhancing Teaching and Learning with Technology

Since a large number of students were involved in each session, an online learning platform and a peer evaluation system were developed to facilitate teacher-student and student-student interactions.

Facilitating teacher-student interactions

It is not easy for teachers to engage hundreds of students and monitor their progress simultaneously in face-to-face sessions. To facilitate teachers in managing the class, an online Learning Activity Management System (LAMS) was introduced. In class, students needed to log-in the system and answer questions individually and in teams. The system allowed teachers to track their real-time progress through the different stages of TBL. This system also made it easier for teachers to decide on which groups to interview in the interactive feedback session.

The Learning Activity Management System (LAMS)

Facilitating student-student interactions

A peer evaluation system was developed to enable students to deliver real-time feedback to their teammates for timely self-reflection. The system also came with an online discussion forum to facilitate student interactions after class.

Overcoming Challenges in Implementing Large-Scale Classroom Activities

Careful scheduling

As IPTBL involved teachers and students from multiple departments and universities, careful scheduling of each session was necessary. To accommodate all parties’ schedules, all six sessions were held on Saturday mornings.

Briefing sessions

With a large number of students and teachers from various disciplines involved, it was essential to ensure all necessary operation details were effectively communicated to all parties. To overcome this challenge, the team conducted multiple briefing sessions in both universities, not only with teachers, but also with students. In the briefing sessions, the importance of IPTBL, the session formats and rundown were explained in great details.

Creating an environment suitable for large-scale in-class activities

As it was necessary to accommodate a large number of students in each session, the team chose the Centennial Campus Lecture Hall II as the core learning space as it is a large flat area with mobile chairs and strong WiFi connectivity. Standard large lecture halls such as Grand Hall or Rayson Huang Theatre were not chosen as they might not be suitable for large-scale group discussion, both online and offline. Since the halls are not flat and the chairs are not movable, it will be difficult for students to move around and work in groups. It may also be difficult for teachers and students to communicate online as the WiFi connectivity in these halls are relatively weak.

As the number of students varied in each session, floor plans were drawn for each session to ensure that all students enjoyed the best learning environment. In the actual implementation, balloons with group numbers were attached to each group so that teachers and students could quickly locate individual teams.

Balloons with group numbers were attached to each group so that teachers and students could quickly locate individual teams.

Collaborations with teaching-support units

Logistics of setting up a suitable environment for large-scale group discussions can be complicated. Reconfiguring the Centennial Campus Lecture Hall II for the IPTBL initiative is particularly challenging, as the hall is usually partitioned into four standard classrooms. Transforming this learning space requires partitions to be lifted up and chairs to be reorganized – a process that would take several hours to complete. As the sessions were held on Saturday mornings, when most HKU offices were closed, the team had to liaise with parties such as Examinations Office and Estates Office to arrange for earlier set up of the venue on the night before.

Each session required materials such as reception tables, refreshments and backup paper tests (in case the online learning system failed to function properly). As most HKU offices were closed on Saturday, transportation of materials was a major challenge to overcome. Extra efforts were made to ensure logistics concerns were addressed – All the materials needed were transported from HKU Medical Campus to Main Campus on the night before. With the assistance from units such as Information Technology Services (ITS) and Learning Environment Services (LES), storage areas were made available.

Multiple rehearsals

To ensure the smooth running of the event, multiple rehearsals had been conducted. With limited time available for each IPTBL session (only 4 hours each) and a tight schedule, time management was crucial to ensure students went through the complete TBL process. Intensive rehearsals and prior testing of the online learning system were necessary to minimize technical problems and possible delays in the actual implementation.

Looking Forward

The IPTBL programme had grown continuously from 2016 to 2017. In the future, the course team aims to continuously improve the online learning platform to provide more informative feedback to both the facilitators and students.

If you are interested in using technology in class or experimenting with new ways of teaching, contact us.

Flipped Learning IPTBL TBL TELI

Enhancing Student Learning with Blended Learning

Imagine, experiment, partner with students, build capacity – These are some tips in implementing the blended learning approach shared by expert practitioners in a seminar on February, 26, 2018. Entitled “Blended Learning: Are we Blending and at the same time, Enhancing Student Learning?”, this seminar featured Professor Bob Fox, Pro-Vice-Chancellor Education Portfolio, the University of New South Wales (UNSW); Dr. NS Wong, Associate Professor in the School of Biological Sciences; and Dr. Allan Yuen, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education, HKU. The three speakers shared exemplary cases from various disciplines and their lessons learnt from implementing blended learning.

