Watch the full recording here (need to login with UMPASS)

On 22 April, CTLE held an online half-day faculty development workshop, ‘Online/Blended Teaching and Learning: Review and Looking Ahead’. 60 colleagues from different faculties participated in the event via Zoom. We reviewed how UM teachers used different online tools during class suspension and discussed how online teaching and learning (T&L) could be employed effectively in the future to further enhance teaching and learning on campus.

Prof. Michael Hui, Vice Rector (Academic Affairs), gave an opening remark in which he shared different challenges faced by teachers and students during online T&L. Three key ideas – communication, engagement and flexibility – informed our online practice. Prof. Hui also mentioned that the University had collected students’ opinions and provided various teaching support to both teachers and students.

5 faculty members shared how they have adapted to teaching online in their respective elevator pitches:

  • Prof. William Hughes (FAH): Literature classes are complemented with online resources from UM Library
  • Prof. Kathy Luo (FHS): Zoom is used to improve teaching efficiency. Higher attendance is noticed. Lecture video recordings are also provided for students review
  • Prof. Melody Lu (FSS): Effective vs. emergency online teaching: fragmented content can help improve students’ concentration
  • Prof. Derek Wong (FST): Classes on natural language processing are facilitated by collaborative teaching methods, including UMMoodle
  • Mr. Man Teng Iong (FLL): Classes are more effectively delivered with PowerPoint with narrations, complemented with use of WeChat groups.

A faculty conversation was moderated by Prof. Katrine Wong (DCTLE), featuring three colleagues who discussed how they dealt with respective issues encountered in online T&L:

  • Prof. Glenn Mccartney (FBA): Zoom and PowerPoint slides are used; the function of whiteboard in Zoom helps with content annotation. Overseas experts are invited to speak to his students;
  • Prof. Bingpu Zhou (IAPME): In the teaching content that requires calculations, teaching online can be less efficient than in real classrooms, but such challenge has actually promoted discussion and communication.
  • Prof. Barry Reynolds (FED): Online teaching was already used with his graduate students before class suspension. Now it is even more useful as students make use of online meetings to ask questions frequently.

Prof. Katrine Wong was joined by Prof. Chuang Wang, Dean of FED and Principal Academic Staff Advisor of CTLE, and they led an open forum, in which design of online assessment was much discussed.

The day’s technology session, Designing and Re-Designing Course Content on UMMoodle and Zoom, was hosted by Dr. Chris Fulton.

  • Prof. Katrine Wong shared examples of UMMoodle functions used in her online T&L, including forums, quizzes, assignment.
  • Prof. Victoria Lei (FAH) combines WeChat and Zoom in her classes of simultaneous interpretation. She reminded colleagues to be mindful of issues such as privacy and confidentiality.
  • Dr. Chris Fulton (CTLE) talked about multi-modal teaching activities and shared his experience in designing online courses, including how to increase student engagement.

4月22日，教與學優化中心舉行了在線教師發展半天工作坊，主題為在線混合式教學的回顧與展望，活動主要回顧了在停課不停學期間，澳大老師如何利用不同的在線工具進行教學，同時探討如何在將來的教學裡有效善用在線教學的優勢，進一步優化校內的教與學。是次活動共有60位來自不同學院的教職員透過Zoom在線參加。

工作坊首先由澳大副校長（學術）許敬文教授致開幕辭，他以溝通、投入、靈活性三個方向，為教職員分享了澳大開展在線教學時，老師和學生所遇到的不同挑戰；他也表示校方收集了學生對在線教學的意見，並分享各種對師生的教學支援。

接著五位來自不同學院的老師在簡短演講環節裡，以不同的主題和例子，分享如何靈活地進行在線教學：

  • William Hughes教授（人文學院）：在文學課的教學上，利用澳大圖書館的在線資源，對教學進行非正式的有效評估；
  • 羅茜教授（健康科學學院）：利用Zoom提高教學效率，包括較高出席率及幫助學生複習的課堂錄影；
  • 呂家玟教授（社會科學學院）：論述了有效在綫教學和緊急在線教學之分別，強調將課堂內容碎片化以提高學生集中力；
  • 黃輝教授（科技學院）：利用混合式教學及UMMoodle對自然語言處理這門學科的教學分享；
  • 翁文挺先生（法學院）：重點利用帶有語音的PowerPoint進行教學，並利用微信群組聯繫學生。

由本中心主任王嘉祺教授主持的學院對談部分，三位不同學院的老師討論了他們在進行在線教學時遇到的問題和經驗分享：

  • Glenn Mccartney教授（工商管理學院）：利用Zoom和PowerPoint對校外的學生進行教學，特別利用Zoom的白板功能對內容進行注解，並利用網上會議的形式邀請外國專家進入課堂進行分享；
  • 周冰樸教授（應用物理及材料工程研究院）：在需要計算和步驟的教學內容上，使用網上教學的效果較真實課室差，但某程度上促進了討論和交流；
  • Barry Reynolds教授（教育學院）：在停課之前，一直有採用網上教學的形式和研究生溝通，而現在的情況更能令學生積極提問和促進學習。

工作坊也進行了教學講壇，由本中心主任王嘉祺教授和教育學院院長、本中心首席學術顧問王闖教授共同主持，與會者就線上評核的設置進行熱烈討論。

最後由本中心Chris Fulton博士主持了工作坊的教學科技講座，主題為「在UMMoodle和Zoom設計課堂」：

  • 王嘉祺教授（教與學優化中心）介紹了各種使用UMMoodle進行教學的功能，例如論壇、小測、功課等，特別利用Veriguide和Turnitin檢查學生的學習誠信程度，都能有效地提高在線教學效率；
  • 李麗青教授（人文學院）以微信和Zoom結合使用進行教學，她採用反思性學習的方式，對即時翻譯的學科進行教學，但同時她提醒老師們要留意相關的私隱和保密問題；
  • Chris Fulton博士（教與學優化中心）則以多模式的教學活動參與和表達為題，分享了不同設計在線課程的經驗，包括增加與學生互動的內容、帶有引導筆記的投影片等。