Flipping the classroom – a success story
Lectures are typically sit-and-listen sessions. But in Professor Rick Glofcheski’s tort law classes, students do all the talking.
Flipping the classroom – a success story
Lectures are typically sit-and-listen sessions. But in Professor Rick Glofcheski’s tort law classes, students do all the talking.
Panelists :
Dr. Charlene C. Ho, School of Biomedical Sciences
Dr. Fraide A. Ganotice, Jr., Bau Institute of Medical and Health Sciences Education
Dr. Veronica Lam, School of Nursing
Dr. Law Ming Fai, Department of Social Work and Social Administration
Dr. Gordon Wong, Department of Anaesthesiology
About the seminar:
Interprofessional team-based learning (IPTBL) is an innovative teaching initiative which aims at promoting active learning and collaborations across disciplines. The students work in teams and learn how the various medical specialities resolve clinical cases together. IPTBL gives students from various disciplines an opportunity to develop friendship and work with pre-professionals of other expertise before they practice in the “real world”.
In this seminar, Dr. Lap Ki Chan, the Principal Investigator of a UGC-funded project on IPTBL, will share with you the key features of this new pedagogy, as well as his pioneering experience in implementing IPTBL with 500+ students from HKU and PolyU across 7 different programmes related to medical health care.
Learn more about IPTBL here.
About Dr. Lap Ki Chan:
Dr. Lap Ki Chan, M.B.B.S. (HK), F.H.K.A.M., F.H.K.C.O.S. (Orthopedics), F.R.C.S. (Edinburgh), Ph.D. (Duke), is an associate professor in the School of Biomedical Sciences, the Deputy Director of Bau Institute of Medical and Health Sciences Education, and an Assistant Dean (Pedagogy) at the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, The University of Hong Kong. He has a background in orthopedics and physical anthropology and teaches gross anatomy to medical and other health professional students and is the coordinator of the Education Division of Anatomy in the School of Biomedical Sciences. His teaching excellence has been recognized by such awards as the Outstanding Teaching Award from The University of Hong Kong. He is the educator in the Asia Pacific region for the AO Foundation (Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Osteosynthesefragen). He serves as an associate editor for Anatomical Sciences Education and has co-edited the book “Teaching Anatomy – A Practical Guide” (Springer). His research interests include innovative pedagogies in anatomy education, teacher training, and interprofessional education.
For enquiries, please contact Miss Cherry Lai by email cherry.lai@hku.hk.
* To be conducted in English
About the seminar:
The Blended & Online Learning & Teaching (BOLT) Project is a UGC-funded collaboration in which participating Hong Kong tertiary institutions look at developing online teaching and learning in Hong Kong. The project includes multiple different approaches, ranging from initiatives within a particular institution – such as Hong Kong Institute of Education’s grassroots approach to blended learning in a faculty, and Baptist University’s Faculty Professional Development Series of workshops – to more central elements, such as the BOLT foundation course, led by PolyU and open to teachers from all participating universities. More information available at http://www.bolt.edu.hk
In this seminar, the speakers will lead presentations on the BOLT project so far, share success stories, report on upcoming events and offer an opportunity to engage in discussion about blended learning in a Hong Kong context.
About the speakers:
LIM Cher Ping is a Professor of Curriculum and Innovations at the Hong Kong Institute of Education and the Editor-in-Chief of the Internet and Higher Education. He was a Professor of Education, Director of International Partnerships and Director of the Asia-Pacific Centre of Excellence for Teacher Education and Innovations in Western Australia before moving to Hong Kong in late 2010. Over the last two decades, he has engaged major stakeholders of higher education at the institutional, national and international levels. Organisations including UNESCO, Microsoft, BHP Billiton, World Bank, Sampoerna Foundation, and government agencies have become his partners for many of the education research and development projects that he has led. He is co-Project Leader of the BOLT Project.
Darren Harbutt is an Educational Development Officer in the Educational Development Centre of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Before this he worked as an Instructional Designer at the University of Hong Kong. Darren has worked in education for over 20 years and in the last few years he has also helped to design, build and run MOOCs. Darren is co-Project Leader of the BOLT Project.
David Watson joined PolyU with eight years of experience in the higher education sector, providing technological and instructional expertise in numerous online projects, with his development skills incorporating the pedagogical requirements and alignment in eLearning and online teaching. Supported by Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education (PGCTHE), CMALT and Masters in Web Development, his current role focuses on areas such as Augmented & Virtual Reality (AR/VR), Professional Development Delivery and the development of various funded instructional technologies.
Veronika Schoeb currently performs as Assistant Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences at PolyU. She holds a first degree as a health professional from Switzerland, and received her PhD in Sociology from the University of Nottingham, UK. Prior to joining PolyU in February 2015, she was a Lecturer at the University of Applied Sciences in Western Switzerland. She teaches qualitative research courses (in a very quantitative environment) and tackles this challenge by trying out different teaching modalities. Her research interests lie in communication as well as interprofessional collaboration, and she investigates topics related to social interaction, both in health care as well as in education.
