Abstracts of Teaching Development and Language Enhancement Grant for 2022-25 Triennium

 

No.

Project Title

Abstract

1.

Review on the 2019 – 22 TDLEG projects – Identifying and Promoting Good Practices and Pedagogies

·       Over the years, CUHK teachers have been supported by the TDLEG schemes to formulate new and innovative pedagogies and curriculum design.  Many TDLEG projects have demonstrated success in diversifying learning activities, revitalizing students’ learning experiences, and enhancing the teaching quality as a result.  Dissemination and diffusion of these outstanding practices to CUHK teachers is beneficial to the University in terms of enhancement of educational provision. 

·       Supported by a TDLEG, CLEAR has been sustaining and disseminating exemplary TDLEG projects. We reviewed all funded projects and selected those which created impact on student learning. The principal supervisors of selected projects were interviewed regarding the outcomes, sustainability and transferability of the projects.  Their advice and recommendations, together with details about the projects, were included in the online modules housed in a designated website.

·       The current proposal is a continuing project. We plan to review the 200+ projects funded by the 2019-2022 TDLEG and select those projects considered exemplary and worth diffusion. Based on the experience gained in reviewing the 2016 – 19 TDLEG projects, it is estimated that around 40 projects will be identified as exemplary.  The principal supervisors of these projects will be approached for more project details and examples of good practice. For each selected project, an online module which outlines the project details focusing on the innovative elements of the pedagogies, curriculum design, learning activities and deliverables and their positive impacts will be developed. These modules will be promoted to CUHK teachers via the designated website and sharing sessions. It is intended that this one-stop consolidated package of outstanding projects will bring insights to teachers who may be inspired to adopt similar practices in their own curriculum or collaborate with teachers in other disciplines thus leading to enhancement in teaching quality.         

 

2.

Supporting Academic Quality Assurance – Further Enhancement of the Database Management System (uPRDatabase) for Undergraduate Programme Reviews

·       Programme review is one of the internal quality assurance strategies in the university. A basket of useful information about university’s educational outcomes and programme management as retrieved from the programme reviews and their reports could be capitalised on for further enhancement of the internal quality assurance strategy of the university.

·       To enhance the storage, retrieval and usage of the valuable data collected from the various cycles of programme review, uPRDatabase, the first version of a database management system for the undergraduate programme review reports, was developed with the support from the 19 - 22 TDLEG. This database platform, equipped with digitalised information, provides the university stakeholders a holistic picture of programme performance across different cycles of programme reviews.

·       This proposed project continuing from the TDLEG (2019-22) entitled ‘Developing the database management system (uPRDatabase) for the undergraduate programme review reports to support academic quality assurance’ is designed to enhance the functionalities and sustain uPRDatabase. Many new features and functionalities are proposed and among them are usage analytics, visualisation of data analysis and the implementation of the DUO Two Factor Authentication (2FA) for security purposes.

 

3.

Promoting and Sustaining Good Practices and Pedagogies from Two Cycles of Undergraduate Programme Reviews

·      This project is a continuing project from the TDLEG (2019-22) project entitled ‘Promoting good practices and pedagogies from the third-cycle undergraduate programme reviews’. Both projects share the same objectives, which are, to identify and to disseminate good practices in teaching and learning and programme management.

·      One deliverable of the 2019 – 22 project is a report on a comprehensive analysis on the programme performance between the 2nd and 3rd cycle reviews. This trend analysis has generated a list of sustaining good practices in teaching and programme management. The current proposal is designed to develop video-clips focusing on how such good practices could be sustained over a span of 10 years (2 programme review cycles).

·      The 2019 -22 project identified nine programmes with outstanding performance in the third programme review. From all these nine programmes, a total of 91 good practices in a range of review areas was identified and could be disseminated via video clips. These clips were developed after collecting additional information from directors of respective programmes.

·      Due to resources available, the adverse impact of the COVID on work arrangements and the unexpected substantial number of good practices identified, work on a few programmes and their respective good practices could be furthered. The current proposed project will continue to develop dissemination video clips on a wider range of good practices.

·      The website which was developed to house these clips will be reviewed and updated to enhance sustainability (for future rounds of programme reviews) and accessibility.

·      A session to launch the project website will be organised before the next programme review cycle.

 

4.

Resources for Teachers on Rapport Building with and among Students

Student connectedness with teachers and peer has been linked to academic success and social development. A good teacher-student relationship (TSR) is found to have positive impacts on students’ academic performance, affect, behavior and motivation in class (Brinkworth, Mcintyre, and Gehlbach, 2018). Reciprocally, a well-formed TSR would also impact on teachers’ positive emotions (Hagenauer and Someone, 2014) and better approaches to teaching (Wilcon, 1992).  Studies also reveal that good student-student relationship (SSR) is effective in reducing students’ negative perceptions of workload (Kember, 2004) and in enhancing peer learning (Boud, Cohen, and Sampson, 2013).

 

In the context of CUHK, findings from the Student Experience Questionnaire (SEQ), which gauges second- and final-year students’ perception of their capability development and teaching and learning environment, indicate that among the 9 scales under teaching and learning, ‘student teacher relationships’ has consistently been ranked the highest whereas ‘relationship with other students’ is among the lowest scales for many years.

 

Against this background, this proposed project is designed to sustain the culture of close TSR and to promote a positive SSR at CUHK by (1) exploring in depth the SEQ findings regarding TSR and SSR and (2) developing resources for teachers on principles and strategies to foster rapport building with students and among students. 

 

5.

Resources for Teachers on Promoting Active Learning and Student Engagement

·      Student engagement in active learning has been established as one of the critical factors which determine academic success (Parkin, 2017). Promoting student engagement in face-to-face teaching is always challenging and such challenges are intensified when teaching online. Undoubtedly, teachers, both new and experienced, are confronted by the need to be equipped with strategies to enhance student engagement in different modes of learning (e.g., on-site, online, independent, workplace).   

·      Against this background, the project is designed to support teachers by developing online resources on promoting student engagement and active learning. These resources will focus on approaches and strategies for fostering student engagement and active learning. These strategies span from course design, design and conduct of learning activities, assessment task design, classroom interaction techniques, use of technology, supervision techniques, etc. 

·      A student survey and teacher interviews will be conducted to ascertain the current situation in terms of student engagement and active learning in addition to literature review on current good practices. Online modules will be developed to demonstrate good practices.

·      An additional feature of this project is that some strategies proposed in these modules will be field-tested by having project team members trying them out in their lessons and evaluating their effectiveness in engaging students. The benefits of this project are, therefore, two-fold. First, the proposed engaging strategies will be evidence-based and second, the evaluation study to be adopted by team members is a good opportunity to enhance their pedagogical research skills. 

Parkin, D. (2017) Leading Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. London: Routledge.

 

6.

Evaluation of the Revision of the General Education Foundation Programme

The General Education Foundation Programme (GEFP), since its full launch in 2012, consists of two compulsory courses for all students in CUHK. Through reading excerpts of selected classics on humanity and nature, in the two 3-unit courses, In Dialogue with Humanity and In Dialogue with Nature respectively, the goal is to allow students of different disciplinary training to have a common intellectual and cultural ground, to discuss upon the important perennial issues of human civilization. It is designed to help students acquire and develop knowledge, attitudes and skills that are essential as an independent learner and to be an educated citizen. After a decade of successfully running the GEFP, in the 2022-23 academic year, a revision of the programme that re-orients it towards the needs of the students in the upcoming decades is to be conducted. This revision is one part of the implementation of the “CUHK 2025” strategic plan.

 

More specifically, the revision of the programme includes the following key changes:

1.     Increased emphasis on the teaching of sustainable development goals

2.     Increased emphasis on the teaching of the fundamental role of language

3.     Reduced number of core texts to allow more in-depth discussion and reflection on each text

4.     Enforced consistency on the medium of instruction and the written assessment

5.      

This project proposes to develop the necessary tools for evaluating the effectiveness of the two courses, and then evaluate whether the revision can lead to the expected outcomes. Three types of data (perception, behaviour and performance) will be collected from two types of stakeholders (teachers and students). It is intended that findings will better inform curriculum review, pedagogical designs, instructional strategies, and course implementation for enhancement purposes for the GEFP and for the university.

 

7.

Further Development and Evaluation of the Core Courses on Computational Thinking and Digital Literacy

·       As defined by Wing (2006) in her seminal paper, computational thinking encompasses the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for solving problems by drawing on the basic concepts of computer science. It has been identified as a 21st century skill, incorporated in school curricula worldwide and assessed in large-scale international assessments. In phase with the global trend, CUHK has moved a bold step forward in revamping the existing core IT course by incorporating elements of computational thinking as well as digital literacy, which is highlighted in its new five-year Strategic Plan “CUHK 2025”.

·       In 2021-2022, the Faculty of Engineering was tasked to design and pilot two new core IT courses, ENGG1003 and ENGG1004 (Digital Literacy and Computational Thinking - P and R respectively). A trial evaluation study was conducted, and the two pilot courses were proved to be effective. However, given that enrolment in the pilot courses was voluntary and the enrolment number was small, the sample was not free from bias and the findings had limited generalizability. A more comprehensive evaluation is necessary for investigating how the two new courses work when they are fully implemented on a mandatory basis.

·       Considering the far-reaching impact of this major curricular change, this project proposes to further develop the courseware and evaluate the effectiveness of the two new core IT courses in their first year of full implementation in 2022-2023. Enriched courseware such as more micro-modules, new IT workshops, improved eLearning and assessment support systems, etc. will be further developed. Quantitative and qualitative data will be collected from students and teachers to identify the feedback, process, outcomes and their relationships. By surveying a whole student cohort and a newly formed teaching team, it is expected that this project will further inform the design and implementation of the two new courses.

 

8.

Developing An Online Self-learning Course for CUHK Students to Strengthen Their Basic and Subject-specific Research Skills 

 

 

The Chinese University of Hong Kong Library (CUHK Library) has been offering different kinds of workshops and seminars for all levels of students. Topics include basic research skills, searching e-resources, managing citations, understanding academic honesty, measuring research impact, understanding open access & research data management, etc. Given the trend of online learning and to support the strategic plan CUHK 2025, CUHK Library developed various self-learning tools for students to learn independently, such as Research Smart, Information Literacy Online Courses, and EndNote Online Courses, etc.

 

The coverage of these online courses is extensive. However, these courses are not connected. They were developed on different platforms and might not be easy for students to acquire all these essential research skills in one place with their limited time. The sustainability of these courses is also a challenge for the library. Thus, it is proposed to develop a new online self-learning course for both undergraduate and postgraduate students which will be housed in the Library website for the following purposes:

 

·      To consolidate all learning materials in one platform only and to update the existing online courses which might be out-of-date

·      To enhance learning effectiveness as students can always review the course content

·      To enrich the course content by including new areas

·      To allow students flexibility in terms of timing

 

This initiative is proposed to develop an independent online course with at least four modules:

·      Module 1 – Basic Research Skills

·      Module 2 – Subject-specific Research Skills (8 subjects)

·      Module 3 - Managing Citations for Your Research (EndNote and RefWorks)

·      Module 4 – Publishing your work (optional for UG students)

 

Features of the proposed online course:

·       Independent web-based course developed by a courseware development tool

·       For both CUHK undergraduate and postgraduate students

·       Participants will be required to log in before accessing the course

·       Supplementary

·       4 modules (self-paced)

·       45 mins of estimated reading time per module

·       Step-by-step instructions

·       With animation and instructional videos

·       Learning activities and exercises will be embedded to check their understanding

·       Pre-module & post-module surveys for evaluation purpose

This new online self-learning course is targeted to be launched in Term 1 (2025-2026). It would be opened to all CUHK students. Upon request by teaching staff, this online course could be specifically modified and embedded in their curriculum as part of the assessment.


·        

9.

Interactions and Active Learning in the New Normal: uReply for Blended Learning

In the past TDLEGs, we launched and then provided a campus-wide service called uReply. The solution has a strong pedagogical focus to achieve active learning through facilitating various types of interaction using the mobile technology. The system has not only attracted impressive popularity among teachers at CUHK, over the years, through effortful continuous development, uReply has also been extended into not only a classroom tool but also a tool for asynchronous interactions, game-based interactions, and location-based interactions. It has proven to be an important tool for virtual teaching and learning as well during the pandemic and it is compatible with innovative pedagogy such as flipped classroom and self-directed learning.

 

The present TDLEG application seeks resources to 1) continue the running of the service with a growth of user-base in mind, and 2) further develop the tool to meet the needs for the future especially to support the new needs related to blended learning. To support blended learning, more teaching and learning activities should be able to be conducted effectively online and thus we propose to enhance features include the following.

 

Assessment is an important component that requires more and more online support in the blended era. During the TDLEG 19-22, uReply developed an assessment component as a means to support asynchronous interactions, we propose to further enhance this component so that it supports the university strategy to apply criterion referencing. Criterion referencing in assessment is a university policy but the marking of assignment using this approach usually requires the use of marking rubrics that adds a great deal of workload to teachers. The rubric-based assignment marking tool will be integrated to Blackboard as well such that teachers can use either uReply or Blackboard to collect their assignments. The new function will work well in the blended environment as the submission, marking and dissemination of the marking are all accomplished on a mobile-ready interface over the Web.

 

Blended learning requires responses from online systems to be smarter and individualized. The supervisor has recently received an IICA grant to work with five other universities to explore AI in education. The new initiative is a community-of-practice type of projects and with the purpose to network pioneering teachers and developers across the universities and share as well as teach each other various AI applications in education. An important follow-up action side-by-side the project is to implement AI-related enhancement into uReply. For example, we are optimistic that the auto-marking technology can be used in many parts of the system, such as to analyzing the classroom interactions as well as the assessment submissions. Chatbot and other NLP/ object recognition functions will be useful in giving more support to students with SEN.

 

A revamp of the look and feel of uReply is needed to consolidate the functions we built over the years. Since many of the functions are developed by different programmers in the past, they do not look and behave like a single platform. Another goal of the upcoming revamp is to better unite the whole system. For example, a single login process will be provided, such that students do not need to log into another session number when teachers shift to another interaction sub-tool in uReply, such as from an anonymous to the login-required mode. We also take this opportunity to unify teachers’ and students’ user experience no matter it is an in-class or online learning environment for more comfortable blended learning.

 

10.

Teaching and Learning Community of Practice (T&L CoP): Consolidation Together with Extension to Address Teachers' Pedagogical Research Needs

This proposed initiative seeks to use pedagogical research as the focal point to expand our existing teaching and learning community of practice (T&L CoP) for teachers across eight faculties and other academic units at CUHK. In particular, this timely proposal will provide periodic and tailor-made pedagogical research support as part of the professional development for academic teaching staff following a new institutional policy on widening research participation effective from 1 September 2022. Such a proposal builds on the strengths of two existing projects, one of which is the Teaching and Learning CoP (evolving from the eLearning CoP established in 2017) and the other which is the Virtual Teaching and Learning (VTL) Pedagogical Research Service (established in 2021). Previous work has laid the solid foundation for this proposed initiative in two significant ways. First, we have successfully developed a structured CoP with approximately 100 active and like-minded teachers and the multifaceted research support service model. The second significance coheres around the viable transfer of existing collaboration networks and opportunities as well as lessons learnt from our current/recent work to this proposed project. The new project intends to provide professional development support to enhance teachers’ teaching and learning practices and to possibly translate their best practices through research.

 

11.

