Centre for Teaching and Learning Enhancement | University of Macau

CTLE Professional Development Workshop: Promoting Active Learning in Undergraduate Teaching
2025-03-05 12:00 - 13:30 (Asia/Macau) | E3-1032
CTLE Professional Development Workshop:
Promoting Active Learning in Undergraduate Teaching
Register NowA large number of undergraduate students fail gateway courses, particularly in math and science, resulting in being unable to graduate in intended majors. Although student factors account, unengaging instruction is found to be a more important contributor. Scientific teaching, anchored in active learning, premises that teaching is a form of inquiry guided by theories and evidence. Active learning is grounded in current theories of learning and years of research on effective teaching and learning in university classrooms. Active learning involves students in doing things and thinking about what they are doing. This workshop will introduce various strategies to implement active learning. Participants will become familiar with research underlying active learning, know how to implement active learning in their classrooms, and develop a framework for teaching as an inquiry.
Bio of Speaker:
Prof. Xiufeng Liu is a Chair Professor of STEM Education in the Faculty of Education, University of Macau. Liu obtained his Master’s degree from East China Normal University in 1986 and PhD from University of British Columbia in 1993. Prior to joining the University of Macau, he taught high school chemistry in China, was a research associate at the China National Institute for Educational Research (currently Chinese Academy of Education), a tenured faculty member at St. Francis Xavier University and University of Prince Edward Island, both in Canada, and most recently a SUNY Distinguished Professor of Science Education in the Graduate School of Education, University at Buffalo, State University of New York.

CTLE Professional Development Workshop: Motivate and Support Students’ Self-Regulated Learning
2025-03-19 12:00 - 13:30 | E3-1032
CTLE Professional Development Workshop:
Motivate and Support Students’ Self-Regulated Learning
Register NowAbstract:

Imagine students who fail an exam, struggle with competing deadlines, or feel daunted by a complex project. What skills do students need to address these common academic challenges? Self-regulated learning is a skill set that involves planning when and how to learn, monitoring progress, and reflecting on successes and failures to guide future learning efforts. Although these skills are critical to academic achievement and lifelong learning, they are often assumed and rarely taught. In this interactive workshop, we will unpack a self-regulated learning framework and design teaching practices, class activities, and assessments that help students guide their own learning.

Bio of speaker:

Ruthann C. Thomas, Ph.D. is a cognitive scientist, an educational developer, and a seasoned university teacher. She is Associate Director of Teaching and Learning at MIT’s Teaching + Learning Lab, where she develops and collaborates on initiatives for MIT educators to promote equitable and inclusive teaching practices and learning environments. She also teaches in a program for MIT graduate students and postdocs on evidence-based teaching techniques grounded in the scholarship of teaching and learning. Ruthann previously held roles as an Associate Professor (with tenure) of Psychology at Hendrix College and a postdoctoral research scientist at Washington University in St. Louis where she conducted research applying cognitive psychology to enhance educational practice. She earned her Ph.D. in Cognition, Perception, and Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of Toronto. Her work is anchored in a deep commitment to fostering inclusive and equitable learning experiences and sharing teaching strategies based in the science of learning.

CTLE Online Faculty Conversation: Assessment Redesign
2025-08-13 10:00 - 11:30 | Online
CTLE Online Faculty Conversation: Assessment Redesign
Highlight & RecapFacilitators:

Prof. Katrine Wong, Director of the Centre for Teaching and Learning Enhancement
Dr. Chris Fulton, E-Learning Technology Officer, Centre for Teaching and Learning Enhancement

Join us for an engaging discussion on transforming assessments to better support student learning and develop critical thinking skills.
This conversation focuses on tried and tested strategies that shift the focus of assessments in ways that strengthen student learning. Process-orientated assessments that emphasize authentic tasks and active engagement can significantly strengthen student learning. By implementing various assessment tools such as portfolios, reflection journals, peer feedback, and low-stakes in-class activities, educators can effectively monitor learning progress and develop students’ higher-order thinking skills.
We encourage colleagues to come prepared to share their experiences and practical strategies.

Audience: UM Faculty, Part-time Faculty, Post-docs
UM Participants will get 1 PD hour for participating in this event.