What is Blended Learning?

“Blended learning is the thoughtful fusion of face-to-face and online learning experiences,” (Garrison & Vaughan, 2008, p.5). In addition to that, it is the fusion of formal and informal; as well as synchronous and asynchronous elements in the curriculum, as pointed out by Dr. Yuen. With more and more teachers shifting to this approach, “blended learning is now the norm,” said Professor Fox.

Elements of Blended Learning

Blending different modes of learning in a course is an effective way to enhance student learning. The following is a list of examples introduced by the speakers:

Replace traditional lectures with tutorials and group activities:
- In a Civil Engineering course in UNSW, traditional lectures were transformed into small group and individual tutorials, where students work through the content with a study guide. This mode of learning is problem-based, activity-led and self-paced. Weaker students can obtain extra tutorial support, while more advanced students are encouraged to support weaker one for badges.
- In Dr. Wong’s course on metabolism, students are guided to form “communities of active inquiry” – together they explore concepts, re-synthesize information, propose new questions and complete in-class exercises. By blending “student-based research-style learning” into the course, “in-depth learning is positively promoted”, commented Dr. Wong.
Use of ed-tech
- Videos: In UNSW, videos developed for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) are re-used in flipping on-campus courses. This is termed as the ‘BOOC Flip’ (Blended Open On-campus Course).Dr. Wong also developed videos for his course CCST9006 Scientific and Technological Literacy. Here is a glimpse of his course:
- Learning Management Systems, such as Moodle, are widely used as a gateway for students to coordinate learning, including conveniently access course materials, submit assignments, receive feedback and discuss with their peers.
- Adaptive learning platforms: In UNSW, the course team of MATH2018 Engineering Mathematics 2D used an adaptive learning platform called Smart Sparrow to develop self-paced adaptive online tutorials for students, replacing F2F tutorials.
- The MATH2018 course course team also developed a Ninja game. This game consists of a series of exercises with progressive levels of difficulty. Students need to work their way up until they obtain the black belt. This creates incentives for students to learn better.
- 3D and VR technology: In BLDG1021 Industrial & Infrastructure Construction, an undergraduate course offered by the Faculty of Built Environment, UNSW, students receive industry training through stepping into the AVIE mining space, an immersive 360-degree construction site environment. It is a virtual space and a safe environment to gain industry-relevant experience.
Experiential learning and industry partnering
- In BLDG1021, faculty partners with professional builders and create opportunities for students to get involved in real world construction projects off-campus.

Tips for Developing Effective Blended Learning Experiences
To maximize the impact of blended learning, the speakers offered the following tips in implementing the approach:

Pilot and experiment
While it is exciting to incorporate new modes of teaching into your course, it can also be worrying for some – What if it does not work? One way to minimize risk is to pilot test your new ideas and conduct controlled experiments, advised by Professor Fox.
Partnership with students
1. Work with students in developing course materials
  One effective way to develop materials that best suit students’ needs is to involve them in the development process. For example, UNSW pays students to develop resources for them and help faculty members innovate. In Dr. Wong’s case, he creates student internship and once invited a student to produce a short video for him to use in a practical session.
2. Obtain student feedback
  Dr. Wong collects student feedback through administering questionnaires at the end of the course. The feedback is essential for making modifications to the course.
Capability-building for staff
As pointed out by Professor Fox, teachers need ongoing support in developing blended learning resources and materials. Learning from UNSW’s example, the following should be done on the institutional and administrative level to ensure effective implementation of blended learning strategies:
1. Develop curriculum models, frameworks and strategies for all faculties to buy into
  - In UNSW, the educational design models used are Integrated Curriculum Framework (ICF), RASE Course Design Model and Scientia Education Experience (SEE).
2. Build partnership with faculties and students
3. Offer ongoing support to faculties and staff in team-building and capacity-building
4. Provide resources, technologies and/or funding
5. Provide promotion and encouragement to staff to get involved in improving teaching and learning
  - In UNSW, the promotion and tenure system has been refined to ensure that teachers get rewarded and promoted for their efforts made in teaching and learning. 400 academic positions which are education-focused have been set up. Teachers who choose this academic track can focus on teaching and learning instead of research for 5 years. After the 5-year period, they can decide whether to switch back to research track.

