Teaching and Learning Experience Sharing (TALES) Seminar Series (2021/22 Semester 1)

Facilitator(s):

Dr Albert CHAU (VPTL)

Abstract:

Building on the foundation laid down in the Institutional Strategic Plan 2018-2028 (ISP), the University is in the process to rethink the total learning experience of our students. In the University’s Planning Exercise Proposal (PEP) 2022-25, colleagues consider directions on how to transform the formal, co- and extra-curricula in view of how humans learn and how students should be prepared for the rapid global changes and uncertainties such as COVID-19. One direction is to design curricula which enable students not only to choose a major but also a learning pathway. In AY2022-23, a personalised pathway programme and two transdisciplinary pathway programmes will be launched alongside with the more structured pathways in our current curriculum. 

At this Roundtable, we invite colleagues to come together to imagine ways to facilitate learning and teaching for these transdisciplinary and personalised pathways programmes as well as other innovative pedagogies and assessment methods including:

• Choosing a Major AND a Learning Pathway,
• Solution-based and Contextualised Learning,
• Outcome and Process-based Assessment.

You will be able to understand the important elements in the PEP and take away insights from your peers in designing a flexible programme or course in order to meet the diverse learning needs and aspirations of our future students.

Facilitator(s):

Professor Kara CHAN (COMF)
Dr Vivienne LEUNG (COMS)
Dr Melannie ZHAN (CIE)

Abstract:

Conducting authentic research studies that integrate with the subject contents empower students in both knowledge generation and in taking responsibility for learning (Harland and Wald, 2018). Students benefit life-long from the meta-cognitive skills that they have acquired as research skills that are highly transferrable to other situations and careers. A course-based research project embedded in the course content enables every student to learn and experience how existing knowledge has been generated.

Professor Kara Chan, leader of a UGC funded virtual teaching and learning project will introduce characteristics of course-based undergraduate research experience. Dr Vivienne Leung will share a research project that requires students to conduct qualitative interviews of public response to celebrities disclosing mental health issues. Dr Melannie Zhan will share the design of a class project that measures the effectiveness of MTR advertising.

At the end of the workshop, participants will recall the characteristics of course-based research experience and identify the process of designing a class assignment or a project with authentic research elements.

This workshop series is fully funded by UGC’s Special Grant for Strategic Development of Virtual Teaching and Learning. The project title is “Building the Capacity of Research-Informed Teaching and Learning in the Virtual T&L Context”. Project team: Professor Kara Chan (Leader), Professor Noel Siu, Professor Gina Lai. Mr Chak Hee Lo served as the project assistant.

Facilitator(s):

Professor Phillip DAWSON
(Associate Director, Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning, Deakin University, Australia)
Professor Phillip Dawson is Associate Director of the Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning. Phill researches assessment in higher education, focusing on feedback and cheating, predominantly in digital learning contexts. His 2021 book Defending Assessment Security in a Digital World explores how cheating is changing and what educators can do about it. Professor Dawson has over a decade of university teaching experience and he has been awarded four university-level teaching awards and a citation from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council. Phill disseminates his work through scholarly journals and popular/social media. He has published in the top journals relevant to assessment and educational technology, as well as top generalist education journals. His work has been featured in major Australian and international print, online, radio and television outlets, and cited in the Australian Senate. Phill maintains a strong presence on The Conversation, and his higher education YouTube channel receives more than 100 hours of viewing per month.

Abstract:

COVID-19 triggered a rapid international shift toward online assessment, which has been accompanied by concerns about student cheating. If we aren’t physically with students, how can we be sure they are completing tasks in the circumstances we require – and how can we verify their identity? Add into the mix the range of new technology tools that are being used to cheat and unprecedented resource constraints, and it seems that assessment has become much more challenging over the past 18 months.

This session explores the state of the art in student cheating, and what educators are doing to detect and deter cheating in online assessment. It argues that addressing cheating will require an uneasy balance between positive ‘academic integrity’ and adversarial ‘assessment security’ approaches. Examples are provided from a range of disciplines, connected to the research into their effectiveness at addressing cheating.

Facilitator(s):

Professor Phillip DAWSON
(Associate Director, Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning, Deakin University, Australia)

Abstract:

Assessment design is often suggested as an approach that can help educators address cheating. In particular, authentic assessment is often proposed as an approach that can help stop cheating. Claims have been made that authentic assessment is impossible to cheat in – but is it really that simple?

This session interrogates the evidence on authentic assessment and cheating. It focuses on three aspects of authenticity in assessment task design. Firstly, whether authenticity can make a task more resistant to cheating, or less desirable to cheat in. Secondly, how ‘authentic restrictions’, or realigning the conditions students undertake a task in so that they match the conditions they will encounter when they graduate, might make cheating more difficult. And finally, how the professional ethical values of a discipline or profession can be incorporated into an assessment to make academic integrity itself more authentic.

