On 20 Mar, CTLE organized a hands-on workshop on creating instructional videos. The workshop, led by Mr. Fernando Wong, provided UM colleagues with an opportunity to explore various styles of instructional videos and receive guidance on the fundamentals of filming. In this 3-hours workshop, participants learned about crucial aspects such as lighting, sound, script drafting, and utilizing teleprompters for delivering their lines effectively.

Moreover, the workshop introduced Camtasia, an all-in-one software for screen recording and editing. This powerful tool has been installed on all computers in CTLE studios, and colleagues are encouraged to take advantage of it for their future video projects.

To further support faculty members in creating instructional videos, CTLE has developed an instructor’s guide. If faculty members want to learn more about making instructional videos, please contact CTLE.

In March, CTLE had the pleasure of inviting Prof. Robert K. Kamei from Duke-NUS Medical School, National University of Singapore to give a professional development workshop as well as a student lecture.

The first event, ‘Applying the Science of Learning for Educators’ was held on13 March and attracted about 40 academic staff. Prof. Kamei shared his insights on applying the science of learning to become a strategic teacher. Citing various research findings, he emphasized that, contrary to common assumptions, learning does not come naturally to individuals and that the most effective learning strategies are often unintuitive. He also advocated a holistic perspective that considers individual goals, motivation and mindsets, not just isolated techniques.

In the workshop, Prof. Kamei stressed that effective learning is often not easily recognizable and suggested that teachers would need to prepare their students to learn from their lectures and that teachers should help students learn from recalling but not recognition.  (Watch Video)

The second event, held on 14 March, was a lecture for students and attracted about 70 UM students. Prof. Kamei provided students with holistic insights into strategic learning.

He engaged with students with various memory activities such as ‘Animal Farm’ (a series of animal photos), two-second advantage and a gorilla video challenge. Prof. Kamei explained that every learner is different and needs a personalized approach to learn effectively. He explored the science of metacognition and self-regulation, emphasized the importance of lifestyle factors like health, well-being and sleep, and offered specific evidence-based strategies that students could directly apply, such as chunking, mnemonics and encoding specificity.

 (Watch Video)

On March 6, CTLE held a professional development event, “Engaging students with instructional videos: Blended Learning @UM”. About 40 UM academic staff attended the event.

In the opening session, Prof. Katrine Wong, director of CTLE, provided an overview of blended learning principles and practices. She discussed how instructional videos can be deployed strategically to enhance flexibility, comprehension and engagement in the blended learning model. (Download Slides) (Watch Video)

Mr. Fernando Wong from CTLE then gave attendees a demonstration on creating basic instructional videos using software such as Camtasia and introduced other useful tools. He highlighted tips for effective presentation, scripting content and editing video files. (Watch Video)

Dr. Chris Fulton, an E-Learning Technology Officer at CTLE, introduced YuJa, UM’s secure video management platform for blended learning courses. Practical advice on how instructors can get started with Yuja was provided, for example, the steps to link a Yuja video channel to an individual Moodle courseso that students can access course videos. Dr. Fulton also highlighted advanced features of YuJa that streamline or enhance video production. These features include the auto-generation of captions and the provision of detailed analytics on viewing behavior. (Download Slides) (Watch Video)

In the faculty sharing session, Mr. Miguel Costa from FST shared how he designed self-paced introductory videos in his course to prepare over 1,000 students for class activities, and Prof. Henry Kwok from FHS discussed using bite-sized videos in his blended-mode teaching to supplement course lectures and reduce consultation time. (Watch Video)

CTLE has created an instructor’s guide to making instructional video and related practical blog posts focusing on blended learning. If faculty members wish to learn more about blended learning or receive guidance on implementing blended learning strategies in your courses, please contact us and we will walk you through the process.

On 27 Nov, 28 Nov and 4 Dec, Director of CTLE, Prof. Katrine Wong, accompanied by colleagues, Dr. Chris Fulton, Ms. Aileen Chu, Ms. Edith Mak and Mr. Fernando Wong, visited three universities in Hong Kong – University of Hong Kong, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. During the visit, they looked at the teaching and learning centres and their studios, learning commons and interactive classrooms of the different universities, and had fruitful discussions with persons-in-charge of these centres.

The visits aimed to enhance CTLE’s strategic planning and to allow opportunities for the Centre to explore potential collaborations with counterparts in Hong Kong  . The Director expressed her excitement at the opportunity to learn from these renowned institutions and to bring back valuable insights to further enhance teaching and learning at UM.

On 15 Dec, Mr. Fernando Wong also attended Learning & Teaching Expo 2023 in Hong Kong, where he listened to keynote speeches and explored exhibits focused on AI and other educational topics.

On 8 Dec 2023, at the invitation of Tsinghua University, Prof. Katrine Wong, Director of CTLE, spoke at 2023 Symposium on Teaching Development of University Faculty, held at Tsinghua University. This Symposium was jointly organized by Tsinghua University, Fudan University, East China Normal University, Xiamen University, Southwestern University of Finance and Economics, and Xidian University. In her keynote presentation, Katrine shared with leaders and administrators of T&L of higher education in China observations on AI in higher education as well as good practices of UM. Katrine was also a speaker in the international roundtable discussion, moderated by Wang Xiaoxiao, Director of Online Education Center, Tsinghua University. Other speakers at the roundtable included leaders of T&L at universities from Singapore and Hong Kong S.A.R.