Imagine new ways to teach
“Learning is fundamentally about change,” said Dr. Yuen. “Students nowadays are very different from us when we were still students”. In order to enhance student learning, it is necessary for us to reconsider our pedagogy and imagine new ways to teach, using blended learning and other digital technologies. To Dr. Yuen, “blended learning / e-learning is not a simple technological adoption, but a call of teachers to carefully examine their pedagogical practices from a new perspective.” He believes that only by “allow[ing] our imaginations to be at work”, can we unleash the “enormous potential for growth and engagement” of higher education. He left us with two thought-provoking questions:

How do we shape and reshape new learning environment for the New Generation Learners?
What is your imagination in 5 years? How are you going to teach your subject in 5 years?

Dr. Wong believes that by shifting from traditional lectures to blended learning, we are setting students free from a rigid and often unengaging mode of learning. In order to maximize students’ freedom and effectiveness in learning, we need to set our imagination free in innovating our pedagogies.

What is your vision for your classroom in the future? Share your ideas with us.

Further reading

Designing In-class Activities for Flipped Classroom: A Step-by-step Guide
Getting Students Ready for Your Flipped Class
Designing Your Own Flipped Classroom: Online and Pre-class Elements
Flipped Classroom: A Grassroot Movement of T&L Change
Garrison, D., & Vaughan, N. D. (2008). Blended learning in Higher Education: Framework, Principles and Guidelines. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Blended & Online Learning and Teaching blended learning e-learning MOOC TELI

Passing the Torch: E-learning in Applied Oral Health

Fostering stronger inter-collegiate links and sharing of knowledge expertise have always been high priorities in the World’s No. 1 Dental Faculty in the World. From January 29 to February 2, 2018, Dental Materials Science of the Faculty of Dentistry collaborated with HKU TeLi to run a winter programme in Applied Oral Sciences (AOS) at Prince Philip Dental Hospital.

AOS is a 5-day blended learning programme which aims to share (i) innovative methods and best practices in dental materials science research and on-campus instructions, as well as, (ii) technology-enriched pedagogies in teaching and learning, in particularly, in MOOCs and MOOC-based teaching and learning design to dentistry and medical faculties in mainland China and Korea.

The programme was packed with intensive knowledge sessions of featured lectures, as well as, experiential learning and interactive workshops.

Professor Jukka Matinlinna introducing the newest endeavours of Dental Materials Science Faculty.

Dr. James Tsoi talked about teaching and learning in Dental Materials Science.

Deepening Knowledge in Dental Materials Science Research

Through featured lectures conducted by Dental Materials Science faculty, students gained insights in some popular Applied Oral Health research areas including Biomechanics in Orthodontics, Biomaterials for Our Life and Current Approaches and Future Challenges in Dental Pulp Regeneration. These face-to-face sessions also allowed participants to interact with leading academics and dental professionals, as well as, peers from different universities.

Experiencing E-learning and Innovative Pedagogy

All the participants were enrolled in a customized version of the MOOC course for AOS. This enabled the participants to experience the courseware, in particular, the learning activities and bite-sized pedagogy, as well as, the newest science in Dental Materials Science education through videos such as close range surgery demonstrations, stereo-photogrammetry and digital rendering of oral cavities in authentic clinical cases.

A sneak peek of the MOOC: Materials in Oral Health!

TeLi colleague’s sharing of MOOC development.

A platform to Scale MOOC Learning Initiatives beyond the Region

In addition to experiencing the educational methodologies in the MOOC course, educators and teachers from visiting institutions were engaged with a practical session – learning how to deliver content using MOOCs and integrating trending technology in teaching. TeLi shared experiences in MOOC development and production with the teachers, and guided them through the course framework and various key components of the course. Among the topics discussed were pragmatic skills in storyboarding and video production, managing schedules and resource requirements. Many teachers were eager to ask questions and some also shared their own experience and challenges encountered in blended learning and online courses.

The sharing with mainland educators and students enabled TeLi and the Dentistry faculty to transfer our experience to future e-learning creators in professional Dentistry, and empowered the participants to pass on their new experience to more people in the mainland.

It is our hope to inspire more inter-institutional and interdisciplinary collaboration in teaching oral health care, and possibly e-learning pedagogical design and research.

