Bulletin No. 1, 2014

Making Knowledge Readily Accessible to the World  27  S elected CUHK courses are uploaded to the Internet and made available to everyone for free through Coursera, a leading MOOCs platform starting from September 2013. Prof. Hau Kit-tai , Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Choh-Ming Li Professor of Educational Psychology, pointed out that CUHK has offered free educational programmes to online learners since 2010 by joining iTunes U. These programmes are well received by the general public. MOOCs, to a certain extent, lead to the further release of academic resources and healthy competition among universities. In addition, it also has an impact on traditional classroom teaching. With this convenient platform, teachers upload introductory material online for students to study beforehand. They can use time previously reserved for lectures to solve students’ problems; they can tutor through in-depth discussion. He said, ‘This is known as the “flipped classroom” which has been proven to be more efficient.’ The Centre of Learning Enhancement And Research (CLEAR) is responsible for coordinating matters regarding Coursera and supporting University members to design and compile the courses. Prof. Poon Wai-yin , Associate Vice- President and director of CLEAR, said, ‘One of the University’s missions is to apply and disseminate knowledge to the wider world community, which is in line with Coursera’s mission. So the partnership was a natural development. It’s also another way of serving the community and transferring knowledge.’ Professor Poon said, ‘MOOCs have quite a lot of science and engineering courses, whereas we selected five courses belonging to the humanities, economics, education and engineering. The courses on “Classics of Chinese Humanities” and “The Beauty of Kunqu Opera” underscore CUHK’s characteristics in Chinese studies while other research strengths are also included. Launched in September 2013, the first course—“The Role of the Renminbi in the International Monetary System” was completed. Starting from January 2014, “Information Theory” is posted online. The two courses have attracted over 17,000 students each. Other courses will be offered in the near future.’ Free CUHK Courses for World Citizens Prof. Hau Kit-tai Prof. Poon Wai-yin