During her visit in Beijing, Prof. Wong, accompanied by Ms. Aileen Chu of CTLE, attended a meeting with representatives from both Tsinghua University and XuetangX and explored further opportunities of T&L collaboration, including ‘Integrated Teaching and Training Project for Young Teachers in Central and Western Universities’, directed by the department of higher education, Ministiry of education of China, and the host of the said Symposium for next year.

On Oct 25, CTLE held a professional development workshop GenAI in education. This event explored the opportunities and issues in teaching, learning and assessment. The invited speaker, Prof. Mike Sharples from the Open University in the United Kingdom, drew a crowd of over 40 UM academic staff from various faculties.

Prof. Mike Sharples introduced the capabilities of modern language models like ChatGPT-4, PaLM2, Claude-2, which can generate lengthy texts in any style across multiple languages. However, he pointed out that these systems could at times produce false responses. He saw new roles for AI, such as a ‘possibility engine’ to brainstorm ideas and a ‘Socratic opponent’ to help develop arguments. Other roles include ‘personal tutor’, ‘co-designer’ and ‘dynamic assessor’.

Talking about assessment, Prof. Sharples observed that as GenAI could make traditional exams obsolete, real-world practices like project-based learning should be given more weight. He proposed assignment designs focusing on process over product. He also emphasized the need for clear policies around GenAI use and acknowledging sources to build trust.

The speaker also spoke about key challenges posed by GenAI, including privacy, bias, ethics, and potential risk of mis-information and mis-understanding. He concluded the presentation by advocating a collaborative approach between education practitioners: we need to work together to promote personal and social learning in the fast-growing web of powerful AI tools. Finally, he demonstrated working with different prompts on GenAI tools and exchanged further insights with the audience. (Download slides) (Watch Keynote video)

A series of teaching blog posts  have been published on CTLE website regarding the integrating AI technologies in teaching, learning and assessment. CTLE is at your service in this rapidly evolving digital era of teaching and learning.

On 11 October, CTLE held a professional development seminar which featured 5 UM students as panelists to explore their perspectives on learning with generative AI (GenAI). The event attracted over 40 UM academic staff from different faculties.

The panel discussion, moderated by Director of CTLE, Prof. Katrine Wong, was a continuation of CTLE’s half-day event which spotlighted the latest research and teaching practices on GenAI. Participants were delighted to hear from 3 undergraduate students – Mr. Paco Chao (FAH), Ms. Vilena Wong (FBA), Mr. Kevin Chao (FED) – and 2 postgraduate students – Ms. Faye Liu (FED) and Ms. Renee Hu (FSS).

Panelists shared their thoughts and concerns regarding learning with GenAI. They spoke on the following points:

1. How are you using GenAI tools?
2. Do you have any concerns regarding GenAI in general?
3. Do you have any concerns regarding GenAI in assessments?
4. What kind of support do you think you and your peers need with regards to learning with GenAI?

Students found GenAI a useful tool in various aspects of their academic and extra-curricular experiences, such as researching, writing assignments and even designing activities. Other uses of GenAI, as shared by the students, include summarizing and analyzing articles, as well as generating images and even memes for communication. Students found that GenAI can help them save time and help them understand complex ideas. Descriptions of GenAI tools varied: personal tutor, search engine, language learning tool, coding assistant.

On the second question about concerns regarding GenAI usage in general, students agreed that they could receive potentially biased, incomplete and incorrect information upon receiving responses from GenAI tools. Privacy issues, academic honesty, equity and accessibility, as well as ethical practices were among their main concerns. There was a need for education on how to use GenAI effectively in academic settings. Students also expressed that the way of learning and assessment might need to be changed. In addition, the student panelists were aware that an over-reliance on GenAI could lead to decreased levels of independence, creativity and critical thinking.

Students suggested that guidance and support be provided for them, specifically, AI literacy training. They then continued to discuss the importance of understanding the mechanism and limitations of GenAI. The panel discussion ended on a positive note: teachers are important because they provide students with genuine encouragement, human guidance and emotional support, which contribute greatly towards positive learning experiences.

Participants exchanged views with the student panelists whilst leaving questions via an audience response system. Discussion continued after the event finished.

A series of teaching blog posts have been published on CTLE website regarding the integrating AI technologies in teaching, learning and assessment. CTLE is at your service in this rapidly evolving digital era of teaching and learning.

The CTLE Online TA Training 2023 attracted over 600 postgraduate students and concluded with a well-received online salon on 27 Sep.

The organizers would like to commend the successful postgraduate students, who have learnt core skills needed for ancillary teaching activities.

The Online TA Training programme was delivered by Prof. Katrine Wong (DCTLE/FAH), Prof. Rose Lai (FBA), Prof. Garry Wong (FHS), Dr. Alice Lee (FAH-ELC), Dr. Chris Fulton (CTLE) and Ms. Miranda Ma (FAH-ELC), who made video materials and designed online assignments.

At the online salon held on 27Sept, the concluding event for this year’s TA Training, participants had another opportunity to engage with UM’s distinguished teachers. The panelists were delighted by the interaction and discussion generated by the TA Salon. Experienced teaching assistants including Mr. Lone Lui (FLL), Ms. Xinyu Kong(FAH), Ms. Winnie Chong  (FHS) contributed to the panel discussion.

To learn more about CTLE’s professional development opportunities and events, please visit our website at ctle.um.edu.mo.