For enquiries, please contact Miss Cherry Lai by email cherry.lai@hku.hk.
Co-organized by Technology-Enriched Learning Initiative (TELI) and Youth Arch Foundation
* To be conducted in English
Strategy looks like a buzzword – but it shouldn’t be. It takes on different meanings in different contexts and sectors, and there is still much room for us to learn from all these variations. In the dialogue session, business strategists from the technology and banking sectors will share with us their insights and experience of helping their companies to achieve success. We will explore how we can draw key lessons from them to come up with the best learning strategies while we are still in school.
Biographies:
Mr. William Chan is an experienced Internet and software technologist. He is currently the Co-founder and Managing Director of Visual Squares Ltd. He is also appointed as a member of the Enterprise Support Scheme (ESS) Assessment Panel under the Innovation and Technology Fund (ITF). Before returning to Hong Kong, William worked for Google and a Cisco-acquired startup in Silicon Valley for 8 years. William graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. and M.S. in Computer Science and received the Frederick Emmons Terman Engineering Scholastic Award.
Professor Ricky Kwok is Associate Vice-President (Teaching and Learning) at The University of Hong Kong (HKU), assisting the Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning) in various projects related to e-learning (e.g., MOOCs, blended learning and gamification). Ricky is also Professor in the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department at HKU. A computer engineer and scientist by training, he is now taking an avid interest in scaling out teaching and scaling up learning. His recent research endeavors are also related to incentive, dependability, and security issues in wireless systems and P2P applications. Ricky is a Fellow of various professional associations in engineering (IEEE, IET, and HKIE).
Mr. Alex Lau has extensive experience in the IT and banking industry. He is now the Head of Digital Innovation of Institutional Banking Group at DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Limited. Alex graduated from the Computer Science Department of Stanford University (BS ’96 with distinction, MS ’97). Upon graduation, he worked for Oracle Inc. and Motorola Inc. in Silicon Valley before returning to Hong Kong to head the Strategic Planning and E-banking of Dah Sing Bank. In his latest capacity, Alex is driving the digital innovations in SME banking and has captured 3 external awards for the Bank in 2015.
School-university partnership is an important concept driving TELI’s work in reaching out to the younger generation. On March 19, we co-organized the “STEM Learning Fair 2016” with Pak Kau College in Tin Shui Wai to showcase our work in MOOCs, flipped classroom, and engineering education. About 100 secondary school teachers and over 260 students joined the event, where we exchanged ideas and experiences on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education.
At a time when discussions on innovation, entrepreneurship and information literacy are rekindling in the education sector, it is important that we communicate with young people and their teachers the opportunities afforded by STEM education in meaningful and appealing ways. For students, learning in these subjects is a first step to become good problem solvers. “They define objectives more clearly, think more logically, and are better at coming up with step-by-step solutions,” said Professor Ricky Kwok, Associate Vice-President (Teaching and Learning), who gave a keynote speech at the half-day event.
Using a simple learning kit consisted of a battery, a wire and a magnet, TELI challenged a group of primary students to figure out theories behind maglev trains.
For teachers, STEM activities often help them understand better the curiosity and educational needs of their students. “The question is, how to make the most of face-to-face class time to take that interest further,” asked Dr. Leon Lei, E-learning Technologist of TELI, who gave a talk on the challenges of STEM education at the parallel session. Based on his experience in teaching first-year engineering students, he reminded teachers that bringing more hands-on components and group-work experience to class is key to achieving learning objectives of STEM subjects. You may view Dr. Lei’s powerpoint here.
Ricky made special mention that in late April, HKU will be launching an open online course on the basics of flipped classroom and blended learning. Both primary and secondary school teachers are more than welcome to make use of resources in the course to enhance their classes.
Partnering with secondary schools is a rewarding experience for TELI. We will continue to collaborate with different organisations in technology education to further our impact in the community.
Further reading
Date | Session | Topics |
---|---|---|
14 Apr | Online Session 0 Online Session 1 |
E-learning Ecosystem: Setting the Scene Interactive Online Learning: Getting Started |
22 Apr | Face-to-Face Session A | Creating Your Online Video |
28 Apr | Online Session 2 | Blended Learning: Teaching On-Campus |
5 May | Online Session 3 | MOOC: Teaching The World |
12 May | Online Session 4 | Learning Analytics: Using Learner’s Data To Improve Teaching |
20 May | Face-to-Face Session B | Show and Tell |
Jointly Organised by Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL), E-learning Pedagogical Support Unit (EPSU) and Technology-Enriched Learning Initiative (TELI)
About the Joint Event
Like many other leading universities, HKU is seeking to enhance the internationalisation of its curricula and its teaching. But what can be done in a course or a programme to bring the international learning experiences to students without the need to travel? A recent policy paper (2015) by European Parliament advocates that digital and virtual learning offers a promising way to realise international collaborative experiences and achieve ‘internationalisation at home’.
