Use of animation in engaging teachers and students in assessment in Hong Kong higher education

Animations have long been perceived as an effective tool in teaching and learning. While students’ reception towards animations has often been studied, there is also literature covering how teachers perceive and incorporate animations into their classes. At a research intensive university in Hong Kong, animations on the topic of university assessment policy, such as rubrics and grade descriptors, have been produced so that teachers can understand the latest policy quickly without attending lengthy workshops. It was found that a striking 95% of teachers reported gaining better understanding of assessment rubrics after watching the animation. This paper will present the findings from a small study on how teachers perceive the use of animations for their own professional development, and how they perceive the incorporation of animations into their own disciplines to engage students. Despite positive attitude towards the use of animation for teaching and learning, academics expressed practical and technical concerns.postprin

Evaluating learning experiences in virtual laboratory training through student perceptions: a case study in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Hong Kong

With recent advances in information technologies, a new mode of laboratory known as the “virtual laboratory” has begun to revolutionise engineering education. This development has generated discussion about the fundamental learning outcomes of laboratory training courses and, ultimately, an interest in the consequent changes to the student’s learning experiences. This exploratory case study describes the initial phase of a research agenda that is focused on investigating the effectiveness of virtual laboratories in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (EEE) in a research-intensive university. The long-term goals of the agenda are to add to the literature of how effective virtual EEE laboratories are (in terms of delivering specific learning outcomes, and also engaging and motivating students and teachers), and to discover whether they can ultimately become a substitute for traditional laboratory training by providing an equivalent and comparable learning experience for students.published_or_final_versio

IClass assessment: a pen-based assessment and feedback platform

In recent years, the demand of in-class interaction and assessment for learning is rising. There is more emphasis on using electronic tools for assessment for learning in order to facilitate teachers seeking to identify and diagnose student learning problems, and providing quality feedback for students on how to improve their work. This paper discusses the challenges of e-assessment and introduced a pen-based assessment and feedback platform developed in Hong Kong. The platform can provide an efficient and effective channel for providing feedback so as to monitor any learning difficulties and help teachers to diagnose students' prior skills and abilities, providing feedback for them to adjust the curriculum or provide additional assistance accordingly. © 2013 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Faculty perspectives on the "3+ 3+ 4" curriculum reform in Hong Kong: A case study

Curriculum reform in higher education has been taking place in many countries, with much attention paid to many such as the national-level Bologna process in Europe, institutional-level Melbourne Model in Australia and discipline-level Engineering Criteria 2000 (EC2000). This paper gives a detailed account of the reform initiatives taking place in the recent Hong Kong educational system and in particular, focusing on a research-intensive university in Hong Kong through literature and consultations. Being aware that teachers often face challenges in dealing with curriculum changes, this small-scale study aims to identify areas which faculty members require assistance in their professional development by investigating university teachers' perception of the curriculum reform in the Science discipline. Through quantitative and qualitative methods, it was also found that academics expressed doubts towards the implementation of outcome-based and student-centered learning approaches in the new curriculum despite their understanding of these concepts.published_or_final_versio

Psychometric Properties of a Survey on STEM Students’ Perceptions of Generic Skills

Parallel Session Oral 4-CGiven the emerging needs to understand STEM students’ perceptions of generic skills, a survey has been developed with the aim to assess STEM students’ self-assessment of generic skills in terms of the extent to which they agree that the skills are important to their future career and how would they assess their current level of competency in the skills. A total of 1232 first-year students from three universities participated in the study. A number of psychometric properties were being examined: principal component analysis was conducted to explore how each question reflects the underlying constructs that intend to measure the proposed generic skills, and confirmatory factor analysis was conducted by fitting the hypothesized factor structure to the self-assessment items. On the basis of the psychometric validation, eight genericskill scales were derived, namely, academic & problem-solving skills, interpersonal skills, community & citizenship knowledge, leadership skills, professional effectiveness, information & communication literacy, critical thinking and self-management. Further, internal consistency and internal structure of each individual scale were examined. In conclusion, the psychometric validation for the set of self-assessment items as a whole as well as for individual scales all lends support for the instrument as a reliable and valid measure on STEM students’ perceptions of generic skills. In this paper, we will discuss the different psychometric validation methods used to understand the differences between students’ self-assessment on the importance of the generic skills and their competency of these skills, future uses will also be highlighted.published_or_final_versio

Curriculum design model for the development of transferable skills in engineering