CTLE Faculty Webinar: Start Your Semester Strong with Engagement Strategies and Enhanced E-Learning Tools
2025-08-15 10:00 - 11:30 | Online
Highlight & RecapSpeakers:

Mr. Miguel Costa, Senior Instructor, Department of Computer and Information Science, Faculty of Science and Technology
Dr. Chris Fulton, E-Learning Technology Officer, Centre for Teaching and Learning Enhancement
Dr. Alice Lee, Senior Instructor, English Language Centre, Faculty of Arts and Humanities

Join us for this webinar to explore teaching strategies and tools to get your courses off to an excellent start.
This webinar will focus on teaching strategies to help you start your semester strong and build meaningful connections with students. We’ll explore practical approaches for making your course syllabus more engaging and accessible, creating effective ice-breakers that build trust and community, using polls and check-ins to monitor student understanding, and implementing low-stakes formative assessments that support learning.
Throughout the session, we’ll demonstrate how UMMoodle’s recent updates and other e-learning tools can enhance these teaching strategies – from mobile-friendly course materials and automatic quiz feedback to quick polling with MS Forms and streamlined quiz creation with GetMarked.ai.
This interactive session will include opportunities to share your own successful start-of-semester practices and explore how digital tools can amplify your teaching effectiveness.

Audience: UM Faculty, Part-time Faculty, Post-docs
UM Participants will get 1 PD hour for participating in this event.

CTLE New Faculty Training 2025
2025-08-20 11:00 - 12:30 | E3-1032
CTLE New Faculty Training 2025
Highlight & RecapThis training provides new faculty members with a general introduction to teaching and learning in the UM context. The training aims to enhance colleagues’ teaching skills, with which colleagues will be able to facilitate more effective teaching and learning at UM. This training will cover topics such as:
UM Context.

principles of learning,
university policies related to T&L, GenAI at UM
fundamental concepts of course design

E-learning tools.

MyUM, SI Web

UMMoodle, UM.Yuja.com

Generative AI services at UM: Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat (with enterprise data protection), DeepSeek, Gemma

➡Download Prof. Katrine WONG’s slides here

CTLE Teaching Assistant Online Training 2025
2025-09-02 07:00 - 2025-09-24 16:00 | Online
CTLE Teaching Assistant Online Training 2025
This training programme is offered once a year to train new graduate students to be more effective teaching assistants at UM. The training is held online and introduces graduate students to core skills of teaching undergraduate students. Topics covered in the training include preparation, teacher-student interactions, lecturing, facilitating in-class discussions, learning strategies in EMI context and e-learning tools. To complete the training, students will watch 6 sessions of video lectures, complete related online activities on UMMoodle and attend an online salon.
Video lectures via Moodle: two topics each week, released every Tuesday (Sep 2, 9, 16)
Online TA Salon on 24 September 2025, 10:30AM – 12:30PM (Online via Zoom)
This training is open to all UM postgraduate students, especially for those who are hired as Teaching Assistants and are required to complete the training before providing any ancillary teaching at the University of Macau.

CTLE Half-day Professional Development Event: Evidence-based Teaching and Learning
2025-09-03 09:30 - 12:30 | E3-1032
Highlight & RecapJoin us for a dynamic faculty development programme featuring Dr. Greg Siering on transparent assignment design using the TILT framework, a panel on effective strategies for assignment, and a hands-on technology session on Moodle tools. Discover practical approaches to support diverse learners and improve assessment effectiveness.
PROGRAMME RUNDOWN
9:30AM – 9:35AM Opening remarks by Prof. Michael King-man Hui (Vice Rector, Academic Affairs)
9:35AM – 11:05AM Plenary Workshop by Dr. Greg Siering (Indiana University Bloomington) *Speaker will present online via Zoom
11:05AM – 11:10AM Break
11:10AM – 11:50AM Faculty Mini-Presentations by Prof. Nick Groom (FAH), Prof. Morris Liu (FBA), Prof. Maggie Hoi (ICMS), moderated by Prof. Katrine Wong (DCTLE)
11:50AM – 12:20PM Technology Session by Dr. Chris Fulton (CTLE)
PLENARY WORKSHOP
Promoting Student Success through Transparent Assignment Design
We spend significant time creating our assignments, so how can we ensure they are designed in ways that set students up for success? One model of assignment design—the Transparency in Learning and Teaching (TILT) framework—is easy to implement and has a strong body of research that demonstrates its benefits for student learning, especially among less academically prepared students. This workshop will introduce the TILT framework, provide you with an opportunity to “TILT” an assignment, and explore the use of Generative AI to help you create transparent assignments. Participants will be asked to bring three copies of an assignment for workshopping.
FACULY MINI-PRESENTATIONS
Effective Strategies in Supporting Diverse Learners
Faculty members will share strategies that have helped support student success throughout an assignment, especially for students with different levels of preparation or learning styles, and found effective. They will also share an example of an assignment designed that successfully connected course content to real-world issues or student interests and its impact on student engagement or student success.
TECHNOLOGY SESSION
Getting Started with Technology-Enhanced Assessment (TEA) and Tracking Student Performance (TSP) in Moodle
The activity completion tools in Moodle can provide students with progress indicators and feedback loops to guide their learning, and offer instructors insights into student learning.
Keynote Speaker