Further reading

MOOC experience sharing with delegates of Anhui Medical University

Applied Oral Health Dental Dental Materials Science e-learning Knowledge Exchange MOOC pedagogy TELI

Engaging students: lessons from a flipped Common Core classroom

Jointly organised by Technology-Enriched Learning Initiative (TELI) and Division of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Architecture

Details of the event:

Date : 10 April, 2018 (Tues)
Time : 12:45pm – 2:00pm
Venue : Room 622, 6/F, Knowles Building
Speaker: Mr. Mathew Pryor, Associate Professor (Teaching), Faculty of Architecture

Download PowerPoint slides

Abstract

Student engagement – “the degree of attention, curiosity, interest, optimism and passion that students show when they are learning or being taught, which extends to the level of motivation they have to learn and progress in their education.” (From the ‘Glossary of Education Reform’, Great Schools Partnership, http://edglossary.org/student-engagement/)

Persistent low levels of student engagement in his Common Core course CCHU9001 inspired Mathew to re-design the course using a flipped classroom approach, in which students participate in both pre-class and in-class learning activities. Overall student response was highly positive, with students feeling that they had been ‘activated’ and considered that their time had been invested in a worthwhile educational experience.

In this seminar, Mathew looks at the determinants of student engagement in both pre-class and in-class settings and reflects on how learning activities might be designed to promote engagement.

*A light lunch will be provided.

For enquiries, please direct your messages to enquiry@teli.hku.hk.

Common Core e-learning flipped classroom Flipped Learning TELI

Designing In-class Activities for Flipped Classroom: A Step-by-step Guide

This blog post is part of the ‘Flipped Classroom Professional Development Series’.

A flipped classroom constitutes of two components – learning online and learning in face-to-face (F2F) sessions. In this blog post, we will discuss the steps and considerations in preparing in-class activities, especially group activities, in a flipped class, with reference to ideas from academic literature. We will also introduce good practices of in-class activity design shared by practitioners in the Flipped Classroom Learning Symposium – Sharing of Pedagogies and Practices.

The Flipped Classroom Learning Symposium – Sharing of Pedagogies and Practices on December 6, 2017

The steps to preparing in-class activities are as follows:

Designing the activities
Setting up the activities:
1. How to form groups
2. Preparation before class
3. What should be done in class
4. Useful tools to support the activities
5. How to set up infrastructure to support the activities

Step 1: Designing in-class activities
Throughout your 13-week course, it is ideal to blend different modes of learning and include diversified in-class activities to constantly stimulate your students. Here are some examples of in-class activity design shared by our practitioners:

In-class collaborative writing – a case shared by the Centre for Applied English Studies (CAES)
- In the pre-class stage, students have to access readings on Moodle, process the text, and make thorough notes on the readings.
- In the in-class stage, the instructors will look for proof of notes. Only students with notes will be allowed to participate in the in-class activities. They will form groups of 3 or 4 and collaboratively draft a 300-500 word text based on the readings. They will have one hour of lesson-time to discuss how to produce the text.
Weekly mass workshop sessions – a case in Mr. Mathew Pryor’s CCHU9001 Designs on the Future
- In the pre-class stage, students need to watch a series of online videos.
- In the in-class stage, students are expected to apply the content of online videos in problem-based activities and produce textual and visual responses. Examples of activities include:
  - Student-led discussions: Students are prompted to think about sustainability issues when given scenarios, or when given a role to emulate different stakeholders’ view on the same issue. They are sometimes instructed to research on cases at home and bring it to class, then discuss with their peers to identify common themes or make a collective argument.
  - Video making: Students provide individual and group response on their views on sustainability topics in form of a short documentary-like video. They are expected to pick up skills of basic storyboarding and cinematography, guided by mock exercises before producing graded work.
  - Gallery review and presentation: Students are invited to stick their coursework on walls, walk around, look at each other’s work and vote.
A gallery review of infographics designed by students.
- Features of Mr. Pryor’s activities:
  - Short (20 mins max): This is to ensure that there is a constant, strong dynamic in class.
  - Physically dynamic: Activities are designed in a way that require students to keep moving, post things on the board, and interact with their peers.
  - Many activities and output are internet-based. For example, in one activity, students are asked to sort a pile of words into categories based on a scenario prompt, take a photo of their sorting and upload it to an online forum. They will then compare their work in classroom discussions. Sometimes, students’ coursework will be posted online anonymously to encourage peer learning and discussion.
  Mr. Pryor prompts students to post a photo of their sorting activity results online, and immediately discusses with the whole class.
Advanced negotiations simulation – an activity designed by Dr. Courtney Fung, Faculty of Social Sciences, for teaching International Relations
- In this activity, students are expected to simulate real-world political negotiations. Individual groups assume roles of different nations, construct arguments from the perspectives of antagonizing stakeholders, and understand the constraints of international politics.
- Features of this activity:
  - Problem-based: The materials selected for the students in the course are ongoing real-world crises, such as the North Korean nuclear dilemma, and UN’s intervention in the South Sudan famine.
  - The activity design ensures all students have a role to play in class.
- Dr. Fung’s received the HKU Early Career Teaching Award in 2016 for her success in teaching. Learn more about her teaching approach here: video, PDF (Pg 26).