The Impact of Universal Design Learning Model on Inclusive Education at CUHK

Quality education is important to groom all students in the tertiary educational environment.  To achieve quality education, we have to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education to all students.  Therefore, the readiness for teachers at CUHK to cultivate an inclusive study environment to all students is crucial.  The current study will evaluate the understanding of inclusive framework in Universal Design Learning (UDL) in terms of growth mindset, self-efficacy, self-regulation, and motivation for the university teachers in CUHK. This proposal aims to establish a one-stop interactive platform for teachers at the university with a view to increasing their awareness of UDL in supporting students with or without Special Education Need (SEN), as well as communicating and sharing their experiences in accommodating these students. A series of workshops will be organized to promote the UDL framework. The micro-modules will be generated on the webpage as learning materials for teachers. Two evaluation surveys for teachers and students will be conducted to evaluate the UDL inclusive practice in the university with a view to establishing an inclusive campus environment. We also recognize the teacher support to SEN students.  Most of the studies in special education examine the learning needs and support of students with SEN, but fewer studies investigate teachers’ beliefs and attitudes toward inclusive education such as their mindset toward students with SEN, their teaching efficacy, self-regulation when confronted by students, as well as their motivation in teaching students with SEN in higher education.  Therefore, the current project also evaluates the impact of UDL on the changes of teacher’s mindsets and the support to SEN students.

 

12.

Students-as-Partners (SaP) Model in Teaching and Learning at CUHK

Students’ participation in teaching development is one of the important strategies in the CUHK Strategic Plan 2025. Involving students-as-partners (SaP) in teaching and learning development is an essential strategy that encourages students to take bolder steps in their learning. The traditional SaP approaches have been developed and applied in the Western context.  Nevertheless, it may not be fully applicable in the Chinese teaching and learning environment.  Therefore, the current project aims to develop a SaP model at CUHK. The present study will focus on the evaluation of existing practices in SaP at CUHK. Furthermore, it is significant to address the barriers in curriculum design and difficulties in collaborative teaching and learning throughout the process of implementing SaP. Therefore, this proposal aims to periodically update and enriches the SaP platform, for teachers at the university with a view to increasing their awareness of SaP in supporting teachers. A series of workshops will be organized to promote the SaP framework in teaching. The micro-modules will be generated on the webpage as learning materials for teachers. Two evaluation surveys for teachers and students will be conducted to explore the SaP practices in the university with to establish teaching and learning partnerships at the university. Five exemplars of SaP curricula will be developed as the exemplar in this proposed project. Therefore, the current project also evaluates the impact of changes in teachers’ mindsets and students’ skills and competencies.

 

13.

Pedagogical and Assessment Support for Service-learning Programme

Being emphasized in the CUHK 2025 Strategic Plan, Credit-bearing Service-Learning Programme (CSLP) will be promoted and incorporated into the undergraduate curriculum as compulsory requirement by 2024-2025. To facilitate the Colleges and Departments to develop credit-bearing SL courses, continue preparing teachers and faculty members with sufficient SL knowledge is of utmost importance in promoting SL as well as integrating different ideas of SL into credit-bearing courses. The current proposal is focused on supporting the curriculum design and practices of SL courses in the university. The objectives of this proposal include (1) the evaluation and optimization of the current SL platform; (2) the investigation on the CSLP to be offered by all nine Colleges in the upcoming two school years; (3) the development of a CUHK SL assessment rubrics for the College credit-bearing SL programme; and (4) the establishment of University-Community collaboration for SL.

 

14.

Academic Advising Support for Teachers at CUHK

Effective academic advising (AA) is, without doubt, an important part for CUHK students in their tertiary education. The current AA system in CUHK was developed a decade ago. We have conducted a study adopting qualitative and quantitative approaches to evaluate the AA system at CUHK by interviewing over 712 students and 36 teachers in 2020. A workshop was hosted by this project’s principal supervisor with around 40 teachers participated in 2021 April. Teachers expressed several concerns over the AA system which are related to the (1) support given by the university, (2) a lack of examples or experience sharing by other advisors. They are eager to advance their AA skills to establish a solid relationship with their advisees. To address this issue, the current proposal is to produce a full package for teachers to follow when doing AA. The package includes (1) an interactive webpage, (2) Guidance tips for advisors to follow, (3) series of workshops with experience sharing session of advisors.

 

15.

AI at the Forefront: Charting the AI Landscape at CUHK

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly transforming higher education, with significant implications for teaching and learning. To effectively integrate AI technologies into teaching and learning practices, it is crucial to understand the knowledge, perceptions, attitudes, and applications of AI among students and teachers. The findings will shed light on the current AI policy for teachers and students of CUHK. This proposal outlines a comprehensive survey targeting teachers and students to gather insights into the needs and concerns of the university community regarding AI technologies. The survey serves to enhance pedagogical effectiveness and student learning outcomes. A key deliverable of this project is developing a survey instrument that can measure and review continuously and sustainably. the university's AI policy, practices, operational procedures, and stakeholders' responses towards it This instrument will enable data­driven decision-making, facilitate benchmarking, and contribute to the broader field of AI in education research. The survey's findings will inform policies and strategies to integrate AI in a relevant and inclusive manner. By proactively assessing and addressing the challenges and opportunities presented by AI, this project will enhance the university's teaching and learning activities, drive innovation, and ensure sustainable benefits for the institution and its constituents.

 

16.

AI in Academia: Training and Capacity Building for Teachers in Higher Education

The proposed " AI in Academia: Training and Capacity Building for Higher Education Teaching Staff" programme is a pilot initiative designed to empower CUHK faculty members with the necessary skills and knowledge to effectively integrate AI and Generative AI into their teaching, research, and curriculum development. This programme, developed based on benchmarking similar courses provided by overseas and local universities and comments from an external reviewer, specifically focuses on the practical application of these technologies within pedagogical settings in higher education, ensuring that educators are not only familiar with AI concepts but are also proficient in applying them to enhance their teaching methodologies and research activities.

 

Central to this programme are hands-on workshops structured to demonstrate real-world applications of Generative AI. These workshops allow teachers to experiment with and adapt these tools to suit their educational contexts best. By engaging in these practical sessions, faculty members can gain confidence in handling AI technologies, facilitating a smoother transition of these tools into their everyday teaching and research practices.

 

Upon completing the programme, participants will receive certificates that reflect their expertise and accomplishment in integrating AI into their professional practices. These certificates serve as a testament to their skill development and a catalyst for further professional growth, motivation, and enhancement of the educational quality they deliver. By establishing a benchmark for AI competency among the university's teaching staff, this pilot initiative lays the groundwork for a broader application and acceptance of AI technologies in higher education, setting a precedent for future programme expansions.

 

17.

Developing Academic Staff Members' Pedagogic Research Engagement at CUHK

This proposal aims to enhance academic staff’s engagement in pedagogic research by actively creating learning and interactive opportunities. We intend to achieve this through three key initiatives: scaffolded professional development, knowledge exchange, as well as networking and collaboration opportunities. Specifically, the notions of scaffolding and active construction of opportunities play a pivotal role in these proposed initiatives, as mere attendance does not automatically translate into practice. Therefore, our scaffolded professional development will adopt a sandwich approach which draws reference from the feedback sandwich (Ash, 1984). It will consist of pre-workshop reading groups, main workshops, and followed by post-workshop group consultations. The topics covered in professional development workshops will include various research methods/methodologies and key concepts, such as mixed-method design, participatory action research, creative methods, rigor/trustworthiness, and reflexivity. Pedagogic research (PedRes) knowledge exchange will be manifested in the form of sharing sessions which emphasises collaborations with external partners and academics from beyond Hong Kong higher education. This exchange will enable the university to tap into the latest innovative practice and global perspectives in education. A networking event, namely a facilitated writing retreat, will be organised to enhance teachers' academic productivity and collaboration. It is worth noting that the identification of the three areas of needs for pedagogic research support mentioned above is based on 83 valid responses collected in a current study on pedagogic research engagement at the university (Reference No. SBRE-23-0201). This proposal will complement our ongoing work on developing a teaching and learning community of practice at the university, while cultivating academic staff’s capacity for pedagogic research and fostering a collaborative pedagogic research culture within the university and beyond.

 

18.

Integrating AI in Assessment for Learning Enhancement & Grading Efficiency

Traditional assessment methods suffer from biases, inconsistency, and time constraints, hindering effective teaching and learning. The project aims to enhance teaching and learning activities at the University by integrating generative AI into the assessment process. The benefits of AI integration include swift grading, objectivity, scalability, personalised feedback, and analysis of student learning patterns. However, technical barriers such as input format complexities and prompt engineering pose challenges.

 

To address these challenges, the project aims to develop a user-friendly and adaptable platform that can accommodate specific assessment needs. The platform will empower educators, including those with limited technical skills, to leverage AI as an assistive tool to enhance grading efficiency and learning effectiveness.

 

The system development is consisted of two phases. Phase 1 involves research and development focusing on interface design, AI model selection (e.g., ChatGPT4.0), and rubric interpretation integration. Phase 2 will consist of pilot tests in diverse settings, followed by feedback collection for refinement.

 

19.

Postgraduate Academic Advising Support at CUHK

Effective academic advising (AA) is a crucial part of the tertiary education experience for CUHK students. In the recent UGC Quality Audit Report, the comprehensive academic advisory system at CUHK was confirmed. Yet, the guidelines and resources to support effective AA for postgraduate students are currently lacking. To address this issue, the current project aims to evaluate the needs of both research postgraduate students (RPgs) and academic staffs in conducting academic advising at CUHK. In addition, the current project also empowers academic advisors in engaging academic advising activities to RPgs. The project will be based on the Self-Determination Theory (SDT) to design surveys for all RPgs and the faculty who supervise them, in order to: (1) conduct a survey to both teachers and students in assessing the needs during academic advising, (2) prepare Postgraduate Academic advising guidance tips for the academic advisor, and (3) produce micro-module and organize several workshops to empower academic advisors to RPgs’ academic advising needs.

 

20.

Advancing Sustainability Education at CUHK and Beyond via General Education and Cross-sector Synergy

·      This proposed project aims to enhance sustainability education at CUHK at large, making it one of the core strengths of CUHK’s educational excellence.

·      Embracing social responsibility for sustainable development is a key component of CUHK Strategic Plan 2021-2025. To this end, a strong focus on sustainability education is essential, and CUHK’s leading role in and contribution to the education and pursuit of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are envisioned.

·      The General Education (GE) curriculum has contributed significantly to broadening our students’ intellectual horizons to meet the global SDG challenges. An SDG Study Scheme was launched in 2020-21 for the systematic development of sustainability education within GE in CUHK.

·      To advance SDG education across and beyond CUHK, we propose to revise and expand the SDG Study Scheme and extend sustainability education beyond GE to reach all students and teachers in CUHK. The targets at various levels include:

o   University GE: Revising and expanding the SDG Study Scheme; supporting experiential learning for SDG-GE courses through SDG Experiential Learning Activity Fund;

o   GE Foundation (GEF) Programme: Incorporating and evaluating the effectiveness of one new classic reading on sustainability as a common-core text in GEF, to help all CUHK students develop a keen appreciation and sense of urgency to live and work in harmony among economy, society and environment;

o   College GE: Incorporating SDG elements in College GE courses and establishing synergy between the SDG Study Scheme and College service-learning programs;

o   Faculties and University: Developing a university-wide SDG course inventory to help students design for themselves and teachers to advise on a sustainability-focused education; analyzing the landscape of sustainability education across CUHK; organizing engagement workshops and building a Community of Practice on Sustainability Education across faculties;

o   Beyond CUHK: Participating in Hong Kong Sustainable Campus Consortium (HKSCC) for cross-institutional collaboration; organizing SDG Forum Series for students and the general public; collaborating with international university and industry partners in the “Future17” program.

 

21.

An Online Bilingual Glossary in Support of Language Alignment in General Education Foundation (GEF) Classes

From the academic year 2022-2023 onwards, students in the General Education Foundation (GEF) classes will need to adhere to the language alignment policy of the University, which requires the language of written assignments to correspond to the language of classroom instruction. This new policy will pose three kinds of intellectual challenges to students. First, students in Chinese-medium classes, constituting 80% of the total, will need to expand their Chinese vocabulary related to the intellectual concepts articulated in the core texts. Second, in expressing their understanding of the texts (mostly written in English), students will be confronted with the task of finding the appropriate Chinese terms to encode the relevant concepts, based on a refined understanding of their subtle meanings. Third, as students have to read core texts related to both humanity and nature, the lexicon they need to master covers a broad range of conceptual domains.

 

We propose to build an online bilingual glossary of the GEF core texts with a three-fold objective: (a) to provide a convenient tool to search for the translation equivalents of key terms encountered in the core texts; (b) to provide easily accessible information on the contexts of use of the key terms by the author, with reference to etymology and word formation; and (c) to engage students in the enrichment of the glossary and the development of this eLearning platform.

 

22.

A Mentor-assisted Study Scheme (MASS)

·    After being implemented for ten years, The General Education Foundation Programme, comprising the two ‘dialogue’ courses (“In Dialogue with Humanity” and “In Dialogue with Nature”) is facing two challenges. Firstly, students’ encounter with the classical texts is limited in time, depth and scope. On average teachers and students devote only three hours per week to each work, which in most cases is a short excerpt. Secondly, due to the intricacies of the concepts introduced and the complexity of the language that encodes them, many students find it difficult to develop an in-depth understanding of these texts.

·     We propose to make full use of Virtual Teaching and Learning (VTL) to launch a Mentor-assisted Study Scheme (MASS), aiming to enrich and upgrade the learning experience of CUHK students with the support of the wider university community. The scheme will include: (i) a management web platform that provides academic resources and organises hardware resources; (ii) Classics reading groups, with small groups of students led by mentors who are faculty members, alumni, or College tutors; (iii) Student book-review sessions co-organised with the University Library; (iv) Podcasts hosted on the MASS platform for students to share their reflections and insights gained from the book reading experience.

 

23.

Developing An Inter-faculty Collaborative Experiential Program to Foster Students’ Science Communication Skills

·      In the 2019-22 triennium, we have developed a science communication partnership program between the School of Life Sciences (SLS) and the General Education Foundation Programme (GEF) to train SLS students to become science communicators and lead GEF students, who are of diversified majors, to perform scientific investigations. The project puts strong emphasis in encouraging students to become partners in curriculum and teaching.

·      In this triennium, we propose to extend this partnership program to Earth and Environmental Sciences Programme (EESC) and Department of Geography and Resource Management (GRM); to substantially enhance the science communication training; and to strengthen the experiential workshops provided to GEF students, taking into account the curriculum reform of GEF, pedagogical considerations and students’ feedback.

·      During the proposed project period, 40-60 senior SLS, EESC and GRM students will receive the science communication training and oversee up to 720 GEF students to perform scientific investigations. For SLS, EESC and GRM students, the skills that they learn align well with the graduate attributes of the University. For GEF students, participation in the workshops and a written reflective worksheet will become part of the assessment of the course.

·      Quantitative and qualitative methods will be employed to evaluate the success of the project, including online survey, focus group interview, and textual analysis of written reflections.

·      The proposed project well aligns with the strategic development direction of the University outlined in CUHK2025. It also increases students’ awareness of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The project can be extended to other sessions of GEF courses and applied to other CUHK programmes and courses that aim at fostering students’ skills of communicating professional knowledge to non-technical audiences.

 

24.

A Compendium of Introductions and Reading Guides to the Revised Course Books for In Dialogue with Humanityand In Dialogue with Nature

To enhance the General Education Foundation (GEF) Programme, the teaching teams of “In Dialogue with Humanity” and “In Dialogue with Nature” have recently revised the list of classical texts for the two courses. We propose to write a compendium of introductions and reading guides for the new set of classics which will form the core of the GEF curriculum from the academic year 2023-2024.

