News

UIC’s 2nd E-Learning Showcase Day was a day for the technology enthusiasts as well as innovative educators and learners that attracted exhibitors from various teaching and administrative units. The exhibitors displayed their innovative e-learning applications in the UIC Gallery on 15 May.

The event began with welcome speeches by UIC’s Academic Registrar and Director of Research Office, Prof Jianhui Li, and UIC’s Deputy Registrar and Chief Information Officer, Dr Ricky Hou.

Prof Li announced a piece of good news that UIC has become part of the eduroam network, which is an international roaming service for users in research, higher education and further education. This service will enable UIC staff and students to connect to free Wi-Fi in eduroam network all over the world, including Hong Kong Baptist University.

Prof Jianhui Li began the event with a welcoming speech

After the speeches there was a presentation of souvenirs to industrial partners, Pearson, Dell, China Unicom and Panopto.

Pro Jianhui Li with one of the industrial partners

Dr Ricky Hou with some of the industrial partners

This e-learning event had an external screen that used Slido, an audience interaction tool for events that offers interactive Q&A, live polls and real-time presentation sharing so that the audience can post questions. Slido helped provide great efficiency and encouraged the audience to ask multiple questions. Associate Vice President Lilian Kwan and Associate Director of ITSC, Kai Pan Mark, introduced the speakers as well as ask the questions that the audience had sent via Slido.

"Current E-Learning Applications & Implementations in DBM" was a presentation by Prof Stella Cho, Dr May Wang and Dr Donna Chan. They spoke about the benefits of dropbox and online grading as well as innovations with mobile phones. Dr May Wang said that all these have helped “improve the effectiveness of teaching”.  She went on to explain that students have built their own FAQ database so that the teacher can respond to questions and provide guidance. Mr Andy Lin, a Facilitator from WPEO along with DCC Professor and Programme Director of CTV, Prof Evelyn Mai, presented “MOOC to promote Community Learning and UIC influence”.  They proposed and went into detail to explain the “3+1” learning model, where students take part in 3 courses and the students with the highest grade can come to UIC for a day.

Mr Andy Lin spoke about MOOC and the "3+1" learning model

Panopto was most definitely a prominent player in UIC's 2nd E-Learning Showcase Day. Panopto is a video hosting platform widely used in higher education for lecture capture and content sharing.  Victor Chai, and UIC's ELC Lecturer, Mr Edward Martin both shared their experience and advice relating to Panopto with Showcase Day attendees. Panopto can facilitate the "flipped classroom" model, which presents content to students before class and then provides "just in time" feedback in classroom tasks and activities.  Mr Martin's presentation summarized his experience learning to use Panopto and integrating it into his approach to teaching. Several novel approaches to the flipped classroom model, including weekly class-preview videos, instructional videos for online textbook registration, and mini-group presentations started off the talk.  The second half highlighted the use of Panopto for preparing individual students for presentations using a scaffolding approach.  Videos featuring expert speaking advice and model student presentations were given to students to watch before class, and were discussed along with the requirements of the speaking assignment.  Students then recorded a practice video using a visual aid in class, were assigned a classmate's video to watch and comment on at home, and were then shown how to use the online discussion forum in the following class.  The feedback helped them prepare for the final presentation, which was recorded with the diligent help of an ITSC film team in large-lecture halls.  The student feedback Mr Martin presented showed the recordings were well-received by students as being beneficial for their learning, although some students expressed nervousness about being on camera.  Surprisingly, although some second year students in Edward's class reported having done over 20 presentations in their UIC careers, for many of them it was the first opportunity they had had to see a video of themselves giving a presentation at UIC.  When asked about the effectiveness of the flipped classroom vs. traditional teaching practices, Mr Martin replied that instructors needed to find the way that worked best for their individual teaching styles, but that flipping the classroom using Panopto was an effective way to engage students in new ways that could lead to higher interest and better performance in class.

Mr Edward Martin talked about his experiences with Panopto

UIC's E-Learning Showcase Day provides a productive forum for UIC community members, like Mr Martin, and educational business partners, like Mr Victor Chai, to share their experience and advice with other educational professionals.  As technology becomes increasingly integrated into higher education, Edward hopes to be able to prepare his students to have the tools and perspectives to communicate effectively in the technologically mediated modern world. When asked about his recommendation to other instructors about integrating Panopto into their own teaching, Mr Martin responded "While it takes a bit of effort to learn the system in the beginning, the results fully justify the time investment. Panopto has provided a whole new avenue of media-based communication between me and my students that engages them with 21st century input through mobile technology, encourages online discussion and note-taking, and allows them to become content creators in their own right. I would highly recommend familiarizing oneself with this platform to any of my colleagues and, of course, to our students."

Mr Darrell Rea, ELC Senior Lecturer and Convener, gave the penultimate presentation titled “Mainly MOODLE” (MOODLE is the software behind iSpace). He talked about the pedagogical principles behind MOODLE e.g. Social Constructionism, and how he had implemented the utilizing blended learning, distance education and the flipped classroom. One example he used was ‘Forum’. He expressed the importance of having a good set of ‘Forum Guidelines’ for students to follow. His example gave the students the opportunity to either read or listen to them (MP3). To indicate the scale, from 96 students, his weekly class forum received 1018 replies, there were 166 other forum discussions, and one had 180 replies. This and other techniques including students recording their own voice reading a page of the book, a Glossary (Dictionary), and Rea’s now famous “A Picture Paints a Thousand Words”, all added up to make Rea’s presentation stimulating and refreshing. He is quite a lively presenter. Students may remember Darrell Rea EEP presentation “UIC ELC EEP IT”. This lecture was given to every year one student during EEP, and raved about by students for months.

Mr Darrell Rea gave a talk about the pedagogical principles behind MOODLE

Dr Sheena Van Der Mark, an Assistant Professor in the TESL Programme for DHSS, gave a presentation about using badges in MOODLE. Her presentation focused on sharing her own experience using badges in her courses for the first time, with a goal of introducing an aspect of MOODLE that isn't currently being utilized at UIC. Sheena noted that "badges are like awards that you give to students", and likened them to Boy Scout or Girl Guide badges. Sheena noted that because the semester is still in progress she cannot yet provide evidence of the value of using badges. Nevertheless, she believes that badges could be a good way to recognize student accomplishments. She indicated that in the future she would modify how she would use badges and decrease the number given out. One area she plans to try using them in the future is to show student achievement of the CILOs (Course Intended Learning Outcomes), which would further integrate them into the structure of UIC course delivery.

GEO's exhibition showed how they have implemented online discussion forums, online course evaluation survey, online course quizzes, messaging, and attendance. WPEO really embrace e-learning by being involved in a map project that shows the sustainable development around the campus. This means people can see the animals, environment, as well as the resource condition of the campus just by clicking on an electronic map, which is pioneered among national universities.

Mr Tony He, representing Pearson, a company that is involved with education products, presented “Pearson: Innovate Teaching, Engage Learner and Improve Results”. 

Pearson had an exhibition booth to show people their education products

At the end of the day there was a lucky prize draw for students and also staff that attended. The Best Exhibit Awards went to DBM, ELC, GEO, and WPEO.

DBM, ELC, GEO, and WPEO all received the best Exhibit award

Reporter: Samuel Burgess (MPRO)
Photographer/Editor: Deen He (MPRO)
(with thanks to the ELC)