By designing activities of different nature, we can ensure students receive multiple stimulus and varied learning experience throughout the course.

Step 2: Setting up the activities

How to form a group (group-size, group roles)
How do you group students in in-class activities? What is the optimal group size? These questions may be difficult for many.If there are too many students in one group, some unmotivated ones may free-ride, piggy-back on groupmates’ effort and make minimal contribution; while a group too small would make the workload of individual students too heavy. The group size is critical in the design of in-class activities.

While there is no “magic number” regarding group size in designing activities, it is optimal for students’ learning if there are fewer than 6 in a group, according to Mr. Patrick Desloge from CAES and Mr. Pryor. In CAES’ course, students form groups of 3 or 4 during collaborative writing activities. In Mr. Pryor’s weekly workshops, he arranges students into small, mixed groups – 3 in one group, 6 in one table.3 in a group allows room for each student to contribute their ideas without overburdening them.

The rule of thumb is that we need to make sure each student in the group has his or her distinct role and own task(s) in the activity. This arrangement ensures that all group members are actively engaged and have their own contributions to make. Students will not be idle and bored, hence minimizing the chance of free-riding. Moreover, the workload for all students will be more balanced. It is also ideal to arrange students with different cultural or academic backgrounds into groups, giving them a chance to learn from each other.

Apart from allocating roles and tasks for members within a group, teachers can also assign specific roles and tasks to individual groups. For instance, in Dr. Fung’s negotiations simulation exercise, all students are assigned into group teams. Each group assumes the role of a particular nation. Within each group, students identify individual roles. As all students have a role to play, they can make unique contributions to the discussion.
Preparation before class
Learning aids
Apart from forming groups, what should teachers do before class? Most of the speakers prepared learning materials such as worksheets to be used in class. This is to check and reinforce students’ understanding of content delivered in pre-class materials, support in-class activities, and improve students’ engagement during class. In worksheet design, most of the presenters chose to use problem-oriented or case-based content to structure the materials. These worksheets can also be used after class as homework.

Reminders before class
Another preparation that needs to be done in advance is to send out reminders to students to go through the pre-class materials in preparation for the in-class activities. Check out this article for more tips on how to prompt students to prepare for class.
What should be done in class?
The basic structure of in-class activities usually involves three stages:
1. The input stage, where teachers brief students of the background information,
2. The processing stage, where students process information and construct ideas, and
3. The output stage, where students present their work and obtain feedback.
1. Briefing
  Teachers should introduce the topic and provide background information of the learning activities through a short briefing. In Dr. Fung’s negotiations simulation activity, all students receive a one-page brief and a 10-minute presentation by Dr. Fung on the background of the scenario before they start working on their tasks.
2. Building ideas
  After the briefing stage, students should be ready to process the information, explore the topic and generate ideas, in groups or individually. Examples of activities are case analysis, brainstorming, discussion, peer teaching, co-writing, and co-creating projects. This part should be led by students themselves, with teachers acting as facilitators and/or monitors. Teachers should take an active role in communicating with students from time to time, in order to provide timely support and suggestions.
3. Presentation and feedback
  Lastly, students are encouraged to present their work for feedback and suggestions from peers and teachers. The presentation can be conducted in class or online. The following are some examples showcased in the symposium:
  - In Mr. Pryor’s course, students post their work on walls, transforming the classroom into a gallery. Students responded positively towards this approach – they enjoyed this activity as they were inspired by others’ work in an intuitive way.
  Reading each other’s work and commenting using post-its and stickers.
  - Professor Ricky Kwok suggested that game elements can be included in this stage to excite students, such as competition among groups as “that is where learning happens”. Find out how students learn in Professor Kwok’s class in this video: https://youtu.be/pm-W_0f-bkE
  - Check also this article on the 4Cs principles proposed by Professor Kwok in creating engaging in-class activities.
Tools to facilitate in-class group activities
Our speakers recommended the following online tools to facilitate cooperation and collaboration among learners, as well as communication between teachers and students:
- Google Docs or Google Drive: In CAES’ in-class collaborative writing activity, students co-compose their work using Google Doc. This tool allows several students to work together simultaneously and to share individual input with teammates in real time.In Mr. Pryor’s course, Google Drive folders and Google Docs are created as portfolios for each group. Students are instructed to post their coursework using these tools. This practice allows students to review their peers’ work conveniently on one single platform and give honest feedback to each other.
- Mentimeter: This is an easy-to-use, visual tool useful for assessment and presenting results. For example, it allows teachers to set Multiple Choice Questions (MCQ) and students to respond using their mobile devices. The results of students’ choices will be shown to teachers immediately, so that teachers can know students’ understanding of the learning contents and offer timely support and clarification. Teachers can also choose to display students’ choices in real time to the whole class, prompting further discussions based on the presentation.
Mentimeter
Using Mentimeter in a large scale flipped class.
Setting up infrastructure to support in-class group activities
Most presenters in the symposium, including Professor Kwok, Dr. Fung, Mr. Pryor, Dr. Ming-Yen Ng, Dr. Michael Botelho and Professor Rick Glofcheski mentioned that the physical setting of the classroom is essential in providing a better flipped classroom experience for students. An ideal setting would be a cafe-style classroom, i.e., a flat classroom with movable furniture, and the classroom should also be adaptable for a workshop format. As there are a lot of group activities in a flipped class, such a setting allow greater flexibility in grouping students. Also, seat arrangement planned in advance is greatly helpful for classes with a large number of students, as in Professor Glofcheski’s flipped Tort Law classroom with more than 200 students.