 

In a programme which requires students to read and reflect on classics, the list of selected texts embodies and codifies the educational ideals of the course planners. The current revision represents a continued commitment to engaging students with perennial issues of human existence, as well as an added emphasis on language and sustainability, in response to the call of our times. The success of a course, however, depends not only on well selected content, but also on the delivery of it. The compendium addresses the needs of delivery.

 

The existing teaching materials in support of the two reading intensive courses, compiled at early stages of the GEF program, suffer from noticeable deficiencies when looked at with hindsight. The teaching notes were developed by individual teachers as isolated, disparate efforts to help students overcome the difficulties posed by a small number of texts. The materials are by and large outdated or fragmentary; they do not incorporate the lessons that we have learned from our teaching practice over the last decade, and provide only partial coverage of the texts. The proposed compendium of introductions and reading guides will represent a collective, integrated effort of GEF teachers in pedagogical enhancement. The compendium will be comprehensive in covering all the required texts. It will be systematic in its approach, aiming to standardize the design, format and pedagogical content of the teaching materials. These aspects of the delivery are deemed essential for enhancement in the teaching of the GEF courses.

 

In the University’s initiative to revamp GE, we see the GEF Programme as being entrusted with a more active and interdisciplinary role in striving to attain its learning outcomes by training students to articulate their understanding of the classics and their thoughts more effectively, through intensive reading and writing, adopting a “Language across the curriculum” approach in collaboration with the Department of Chinese Language and Literature and the English Language Teaching Unit. The compendium will be a product of such interdisciplinary efforts.

 

To ensure that the compendium meet high academic standards, experts and scholars will be invited to special seminars and symposia to share the state-of-the-art research on the relevant classics. As a concerted, systematic, comprehensive, and interdisciplinary effort by a group of veteran GEF teachers trained in different disciplines, the compendium will combine current scholarship with the pedagogical insights of GEF teachers. The project will consolidate the teaching of GEF and serve as a concrete demonstration of the unique educational philosophy and pedagogy of GE at CUHK to the wider public.

 

25.

Developing an AI argument recognition tool for a KeyWord-in-Context-based method to assess students' understanding of specific concepts

For courses with large numbers of students and essay writing assessment components, it is both highly desirable and not easy to quantitatively estimate, from students’ essays, to what degree they, overall, have acquired a more detailed and accurate understanding of specific concepts, or developed more comprehensive and logically consistent argumentation skills. This is certainly the case of GEFP courses. In this regard, one of the Principal Supervisors (K.C.) has developed a method for quantitative analysis based on the

computational linguistics concept of KeyWord-in-Context. Such a method can provide clear non-subjective indications for individual teachers' pedagogies and for evidence-based pedagogical research.

 

Promising preliminary results from a sample of about 700 essays from 7 academic terms, have been presented at the ESERA 2023 international conference and at an internal conference of the GEFP.

 

The aim is to develop an AI framework that allows teacher-users to train a machine to recognize specific statement or argument types, so as to speed up the most time consuming step in the implementation of the KeyWord-in-Context method of analysis.

 

The project is intended to be only the first stage of development of what, through a second longer stage of development, should become an end-user ready software tool.

 

26.

Consolidating Peer Learning at CUHK for Synergy and Furthering Development

·       At CUHK, a variety of peer learning and tutoring opportunities are enhancing the academic and social engagement of students. The Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS), in particular, has demonstrated remarkable effectiveness in elevating academic performance, enhancing self- efficacy, and fostering a sense of community. To build on this success, a new initiative aims to consolidate these efforts through a Special Interest Group (SIG) under the CLEAR’s Community of Practice (CoP) framework. This will allow for a more inclusive and synergistic approach to peer learning, encouraging exchange and learning among educators using diverse models.

·       The project is designed to complement the ongoing TDLEG project, focusing on the transition support role of PASS and the development of scholarship around peer learning. By collecting baseline data, raising awareness, establishing a platform for exchange, identifying stakeholders, and supporting the implementation of peer learning, the initiative seeks to create a systemic impact on CUHK’s educational landscape.

·       Key to this effort will be forming the SIG, conducting a comprehensive survey, hosting workshops, offering a PASS Supervisor accreditation program, and developing a website to showcase peer learning opportunities.

·       The ultimate goal is to sustainably integrate peer learning across CUHK, underpinned by its proven effectiveness in not only improving grades but also fostering vital affective outcomes that contribute to long-term student success. The project members have received the University Education Award 2021 for their work, and this project seeks to further advance on that foundation of achievement.

 

27.

Designing and Implementing a Technical Framework for Credit-Bearing Courses at CUHK

Online credit-bearing courses have become prevalent in higher education institutions because:

·       Many students prefer taking online courses that allow them with greater flexibility

·       Elementary and introductory courses can be held on the KEEP online platform, so that teachers put more focus on advanced, face-to-face classes

 

The number of online credit-bearing courses currently hosted by KEEP has increased significantly, from 3 courses in the academic year of 2021-22 to 10 courses in 2022-23. In view of the increasing demand for online credit-bearing courses, it is of utmost importance to improve the functions of the KEEP platform and the integration services between KEEP and CUSIS so that:

·       The university will benefit from the development of online credit-bearing courses on the KEEP platform with higher efficiency on administration tasks

·       Teachers and administrators can exchange course information on KEEP, such as course enrollment, student status and records, completeness for courses, and more. It will also provide better support for teachers to deliver their learning materials online, and assess their students’ performance in class.The integration of KEEP and CUSIS allows teachers to submit the course grades of their students using the KEEP platform. This can help them increase their productivity and save time for inputting the students’ data on CUSIS

·       Students can have a more effective channel of acquiring new skills and knowledge

 

28.

Course Recommendation and Course Optimization System for Lifelong Learning

Problem

KEEP is an e-learning platform that provides free online MOOC courses for over 150,000 users worldwide (https://course.keep.edu.hk). According to the statistics in September 2022, KEEP provides over 173,000 courses online, and the number is expected to surge in the coming years. At the same time, we are collaborating with various partners regionally and globally, such as GDHKMOCC “粵港澳大灣區高校在線開放課程聯盟”, to provide high-quality online education to learners. While there are hundreds of thousands of online courses on the KEEP platform, it raises another problem for our learners – how can they choose the right course for themselves? In addition, how can we ensure that the platform encourages knowledge acquisition in different disciplines and provides the best educational resources for learners in a user-friendly manner without requiring them to use additional time and effort to seek out the educational resources that are most relevant to their needs?

 

Idea

To tackle the problem, we plan to:

·       Recommend courses to students through the use of algorithms and machine learning

·       Make sure students fully understand the course objectives before they enroll

·       Offer suggestions to teachers for writing course descriptions so that they can attract students who have a genuine interest in their courses

 

Execution

To execute the proposed ideas, we will take the following actions:

·       Course recommendation system

This system helps learners save a significant amount of time when selecting their courses on the KEEP platform. The system will use machine learning technology to analyze students’ background, academic interests, and level of understanding of a certain discipline and recommend courses that best suit their needs. The new system will cover students at not only CUHK, but also global users on the KEEP platform.

·       Insights into writing course descriptions

The system can also offer suggestions for writing better course descriptions so that teachers can find the right students to enroll in their courses. It analyzes the course metadata and provides invaluable insights for teachers regarding the background of students who are admitted to their courses.


Text Box:





 

Text Box:

 

29.

The Readiness of Metaverse in Pedagogical Approach for Tertiary Education

Metaverse or extended reality (XR) is a burgeoning field that provides a constant digital space enabling multiuser to have social networking virtually with enhanced physical reality. XR hardware is a handy, stand-alone immersive device, user-friendly, and affordable tool for allowing users to the XR terraforming platform. Moreover, XR can reconstruct an entire teaching and learning environment to continue knowledge delivery and skill training if there are any unexpected lockdown measures in the community. In future education, XR may be widely adopted as a mobile computer to provide immersive learning experiences to sustain quality enhancement in teaching and learning flexibly anytime, anywhere, with teleporting communication and interaction.

This project involves teachers and students from several local institutions, including CUHK, HKU and HKUST. This proposed project aims to formulate key universal educational opportunities and the environment by the affordances of XR technology, identify the novel challenges of XR in the future meta-education crossing the geographical boundaries in the virtual world and share experience in XR pedagogical strategy with stakeholders in the community of practice.

 

This proposed project will plan for the multidisciplinary approach with XR visibility-aware simulation entitled "Metaverse Educational World-Land (X-Land)", which will develop comprised of three elements 1) XR 360o first-person perspective skill training; 2) XR serious game training simulator, and 3) XR networking theatre to set up the universal social netting virtual environment among the curriculums. With the research study for the proposed project, our team can explore if the paradigm shift can adopt innovative pedagogies for continuous teaching and learning enhancement to other programs and courses.

 

30.

Sustainable Tourism Planning Games for Cross-disciplinary and Territory Knowledge Sharing and Student Engagement

 

Aim

·       This university-level project develops a tourism planning game for engaging students from different disciplines and territories to advance the understanding of destination planning and the all- important Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through knowledge and case sharing.

 

Brief Project Description

·       This project creates two online role-play games (one rural context and one urban context; both English and Chinese versions) for tourist destination planning based on the SDG framework and a collection of real-world case studies from students of the project team members. Students in CUHK will be highly engaged in the game development process.

·       Overall game flow: First, student players are assigned to a particular role under public sector, private sector, civil society or local community, and their respective goal to achieve – maximize certain SDG scores. Second, the players must study their goals and resources in hand, and conduct rounds of one negotiation with other roles in exchange of resource cards (e.g. forest cover, endangered species, land, capital, local culture, etc.). Third, after completion of 10 rounds, the game will determine the winner by summarizing the available SDG scores and resource cards. One additional parameter will be taken into consideration – a global sustainability in economic, social and environmental status that affects the game result. Details of game design will be refined by student engagement process.

·       The game is constructed on a hypothetical destination but the roles and conditions are a collection of real-world topics such as ecological conservation, indigenous and community empowerment, social and cultural exchange, stakeholder relations, tourism impacts and management, which are all common and inter-disciplinary knowledge areas in sustainable tourism. Teachers may utilize the game as an in-class or online teaching activities to enhance teacher-student and peer interactions.

 

Significance

·       This project is of high relevance and beneficial to facilitate students to cross knowledge boundaries through the acquisition of knowledge in different disciplines, student engagement, game-based and experiential learning. There will be cross-university and cross-territorial constructive long- term advantages when the game is utilized continuously across project team members.

·       The project significance is four-fold: (1) inter-disciplinary knowledge acquisition and sharing, (2) cross-university and cross-territory teaching and learning enhancement, (3) student engagement in game development, and (4) advantages of game-based learning for in-class teaching and virtual interface.

·       The university-level initiative is developed from previous game-based project outcomes of the Principal Supervisor. This new project further widens and deepens the scope of teaching collaboration and long-term utility of the game across courses and institutions, which supports and showcases the sustainability of university-level collaborations.

 

31.

Enhancing Follow-up Learning Experience by Leveraging “Topic Guidance Enquiry Framework” on Guided NLP Model for Tailored Student Engagement

In every lesson, after specific topics have been taught, in order to provide better support, we require few enthusiastic teaching assistants to interact with students individually. Their role will involve identifying students' weaknesses, asking topic-related questions, and providing feedback or additional exercises. However, it is not feasible to have sufficient manpower to guide each student on a one-on-one basis.

 

This project aims at developing a pedagogical assistive platform that utilizes the Topic Guidance Enquiry Framework as a backend engine to generate a Guided NLP model. The Web APP will empower university-level teaching staff to effortlessly generate tailor-made prompts using the backend framework engine. It will also include shared URLs of NLP models, such as POE or chatgpt, that those prompts will be deployed to complement students' post-lesson learning journey. It can enhance student engagement and improve learning outcomes.

 

Teaching staff will be able to send students the URLs of the guided NLP models after teaching specific topics of the course. This will enable students to receive personalized questions in a structured sequence. The model will assess their background knowledge, prompt them to explain detailed concept, encourage them to provide step-by-step processes and ask them for listing examples from their own experiences related to the subject matter to gain insights based on their individual strengths, weaknesses, and areas of interest. After that, the model will assign a knowledge level score based on students' responses and provide extra suggestions and resources accordingly. These resources will be available in various formats, including links to related websites, downloadable PDF readings and publicly accessible videos.

 

Finally, pedagogical research encompassing methodology, expected outcomes, and experimental results, including statistical analysis, will be conducted involving university teachers and students from the Engineering, Art, Science, and Business faculties.

 

This initiative is expected to benefit more than 800 students. The specific course offerings that will be the focus of this research are as follows:

 

Engineering Courses:

ENGG1130 - Multivariable Calculus for Engineers (Capacity: around 500)

ELEG3701 - Embedded Systems Design (Capacity: around 50)

ELEG2201 - Digital Circuits and Computing Systems (Capacity: around 50)

 

Art Courses:

TRAN1010A Principles of Translation (Capacity: around 40)

TRAN2070 Introduction to Translation Studies (Capacity: around 40)

 

Business Courses:

DOTE1040 Macroeconomic (Capacity: around 70)

DOTE2011 Statistical Analysis for Business (Capacity: around 70)

 

Science Courses:

CHEM1072 General Chemistry (Capacity: around 60)

UGEB2420A Chemistry in the Kitchen (Capacity: around 60)

CHEM1280B Introduction to Organic Chemistry and Biomolecules: (Capacity: around 30)

 

 

 

32.

Communicating Capstone: Hosting the CUHK Capstone Project Presentation Contest and Creating An Online Space for Capstone Presentation Showcases

Academic literacy represents a wide range of abilities that students have to acquire when they pursue a new academic discipline. The awareness that successful performance at university requires students' mastery of academic literacy is particularly important in second language environments such as Hong Kong, where difficulties that they encounter in academic pursuits tend to go hand-in-hand with a lack of competence in English (Wingate, 2018).

 

In CUHK, all undergraduate programmes ensue the systematic inclusion of a capstone component as the culmination of students' four-year academic study, which targets the synthesis of their subject knowledge, independent inquiry or execution, as well as problem-solving and other generic skills (CUHK, 2022; CLEAR, 2017). Typically, a capstone extends over the final 12 months in the form of research or a final­ year project, whereby students ultimately submit a final report or thesis through which capstone supervisors assess their overall learning outcome.

 

In this connection, various learning needs arise - to best communicate their capstone experiences to target audiences in different discourse communities, students will need resources and support in acquiring relevant language skills. While efforts have been made to cater for student needs in acquiring specific discourse practices and academic communication conventions (Hyland, 2017) in different major disciplines, there is also a growing global trend on making academic research and understanding accessible to a wider audience (e.g. 3MT, TED, FameLab). This calls for the establishment of a space for students to showcase their projects to a broader audience outside of their major classes and sharpen their communicative skills with guidance and support from language educators. The proposed project aims:

 

1)    to provide a university-wide platform that offers students an opportunity to showcase the outcomes of their year-long capstone projects to a much wider audience

2)    to enable students to present research work in their chosen academic disciplines effectively to non­ specialists in a concise and engaging manner

3)    to equip students with communicative and language skills necessary for goals #1 and #2 through providing training and coaching

4)    to build an online showcase space to host a collection of student capstone presentation videos from various academic disciplines/ faculties and house relevant language learning resources

5)    to give capstone supervisors and academic advisers of major programmes/departments/faculties access to exemplary student presentation samples of various forms of capstone projects as an additional teaching resource in the future

 

33.

