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Teaching Initiatives, E-Learning Experience & Sharing Sessions

Jun 3, 2021

Presenter at the Communication Intensive Courses Symposium

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2018 – 2019

Faculty Advisor of Mathematical Modelling Competition

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In 2019, I led three of the Senior Tutors in SCNC1111 to participate in the Interdisciplinary Contest in Modeling, which is organized by the Consortium for Mathematics and Its Applications (COMAP). I took up the role of the Faculty advisor. The contest had strong foci on research, originality, teamwork, communication and justification of results – which were closely in line with the course contents in SCNC1111. Our team became one of the Meritorious Winners (top 8% out of 11,262 teams worldwide).

Classroom Flipping

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My lectures have then been flipped using the videos I produced since 2015. Moving lectures online enabled me to make better use of the class time to directly engage with students in working on group tasks. This is aligned with the “peer education” approach described by Mazur and Somers (1999) and many other scientists and science education professionals. Collaborative work during face-to-face class time promotes mutual scaffolding and peer-to-peer learning. This, in turn, proved to be an invaluable opportunity for both the students and the myself to more objectively assess how well the course materials have been designed and mastered. Students’ confusion, furthermore, can be addressed right on the spot.

Speaker of the Feedback Symposium in HKU on September 20, 2018

2017 – 2018​

At the Faculty level, I have been giving sharing sessions regularly. Some of them were show-and-tell and demos (more practical), while others focused on technology enhanced teaching and learning (more philosophical). At the University level, I have been frequently invited by CETL to join various good practice dissemination initiatives, including conferences and certificate course sessions.

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  • Speaker of the Flipped Classroom Learning Symposium – Sharing of Pedagogies and Practices organized by Technology-Enriched Learning Initiative (TELI), HKU on December 6, 2017

  • Speaker of the Teaching Exchange Fellowship Scheme on Learning Glass in Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning, HKU on Oct 12, 2017

  • Speaker of the “Student-centred Teaching Practice” on Flipping the Classroom in Faculty of Science, HKU on October 10, 2017

2016 – 2017

Explore the use of Learning Glass in UCLA, with the support of the Teaching Exchange Fellowship Scheme

With the Teaching Exchange Fellowship Scheme, I was able to visit the University of California, Los Angeles in the summer of 2017 to investigate new technologies in creating instructional materials. As a result of the trip, I introduced the “Learning Glass” in my video lectures. The tool allows instructors to write lecture notes while maintaining natural eye contact with students, and therefore makes room for more engaged, natural, relaxed, and interactive viewing experience. At the international level, I shared my experience in using the Learning Glass to make 47 videos for SCNC1111 at a number of conferences, such as the International Congress of Mathematicians 2018 held in Brazil, and the 8th ICMI-East Asia Regional Conference on Mathematics Education held in Taiwan in 2018.​

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The Future of Education with a group from the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) student council.

The Teaching Team and the Senior Tutors were invited to meet with a student-leader delegation from the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) to discuss “The Future of Education” with a particular focus on blended learning and the role of teachers. The SCNC1111 community had a fruitful exchange with TU Delft on how curriculum, pedagogy and assessment could continue to evolve to support student learning.

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Senior Tutor Scheme:

My signature project on student engagement is the Senior Tutor Scheme, which I initiated in 2016-17. This initiative can be conceptualised as an extension of the teaching innovation to an expanded audience – generations and generations of SCNC1111 classmates.

 

Every year around 10 senior undergraduate students who had previously performed well in SCNC1111 are recruited to be part of the Teaching Team. Their role is intended to be much more significant than that of tutors/teaching assistants: In every week of SCNC1111, the students attend 3 hours of lectures, and they are divided into 6 to 8 groups for weekly one-hour tutorials. These recruited senior students have then been responsible for grading, improving course materials and assignments, handling student queries and, most importantly, conducting the tutorials, which involve guided discussions and showing examples related to course materials such as the discussion on the scientific method and calculus. During the tutorials, they are in charge of reviewing course materials with the students and leading tutorial activities. They also play a pivotal role in helping students with their group project.

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Link 1: Page 10 of Link

Link 2: Link

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  • Speaker of Teaching sharing workshop “Camtasia Workshop – How to make DIY instructional videos?” in Faculty of Science, HKU on Nov 4, 2016

  • The e-learning platform was transformed into a Calculus mobile app for HKU students as well as the general public.

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2015 – 2016

​Speaker of Teaching sharing workshop “Innovative Techniques to Teach Science” in Faculty of Science, HKU on Apr 1, 2016​

The “DIY style” of flipped classroom for this course has also attracted attention from the University with a view of scaling out to other undergraduate courses. I was interviewed by TELI on my first-hand experience in making videos for flipping the classroom, and the example that I set up was often quoted in presentations about HKU’s e-learning. This notion of doing DIY-style instructional materials has a practical

implication – it shows fellow colleagues that there is a lower-barrier approach (low cost, low overheads in terms of time) to practice innovation in teaching.​

Interviewed by TeLi on Flipping the Classroom

2014 – 2015

  • A Teaching Development Grant on an e-learning Calculus platform was developed for the first year Science students in HKU. My colleagues and I have developed:

    • a database of hundreds of exercise questions, categorized under difficulty level and topic, and a series of 45 videos for teaching different topics in calculus;

    • 5 interactive applets for illustrating mathematics concepts, developed using the software Geogebra.

  • Familiar in using Mentimeter, an online instant polling software to encourage more interaction with students during lectures.

2013 – 2014

  • Investigator for a Knowledge Exchange Project Sci-Tube Channel – Science For Everyday Life and produced videos online

© 2019 by Rachel Lui

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