Greg Siering is the founding director of the Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning at Indiana University Bloomington. He has a Ph.D. in English (Composition and Rhetoric), and his teaching background is in first-year writing courses. He is currently teaching in IU’s new first year seminar program, where he emphasizes skills needed for successful transition to university. His work currently focuses on supporting the effective use of teaching assistants in large lecture courses and their associated recitation/discussion sections, and on helping instructors support first-year students in their transition to university. Outside of work, he enjoys baking and playing games with his grandchildren, and he is starting to dabble in amateur astronomy.

CTLE E-Learning Conversation: A Closer Look at Moodle LMS 4.5 and GetMarked.ai
2025-09-10 10:00 - 11:30 | E3-1032, BOC Centennial Building, Taipa, Macau
Facilitator:

Dr. Chris Fulton, E-Learning Technology Officer, Centre for Teaching and Learning Enhancement

Join us in exploring key features in our upgraded UMMoodle 4.5 platform and learning about GetMarked.ai, an assessment creation tool currently being piloted on campus.
This session will highlight how Moodle’s new functionalities can support your teaching activities and demonstrate how GetMarked.ai can streamline quiz development. Faculty and teaching assistants are invited to share teaching strategies and learn from colleagues about practical applications of these tools.
Whether you’re interested in enhancing your current courses or simply curious about these technologies, this conversation offers an opportunity to discover how these resources might benefit your teaching practice.

Audience: UM Faculty, Part-time Faculty, Post-docs
UM Participants will get 1 PD hour for participating in this event.

CTLE Faculty Forum: A Closer Look at Assessment Design in Humanities, Social Sciences, and STEM
2025-09-17 12:00 - 13:30 | E3-1032, BOC Centennial Building, Taipa, Macau
CTLE Faculty Forum: A Closer Look at Assessment Design in Humanities, Social Sciences, and STEM
Speakers:

Prof. Elizabeth Tien Ping Hsiang (FED)
Prof. Francisco Leandro (FSS)
Prof. Michiel Spape (ICI)
Moderators: Dr. Chris Fulton (CTLE)

This forum provides faculty members with an informal space to exchange practical insights on assessment redesign strategies that strengthen student learning while addressing the challenges and opportunities presented by AI-enhanced educational environments. The forum focuses on assessments from courses in the humanities, social sciences and STEM. Participants will have opportunities to discuss strategies that prioritize process-oriented assessments that emphasize authentic tasks and active engagement, including innovative approaches that constructively integrate generative AI tools into assignments and evaluation methods.

CTLE Professional Development Workshop: Resilient Assessment in the Age of Generative AI: Designing for integrity, Process and Cognitive Growth
2025-10-15 12:00 - 13:30 | E3-1032
Introduction:
Generative AI is reshaping how students approach learning and assessment, raising challenges for both integrity and educational value. This interactive workshop explores strategies for redesigning assessment tasks so that resilience is built structurally, and compliance draws on awareness of the cognitive costs of outsourcing, rather than relying on rules or prohibitions. We will examine opportunities and risks around simultaneously addressing assessment validity, security and accessibility, share examples of authentic and AI-inclusive approaches, and reimagine existing tasks to focus on process, cognitive growth, and meaningful student engagement. Through discussion, case examples, and hands-on redesign activities, participants will reimagine their own assessment practices and develop principles for tasks that are authentic, equitable, and future-focused.