During the first join-the-conversation in January, we identified digital and virtual learning as one of the eight learning challenges and opportunities associated with the internationalisation of teaching and learning in HKU. In this joint event, we will further look at the ways that recent advances in information and communication technologies open up new possibilities to enrich international experiences in courses and programmes. Participants will be able to review a range of approaches and techniques whereby digital learning may facilitate international learning experiences for students, evaluate the value and feasibility of these approaches in HKU’s context, and discuss the possible applications of some of the approaches in their courses or programmes.
For information on registration, please contact:
Ms. Noranda Zhang , CETL
Phone: 3917 4729; Email: noranda@hku.hk
This self-paced free online course is suitable for first responders to radiation emergencies and members of the general public interested in the topic. Jointly developed by the Emergency Care Unit of HKU and the Hong Kong Jockey Club Disaster Preparedness and Response Institute, it is the first in our series of e-learning modules on CBRN emergencies. Join us now and earn a certificate!
Flipping the classroom allows teachers to present instructional materials before class mostly via short videos, freeing class time for interactive activities in the face-to-face sessions. But, what is the definition of quality in-class activities? Dr. Lily Zeng and Professor Ricky Kwok shared their insights in a workshop on 8 March 2016.
Ricky’s formula of engaging class activities comprises 4Cs:
Collaborative
Collaborative work promotes mutual scaffolding and peer-to-peer learning. For example, in Professor Rick Glofcheski’s Tort Law class, students had to analyze legal cases together.
Competitive
It is also a good idea to balance collaboration with healthy competition in the classroom. We should provide students with a platform to race with each other and achieve a given goal within limited time. For example, In CCST9003 Everyday Computing and the Internet, students are challenged to solve a Rubik’s cube in the shortest time possible.
Co-creation
By giving students a chance to co-create content, we are prompting them to learn from each other. For example, Professor Benson Yeh asked students to design their own questions for the class.
Credits
Students should be given credits for their effort; where possible, their participation should be appropriately assessed. This will incentivize students to constantly improve their performance. For example, participation in the Interprofessional Team-based Learning (IPTBL) for health professional students would contribute to the grade of some students.
The 4Cs can take many different forms. One possibility is to engage your students with learning games during the lesson.
As Ricky pointed out in the workshop, “Gamification is all about how to engage students; how we can incentivize them to take desirable actions. And desirable actions in our context today, is to make learning happen; it’s to achieve the learning outcomes.” “With a good design, you can … engage your students [to] learn the things that you want them to learn. And if you can structure that learning activity as a game, then it will be even better.”
Developing a learning game may seem an impossible challenge to some. But don’t worry. TELI is here to work with you. You can always bring your rough ideas to us and we can brainstorm together. The following questions may help you get started:
It is possible to begin with a rough idea and develop it into something big. In fact, it is okay even if you don’t have any idea about gamification at all. Come to us. We will show you game prototypes we are currently developing and offer you suggestions.
Further reading
Effective communication and collaboration is one of HKU’s educational aims. In our healthcare-related curricula, we strive to offer students a range of opportunities to work together and build a professional network on campus. One recent attempt was a UGC-funded programme entitled “Interprofessional Team-based Learning (IPTBL) for Health Professional Students,” launched in January 2016.
The main purpose of IPTBL is to facilitate deeper learning experiences and interactions of health professional students in their roles and responsibilities; and to enable them to actively learn in small groups. During the session, teams of students from Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, Chinese Medicine and Biomedical Sciences from HKU and PolyU completed tests based on suggested readings, first individually and then as a cross-disciplinary team. Team members then worked together on case-based application exercises. The way teams were arranged reflected the realities of the healthcare sector, where professionals from a variety of disciplines work together to improve the well-being of patients.
“It’s a great way for healthcare professionals to meet when they are studying, and then build relationships, friendships, so that when they go to the HA [Hospital Authority] or the community, they are familiar with each other, and they know how each other works [and] thinks,” said Dr. Alan Worsley, who served on the teacher panel as a Pharmacy content expert.
In fact, teachers also mirrored the process their learners went through in the face-to-face sessions when they collaboratively examined clinical cases and addressed questions from students.
Collaborative learning in the IPTBL programme is further enhanced by the use of the Learning Activity Management System (LAMS), which provided instant statistics that help facilitators check the progress of individuals and teams. The system also came with an online discussion forum designated for interactions after the face-to-face sessions. According to the Principal Investigator of this project, Dr Lap Ki Chan (Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine), “in each of the sessions of this team-based programme we’re talking about 500 to 600 students. Without the use of technology it is difficult to manage such a large number of students.” TELI collaborated with the IPTBL team to ensure that the LAMS functioned smoothly and that the face-to-face sessions were conducted effectively.
More than 500 students across 7 programmes from 2 universities participated in the first two IPTBL days on January 16 and February 20, 2016. The programme is growing continuously and is expected to serve over 1000 students in total from 12 programmes by 2017. This would be the first large-scale interprofessional education programme in Hong Kong.