KEEP engaged eLearning through the Community of Practice
13 Jan 2020, Mon
To change the educational culture and contribute to the growth of eLearning, last Friday, January 10, 2020, KEEP successfully hosted the Community of Practice 2020 and its annual collaborators’ meeting. The theme of this year was “eLearning Sustainability and Crisis Management”. Over 60 participants from the collaborating institutions engaged in this event, exchanged their thoughts about the trend of eLearning.
To begin, the Pro-vice Chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Professor Isabella Poon, and the Principal Investigator of KEEP, Professor Irwin King delivered opening remarks, indicating the importance of eLearning in the new decade.
The morning session concentrated on investigating eLearning in crisis management. First, the keynote speaker, Professor Julia Chen from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, shared some ongoing challenges of eLearning, such as evaluating the effectiveness of eLearning. Julia also shared the approaches for maintaining the quality of learning and teaching, given the recent social events occurring in Hong Kong.
Next, the panel of teachers sharing, titled School crisis Response: Expect the Unexpected, deepened the discussion topic - how eLearning can be used as an approach for overcoming crises. Through the discussion, the panelists from the collaborating institutes presented and shared the “expected” policies and actions at their institute for confronting the “unexpected” crises. Participants enquired different questions regarding eLearning in crisis management after the panel’s sharing by using KEEP Poll.
The afternoon session centered on sustaining the eLearning. Professor Katrine Wong from the University of Macau firstly presented her keynote presentation regarding designing and sustaining the “faculty learning community” (FLC). Besides sharing how FLCs incorporate campus life for advancing learning and teaching in her presentation, Katrine also introduced how to design and organize engaging and productive FLCs that cater to the needs of an institution.
Dr. Charles Kim from Bucknell University, following an interactive workshop about planning for sustained pedagogical innovations. During identifying the pains and gains related to implementing and sustaining innovative pedagogy, the participants could articulate concrete, actionable plans to sustain eLearning to their institutions. With an interactive setting, participants had positive feedback about the workshops.
“eLearning could not only continuously prosper university education in Hong Kong in the new decade but also become a shield for all of us in the event of a crisis."
- Irwin King, Principal Investigator of KEEP
As Professor King stated, KEEP ensures that eLearning will continuously act as a proactive role to advance university education in the future, not only in Hong Kong but around the world.
Lastly, KEEP would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge and thank the following individuals:
Prof. Isabella Poon, Pro-vice Chancellor / Vice President, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Co-investigator of KEEP
Prof. Irwin King, Principal Investigator of KEEP
Keynote speakers, Panelists, and Presenters (in alphabetical order):
Ms. Trudi Chan, The Education University of Hong Kong
Assoc. Prof. Julia Chen, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Dr. Charles Kim, Bucknell University
Dr. Ron Kwok, City University of Hong Kong
Dr. Theresa Kwong, The Hong Kong Baptist University
Prof. Paul Lam, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Dr. Leon Lei, The University of Hong Kong
Ms. Judy Lo, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Prof. Katrine Wong, The University of Macau