Enhancing Learning through Diversity at CUHK: Reaching Multidisciplinary Tech Partnerships Program (RMTPP)

This proposal introduces a Reaching Multidisciplinary Tech Partnerships Program (RMTPP) that aims to forge connections between international and local students by working on collaborative projects focused on community care solutions. The program encourages students, from different backgrounds to form teams and use their unique skills to address challenges in biomedical engineering. These teams could develop products like a smart walking stick for the elderly or a brainwave device for improved sleep, or design software and AI platforms for public health issues such as mosquito-borne diseases in Bangladesh. The RMTPP goes beyond traditional learning by using the POP (Performance-based assessment in Open-ended Problem-based learning) approach, which promotes creative thinking and social impact. It is open to students from all faculties of CUHK. Key elements of the program include cultural exchange, interdisciplinary training, and developing communication and teamwork skills. Participating students will gain insights into innovation and career prospects, receiving a certificate upon completion. The implementation involves forming pairs of international students from disciplines who will be guided by professors, in conceptualizing and implementing solutions. We expect this initiative will enhance learning experiences and promote STEM education for the Hong Kong community.

 

34.

Building An Inter-institutional and Inter-disciplinary Community-engaged Learning Hub: Baccalaureate Education for Social Good (BESGO)

This project is a continuation and expansion of ‘Business for Social Good Education’ (BESGO), a project funded by TDLEG 2019-22. BESGO was a big success and has been well-received by both internal and external stakeholders*. While several students were granted internship after participating our activities, some has decided to embark the journey to further explore the field of social good. Therefore, the project team would like to expand the project to benefit a greater group of students from all faculties and cover social good on both business and other disciplines.

 

This project focuses on both theoretical and practical aspects of three interrelated areas: social innovation, social good, and ESG ("Focused Areas”). Specifically, the project aims to:

1.     Raise students’ and general public awareness on various social needs and challenges, sustainability issues and shared value creation;

2.     Deepen student’s understanding on social innovation, social good and, ESG, and how social enterprise and industries can address social needs and be a force for good;

3.     Advocate concepts and practices relevant to CSV, CSR, ESG to larger audience to drive system level changes;

4.     Encourage students to participate in activities with positive social impacts and integrate sustainability consideration into daily lives decision; and

5.     Serve as a platform to connect local and international partners to work together on our focus areas to provide students with exposure and opportunities to create impact.

 

Not only will students develop a structural and holistic understanding of the Focused Areas via a series of well-structured training workshops conducted by international, inter-disciplinary academics from local and overseas institutions and industry practitioners, they will also learn directly from social change-makers in talks and field visits. The project team has liaised with 3 strategic partners, namely, HKPC, SVhk and SVIHK and a number of local and international institutions to form partnership. More importantly, students will be given opportunities to conduct guided corporate projects under the supervision of faculty members and practitioners to put what they learn into practice to create real impacts to society.

 

The project contributes to multiple University’s themes, namely, (1) Promotion of attitudes and values, (2) Development of community-engaged learning, (3) Development of professional and generic skills, (4) Encouraging students to make contributions to society as citizens & leaders, (5) Contribution to the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals, , (6) Facilitating students to cross knowledge boundaries through the acquisition of knowledge in different disciplines and (7) Encouraging inter-institutional collaborations.

*     Please refer to the project report for ‘Business for Social Good Education’ supported by TDLEG 2019-22.

 

35.

Empowering Global Student Teachers for Transformative Teaching and Learning

in a Globalized World

Aim of the Project

·       The aim of the project “Empowering Global Student Teachers for Transformative Teaching and Learning in a Globalized World” is to provide student teachers with the necessary skills and knowledge to excel in diverse educational contexts. Through this cutting-edge initiative, student teachers will be equipped with the tools and expertise required to thrive in a rapidly changing globalized world.

 

Structure of the Project

The Project is conducted in a cross-regional, cross-institutional teacher education programme, where students (pre-service teachers) directly participate in a wide range of learning and teaching activities, covering:

·       Four immersive local thematic workshops in collaboration with the Museum of Climate Change (MoCC), Ocean Park Hong Kong, Hong Kong Wetland Park, Coral Academy, and The Nature Conservancy Hong Kong (TNC-HK), centered on marine conservation.

·       Three dynamic Virtual Thematic Pedagogy Workshops designed for student teachers and in-service teachers to enhance their virtual teaching skills and navigate online intercultural learning environments.

·       Four impactful Global Curriculum Planning Sessions featuring synchronous club meetings focused on UN SDG14 (Life below Water). This inclusive initiative involves preservice teachers, international university students, and middle school student groups from at least five countries.

·       Engaging global participation through four specially curated lessons for middle school students (aged 10-13) worldwide, providing valuable teaching experience for student teachers.

·       Weekly reflection meetings for preservice teachers to openly discuss and exchange successful or challenging leadership moments, fostering collaborative learning opportunities.

·       Development of a progressive e-Learning Platform for Global Education, facilitating the sharing of students’ reflective posts, digital stories, workshop outlines, and valuable insights with stakeholders.

 

36.

Enhancing the Teaching and Learning of Engineering Research Writing with a Specialised Corpus and Corpus-informed Resources

Rationale: University students and language instructors in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and engineering courses often struggle in teaching and learning engineering-specific discourse/expressions due to lack of command as well as training/resources. Language acquisition research has shown that one of the best ways to acquire language – e.g., discipline- and genre-specific vocabulary and expressions – is through context/situated learning. However, it is difficult to implement such tasks without materials that put language in context, or materials that can be designed as tasks in the language classroom. The use of corpora, or structured language databases, is an optimal solution, as it can achieve both of these simultaneously. There are existing corpora, but the ones available for engineering are small in scale, private or outdated.

 

Aim: This project aims to (1) develop a contemporary large-scale specialised corpus of academic writing for engineering studies (CAWES), (2) creating pedagogical word and collocation lists and lists of common expressions, and (3) constructing an online concordancer to support materials (re)development and self-access learning.

 

Approach: The approach involves developing a genre-specific specialised corpus of 5 million words, consisting of peer-reviewed research articles from reputable publishers across various engineering sub-disciplines – the standard of engineering-style English writing. The corpus will be annotated to enable nuanced analysis and extraction of textual data for pedagogical and research purposes.

 

Outcomes and impact: The project will lead to the creation of CAWES, which is expected to inform curriculum and materials development in relevant courses and support students’ self-access learning. In terms of research, CAWES has the potential to contribute to our understanding and conceptualisation of genre and style in corpus linguistics and sociolinguistics research. Its availability can also lay the groundwork for research opportunities in ESP, vocabulary and writing.

 

37.

An AI-enhanced Adaptive and Individualized eLearning System for Mathematics Foundation Courses in the Faculty of Engineering

As mandatory courses to all undergraduate engineering students, mathematic foundation courses are essential to engineering education. However, the teaching materials in standard mathematic courses cannot fully meet the students’ multifarious personal needs. Especially, there lacks of sufficiently appropriate exercise questions for students at various learning levels. This issue seems growingly perilous in online mathematic education under the pandemic.

 

This project aims to develop an AI-enhanced elearning system in teaching mathematic foundation courses, to meet the students’ customized learning needs at different learning levels adaptively, as an auxiliary system to the existing standard and unified mathematic education in the Faculty of Engineering. The basic idea is that students will be dynamically evaluated by an elearning system on different contents in learning mathematics, and personalized appropriate teaching materials will be supplied via this elearning system, which is formed via an Artificial Neural Network model trained by Cognitive Development Optimization Algorithm.

 

The objectives of this project includes: 1) An AI-based elearning system is expected to be built, where personalized teaching materials could be provided adaptively. The perspective elearning system consists of two main components, i.e., iTest and iLearn. 2) Through the sub-system iTest, students could be dynamically evaluated and classified at different learning level, on sorted contents of mathematic courses. Students, on the other hand, could obtain self-fitting exercise questions based on their learning levels. 3) According to the evaluated learning level of each student, the sub-system iLearn furnishes with substantial and suitable learning materials, like supporting reading references and illustrating examples, in which students could further strengthen their understanding of mathematic concepts and theorems regarding their learning level.

 

The perspective AI-enhanced elearning system will demonstrate its effectiveness in existing mathematic courses: ENGG1120 Linear Algebra for Engineers and ENGG1130 Multivariable Calculus for Engineers with more than 600 students who are expected to benefit from this project.

 

38.

Hands-on Robotics Course Modules for Interactive Self-Learning

Self-learning refers to providing students with material or opportunity to learn without the help of another people, such as the course teacher and assistants. Traditionally, this comes in the form providing students with reading material, videos, homework exercises and assignments. These contents can be performed by the students either before (flipped learning) or after classes (revision/reading/homework). However, as these contents are mostly non-interactive, the motivation and effectiveness for students to use and learn from self-learning material is typically perceived to be low.

 

From our previous endeavours and successes in transforming traditional lectures to hands-on robotic lectures, this project aims to develop a set of self-learning modules for learning robotics that are hands-on and interactive. These modules are all-inclusive to allow the students to self-learn, containing theoretical introduction and explanation of concepts, hands-on exercises with instructions and assessment with feedback. Different to existing types of self-learning content, our proposed content will be centred around the interactive use of a robot arm, rather than simply reading or calculation exercises. Students will be able to interact with our learning content in two modes: 1) in-person with the robot arm while wearing virtual or augmented reality glasses; and 2) through our online robot simulation platform. Moreover, the content will be used both for flipped learning and after-class supplementary material.

 

The developed modules will be based on different topics and themed robot application examples, making it both interesting and suitable to be used within different robotics courses within the Faculty of Engineering. The team will also explore collaborating with local and non-local universities such that the material can be beneficial to robotics students beyond CUHK.

 

39.

Teaching Avatars: AI-Powered Video Summaries for Lecture-Based Courses

The explosion of AI in the last two years promises profound opportunities for pedagogical advancement in higher education. This project seeks to leverage a number of those tools in order to create a simple workflow for academics that will allow them to provide effective video summaries of their lectures to students. The tools used include AI-powered lecture transcription, AI-powered summarization, and AI-powered video avatar creation. Rather than having to laboriously create a series of micro-modules for the purpose of aiding student revision of complicated material outside the classroom, this project will demonstrate that with relatively little training academics can rely on commercially available AI tools to provide those same benefits with much less effort.

 

40.

Blended Learning UGE Course on United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and Health

·       Drawing upon the success of the past triennium with the TDLEG-funded eLearning course on United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and health, the objective of this project is to extend and enrich the educational experience of students through virtual and face-to-face blended learning in a University General Education (University GE) course.

·       Adhering to the UGE criteria, the SDG blended learning course fosters problem-based learning with case studies and group projects. The course places strong emphasis on intellectual ideals, breadth and connectivity and will be based on solid learning outcomes.

·       Since SDGs are global goals directed towards the promotion of peace and prosperity for people and the planet, the course fulfills the desired characteristics of University GE in relating to human experience and modern life.

·       In alignment with the CUHK Strategic Development Theme of ‘CUHK 2025’ in promoting “excellence with a deep sense of purpose and responsibility”, the blended learning course coupled with teaching and learning enhancement provides an effective and wide-reaching method for knowledge dissemination.

·       The course reinforces key areas suggested by UGC for TDLEG 2022-25 which is to deepen virtual teaching and learning (VTL) adoption. It will link up with CUHK’s university-wide SDG initiatives and encourage inter-institutional collaboration.

 

41.

Impact of Interprofessional Education on Teachers’ Mindsets and Students’ Competency and Graduate Attributes

The current project aims to evaluate the impact of inter-professional education (IPE) on students’ holistic competency and graduate attributes at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK).  This project is line with the CUHK strategic plan 2025 and the United Nation sustainable development goals (SDGs) to goals 3 (good health and well-being), 4 (quality education), 10 (reduced inequalities), 16 (peace, justice, and strong institutions) & 17 (partnerships for goals).  Based on our previously TDLEG funded project on IPE, we confirmed that students welcome IPE at CUHK.  Nevertheless, the most feasible faculty that could apply IPE would be the Faculty of Medicine.  Therefore, the current project will focus on the IPE development from the Faculty of Medicine perspectives.  This project involves three phases. Phase 1 is the establishment of IPE website at CUHK. The website will provide supporting evidence, pedagogical designs, and assessment related to IPE.  The purpose of the website is to promote IPE at CUHK. In phase 2, we aim to evaluate the impact of IPE on student’s skills, knowledge, and competencies. The final phase is to evaluate the impact of IPE on teachers’ and students’ attitudes and values after implementation of the IPE project in the community and the relationship with promoting positive education at CUHK. 

 

42.

Development of Professional Putonghua for Medical and Healthcare Settings

Given the strategic plans of CUHK 2025 and the position of Hong Kong’s excellence in education, there is a need to enhance the professional medical Putonghua language skills of public health and medical students who already have a strong foundation in Putonghua. This is to meet the needs of an increase in Putonghua speakers in Hong Kong, as well as the professional development needs of Hong Kong healthcare professionals for interprofessional collaboration and exchange with mainland doctors in working and leadership development in the Greater Bay area. Currently, there are limited resources in learning medical Putonghua. The course and materials developed in this project will provide advanced medical Putonghua training and insight into the mainland healthcare environment. This will encompass advanced medical Putonghua classes, roleplays with Putonghua speakers, seminars with physicians and nurses, and e-learning resources.

 

This course will be open to all Faculty of Medicine students, including nursing, medical, and public health students. Research into the professional use of medical Putonghua, e.g. mainland healthcare forms, health reports, case discussions, etc., can set a foundation to develop an assessment that will test learner’s listening, speaking, and writing skills. A library of audio, visual, and written resources will also be developed.

 

43.

Enhancing Teaching and Learning of Medical Professionalism

 

Medical students are expected to learn the concept of medical professionalism to maintain their trust from society when practising medicine after graduation. A previous study from our University demonstrated the adverse effect of the hidden curriculum created by the negative role models in the clinical teaching environment. Teaching development programmes on medical professionalism should be designed for clinical teachers to convert the harmful hidden curriculum into a positive one.

 

Medical students must submit reflective writings regularly during different stages of their medical professionalism learning track as assignments. All the reflective writings are substantial student-initiated teaching material that can be used to supplement the existing learning programme.

 

We proposed to produce a teaching and learning enhancement programme for the medical professionalism teaching in the Faculty of medicine as follows,

·       Teaching development programme – Polishing the hidden curriculum

Three e-learning micromodules

1.     Individual level.

2.     Organisation level

3.     Clinical vignettes related to different specialties

·       Learning enhancement programme– Enriching the feedback for the pre-clinical medical students

Three e-learning micromodules using qualitative analysis of reflections submitted by students about the introductory concepts of professionalism: 1. Professionalism, 2. Code of conduct and social media, 3. Public health professionalism

·       Learning enhancement programme – Enriching the feedback for the clinical medical students

Three e-learning micromodules using qualitative analysis of reflection submitted by students about advanced concepts of professionalism: 1. Conflict of interest, 2. Truth-telling, and 3. Role modelling.

Face-to-face conclusion lecture to debrief the understanding of professional identity by comparing the result of the qualitative analysis of their reflections in pre-clinical and clinical years

 

We expect the teaching development programme to abolish the unprofessional culture in the clinical learning environment created by clinicians involved in undergraduate teaching so as to nurture tomorrow’s doctors’ professionalism to safeguard the society’s wellbeing. The learning enhancement programme will engage the students as learners and teaching partners in medical professionalism teaching.   

 

44.