These are just some of the many possibilities of what you can do in class. Be creative and design your very own in-class activities. Contact us if you are interested in bringing technology into your classroom.

This blog post is part of the Flipped Classroom Professional Development Series. More articles from the series:

Flipped Classroom: A Grassroot Movement of T&L Change
Designing Your Own Flipped Classroom: Online and Pre-class Elements
Getting Students Ready for Your Flipped Class
Designing In-class Activities for Flipped Classroom: A Step-by-step Guide
Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Flipped Class

e-learning flipped classroom Flipped Learning TELI

MOOC experience sharing with delegates of Anhui Medical University

“Knowledge Transfer” has long been described as the “third mission” of higher education institutions, with teaching and research being the first two missions. HKU TeLi has been actively engaged in the sharing of knowledge, including technology, expertise and skills with global, regional and local institutions in innovations in methods and pedagogies for the enhancement of efficient teaching for teachers and effective learning of students.

On January 25, 2018, 30 delegates of teachers, students and young professionals from the Anhui Medical University (AHMU) gathered at the Prince Philip Dental Hospital for an introduction to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and an intellectual exchange on MOOC-based learning and HKU examples of MOOC development.

MOOCs which make use of the concept of bite-sized learning, are efficient in sharing knowledge to a critical mass of learners, any time, anywhere and with any device; encouraging self-regulated learning, as well as, lifelong-learning. The global interest for MOOC’s potential is on the rise, and China’s MOOC market has expanded exponentially in recent years. Our team illustrated HKU’s endeavours in e-learning with two of TeLi’s professional MOOCs, Materials in Oral Health and Implant Dentistry, addressing how MOOCs couple innovation with technology and on-campus teaching pedagogy i.e. PBL brings global learning to the next level.

Explaining the advantages of MOOC over chalk-and-board education.

During the session with our guests, TeLi showed and demonstrated how MOOC videos serve as one of the core vehicles in delivering contents and information. We demonstrated how frontier technology can be incorporated into course materials to make learning more visual and effective. This includes 3D rendered scans of mouth cavities, 3D printing, stereo-photogrammetry, as well as, close range video demonstrations of step-by-step surgery techniques. Our guests were also guided through the MOOCs’ online courseware on Coursera, navigating and observing the design of an online course and its integrated components. Some features new to our guests are prompting questions embedded in videos (used to check the learners’ understanding), forum questions built by the learner community, and authentic clinical implant cases based on on-campus problem-based learning (PBL).

Showing our guests the use of close-range suturing demonstrations in MOOC videos.

The two-hour session was not only a great opportunity for us to share and showcase HKU’s experience in professional MOOC development and production with dental practitioners and educators at AMHU, it was nonetheless, a meaningful intellectual exchange with mainland institutions. We hope that our visitors are empowered to build their own MOOC courses, and are encouraged to inspire others in China’s teaching and learning community to explore MOOCs. May this exchange lead to a better teaching and learning experience for all.
Contact us if you are interested in learning more about MOOC production, MOOCs based learning or in producing your own MOOC!

e-learning Experience Sharing Knowledge Exchange MOOC TELI