Initiative 2
Explore New Inter-disciplinary, inter-cultural
collaborations
Cultivating students to have cross-disciplinary and global perspectives is an important goal for many universities. On university level, offices like “Student Affairs” and “International Office” are responsible for carrying out student exchange programmes to achieve such a goal. Currently, due to travel restrictions and safety concerns, virtual student exchange programmes are introduced to allow students to enroll courses offered by overseas partnering universities. It is observed that many individual teachers are taking advantage of VTL strategies and technologies to internationalise their courses or programmes. In this Initiative, we propose to:
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Analyse current internationalised course designs in the participating universities
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Collect good examples of course or programme internationalisation strategies
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Document and disseminate good practices through the Community of Practice meetings or professional development activities to help teachers design their internationalised courses or programmes and assist them in delivering the internationalised courses or programmes
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Facilitate virtual student exchange collaborations on course or programme levels
01
inter-cultural collaborative learning through Future Learn
The course EDUC1015 “Teaching and learning with ICT” adopts flipped classroom and inter-cultural collaborative learning through the platform of Future Learn. Video-based tutorials are developed to allow self-paced learning outside classroom. A cross-cultural group collaboration is designed and implemented involving students from Hong Kong and USA. This course helps improve both student learning and teaching practice. Students from both sides can benefit from the online discussion of course-related issues, and collaborating on group projects.
02
virtual exchange between Hong Kong and Turin
Nurturing students’ globalized perspectives is of utmost importance for tertiary education. However, global exchange and travel of students depend on financial and social conditions. In the prolonged global pandemic situation, international flights are periodically maintained and many exchange programs between institutions suspended. These have forced educators and practitioners to rethink how students can foster intercultural dialogue despite physical barriers. Dr. Bin Li, Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics and Translation at CityU, initiated a virtual exchange project which increases language and culture exchange between two international cities: Hong Kong and Turin.
03
Virtual Student Exchange (VSE) programme
The Covid-19 pandemic has profoundly affected physical exchange programmes. Many exchange programmes have been suspended and students are not able to travel abroad. Ms. Shally Fan, Director of the Academic Links and her team have launched the Virtual Student Exchange (VSE) programme within the Association of Pacific Rim Universities (APRU), a network of 60 universities around the world. The programme aims to provide an opportunity for students to embark on an international exchange without the need to travel.
04
The power
of Metaverse: Cultural Exchange + Engineering Design
Center for Engineering Education Innovation (E2I) of Hong Kong University of Sciences and Technology (HKUST), together with the Sungkyunkwan University Hub Center for Innovative Engineering Education (SKKU Hub Center), has been organising a one-week Intercultural Peer Learning Programme (IPLP) for selected engineering peer mentors since 2014. However, Prof. Ben Chan (the director of E2I) has dedicated to convert it into a virtual programme in the recent two years due to the travelling restriction of COVID-19 while maintaining a high standard of the student learning experience.
05
Data Visualization for Effective Communication
The course Data Visualization for Effective Communication is a postgraduate course offered by HKBU. It adopts flipped classrooms, asynchronous online discussion, and individual projects as the major teaching and learning strategies. The course aims to help students to organise and present data in an efficient way, to achieve effective communication and analytical purposes. In addition, the course also plans to enhance the international learning environment for students via the virtual exchange between HKBU students and students from the University of Perugia in Italy.
06
Media Studies in a Changing Society
The course GDCV 1027 Media Studies in a Changing Society employs Flipped Classrooms, asynchronous online discussion, e-service-learning and VR videos as teaching and learning strategies to enhance students' understanding of the theoretical relationships between storytelling techniques and their effects. Students needed to engage in a critical reflection of the impact of storytelling and to ponder how it shapes current practices in news-making and beyond. They gained practical knowledge on how to effectively apply storytelling techniques to media practices in real life. Students had opportunities to interact with overseas classmates from QUT Business School, Queensland University of Technology in Australia for idea exchange. Moreover, students were required to prepare teaching materials and give mini-lectures of digital storytelling techniques and medical literacy to local secondary school students.
07
Responsible Business – from East to West
To increase global exposure for students, Dr. Fred Ku, Senior Lecturer of the CUHK business school, has been constantly exploring new possibilities for internationalising the curriculum at home via international collaborations. To this end, information and communication technologies provide greater flexibility and opportunities to bring together experts from different places to co-design and co-teach the same course. Dr. Ku’s initiative “Responsible Business – from East to West”, consisting of five online case-based and discussion-based classes, collaborates with overseas partners from Taiwan, Japan, the United Kingdom and Poland.
08
Environmental Health and Toxicology
The course BIOL3016 Environmental Health and Toxicology employed the platform of Future Learn for inter-cultural and cross-discipline exchanges of students. Students needed to complete the learning and teaching activities in the Future Learn, such as watching videos, online quizzes and discussion forums. In addition, HKBU students needed to exchange ideas with students from the University of Macau and the Macau University of Science and Technology.
09
The Collaborative Hospitality Education Experience & Research (CHEER) Project
The Collaborative Hospitality Education Experience & Research (CHEER) project is an online collaboration course between CUHK and the Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration since 2016. Dr. Jenny Tian, senior lecturer from the School of Hotel and Tourism Management (SHTM) of CUHK, designed the CHEER project for the course HTMG3020 Hospitality Organizational Behavior. The project was later extended to include HTMG3010 Management of Lodging Facilities taught by Ms. Gentiana Cheung, also from SHTM.