Interdisciplinary Blockchain Education: Development and Deployment in the Faculties of Law, Medicine and the Business School

Disciplinary faculties of Law, Medicine and the Business School all recognise the need for equipping graduates with skills to meet the practice of the future. This includes discipline-based teaching of emergent technologies such as blockchain, which will have a profound impact on graduates’ future lives and professions. At present, each Faculty is individually developing teaching of foundational concepts and discipline-specific aspects. This project will establish an interdisciplinary teaching team to create a ‘core’ set micromodules on blockchain fundamentals for all three faculties, as well as interdisciplinary modules and discipline-specific cases in this critical technology.

 

The project will adopt an innovative pedagogy for the online micromodules: dialogue-based education. Departing from the traditional narrated monologue, we will incorporate dual-teacher dialogue in a ‘video podcast’ style to generate a lively learner experience, illustrate key points and facilitate interdisciplinary debate. This format further allows adaptive teaching through a ‘common feedback’ approach, where student questions from all three faculties are collated and addressed by follow-up discussion video- podcasts by teachers. Finally, each faculty will supplement the micro-modules with case-based classroom discussions to enable legal, financial and medical use cases to enhance student learning.

 

Our collaborative practice will form a cross-faculty infrastructure for the teaching of future emergent subjects.

 

45.

"CHIM3DERA" – An Interactive Student-lead Dissection Workshop and a 3D Scanned Specimen Model Platform to Enhance Interdisciplinary Peer-learning of Anatomy and Acupuncture

·       Recruitment of students from Medicine and Chinese Medicine Programmes in dissection workshops to participate in student-oriented interdisciplinary peer-learning in Acupuncture and Anatomy.

·       Enhance students’ understanding of state-of-the-art in Traditional Chinese Medicine healthcare practice: Acupuncture, with fundamental Anatomy knowledge through human dissection.

·       Maximize the benefit from “Silent Teachers Body Donation Programme - CUHK” in local medical teaching in university*.

·       Student group presentation with 3D-scanned prosected specimens illustrating precise acupoints with surface anatomy and underlying human structures.

·       A web-based platform archives all 3D scanned models, annotated multimedia videos/photos could be implemented as advanced teaching materials for current undergraduate and postgraduate courses, “Human Structure” (MED), “Meridian System” and “Acupuncture” (ChiMed).

·       Sustainable development of the project could further promote knowledge transfer at inter- universities, university-community levels to enhance practical skills and refreshment of knowledge of healthcare practitioners such as physicians, registered Chinese Medicine practitioners and physiotherapists who practice acupuncture.

*     Bachelor of Chinese Medicine in CUHK is the ONLY UGC-funded programme with dissection-based learning Anatomy and Acupuncture among all local universities.

 

46.

Enhancing Empathic Ability and Moral Awareness in Bioethics Learning: A Case-based Approach

Bioethics I, II, and III, covering a wide range of ethical topics in medicine, public health, end-of-life care, and biotechnology, are offered to 819 pre-clinical (Years 1, 2, and 3) medical students in a six- year undergraduate medical degree program. The current teaching methods for these courses include both lectures and tutorials for small group discussions. Medical students in pre-clinical years, however, often neglect the importance of developing moral awareness and empathic abilities essential for their future careers. In the absence of clinical experience, students are incapable of linking bioethical theories and knowledge taught in class to the clinical context.

 

Previous feedback through Course and Teaching Evaluation (CTE) has consistently revealed that students generally are more interested in learning bioethics when doing so by analyzing real-life cases. Extensive use of case discussions can help students to develop ethical problem-solving skills, preparing them for complex social dynamics present in clinical scenarios. The current teaching cases, however, are outdated, and were developed predominately in Euro-American contexts.

 

This project will produce an up-to-date, scenario-based, and modified real-life case collection, largely from the local context, for each module in the bioethics courses offered in pre-clinical years. The deliverables include: 1) A casebook of 20-40 cases that contain case descriptions, ethical questions and/or concerns, and commentaries, largely from the Hong Kong context, in both online and hard- copy formats; 2) three scenario-based micro-module videos in end-of-life care-related topics.

 

47.

Development of an Innovative eLearning Package to Facilitate Learning of Radiographic
Assessment of Lines and Tubes and Their Potential Complications – Implementing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Game-based Learning

In the acute care setting, lines and tubes play important roles in supporting or maintaining life or normal health functions. Malpositioning, coiling, kinking, fracturing, or malfunctioning of lines and tubes are not uncommon, but unfortunately not easily detected without adequate training and experience. Additionally, peri-procedural complications are significant, but often not immediately apparent clinically.

 

Radiological evaluation immediately after the placement of a range of medical lines or tubes is now recommended in many institutional guidelines, to evaluate for malposition or complications.

 

In undergraduate training of the next generation doctors, nurses, and healthcare practitioners, greater emphasis needs to be placed on the radiological identification of lines and tubes and their complications, to reduce this major cause of preventable morbidity and mortality.

 

This project proposes to develop an integrative eLearning package to facilitate student learning of radiographic assessment of lines and tubes and their potential complications. The project encompasses technology in education with implementation of artificial intelligence (AI) deep learning and game-based learning, as well as a mobile application (app) platform to integrate the eLearning package. These technologies promote student learning whilst also enriching radiological education with up-to-date advances in the field (through AI), and facilitate undergraduate teaching of engineering students in programming and AI.

We build on our past experience with developed eLearning modules of a similar nature for nasogastric tubes. In this project, lines and tubes covered include: percutaneous central venous catheters, Port-a-Caths, Hickman lines, peripherally inserted central venous catheters (PICC lines), endotracheal tubes (ETT), tracheostomy tubes, intercostal catheters, drains/pigtails, biliary related tubes, amongst others covering the range of commonly encountered lines and tubes.

 

We aim to cross disciplinary boundaries with the proposed educational package which can be used for teaching across multiple departments, schools and faculties. Building on our past close collaborations and prior work, the project team encompasses teachers and students as partners in teaching material development.

 

48.

Virtual Reality-Based Interactive Simulator of Clinical Teaching (VR-ISCT) for the Assessment and Management of Medical Patients

·       COVID-19 pandemic and  hospital  infection  control  present  major  challenges  to  medical education. Students' access to patients are restrict, limiting their exposure to wide spectrum of medical conditions. Clinical skills have deteriorated as a result.

·       We have developed an online Interactive Simulator of Clinical Teaching (ISCT) platform using real-life cases with their recorded heart and breath sounds through which medical students could appreciate clinical signs in a safe environment. Although majority of medical students were satisfied and considered the platform useful, an online platform could not replicate real patient encounter experience.

·       Virtual reality (VR) based simulations are increasingly used in medical education to provide cost-effective, immersive, repeatable training on demand in a safe environment via autonomous and blended learning.

·       We aim to build upon our existing ISCT platform by (i) developing a fully immersive and interactive VR environment that includes audio, visual and pseudo-haptic elements to enhance learning experience and (ii) expand our real-patient case library of commonly encountered cardiovascular and respiratory conditions.

·       Our VR platform will allow more cases and other examination systems (e.g. neurological, abdominal and rheumatological etc etc.) to be added in the future.

·       Project will target a wider audience including medical and nursing students.

 

49.

Implementation of Interprofessional Education with Team-based Simulation Training and Online Interactive Discussion

Background:

Following the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic, clinical practicum for health discipline students has been inevitably affected or even suspended, especially high-risk areas such as accident and emergency department and paediatric unit. Interprofessional education (IPE) has high pedagogical values in education for healthcare professionals. Simulation-based IPE can provide conducive learning environment and authentic learning experience.

 

Aims:

To conduct IPE in the modality of simulation training and online interactive discussion for medical, nursing and pharmacy students, and evaluate its effects on interprofessional collaboration, perceived self-efficacy and readiness for IPE.

 

Methods:

A total of 20 simulation scenarios involving emergency, paediatric and medical and surgical clinical situations for IPE will be developed with inputs from medical, nursing and pharmacy students. A total of 200 bachelor students studying Year 4 to 6 (40 medical students, 40 nursing students and 20 pharmacy students) will participate in the simulation-based IPE in simulation wards or online interactive discussion. Students will collaborate and exercise their skills in communication, coordination and teamwork. Debriefing will be conducted to consolidate learning issues. Outcomes will be evaluated by a mixed-method approach. The effects of interprofessional simulation and interactive discussion will be reflected by students’ attitudes towards interprofessional collaboration, perceived self-efficacy, readiness for IPE and satisfaction with simulation experience. Students’ learning experiences will also be explored.

 

Conclusion:

This project will provide students with opportunity to engage in the development of teaching and learning activities for IPE. The results will provide directions and suggestions for effective implementation of IPE in the faculty and University, and inform curriculum development.

 

50.

Integrating Ophthalmology Education in Multiple Specialties with e-learning Materials, Interdisciplinary Collaboration, and Service-Learning Opportunities for Medical Students

Background:

The CUHK MBChB curriculum consists of a 1-week ophthalmology rotation. Students are assessed by an end-of-rotation quiz without requiring further assessment in the final examination. They tend to find it difficult to engage in the rotation and to retain the knowledge because of the limited teaching time, minimal exposure, lack of repetition, disconnection with other core specialties, and the rotation tend to teach from a specialist ophthalmologist perspective, which could be irrelevant to the students’ future practice (given that most of them will practice in other medical specialties). To address these challenges, we propose integrating relevant ophthalmology knowledge into teaching other medical specialties, allowing early exposure to the knowledge, and bridging the knowledge gap between different subjects.

 

Methods:

Based on the success of our new flipped-classroom case-learning (FCCL) ophthalmology course – which consists of pre-class teaching videos, gamified cases, and in-class case-based learning – we aim to expand the learning outcome by integrating ophthalmology components into other specialties (family medicine, internal medicine, and paediatric) and provide opportunities of early exposure. This will include 1) real-case interactive e-learning materials, 2) interdisciplinary collaboration, 3) optional student-initiated extra micro-modules, and 4) optional service-learning opportunities. Students are exposed to new e-learning ophthalmology materials that are based in the context of other core specialties during the earlier year of MBChB. They can then revisit the material during the ophthalmology rotation (final year) and learn in an ophthalmologist context. We will also include videos of patients and parents’ interviews to aid in learning communication skills and understanding the biopsychosocial aspect from a different perspective. We will also include ophthalmology content related to internal medicine to aid students’ final exam preparation. Students can also initiate extra tutorials with the project supervisor. We will also work with external collaborators (e.g., ORBIS, Jockey Club) and students could join our departmental community services, sharing sessions with secondary school students, public health talk, and charity work. This combination can achieve 1) fun learning, repetition, and application of the core knowledge, 2) enhancement of student-teacher interaction, 3) motivating self-learning and enhancing students’ autonomy, and 4) application of knowledge and skill to serve society. The effectiveness of the project will be measured by student scores in the post-course and post-MBChB assessment, Likert scale questionnaires, and qualitative-translation impact assessment.

 

Potential:

This model could extend to other specialties in the CUHK MBChB curriculum and other courses in CUHK. We aim to promote this concept and model to other university departments and local educational institutions of all levels.

51.

Development of AI-Powered Virtual Patients for Healthcare Education

Driven by the rapid development of technologies that generate artificial intelligence (AI), the integration of AI in healthcare education is emerging. AI-powered virtual patients have become an important application in the training of students in healthcare discipline.

 

This project involves collaboration between teachers from different departments and different local institutions, including CUHK, PolyU, and HKU. Its objective is to develop voice-based, AI-powered virtual patients that include scenarios from different clinical specialties, such as medicine, surgery, pediatrics, emergency, and critical care. By employing AI and our non-identifiable data sets that captures patients’ socio-demographics, medical history and diagnoses previously used for teaching and learning purposes; the AI-powered virtual patients provide students with opportunities to interact with replicas of “virtual patients” who respond in unpredictable, human-like ways. It also designed to provide students with opportunities to comprehensively assess and identify the problems of AI-powered virtual patients and thereby implement appropriate interventions. This allows students to practice a wider range of real-life scenarios virtually before managing patients in the real world.

 

Through research studies, our team will examine how this paradigm shift can extend innovative pedagogies for clinical teaching and enhance learning across various courses and programme.

 

52.

Development of virtual interactive micro-modules on public health crisis management and risk communication

After the pandemic, the need for effective crisis management and risk communication cannot be overemphasized. This project aims to create virtual interactive micro-modules to address public health crises including, but not limited to, infectious disease outbreaks. These modules are developed according to principles in the crisis management framework for health system put forward by Emami et al. emphasizing on preparedness, resilience building and learning from past experience. They will equip undergraduate students in the health discipline with essential skills to navigate complex situations and effectively communicate essential information to the public. The built-in virtual scenarios would require students to make real-time decision based on risk assessment, prevailing principles and guidelines, and ethical considerations. According to the World Health Organization’s framework for contingency planning, effective crisis management hinges on cross-disciplines collaborations. The modules are multidisciplinary incorporating elements of field epidemiology, communication strategies, behavioral models and policy considerations. Students will learn strategies to handle and tackle misinformation and promote evidence-based information. Case studies from the COVID response will serve as valuable teaching materials.

 

Project objectives:

·  To develop interactive virtual micro-modules that engage students in realistic scenarios related to public health crises and risk communication

·  To equip students with practical skills in crisis management, risk communication and ethical decision-making

 

Key features of the micro-modules:

·  Pandemic Scenarios

·  Real-Time Decision-Making

·  Multidisciplinary Insights drawing from epidemiology, communication studies, behavioral psychology, and public policy.

·  Addressing Misinformation

 

The project aligns with the following goals:

·  Development of Professional and Generic Skills

·  Enhancing Global Readiness of Students

·  Encouraging Students to Make Contributions to Society as Citizens or Leaders

·  Deepening Virtual Teaching and Learning (VTL) Adoption      

·  Harnessing Innovative and Breakthrough Technologies for Teaching Development

·  Contribution to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

 

By integrating real-world pandemic experiences into the curriculum, we aim to empower the next generation of health communicators and crisis managers. Other than public health students, the micro-modules will be open to all Faculty of Medicine students including medical and nursing students. The innovative learning resources may also be shared among local and overseas institutions to benefit more students in the health discipline.

 

53.

Virtual Teaching Series: Faculty Development in Managing Complexities in Health Professional Education

Background:

The faculty of medicine encompass medicine, nursing, pharmacy, chinese medicine, biomedical and public health students and teachers. There is a need for teacher development so that they are update with the current issues and teaching pedagogy, ultimately improving teaching performances that lead to better learning outcomes for our students.

 

Method:

We aim to developing a Health professional education teaching series which has monthly asynchronous and synchronous online components. The format includes pre-session material, online discussion sessions with sharing from expert speakers, and post session assessment and reflections. These are based on pedagogy including peer learning, reflection and case problem-based learning.

 

Outcomes:

The expected outcomes include:

• Monthly online sessions with focus topics and key points, case sharing by speakers, group discussions; online micro-modules with key learning resources

• Community of Practice established in health professional education

• Webpage dedicated for health professional education

 

54.

Interactive Geographic Information System (GIS) Web App of Campus Plant Learning in CUHK

1.     The proposed GIS-based interactive campus plant learning platform enables the good utilization of CUHK campus plants as teaching and learning materials.

2.     A GIS plant learning platform will be constructed, containing 100 selected plant species in CUHK. A factsheet would be created for each species with detailed description of their characteristics. The habitats of the plant species would be filmed by a 360° camera.

3.     This new platform could enhance teaching and learning effectiveness in the University by promoting students’ self-learning motivation.