Engineering professional bodies worldwide have been embracing a number of transferable skills criteria in the expected programme learning outcomes for engineering programme accreditation. Problem solving, creativity, teamwork, lifelong learning, communications and research ability are all expected transferable skills for a well-rounded engineering graduate (Bertelsen and Chadha, 1999; Staddon, 2002). Higher education institutions ...postprin

Discovering the Learning and Teaching Approaches of Transferable Skills to Engage Students

Parallel Session Oral 4-CGiven the growing attention among students, teachers and employers on the importance of transferable skills for both education and employment, there is a need to understand students’ perception of these skills before effective teaching approaches and assessment strategies can be developed to improve the teaching and learning of transferable skills. Studies on students’ perception of transferable skills have found that students’ perceived importance of and competency in transferable skills vary by skill. However, it is unclear to what extent these findings can be applied to the Hong Kong context as the majority of the studies were conducted in Western countries. In view of these issues, this paper presents a study conducted in Hong Kong on STEM students’ perception of transferable skills. A questionnaire was developed and administered to 1232 STEM students, who were required to self-assess their perceived importance level of and competency level in 38 transferable skills. They were also asked to indicate their attitude towards the teaching and learning approaches and assessment of transferable skills. It was found that students tended to give themselves a higher rating for their perceived level of importance of the transferable skills than their perceived competency level in those skills. It was also found that students generally believe that transferable skills are better developed through extra-curricular activities and majority of them disagreed that learning these skills is irrelevant. The findings will be discussed.published_or_final_versio

Effectiveness of group cognitive-behavioral treatment for childhood anxiety in community clinics

This study evaluated the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral treatment for childhood anxiety in a community clinic setting in Hong Kong, China. Forty-five clinically-referred children (age 6-11 years) were randomly assigned to either a cognitive-behavioral treatment program or a waitlist-control condition. Children in the treatment condition showed significant reduction in anxiety symptoms-both statistically and clinically-whereas children in the waitlist condition did not. After the waitlist period was over, the control group also received the treatment program and showed a similar reduction in symptoms. For the full sample of 45 children, the effectiveness of the intervention was significant immediately after treatment and in 3- and 6-month follow-ups. In addition, children's anxiety cognition and their ability to cope with anxiety-provoking situations fully mediated the treatment gains. These results offer empirical support for cognitive-behavioral treatment programs in a non-Western cultural context and plausible mediators for how cognitive-behavioral therapy works. © 2010 Elsevier Ltd.postprin

Reinventing a Level 7 Programme in Electrical Engineering and Greatly Improving on Student Retention

Following the successful implementation over a number of decades of a three-year Diploma in Electrical and Control Engineering at Technological University Dublin, the programme entered a period of extreme difficulty and uncertainty in the late nineteen ninetees and early years of the new millennium. As with many such engineering programmes, student numbers seeking to enter began to diminish. Furthermore, engagement and retention of students who had enrolled on the programme became evermore challenging, necessitating some radical moves in the formation and operation of the programme and in putting additional student support mechanisms in place. The situation hit rock bottom between the 2000 and 2002 academic years when the programme appeared to be in terminal decline. Following a major effort by the programme committee in redefining the programme, and upon receiving a annual recurrent retention grant from the Higher Education Authority of Ireland, the declining situation was reversed and the new programme is now on a healthy footing. This paper will outline the steps taken in in achieving this goal. Whilst the situation has been reversed, there is little room for complacency and the difficult questions facing educators today continue to challenge

What are Science and Engineering Students’ Motivations in learning Generic Skills?

Poster PresentationDespite a general acceptance of the importance of generic skills, it is particularly true that in the science and engineering disciplines, there is often little time to develop generic skills in the already tight timetables, and both students and teachers often overlook the importance of developing these skills. This paper presents the findings of a study on science and engineering students’ motivation for learning generic skills, which is part of a large research project on students’ perception of generic skills in Hong Kong. In a questionnaire developed to measure students’ attitude towards different generic skills, students were also asked to respond an open-ended question asking them to provide reasons for them to learn or not to learn generic skills. Content analysis was conducted to identify main themes from a total of 914 qualitative comments collected from 1232 science and engineering students. Themes that emerged on students’ motivation for learning generic skills include career needs, academicrelated needs, personal development and personal interest. On the other hand, perceived difficulty and time consumption emerged as the main reasons for students not want to learn generic skills. Implication of the findings on the teaching of generic skills will be discussed.published_or_final_versio