Bulletin Winter 1978

of Student-Orientated Teaching" and “The Place of General Education in The Chinese University." Further workshops and visits from overseas specialists have followed. The Committee's policy has been to hold a limited number of instructional sessions of general interest and to place particular emphasis on coopera- tive ventures in conjunction with Departments and Faculties. Examples of the former are the series of seminars on Methodology The Lecture and Small Group Teaching and on Audio-Visual Aids held in September, 1978. Two typical cooperative ventures were the workshop consultation with Professor Colin Eaborn and the Registrar and others on The Government Green Paper (on Senior Secondary and Post- Secondary Education, January, 1978) and the Seminar led by Professor J. J. Sparks on Setting up Laboratories for Undergraduate Courses in the Physical Sciences (May, 1978). Instructional Development activities are by no means confined to running seminars and workshops, however (Figure 1). The setting up of the present Audio Visual Services (UIMS) began with discussions, surveys and,eventually, Triennium Planning documents from the Committee on Instructional Development in response to teachers' problems and requests for improved facilities. A first move towards the implementation of these services, on a very small scale, began with the appointment of Dr. R. F. Turner- Smith as Instructional Development Officer in 1977/ 78 when he commenced the compilation of film catalogues and other arrangements for an ordering and delivery service for films from lending libraries in Kowloon and Hong Kong. The service has been operating since September 1978 and is to be handed over to the UIMS as soon as manpower becomes available. One way to encourage staff to step out and try new teaching methods, to develop new teaching materials or to approach old courses from a fresh perspective is to provide small grants of ‘seed money' to teachers who have a project that is well conceived but cannot be covered by normal departmental funds. The Committee has a programme of Minigrants for this purpose, and in two years of operation has awarded 10 grants of between $450 and $2,000 for projects ranging from the preparation of tape-slide programmes to the development of a course involving undergraduate research as part of one Department's programme in Student-Orientated Teaching. The results have more than justified the investment in the programme. There is a world-wide and growing interest in making university teaching and learning more professio Understandably, therefore, a particular function of the Committee is to stay in touch with developments in other parts of the world and to act as a channel for the exchange of information and resources, both at institutional and departmental level. As a corollary, the Committee is anxious to encourage research into both teaching and learning at the university level. University Instructional Media Services The University is fortunate in the well-trained and efficient staff recently appointed to the UIMS The Audio-Visual Officer, Mr. Pow Pui-lam, and the Audio-Visual Technician, Mr. Heung Sai-ho, took up their duties during the summer of 1978. They immediately assumed the task of systematising the provision of AV Services and installing new equipment, the purchase of which had been arranged by the Committee on Instructional Development earlier in the year. Mr. Russell Towns, Director of the Audio- Visual Aids Unit of the University of Surrey, visited the University last summer to advise on the setting up of this Service. The key concept at the initial stage has been to equip four Audio-Visual Rooms at various points on the campus with most of the equipment that might be required under normal circumstances. Thus by booking one of these rooms the teacher can have at his or her disposal virtually any kind of projector, a cassette recorder, television and video recording facilities and so on. If an Audio-Visual Room is not available, most types of equipment can be booked out of a central store when necessary. (Figure 2). Audio Visual equipment is of no use without software—the programmes, and materials for the communication of which the machines exist. The University is building up a useful collection of films and other AV materials, but also the UIMS is working to provide services for the production of materials specifically designed by the teachers' for their own courses. The present staff have already begun to do a certain amount in this direction, for example with photography, copying of video tapes, off-air recording and overhead transparency-making. These are already in heavy demand, and manpower is insufficient at the moment to provide further services. It is in this area that developments are being planned for the immediate future. 24