4.     This platform acts as a supplementary tool for plant learning and as a consolidation of field study.

5.     This platform could be released in the semester of AUG 2023 as a pilot scheme and operates for further teaching enhancement in coming years.

 

55.

Dr. Ray's Wonderland of Virtual Reality ~the Olympic Games for Science, Biolab Safety and Animal Ethics Education

Gamification refers to the use of game design elements for non-game applications. It has recently been used in science education to enhance students’ motivation and promote learning. The teaching of biosafety concepts and animal ethics in large class is traditionally conducted through lectures. Game- based cooperative learning is often difficult to be implemented in lecture theatre. Therefore, engagement of students is limited and their learning effectiveness is generally lower than that of an active learning classroom. For laboratory safety education, students’ situational awareness and the capability to solve real life problems in specific type of experiments are inadequate. With the latest virtual reality (VR) technologies, this project aims at developing an immersive game-based learning console for foundation courses with large class size. The game elements of this learning console include multi-level challenges, user-prompted interactions, role-play, league tables, multi-media materials and cartoon characters, etc. The console is composed of 10 situational biosafety challenges in biochemistry and molecular biology experiments. They are organized into 4 levels of difficulties according to the complexity of tasks, types of experiments, goals of missions and the biohazards involved. The system supports multi-players mode that enables collaborative learning pedagogy.

 

56.

Free Generative AI for All: Investigating the Impact of AI in STEM Education

·  Aim to study the impact of generative AI in undergraduate STEM educations.

 

·  Provide free generative AI service to undergraduates in the physics and statistics departments. Offer web chat interfaces with better user experience than typical providers

o   Implement a reverse proxy with caching and recording abilities to enable unlimited replays of prompts and analysis of student usage.

o   Primarily utilize the open-source Llama 3-70b-instruct model from Meta, ranked 2nd for English chatbots. Explore local deployment on university hardware or cloud services like groq.com for cost-effective scaling

o   Circumvent the export barrier imposed by US to ban generative AI in Hong Kong by exploring local deployment of opensource models and third-party cloud APIs.

o   Leverage and contribute to open-source utilities for model serving, web interfaces, and other components.

 

·  Provide multiple AI services to staff for benchmarking and comparison in STEM course scenarios.

 

·  The project aligns with the university's strategy of introducing computer skills to students. The python learned in ENGG1003 Digital Literacy and Computational Thinking course could be utilized to play with codes generated by AI to facilitate learning difficult STEM concepts.

 

 

57.

Data-Driven Urban Studies – Advanced Techniques for Analysing Complex Urban Data and Processes

New tools for the data-driven analysis of urban activities allow us to analyse quality-of-life aspects in relation to the varying qualities of different urban environments.

 

This project will continue with the development of innovative e-learning resources and teaching methods, related to analytical tools for urban studies. The first stage has been completed successfully, after developing a series of micro-modules and implementing them within our Urban Design and Urban Studies programmes. The introduction of self-directed virtual learning in the context of non-formal studio teaching around specific urban regeneration challenges in Hong Kong, has led to enthusiastic adoption by students and significant improvement of learning outcomes. The results are reported in the CUHK ‘Community of Practice Symposium of Education Innovation and Technology’ and in a paper submitted to the Journal of Planning Education and Research.

 

Surveys and semi-structured interviews amongst students and industry experts have identified several key areas for further development, including supporting more advanced data gathering processes, statistical analysis and data visualisation, and linking data-based research outcomes to planning initiatives conception. This project extension proposes to develop additional e-learning modules and organise short workshops and seminars targeting the wider Faculty of Social Sciences and open to all CUHK students.

 

58.

Art Technology Design and Culture – Robotics and Cinematography for Architecture, Journalism and Communications Students.

Under direction from the Faculty of Social Science, a cross-disciplinary specialization between Journalism, Communications, and Architecture departments is being developed. This will bring together the signature teaching methods found in architecture (design studio), alongside the specialist skills of communications education – with an emphasis on technology-driven creative works. The preliminary discussions have found a variety of common ground, teaching and learning experiences, and great potential for complementary learning experiences that can enhance respective disciplines. Tools such as robotics, VR, and computational design tools can have an important impact in respective professional disciplines. They will help future proof graduates as they enter the industry as leaders and experts.

 

This project explores the intersection of journalism, communication, and architecture education, focusing on the innovative use of cinematography and storytelling techniques. It posits that these disciplines can mutually enhance each other, particularly when employing cutting-edge technology such as robotically driven cameras. The project requires students to gain awareness of robotic control systems, digitization methods, navigation between physical and virtual spaces, camera and lighting technologies, editing, formatting, compositing, and others. The project will also adopt a common 3D environment (UNREAL), which will serve as the foundation for future projects involving virtual set design (another common area for collaboration between the disciplines).

 

UGC SUPPORTED - Journalism and Communications students will gain a deeper understanding of spatial design and exposure to three-dimensional geometries for data collection, exploration, and integration into their productions.

 

UGC SUPPORTED - Architecture students will be exposed to techniques and technologies that can enhance their ability to tell stories, particularly about their design works, enhancing presentation quality, narrative, and illustration through image sequences.

 

Cinematography provides a dynamic medium to communicate architectural concepts, fostering visual literacy and critical thinking. Robotically driven cameras offer unique perspectives, facilitating a more immersive exploration of architectural spaces. Storytelling, a common skill in journalism and communication, can enhance the presentation of architectural designs, making them more engaging and relatable. These interdisciplinary skills benefit architecture students and offer communication students a novel application of their craft.

 

The fusion of these disciplines can lead to innovative pedagogical approaches, promoting cross-disciplinary collaboration and broadening the scope of both architecture and communication studies. This research underlines the importance of an integrated educational approach in nurturing versatile professionals capable of bridging the gap between technical design and compelling storytelling.

 

59.

Preparing for An Inclusive Future: An Age-Responsive Learning Framework

for Adapting to Rapid Population Ageing

Population ageing, stemming from longer lifespans, declining fertility rates, and the transition of post-war baby boomers into older age groups, is a prevailing trend in societies. Aligned with UN’s initiative that calls for actions in promoting healthy ageing across sectors, the programme prepares students to actively participate in the paradigm shift towards a more inclusive society.

 

Teaching and learning resources will be developed within the Faculty of Social Science, benefiting disciplines such as Architecture, Urban Design, Urban Studies, and Geography and Resource Management, as well as other areas in the Faculties of Social Science and Medicine. With the adoption of the Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach, students will engage in transformative research for/with communities and stakeholders and propose actionable solutions in their respective fields.

 

Deliverables include virtual seminars for theoretical backgrounds, interactive teaching materials such as simulation games and action-based toolkits to enhance student comprehension of scenarios while searching for innovative solutions, and other learning resources for initiating community-scale actions such as project pitching and proposal writing. Students will gain knowledge of the implications of population ageing, explore the complexities of social issues, and develop social innovation skills to take action for positive societal impacts. The project aims to equip students with the knowledge and ability to drive community-based transition for an inclusive environment for healthy ageing.

 

60.

Programming for Humanists Course Design

 

This project will facilitate the development of an innovative course on “Programming for Humanists” that will be a required part of a new Digital Humanities Minor programme offered by the History Department.  This course aims to prepare students to undertake collaborative projects in historical and literary studies by introducing them to specific elements of the programming language Python not covered in the core Digital Literacy and Computational Thinking course. These centre specifically on solving humanistic problems, and include the use of NLP (Natural Language Processing) and gamification (Ren’Py).  By borrowing techniques from computer science, this interdisciplinary course will push students to develop new skills that are useful both for research and in a variety of professional settings.  The project will be specifically tailored to the type of humanistic research on China in global context and related topics frequently studied by students at CUHK. With the assistance of a fulltime RA and SHs, the PI will develop all the materials necessary for a 13-week 3-credit course, including PPTs, Google CoLab files, problem sets, GitHub profile, etc.  For evaluative purposes, these will then be tested by the SHs who will be surveyed to offer feedback for their improvement.  Their feedback will then be integrated and the course will then be ready to teach.  This will be followed by surveys of students in the course.

 

61.

Engaging with the Community While at Home: Online Linguistic Fieldwork in the Greater Bay Area

Objectives (Four “E”s)

·       To empower students to take ownership in learning how to apply theoretical knowledge in the practice of independent empirical research, i.e., a self-guided investigation of an understudied language from scratch.

·       To enable students to appreciate and support speech communities across the Greater Bay Area (GBA) by leveraging their linguistic expertise throughout the process of (i) building a constructive connection with these communities and (ii) documenting and investigating these linguistic verities.

·       To enhance students’ awareness of the linguistic diversity of the GBA with a special focus on three understudied languages: the Siyi (四邑) dialect of Cantonese in Jiangmen, the Meihui (梅惠) dialect of Hakka in Huizhou, and the Minority She language (畬語) in Huizhou.

·       To establish a fully online approach as an alternative to the traditional face-to-face in-person approach in linguistic fieldwork classes.

 

Activities

·      Working as independent researchers, student participants will experience every component of conducting linguistic fieldwork through deep engagement with speech communities, including recruit native speaker consultants from these communities, prepare for, lead, summarize, and analyze virtual data collection sessions with them.

·      After the class, PS and CoSs will compile a digital atlas, compose text outcomes, develop a website, deliver conference presentations, write journal papers, organize experience sharing sessions, and develop media coverage.

 

Outcomes

·       GBA’s first online searchable atlas consisting of digital maps visualizing linguistic variations.

·       A collection of student-written descriptions of the grammar of these three understudied languages.

·       A practical field guide featuring questionnaires for documenting other languages in the GBA.

·       A website to introduce six methodological micro-modules of online linguistic fieldwork.

Evaluations

·      “Before and after” surveys to collect students’ (a) preparedness and confidence in application of theoretical knowledge to independent empirical research, (b) awareness and appreciation of linguistic diversity across and cultural/ethnic recognition of the GBA, (c) feedback on online linguistic fieldwork.

·      Surveys and interviews to collect peer instructors’ comments on (a) the validity of the written outcomes,

(b) the practicality of the proposed methodological micro-modules, and (c) their willingness to adopt the online approach in their future fieldwork classes.

 

Dissemination

·      All project outcomes (e.g., atlas, grammar descriptions, field guide, etc.) will be digitized and incorporated into a designated website with free access.

·      The linguistic findings and the validity of online fieldwork will be presented at international linguistics conferences, and written as papers to be submitted to journals.

·      A students’ experience sharing session will be held at CUHK, and news articles and popular science articles on this project will be published on traditional media and new media in the GBA.

 

Impact

·      The students will gain firsthand experience in applying theoretical knowledge to conduct empirical research while working with world’s leading experts, better understanding the GBA’s linguistic diversity, and cultural/ethnic bound, and strengthening their mind in building a mutually constructive relationship with the community through their learning process.

·      The project will test and prove the effectiveness of the online approach in teaching and learning linguistic fieldwork, and the methodological outcomes will benefit other disciplines that involve data collection through interviews with human subjects.

·      The involvement of leading researchers from China and the US not only offers CUHK undergraduate students a more internationalized and diversified learning experience, but also establishes a close and sustainable collaboration in both teaching and research between CUHK and Fudan/UCLA.

·      The study of synchronic dialectal variation in the GBA enhances our understanding of the diachronic development of local communities in Southern China, joining in CUHK 2025’s strategic area “China: Tradition and Modernity”.

·      The media coverage and the open-access outcomes highlight CUHK’s initiative and commitment in embracing the GBA by focusing on understudied local languages, aligning with the overarching strategic goal of the Hong Kong government.

 

62.

Identification of Key Aspects in Spanish Conversation Turn Taking and Giving and Its Teaching

Big differences in turn taking and giving strategies in informal conversations exist between Chinese and Spanish native speakers. As a consequence, sociocultural and behavioral errors as well as message misunderstandings may occur between CUHK students of Spanish and Spanish native speakers in real life situations. While different strategies to turn taking and giving have been described and considered in the design of English conversation courses, less research has been done focusing on Spanish and considering the characteristics of students of Chinese origin. In this context, some authors are pointing out the benefits of a direct and explicit teaching approach. This approach can increase the student awareness of turn taking and giving rules so students can perform more successfully in real conversations in Spanish compared to that performance achieved when using mere communicative teaching approach. The present project aims at proving the advantages of a direct teaching approach when developing the CUHK students’ informal conversation abilities in Spanish. For achieving such goal, we focus in some key aspects and adopt a pedagogical and experimental research strategy that: i) identifies the real needs of CUHK students of Spanish, ii) describes the desired learning outcomes for Spanish conversation teaching, iii) defines the appropriate linguistic, behavioral and cultural contents to be taught while training students in Spanish conversation, and iv) measures the learning results of a six-hours experimental Spanish conversation course.

 

63.

German Culture and Language Learning in the Metaverse

This project aims to create an immersive online classroom experience for students by providing them with a virtual environment in which they can interact with each other. The project will create virtual worlds based on course content and enhance students' learning through experience. The Metaverse allows teachers and· students to build and share their virtual worlds similar to online games such as Minecraft.

 

The virtual world provides an experiential learning platform where students can deepen their understanding of course content online.

 

The project aims both at enhancing students' understanding of German culture as well as at improving their language abilities. The content of the project will be designed to cater for content and language courses.

 

For content courses, students will be provided with interactive and authentic tasks to deepen their knowledge. For language courses, students will be able to work with authentic language contexts.

 

Project idea:

The project will offer a virtual learning environment for courses of the German program, where students can experience immersive learning through interactive technologies that promote collaboration and engagement. Students will enhance their content knowledge and language skills.

 

KEEP as partner:

KEEP is an e-learning platform that provides online courses to over 150,000k users globally. KEEP works closely with educators in the university to integrate the latest technologies into education and provide immersive learning experiences for students. For more details, refer to https://keep.edu.hk.

 

Project objectives:

·      Create an immersive online experience for teaching and learning German language and culture, where students can communicate with each other.

·      Boost interaction and engagement among students during German lessons.

·      Evaluate the effectiveness of the application of immersive technologies, such as the Metaverse (Metaverse is a network of 3D vi_1tual worlds focused on social connection) for language and content teaching at university level.

 

Execution:

·      Based on courses of the German program, interactive classrooms and a virtual environment will be created where students can deepen their knowledge of cultural content and German language skills taught in the actual classroom.

·      Create a virtual classroom (with white boards, chalks and desks, etc .), and a virtual environment (landscape, buildings, 3D objects, etc.), simulating genuine experiences which foster interactions and discussions in German and on German culture.

·      Create an array of interactive activities in the world of the metaverse, such as dramas, virtual trips, treasure hunts, etc .

·      Allow students to experience various interactions through audio and video in the metaverse, in which they can interact about content taught in class.

·      Create pedagogical materials for viewing and sharing with others, including video and audio recordings.

64.

Classics and Cultural Landscapes: Prioritizing Hong Kong's Classical Literature Corpus and Chinese Opera Criticism through a Multidisciplinary Digital Scholarship

·       Since 2021, supported by TDLEG funding, the supervisor has developed two databases that enhance new research methodologies in digital humanities and serve as teaching tools in classical Chinese literature.

·       Considering feedback from students and the projected course offerings of the department of Chinese Language and Literature, this project enhances a digital database to include a rich collection of classical Chinese literature and opera criticism, tailored for Hong Kong's educational needs amid the post-pandemic era. This digital resource serves as a crucial tool for the exploration of classical texts and interdisciplinary studies.

·       1 new database will be produced, 1 existing database will be updated. With new data that consists of over 300,000 characters, these resources provide comprehensive access to e-texts of literary works written by Hong Kong poets and scholars, historical commentaries on classical Chinese music, as well as corpora of Chinese opera.