Short bio – Raoul Mulder
Raoul Mulder holds dual appointments at the University of Melbourne as Professor of Higher Education in the Centre for the Study of Higher Education (Faculty of Education) and as Professor of Ecology in the School of BioSciences (Faculty of Science). Raoul’s research has a strong focus on evidence-based pedagogy and the student experience in higher education. He has published and spoken widely on educational topics ranging from collaborative learning and student peer review to learning design and learning analytics, learning misconceptions, student wellbeing, and GenerativeAI and assessment. LinkedIn Google Scholar

CTLE Half-day Professional Development Event: Fundamentals of Education in AI Era
2026-01-28 09:30 - 12:30 | E3-1032
Join us for a dynamic half‑day programme where we revisit the fundamentals of education in a landscape where artificial intelligence is reshaping teaching and learning. The event begins with a thought‑provoking plenary examining both the opportunities and considerations of AI, and how assessment and curriculum design can evolve to address emerging challenges. A student panel will follow, offering authentic perspectives on learning in the AI era and the skills future graduates will need to thrive. The programme concludes with a hands‑on technology session where participants will learn human‑first strategies for engaging learners and explore practical tools—including Yuja’s in‑video quizzes, comments and social annotations, and Copilot—to design more engaging and relevant learning experiences.
*Breakfast and snacks provided.
PROGRAMME RUNDOWN
Opening remarks 9:30 – 9:35
Prof. Michael King-man Hui (Vice Rector for Academic Affairs)
Plenary 9:35 – 11:05
The sprint and the marathon: Learning and teaching transformations in the age of AI
by Dr. Julia Chen (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University)
As artificial intelligence continues to revolutionise how we learn, teach, and interact, educators in higher education are being called to fundamentally reconsider their roles and approaches. This keynote will explore the profound impact of intelligent technologies on the future of learners, and examine how these advancements are reshaping the meaning of education. While the session addresses the ongoing challenge of maintaining curricular relevance in a rapidly evolving academic landscape, the audience will be engaged in forward-thinking conversations on strategies for deeper learning experiences that seek to prepare students for an unpredictable future led by accelerated and disruptive technological change.
Student panel 11:10 – 11:50
Student Voices: Learning, Growing, and Thriving in the AI Era
by Mr. Hongye TAN (Ted) (FST undergraduate, 4th year), Ms. Xinzhu LIU (Flora) (FSS undergraduate) and Ms. Haoruyi JI (Isabelle) (FED postgraduate)
The student panel will offer their authentic perspectives on learning in the AI era and the skills future graduates will need to thrive.
Technology session 11:50-12:20
Re-Blending Learning: Tools and Techniques for Focused Engagement
by Dr. Chris Fulton (CTLE)
In an age of digital distraction, this session outlines ways to re-blend learning with a human-first approach. First, Chris Fulton will introduce teaching techniques that can help focus learners at the start of a class. Next, three tools that help instructors create engaging, focused experiences will be introduced: Yuja’s in-video quizzes, Yuja’s in-video comments/social annotations, and Copilot – for designing more relevant active learning activities.

About Keynote speaker:

Dr. Julia Chen (PhD, FTCL, PFHEA) is Director of the Educational Development Centre and courtesy Associate Professor of the Department of English and Communication at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University. Her research interests include leveraging technology for education, learning analytics for quality enhancement, and English Across the Curriculum. She (co-)leads large-scale multi-university projects on GenAI in education. Dr. Chen has won numerous awards, including recently the Outstanding Educator Award from EDUtech Asia, the QS Reimagine Education Awards Breakthrough Technology Innovation in Education Silver Prize, the Hong Kong UGC Teaching Award, and twice her university’s President Award for Excellent Performance in teaching and service respectively. Dr. Chen has been invited to give keynotes and talks in over ten countries and regions. She is Chair of the Hong Kong Teaching Excellence Alliance initiated by the HK University Grants Committee, a Principal Fellow of Advance HE, and was awarded the lifetime designation of Distinguished Fellow by the Association for Writing Across the Curriculum.
