Course Organization
Year and term
Students will register for the course in Y4T1, though they should pre-register in the preceding term (Y3T2) and carry out much of the work in the intervening summer.
Students enrolled in programmes that require more than four years (e.g. BEd, MBChB, BSc in Chinese Medicine) should normally follow the same schedule and register for the course in the fourth rather than the final (i.e., fifth or sixth) year. However, they may apply to take the course later than the fourth year. Students who for reasons such as exchange or internship need to take the course in a different year should apply to the College for approval.
Units and hours
The course will carry 3 units, all to be counted in Y4. There will be
- not more than 2 weeks of lectures (up to 3 hours each ) in Y3T2
- at least one and ideally two individualized consultation sessions for each team during the summer
- 6 to 8 weeks of tutorials (up to 3 hours each) in Y4T1
Class size
The lectures will be delivered to the whole cohort of ~75 students in one class. The cohort will be divided into three or four sections of ~20 students each, and each section will consist of 4 to 6 project teams of ~4 students each.
Formation of teams
Each team should normally consist of four members, who must contain at least one member from each of the following groups of faculties:
- Arts, BA, Education, Law, Social Science
- Engineering, Medicine, Science
Where possible, upper-year incoming exchange students expected to be in the College in T1 should be encouraged to join these teams as an additional member, provided they can arrive in the summer, or if they can participate via internet in a project that is of interest to them.
Project proposal
Each team must submit the project title and then the project proposal for approval before the end of Y3T2.
The following factors will be considered in vetting the projects for approval.
- The project should not require so much specialized subject knowledge that it would not be accessible to fruitful discussion in tutorials. Ideally, the project should make good use of the interdisciplinary expertise in the team, and a good report is one that is able to view an issue from multiple perspectives.
- The project should have an element of novelty (at least a novel perspective even if the issue itself is familiar).
- The subject chosen should encourage a rational and open-minded discussion, and the eventual report should demonstrate a fruitful process of academic enquiry that has fairly considered alternate points of view.
- Projects involving field research outside
- If data are to be collected from identifiable individuals or organizations, the usual ethics approval for social science research will apply.
Tutorial organization
In each tutorial session, one team will make a presentation on its project for one hour. (Thus each team member will have the opportunity to speak for 15 mins)
Suitable AV material (presentation slides or video) should be used to support the presentation, but the development of technically fancy material for its own sake is not necessary, and to the extent that it will not earn extra credit, not encouraged.
Another team may be designated as the discussant, to prompt and lead the discussion. There will then be a general discussion lasting up to two hours.
Written report
A group report is required, of approximately 5,000 to 7,500 words in English or 6,000 words to 10,000 words in Chinese. A reasonable amount of appendices may be attached, but anything beyond 10 pages should be included only in an electronic format.
The report should be a piece of academic writing (not merely thoughts, opinions and reflections) with its usual expectations as to objectivity, rigour, evidence, even format, and of course, originality and academic honesty. The report should present the findings, including data and evidence to supporting the findings, as well as evidence that alternate points of view have been fairly considered.
The goals of the report are (a) to demonstrate and record the research process; (b) to present the findings in a cogent manner, (c) to present data and evidence to support the findings, (d) to provide an occasion for training in writing, in a team, an extensive research paper at a high level.
The report must declare originality in the usual way, and be submitted via VeriGuide.
A unified format and style will be prescribed, so that the papers can be collated into a collection in the manner of the Proceedings of a conference, and placed in the College GE Archive. Students must release copyright to the College for this purpose.
Language
The vision of CW Chu College includes internationality, and the College expects to enrol more than the average percentage of students from outside Hong Kong. This capstone College course should have the function of integrating students from different backgrounds into working teams, mimicking the multinational environment that might be encountered in the future workplace or in postgraduate studies. With this in mind, the default language for the presentation and the report should be English. However, in cases where the project topic is principally of local relevance, and/or where the data and primary source material are available mainly in Chinese, the team may apply, at the time of project proposal, to make the presentation and write the report in Chinese. Approval will only be given if the language chosen (including the dialect in the case of Chinese) is accessible to all members of the team. It is expected that by the final year, even international students will have enough access to Chinese at least to take part in the tutorial discussion, even where the presentation is in Chinese.
Assessment
Project proposal 10%
Research progress [1, 4] 10%
Oral presentation [2] 20%
Tutorial participation [2, 3] 10%
Written report [4] 50%
Peer Assessment +10%
[1] This component is intended to assess the progress by stages, whereas the outcome of the research will be assessed through the oral presentation and written report.
[2] These components will be graded on an individual basis, whereas the other components will be graded principally on a group basis, although there may be minor individual adjustments if there are significant differences in the quality of the work of the different team members.
[3] This component refers to participation in the tutorial discussions in those sessions when the student in question is not in the group that is making the presentation. The assessment will not be based simply on the degree of participation, but on its quality and contribution.
[4] These components will be graded first on a team basis, and then adjusted individually on the basis of each student’s contribution.