·       The texts are digitized and carefully checked, with name tagging functions, and a literature map displaying locations mentioned in over 1,800 works by 20th-century Hong Kong poets.

·       The supervisor will organize 2 guided tours that bring students and teachers to locations mentioned in classical literary works, enhancing the connection between literary studies and real-world geographical contexts. 1 journal paper will be published.

 

65.

Revolutionizing Elementary Japanese Education: Harnessing the Power of Artificial

Generative Intelligence (AGI)

 

 

This project seeks to investigate the application of Artificial Generative Intelligence (AGI) technologies, such as GPT, in supporting elementary Japanese language education. This pilot study will examine the interactions between AGI tools and educational processes, with potential implications for future AI applications in foreign language teaching. More specifically, the proposed project consists of three stages. (1) Initially, teaching materials aligned with the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) syllabus are developed by the research team. (2) These materials form the foundational data for training the GPT system. In the second phase, GPT processes this data to provide feedback on Japanese language outputs from students at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). This feedback is then analyzed for effectiveness. (3) The final stage involves GPT creating revision exercises for further practice, with performance assessments conducted by the AGI system. Through iterative cycles of feedback and revision, the project aims to refine AGI educational tools, enhancing the teaching and learning of foreign languages. The findings could significantly influence the future use of AI in educational contexts, showcasing a transformative approach to language education.

 

66.

Learning Robotics with Mixed Reality: An Evaluation Study

·      Robots are taking an increasingly important role in human lives, and so is robotics learning in engineering education. According to Tsai et al. (2021), robotics learning is often achieved by hands-on and minds-on learning contexts which support constructivist or social constructivist learning. In this regard, mixed reality (MR) provides an immersive experience which makes situated learning and transfer of learning possible. Different from augmented reality (AR), MR allows not only an overlay of virtual objects into the real world, but also an interaction with and manipulation of the virtual objects. Despite its increasing popularity, there is a lack of empirical evidence on the benefits and drawbacks of using MR in robotics learning at higher education level.

·      Since 2021-2022, the Department of Mechanical and Automation Engineering (MAE) has introduced an MR platform to project learning in two robotics courses, MAEG5755 (Robotics) and MAEG3060 (Introduction to Robotics). In 2022-2023, the use of MR technology will be extended to in-class activities and out-of-class exercises, i.e., remote laboratory. In view of the abovementioned knowledge gap, an evaluation study is proposed to investigate the effectiveness of using MR as an instructional strategy for robotics learning. Survey and focus group interview data and assessment scores will be collected and analyzed. It is expected that the proposed project will shed light on whether and how far this cutting-edge technology could enhance students’ learning experience and robotics education in general.

 

67.

A One-Stop Engine for Examination and Item Analysis Databank (Platform ExMIA) for Quality Assurance and Enhanced Assessments

·      A well-designed examination with good quality exam/assessment items can effectively evaluate students’ understanding of the subject matter, allow benchmarking of students’ performance with a recognized standard.

·      The item analysis data generated from the examinations of >50 courses of different professional programmes coordinated by the School of Biomedical Sciences represents a resourceful database for the analysis of students’ performance, verifying the usefulness of the exam items in evaluating the teaching outcomes, and assuring the quality of the exam items used are up to the required professional standard.

·      There is no one-stop solution available in the market that (a) is equipped with a user-friendly interface for the selection, batch upload/ download of exam items, (b) allows for sorting, searching and retrieving of exam items, (c) can effective store item analysis data generated from both online (e.g. Blackboard, Moodle) and face-to-face examinations.

·      This project aims at (i) evaluating the effectiveness of the existing, selected exam item database/ tools (IDEAL, Blackboard and Respondus) for storing exam items and hosting performance data; AND (ii) developing a one-stop engine that hosts both the exam item database and the performance data, allowing batch selection, input/output of exam items and performance data to/from the database.

 

68.

Beyond Text-only AI Chatbots: the Digital Avatar Learning Environment for Human Anatomy

Artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots are a promising educational technology, with scalable potential to personalise education. We previously developed an AI chatbot for MEDU3300 (MBChB) to support student learning of anatomy, receiving positive feedback, awards and a journal publication. To ensure that CUHK remains at the forefront of this educational technology, we seek to advance and improve our project.

 

One key feedback from our initial project is that students love the individualised learning and knowledge of the chatbot but find the text-only interface less engaging. Therefore, this project will evolve the student learning experience by improving the human-computer interaction element, transforming the chatbot into a Digital Avatar. An avatar-based system creates an AI-powered human-like virtual teacher which can interface with students through multiple avenues including speech, touch-screens and virtual objects. Importantly, we also advance the pedagogical basis of our AI conversations with a unique origin: they are now modelled on real video recordings of experienced course teachers interacting with students, with speech extracted by machine learning and converted to speech pathways for the AI.

 

We will deploy the avatar, built on our AI chatbot teaching technology, to support over 250 students studying human anatomy in a dedicated blended learning environment entitled the Digital Avatar Learning Environment (DALE).

 

69.

Interactive Medical History Taking and Communication Practice for Medical Students Using an Autoresponder Messaging Platform

·      History taking is an integral part of medical practice and an important process to help establishing a diagnosis and formulating treatment. Therefore, history taking and communication skill make up a core part of medical education.

·      Traditionally, the teaching of history taking and communication skill teaching are performed via small group person-to-person workshop, either by inviting real patients or surrogate patients role- played by students.

·      However, The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly limited medical students’ access to patients and their chances of clinical skill practice.

·      Most of the history taking teaching follows a script in which vital information will be given when a correct question is asked. This scripted response can be simulated in text by automatic feedback of the preset response when a set of keywords are typed.

·      This automatic conversation generator software (the Autoresponder) can be embedded into a mobile messaging platform such as Whatsaap or Messenger which are popular messaging apps that are used widely by current generation for daily communication.

·      By incorporating the autoresponder in a messaging platform, medical students can interact with the autoresponder and practice history taking and communication skill virtually and on their own.

 

70.

Use of Multiple-choice Question Writing to Engage Nursing Students in Deep Learning and Develop Higher-order Thinking Skills

 

·    Students commonly use surface learning to answer multiple-choice questions (MCQs) in examinations. Compared with answering MCQs, developing them is an active approach to promote active learning behaviour and develop higher-order cognitive skills.

·    This project aims to use MCQ writing to engage nursing students in deep learning and develop higher-order thinking skills.

·    Approximately 260 Year 3 students will participate in two MCQ writing workshops and they will develop MCQs in two nursing courses.

·    Quality MCQs with high cognitive levels will be pooled to form a student-generated question bank. Questions will be extracted from the bank to develop revision exercise for students preparing their examination.

·    Second round of MCQ writing will be conducted in the same cohort of their Year 4 study to strengthen their higher cognitive skills by including clinical experience gained from placement. MCQs questions harvested in the second round will contribute and expand the question bank.

·    A pretest-posttest design will be adopted to evaluate outcomes among the nursing students, including learning approach, critical thinking, use of higher-order thinking skills in MCQ writing, quality of MCQs and learning experience.

·    The project is significant to promote students taking ownership of their learning and engage them in teaching development.

 

71.

Developing a Smartphone-based, Interactive, and Experiential-learning Oriented

Direct Ophthalmoscopy Training Module for Medical Students that Consists of Demonstration Videos, Simulation Practice, Self-evaluating Instruments, and Innovative Assessment

Background: Direct ophthalmoscopy (DO) is an essential skill that could detect critical systemic conditions that could cost a patient’s life. All medical practitioners are expected to be familiar with the skill. In practice, direct ophthalmoscope is underutilised and studies showed that non-eye specialists generally have poor DO skills due to lack of practicing initiatives, lack of verification of what they saw during DO, inconvenience in practicing settings, and poor ophthalmology exposure during medical school. Therefore, we propose to develop a DO module consisting of innovative demonstration videos, an application of a portable smartphone ophthalmoscope (PSO) and a smartphone hand-held ophthalmoscopy simulator (SOS) for self-evaluation and self-learning, and an interactive end-of-module assessment scheme.

 

Methods: Medical students will undergo a DO workshop at the beginning of a 1-week ophthalmology rotation. Students will be taught either by the original DO (ODO group, which consists of a 1-hour lecture and hands-on DO practice session) or the new DO module (NDO group, which consists of 3 innovative

teaching videos, hands-on DO practice, use of PSO and SOS). All students will also have their fundus photograph taken by a fundus camera. During the rotation, students will practice DO on each other or patients. Only the NDO group will be provided with the PSO (for cross-checking what they saw with DO) and SOS (for practice and self-learning). At the end, they will be assessed for their DO skill. This will be done by having students dilate the pupil of one of their eyes (right or left) and examining another student with the contralateral pupils dilated. The objective results will be the tutor’s scores of the student’s DO skill, examination manner, completion speed, and how accurately they could match the fundus photographs (taken during the workshop). The subjective results will be the score of the Anonymous Likert Scale Questionnaires (ALSQ) that the students will complete at the end of the rotation. We will also provide the students with opportunities for service-learning and working with external collaborators (e.g., ORBIS, Jockey Club). The combination can achieve 1) interactive and fun learning, 2) gaining of examinee’s experiences (student will understand how the patients feel during eye examination), 3) enhancement of student-teacher interaction, 4) motivating self-learning and students’ autonomy, and 5) application of knowledge and skill to serve society. The effectiveness of the new module will be measured by comparing the subjective and objective outcomes between the NDO and ODO groups.

 

Potential: This model could extend to other specialties in the CUHK MBChB curriculum, other universities’medical schools, and other courses in CUHK. We aim to promote this concept and model to other university departments and local educational institutions of all levels.

 

72.

Innovative Virtual Immersive Simulation to Enhance Pharmacy Student’s Practical Lab Learning Experience: electronic Practical Simulator (e-PS) platform

Bachelor of Pharmacy is a four-year undergraduate program to train students in various aspects of pharmacy, including dosage form sciences, to ensure the safe usage of medication. In the Dosage Form Science courses, pharmacy students integrate theoretical concepts covered in lectures and tutorials, with physical laboratory practicals to design, manufacture and evaluate pharmaceutical preparations. This holistic approach is intended to equip students with hands-on skills and critical thinking to identity and solve common instability issues which they may encounter in their future pharmacy practice.

 

The widespread use of smartphones, tablets, and other visual media devices has a significant impact on the way students acquire knowledge, both during and post the Covid-19 pandemic. The traditional black and white paper-based lab manuals, that contain background concepts and detailed experimental procedures in stepwise manner, may not be engaging enough for the tech savvy students of today. Moreover, due to the comprehensive nature of the pharmacy program, students’ timetable is quite packed, leaving them little time to read through exhaustive written content. Since each practical lab has various parts, students work in small groups and divide their lab-work. Students tend to focus only on the part they are responsible for. This approach limits individual students comprehensive learning of each lab.

 

The proposed project aims to explore the use of micromodules and virtual simulated immersive labs as a preparatory electronic Practical Simulator (e-PS) platform, to complement physical practical labs. The e-PS platform will assist students in gaining familiarity with the equipment, procedures and expected outcomes, making their physical lab experience more engaging, efficient and productive. These innovative visual learning modalities would cater to students' preference for visual stimuli by incorporating images, charts, virtual immersive simulations etc., into their learning process. Moreover, the e-PS platform will be a useful virtual learning preparatory tool that supports students in enhancing comprehension, aiding in their information retention, and improving overall engagement.

 

73.

Development of Student-led Micro-modules in Research and Leadership

·    Aim to develop a series of student-led online micro-modules to enhance leadership training and research skills for healthcare students.

·    Respond to the call for innovative pedagogies at the programme level by adopting innovative approaches to teaching development and language enhancement, improving the learning environment for students.

·    Consist of two to three micro-modules in each theme—leadership and research, resulting in a total of six modules.

·    Complement the existing 20 interactive leadership workshops embedded in the GPS curriculum.

·    Facilitate active learning through the production of micro-modules, allowing participants to absorb insights from experienced leaders and translate that knowledge into actionable skills for future healthcare challenges.

·    Be integrated into the CUHK Blackboard platform, providing broad access for students across various healthcare disciplines.

·    Include quizzes and feedback surveys to evaluate effectiveness and facilitate continuous improvement.

 

74.

Enriching and Sustaining Quest2Learn: An Integrated Smartphone-based Augmented Reality Platform for Gamification of Laboratory Techniques

·    This project aims to deepen virtual teaching and learning adoption by enriching a smartphone-based augmented reality platform.

·    The platform incorporates undergraduate science experiments and laboratory techniques. Students will be able to gain practical hands-on laboratory skills in a highly accessible virtual setting.

·    This project engages students in teaching development. Learning modules are collaboratively developed by students from CUHK and a partner university outside Hong Kong.

·    Six user-centered learning modules focusing on generic laboratory techniques and skills will be produced. These modules will be used in both pre-lab exercises and post-lab revisions for four laboratory courses. Students’ learning are no longer limited to teaching hours and laboratory venue.

·    Continuous improvement will be achieved by regularly optimizing previous modules based on user feedback.

·    The long-term goal of this project is to develop a flexible virtual learning platform with a huge database of learning modules and 3D models. Teaching units can design their own virtual experiments under this platform for their teaching activities.

 

75.

Engaging Postgraduate Students in Developing Virtual Teaching and Learning (VTL) Approaches to Facilitate Their Learning of the Latest Scientific Discoveries and Most Advanced Experimental Techniques

Prof. Jiang has recently been funded for a RGC-CRF(E) project entitled “The First Integrated State-of- the-Art Live Cell Imaging Platforms to Timely Promote Interdisciplinary and Advanced Life Sciences Research in Hong Kong and Beyond” in June 2022 (with a total fund of HK$20M for three years). In addition, with the support of Prof. Jiang’s previously RGC-funded AoE/CRF-Equipment grants and CUHK matching fund, the School of Life Sciences (SLS) at CUHK has recently established 3D TEM (transmission electron microscopy) system, Cryo-EM/ET (Electron tomography) system and Cryo-FIB (Focused Ion Beam) and Cryo-CLEM (Correlative Light-Electron Microscopy) systems (with a total cost of HK$60M). With an arsenal of such advanced, state-of-the-art equipment, the School of Life Sciences (SLS) is in a unique position to offer one-of-a-kind learning experience to students in life sciences.

 

In this project, Prof. Jiang and his team of professional researchers and teachers at SLS will utilize the integrated research platforms to produce the following deliverables to enhance teaching and learning:

1.  To generate Discovery Videos that introduce the scientific research process and our published research discoveries derived from our integrated research platforms.

2.  To generate Experiment Videos on life sciences experiments that detail sample preparation and experimental procedures utilizing the platforms.

3.  To produce micro-modules to enhance an existing mobile VR application in which students could explore and interact with 3D structures of proteins and cellular structures in a stimulating environment.

4.   

As these high-quality deliverables are available online, this project is in line with the Strategic Development Theme, “Deepening virtual teaching and learning (VTL) adoption”, outlined in CUHK2025.

 

In addition, we will partner with postgraduate students from the research groups in SLS to develop the micro-modules. Thus we are also in line with the Strategic Development Theme, “Engagement of students as partners in curriculum, teaching and teaching development” and “Students taking ownership of their learning and stepping out of their comfort zone”, outlined in CUHK2025.

 

76.

