CUHK
News Centre

The Centre for Learning Enhancement and Research (CLEAR) of The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) and the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia – Hong Kong Branch (HERDSA HK) co-organized the Inter-University Seminar on the ‘Internationalisation of Higher Education with Massive Open Online Courses’ at CUHK recently. It attracted around 100 staff from various tertiary institutions in Hong Kong to attend the seminar and share their experience in introducing Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). 

In recent years, more universities have introduced MOOCs. Full courses in nearly all imaginable disciplines have been developed. This has led to important changes in the prospects of higher education worldwide. MOOCs, which are now freely available on platforms such as Coursera and edX, make education available to all without the usual restrictions of locations, time, cultural and socio-economic background. Several universities in Hong Kong are conscious of this new development and have either already begun or are about to begin a range of initiatives which will harness the potential in this trend to enhance the teaching and learning initiatives in Hong Kong. 

Prof. Poon Wai-yin, Isabella, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of CUHK, and Dr. Anna Kwan, Chair of the HERDSA HK, delivered the opening speeches and welcoming address respectively. In the main seminar session, speakers from five universities in Hong Kong described their visions and teaching experience. These included (in the order of the talks) Prof. Ricky Kwok, Associate Vice-President (Teaching and Learning) and Professor in the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department, the University of Hong Kong (HKU); Prof. Eric Tsui, Professor of the Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) and Associate Director (Business Development) at the Knowledge Management and Innovation Research Centre and Chairman of PolyU MOOC Steering Committee; Prof. Irwin King, Associate Dean (Education) of the Faculty of Engineering and Professor of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, CUHK; Dr. Crusher Wong, Senior Education Development Officer of the Office of the Chief Information Officer, the City University of Hong Kong (CityU); and Prof. Pong Ting-chuen, Senior Advisor to the Executive Vice-President & Provost, Director of the Center for Engineering Education Innovation and Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST). 

Prof. Ricky Kwok told of how HKU introduced MOOCs to provide a more internationalized learning experience for students. Prof. Eric Tsui comprehensively introduced the course design, promotion strategies, methods for collecting student feedback and the sustainability of MOOCs at PolyU. Prof. Irwin King reviewed the current advantages and limitations of MOOCs and introduced the Knowledge and Education Exchange Platform (KEEP), a one-step platform for sharing resources, to resolve those limitations. Dr. Crusher Wong then compared the features of different MOOC platforms and raised a number of pragmatic questions regarding the implementation of MOOCs in a university. Lastly, Prof. T. C. Pong described the successful implementation of MOOCs at the HKUST, and then demonstrated how MOOC providers can achieve a better understanding of their students by implementing big data. 

The participants considered the seminar to be informative. They had the opportunity to find out about the visions, approaches, and experience of five different universities. The seminar also helped all participants to develop a deeper understanding of this new teaching area.