Facilitator(s):

Professor Phillip DAWSON
(Associate Director, Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning, Deakin University, Australia)

Abstract:

Feedback at university can be difficult for students to deal with, and this problem does not go away when they graduate and encounter feedback in the workplace. But what if we redesigned feedback to better prepare students for what they will face once they graduate? This session focuses on designing authentic feedback processes that resemble the feedback practices of students’ future professions or workplaces. Building on existing notions of authentic assessment and feedback literacy, a framework is provided around which authentic feedback can be designed. The framework is explored through two cases: an Australian online digital media course, and a hospital-based paediatric medicine course in Hong Kong. Both cases contain aspects of authentic feedback. The session argues that authentic feedback is necessary to develop a feedback literacy in students that is transferrable across contexts, into their graduate working lives.

Facilitator(s):

Dr Sylvia KWOK
(Associate Professor, Department of Social and Behavioural Sciences, CityU)
Dr Jiayan PAN
(Associate Professor, Department of Social Work, HKBU)

Abstract:

This is the third year in a row that HKBU teachers have won the prestigious UGC Teaching Award, which is a distinct honour presented by the University Grants Committee. Our teacher, Dr Jiayan Pan has received the 2021 UGC Teaching Award for Teams as a member of the Joint University Mental-Wellness Project (JUMP) for promoting positive education. The winning Team is led by Dr Sylvia Kwok from the City University of Hong Kong with other members from the University of Hong Kong, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Education University of Hong Kong. The Team aims to enhance students’ wellbeing and foster positive learning experiences. To achieve these objectives, the Team has developed and implemented a positive transformational learning pedagogy, which employs a strength-based and process-focused approach to maximise students’ potential by transforming their attitudes, values and beliefs. Through a variety of activities, including both formal and informal learning, around 7000 university students, staff, and members of the wider community have benefitted from the work of the Team.

We are happy to have invited Dr Kwok and Dr Pan to share the rationale of developing this inter-institutional team project and the impact of student learning upon the adoption of positive transformational learning pedagogy. In addition, tips of applying a successful UGC Teaching Award for Teams will also be covered.

Facilitator(s):

Professor Noel SIU (MKT)
Dr Candy HO (MKT)
Dr Fred YIM (MKT)
Dr Tracy ZHANG (MKT)

Abstract:

Conducting authentic research studies that integrate with the subject contents empower students in both knowledge generation and in taking responsibility for learning (Harland and Wald, 2018). Students benefit life-long from the meta-cognitive skills that they have acquired as research skills that are highly transferrable to other situations and careers. A course-based research project embedded in the course content enables every student to learn and experience how existing knowledge has been generated.

This is Research-Teaching Nexus Workshop Series 2. Four colleagues from the Department of Marketing will share a research project collaborated with Leisure and Cultural Services Department (LCSD) that invited over 300 students from two business courses to be engaged as samples in the past two academic years. They will share how students went through the research process and how this is linked with their courses. The deliverables include a conference paper and a report to the senior management of LCSD on engagement strategy development.

At the end of the workshop, participants will recall the characteristics of course-based research experience and identify the process of designing a class assignment or a project with authentic research elements.

This workshop series is fully funded by UGC’s Special Grant for Strategic Development of Virtual Teaching and Learning. The project title is “Building the Capacity of Research-Informed Teaching and Learning in the Virtual T&L Context”.Project team: Professor Kara Chan (Leader), Professor Noel Siu, Professor Gina Lai. Mr Chak Hee Lo served as the project assistant.

Facilitator(s):

Dr Yao-Tai LI (SOC)
Ms Lai-Yin Anna QIN (VA)

Co-organiser:

General Education Office

Abstract:

Teaching and learning at HKBU are devoted to delivering whole person education, with General Education (GE) and Service-Learning (SL) being the essential tropes. In the recent institution-wide GE curriculum renovations and SL pedagogical innovations, assessment plays a vital role FOR and AS a part of more academically rigorous and socially developmental learning experience. Aligned with the University’s Revised Policy for the Assessment of Student Learning, the authenticity of assessments serves to contextualise learning and teaching in real-life situations and better connect students’ intellectual development with social growth. Therefore, CHTL co-organises this workshop series with General Education Office and Centre for Innovative Service-Learning, to showcase good practices in innovating the curriculum and pedagogy by introducing authentic assessment components.

The first workshop of this series spotlights the category of Sustainable Communities (GTSU) under Level 2 Interdisciplinary Thematic Courses in the new GE curriculum. Two GE course instructors, Dr Yao-Tai LI and Ms Lai-Yin Anna QIN, will share the design and delivery of the authentic assessment tasks in their GE courses. Dr Li from the Department of Sociology, will introduce how he assesses students’ learning progress via short documentaries and learning journals and, more importantly, how these tasks facilitate students’ understanding of social sustainability in contemporary China. Ms Qin from the Academy of Visual Arts, will elaborate on the assignment of project pitching, which aims at nurturing students’ design thinking and problem-solving skills to address sustainability challenges.

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• identify the characteristics, advantages, and challenges of authentic assessments;
• apply the principles and techniques in designing and delivering GE for sustainable development.