Supporting Statistics Research Postgraduates to Teach Quantitative Data Analysis to Postgraduate Students without Statistics Background – Phase II

In the 2019-22 triennium, Phase I of our project did the preparation work necessary for engaging statistics research postgraduates (Stat. RPgs) to teach postgraduate students without a statistics background (non- Stat. Pgs) by producing eight micro-modules for a video training programme. The training covers difficulties and anxiety in learning statistics for non-statistics background students, their learning needs, suggestions on planning workshops and suitable instructional techniques. Furthermore, an online course platform, "Statistical methods for research students", was established, containing pre-workshop videos, lecture materials and recordings. Two Stat. RPgs successfully conducted two pilot statistics workshops.

 

Our team accumulated experience and learnt lessons from the students’ feedback on the pilot workshops. For Phase II of our project, we will first enhance and expand on Phase I: over two years, 10 new Stat. RPgs will be recruited, trained then at least two workshops each, preparing the related pre-workshop videos and materials themselves. Secondly, our team will focus on enhancing workshop design and planning to better support non-Stat. Pgs to learn statistics more effectively under a blended approach. Thirdly, we will review the effectiveness of the Stat. RPg training programmes and make corresponding updates to the micro-modules and training.

 

77.

Development of 3D Geoscience Virtual Learning Platform and Outreach Schemes for the New Programme (EESC) Integration and Community Engagement

The proposal from EESC consists of two major parts:

(I) Establishing a new and interactive 3D virtual educational platform, and (II) sustainable engagement schemes in students' experiential learning.

 

(I)    In the 2022-23 academic year, the Earth System Science (ESSC) is integrating with the Environmental Science (ENSC) programme to form the Earth and Environmental Sciences Programme (EESC). The new programme EESC emphasizes multidisciplinary approaches to understanding the Earth. However, the current syllabus of most local schools lacks an interdisciplinary pedagogy for preliminary study of the Earth systems from a scientific perspective. Many junior university students encounter difficulties adapting to the new learning format, especially during the pandemic. Implementing e-learning materials in ESSC courses has evidently raised students' interest and awareness of the scientific mechanisms generating natural resources, geohazards, and environmental changes. This new way of pedagogy assists students in achieving a promising learning outcome. To support the new programme integration and deepen virtual teaching and learning adaptation in EESC, our team thus proposes to establish the first local and interactive 3D  geoscience virtual platform, including:

(a)            production of five virtual 3D models of local geological features to understand the Earth's evolution;

(b)            enhancing Virtual Reality (VR) learning by creating three local VR tours and three VR non-local tours for global geological, geohazard, and environmental studies;

(c)            generating a Geochemical AR Education Kit, which includes new Augmented Reality (AR) gemstones and modifying current AR mineral skeletons for a new EESC course teaching natural resources and associated anthropogenic impacts;

We believe that this educational platform will fulfil geoscience course development in EESC. Simultaneously, the platform will integrate and illustrate the scientific concepts for interdisciplinary study, regardless of the COVID-19 impacts, and match the new global teaching norm.

 

(II)  Inadequate exposure to Geoscience among students of local schools in Hong Kong has resulted in a vast knowledge gap in the understanding of natural resources, natural disasters, and environmental changes. There is also a lack of public awareness of geoscientists' many roles in supporting sustainable economic and ecological development in society. EESC is eager to promote a coherent narrative of Geoscience as a STEM subject in Hong Kong. Our previous experience and feedback from different parties provide blueprints to (a) enhance Geoscience Ambassador Training Scheme (GATS) and (b) set up a Geoscience Outreach Scheme (GOS) to sustain students' experiential learning and public education in Geoscience. Our team proposes that the two schemes be transformed into a credit-bearing Faculty-level course in the second half of the project.

The project transforms teaching and learning to an integrated online and practical approach, encouraging cross- institutional collaboration, engaging student participation, and experiential learning. Our team expects that the project outcomes will contribute to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by demonstrating an innovative geoscience pedagogy by formulating ideas for sustainable development in industry, infrastructures, community, climate impacts, responsible consumption, and partnerships for the goals (SDGs 9, 11, 12, 13, 15, 17).

 

78.

Elevating Undergraduate Chemistry: Data Analysis with AI’s Machine Learning

Machine Learning (ML) has emerged as a powerful and widely utilized tool in addressing a wide range of challenges within the field of chemistry. Utilizing ML strategies, chemists can efficiently analyze vast, complex data sets and make reliable predictions. Despite the increased prevalence of ML in scientific research and development, fueled by the availability of modern ML algorithms and high-performance computers, its incorporation into our undergraduate chemistry curriculums is still lacking. This discrepancy leaves our chemistry graduates unaware of the potential ML holds in solving complex chemistry problems.

 

This project aims to bridge this gap by developing a series of laboratory activities that introduce undergraduate students to the application of ML techniques in chemistry, with a focus on tackling intricate spectroscopic analysis problems. Those analyses usually involve identifying subtle spectral differences that elude visual discrimination among a large number of spectra. These activities will equip students with a thorough understanding of several relevant aspects, including ML's basic concepts, the necessary data pre-treatment before ML processes, the implementation of ML in both non-coding and coding computing environments, and the impact of different ML models on the outcomes of ML tasks.

 

The development and implementation of this series of teaching and learning activities are designed to enhance AI literacy among our undergraduates, preparing them to meet the demands of the current era.

 

79.

Development of Flashcard E-learning Language Tool with The Aid of AI Chatbot

Chemistry is more than words and symbols on the textbooks as our life is always surrounded by different kinds of chemicals. Even though Chemistry is so close to us, students often find it as a difficult subject. Particularly during the students’ first year of study, we notice that language barrier is always a huge burden for students, who come from the Chinese Medium-of-instruction (CMI) schools or from Gaokao of the Mainland China. It takes time for those students to adopt the new learning and language environment in the university. Sometimes it may cause them lots of frustrations and decrease their learning interest and incentive. Our project will develop flashcard-formatted gamification e-learning materials with the help of the AI Chatbot. By employing this learning tool, we are able to identify the strength and weakness of each student, provide extra support and comments for them to overcome their weakness, including the language barrier, enhance students’ learning engagement to the course and help students to review their learning progress. This learning tool will be implemented in our faculty package course CHEM1070A/B – Principles of Modern Chemistry, which serves more than 350 students in every academic year.

 

80.

Virtual Project Supervisor for Supporting Supervision of Statistics Projects

The proposed project aims to develop a chatbot using Large Language Models, such as ChatGPT. This chatbot will serve as a virtual project supervisor, assisting in the monitoring and guidance of student project progress throughout the course.

 

Group projects have become common learning activities and assessment methods in the undergraduate curriculum, particularly in our department. We require all undergraduate students to participate in project courses during their second, third, and final years. These projects aim to enhance students' abilities to apply statistical techniques practically, develop their communication skills, and encourage teamwork. Currently, each project course instructor manages 10 or more groups simultaneously, each with an average of six members. Actively monitoring all group progress and providing timely support can be challenging for the instructor. Without self-motivation and discipline, students may adopt surface learning behaviors, rushing to complete projects as deadlines approach. This can result in superficial project deliverables due to insufficient research, inadequate analysis, and lack of thoughtful interpretation.

 

The proposed chatbot serves as a virtual project supervisor, interacting with students via instant messaging apps like WhatsApp in a project chat group. Students are encouraged to discuss their projects in this group. The chatbot organizes these discussions, provides summaries, and offers constructive feedback. It can also respond to basic project-related questions, track progress, and assist students in achieving project milestones. Throughout the project, all groups are required to briefly and regularly report their progress, which includes an abstract, timeline, brief literature review, study design, and summary of findings. These updates should be submitted to the WhatsApp group via text messages. These will be evaluated by both the instructor and AI (to be introduced in a future update). These small and regular tasks are designed to promote regular interaction with the chatbot and form part of the assessment criteria, aiding in steady development of the final project report. In addition, the chatbot generates progress summaries for each group and alerts instructors about any groups that might need additional support.

 

To evaluate the outcome, our project team will gather feedback from students and project supervisors using surveys and focus groups. This feedback will help us evaluate how the chatbot improves teacher efficiency in group supervision, manages diverse groups, affects students learning behavior, encourages deeper learning, and enhances the quality of project deliverables. The feedback will also guide us in refining and enhancing the chatbot for future project courses.

 

81.

Data Mind Challenge: Fostering Global Readiness through Ethical Data Analysis

This project proposes a 5-minute activity called the “Data Mind Challenge,” aimed at enhancing students’ global readiness through data analytic skills that help identify facts often misinterpreted by laypeople. Each challenge consists of three components.

 

First, a video presents recent news, a globally relevant dataset, or a data analytic problem. Created as a story, business scenario, or professional consultation, the video mimics real-life situations students may face in practice, academia, or the business world. The goal is to broaden students' horizons by presenting problems of global interest.

 

Second, one data analytic skill or idea is introduced to help students extract meaning from the problem. This skill addresses common statistical misuses, whether intentional or unintentional, and provides guidance for the honest use of statistical tools. The goal is to integrate high moral standards into data literacy.

 

Third, the challenge concludes with a multiple-choice game that assesses students’ understanding of the problem. Upon completion, students receive a "Data Mind Challenge" certificate as a downloadable social media post. The goal is to encourage students to promote data science within their communities.

 

82.

Exploring Virtual Reality (VR) as a Pedagogical Tool in Supporting Collaborative and Experimental Learning

 

In Hong Kong, there is a persistent need across different disciplines to incorporate new technological processes in teaching and learning programmes, to address the increasing complexities of professional practice. In the post Covid-19 paradigm, significant strain has been placed on academic programmes that are grounded in “signature pedagogies” such as Architecture to find more effective avenues for the enhancement of ‘Design Thinking’ among students. In previous and ongoing teaching development initiatives by the PI, the three themes of SCAN, DESIGN, and BUILD have been shown to positively contribute to student development. They can be framed through teaching and learning experiences such as course development, technology adoption, discovery learning and student aptitude for creative problem solving.

 

As a follow up to previous project ‘Virtual Reality (VR) for Integrated 3-Dimensional eLearning, Making and Immersive Communications’, this proposal focuses more deeply on enhancing the DESIGN component within that framework. It further breaks down the notion of ‘Design Thinking’ into discrete categories: Abstraction, Analysis, Simulation, Alteration, Communication, and System Building. The proposal aims to develop and demonstrate how emerging technology can become integral into the cultivation of design thinking, as part of an evidence-based approach toward the development of an original design position. Tools and novel technology – specifically VR and integrated 3D/Virtual drawing technology will be integrated into teaching and learning practices to stimulate enhanced modes of visual, hands-on, and immersive student learning experiences – all possible to be conducted in individual or collaborative (group) modes.

 

The expected outcomes from this will be 1) an increased aptitude toward problem solving; 2) capacity to develop subjective arguments based on clear criterion; 3) promotion of an original design position; 4) increased sense of design confidence; 5) increased notion of design identity (professional practice); 6) refined course and programme planning for instructors; 7) exposure to Virtual Reality and related technologies; 8) virtual drawing hardware tools adapted for use within the virtual environment. The teaching and learning processes within the programme will be evaluated as part of its ongoing development and as research into the evolution of architectural education and design thinking through technology adoption.

 

83.

CUHK CT-CITY – A new Metaverse Space for Computational Thinking

 

The goal of this initiative is to create a novel metaverse city (CUHK CT-CITY) to boost students’ computational thinking using computational social science curricula. Alternative tools to learn computational abilities are necessary, especially for social science and humanities majors, given the growing need to process, analyze, and interpret big data. Computational thinking (CT) refers to problem- solving skill sets that apply concepts and reasoning derived from computer science. Although CT is frequently associated with programming, there are few non-programming approaches that can foster authentic and domain-specific knowledge. To address this gap, this project leverages the potential of the metaverse—a place for students to interact with each other in a 3D virtual space—to evoke embodiment and immersion through authoring tools. CUHK CT-CITY will be made up of nine 3D virtual scenes (eg. shop, park) in a city to support nine digital stories, and will be integrated into an education-centric metaverse, assisted by virtual agents, to teach CT. Students will use CT principles like abstraction and sequencing in 20 minute lessons on social science topics. Students can thus develop their topic knowledge, problem-solving abilities, and capacity for independent thought in relation to big data. At least three courses (e.g., SOCI3102, SOCI3229, and SOCI3238) will implement the project. Partnering metaverse cities from universities in Malaysia, Thailand, and Hong Kong are also expected to integrate. The innovative approach is cross-disciplinary and is simple to apply to other fields, including medicine and media literacy instruction.

 

84.

Enhancing Social Work Students' Clinical Expertise Through Creative Bricks: The BUILD Model

This project introduces an innovative approach to clinical social work education through the integration of LEGO bricks, aiming to revolutionize traditional teaching methodologies. By incorporating a hands-on, interactive BUILD KIT and an Activity Guide into the curriculum, this method fosters creativity, collaboration, and a crucial hand-brain connection. This tactile learning experience enables students to actively construct social work intervention models, thereby deepening their understanding of clinical theories and practices in a collaborative environment. The use of LEGO bricks as a tangible tool allows students to visualize and internalize complex social work interventions across diverse settings and clientele, facilitating both internal and external reflective dialogues. This approach not only bridges the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application but also cultivates more effective, empathetic practitioners equipped to handle the complexities of clinical social work. By embedding the BUILD Model into the curriculum, this project seeks to enhance student engagement, learning outcomes, and skill development in a manner that aligns with the dynamic needs of the field. It invites the academic community to support a transformative learning experience that promises to prepare students for the multifaceted challenges of clinical social work practice.

 

85.

From Immersive Learning to Real-life Experiential Practice: Social Groupwork Education

Social groupwork is a professional intervention practice in social work that aims to improve individuals’ social functioning through purposeful group experiences. Formal social work education includes training in groupwork skills. However, with the rapidly changing world, the needs of service recipients are increasingly diverse and complex, and students face significant challenges in practicing social groupwork in real-life situations. To enhance social work students’ competence in practicing social groupwork, this project incorporates computer simulation and virtual reality into the social work curriculum design, and developing a 3-tier educational plan. The plan includes integrating computer simulations and virtual reality materials in the social groupwork curriculum, conducting specialized workshops, and providing real-life group practice opportunities to help students prepare and implement real-life services. This project promotes academic, educational, and professional impacts in the university and the community, such as developing a sustaining teaching and learning culture in using technologies in social work education, enhancing students’ competence in using technologies in social work practice, and building a supportive and resourceful learning network.

 

86.

Gimme Shelter

The project “Gimme Shelter” addresses directly the alienation and disaggregation of students that has been an acute problem since the Coronavirus epidemic. The single biggest problem in the School of Architecture is the motivation of students. Where “studio” —a method of intensive, high contact teaching in small groups—has historically been the beating heart of the school, we have found that morale in studio has been weak in the past few years. The rate of student absenteeism has increased, and the degree of horizontal learning has reduced to an extent that is affecting graduate outcomes. Students display less interest in each other, and each other’s work, than they should, and seem indifferent to each other’s ideas. Many pedagogical projects have sought to ameliorate difficulties that students have by offering more online content. This project asks students to go emphatically offline.

 

Participants will occupy an uninhabited island for two days—the current preferred location is the island of Yim Tin Tsai, as its village committee has already supported an architectural project, Wallace Chang’s ECO Rotunda (see pdf associated with this email). The fundamental goal is improvement of the espirit de corps of Architecture and Urban Studies students. The second goal is directly pedagogical: although sustainability is a major strategic goal of the university, students report a fairly weak personal relationship to the natural environment, and a correspondingly poor capacity to tether sustainability goals to meaningful life experiences. Spending time in structured exercises in natural environments should sharpen their observational capacities and also their environmental understanding. A third benefit of the project is the improvement of solidarity amongst staff.