UIC Beacon Issue XX

June 2016

Issue XX

UIC Beacon A monthly English newsletter for staff

Staff showcase e-learning innovations

In the decorated booths, staff members actively present their e-learning solutions to spectators and judges.

The Best Exhibit Award winners are presented with a certificate and a gift card.

It was a day for the technology enthusiasts as well as innovative educators and learners.

Exhibitors from various teaching and administrative units displayed their innovative e-learning applications at the UIC Gallery on the E-Learning Showcase Day on 25 May. Crowds of viewers gave a thumbs up to what they saw and heard: Virtual Reality headsets and devices, powerful video platforms, multifunctional e-books and other novel digital solutions.

“Our colleagues are growing in their capacity in applying technology to the administration of their courses and for the enhancement of the teaching and learning process,” said Prof Lilian Kwan, Associate Vice President and Chairman of the ELearning Sub-committee. She revealed UIC has implemented e-learning since the installation of the learning management system Moodle (iSpace) several years ago.

There were 20 exhibitors, including Contact Us:

newsletter@uic.edu.hk

Publisher: MPRO

business partners, showing their projects, and concurrently 12 talks were given. The Best Exhibit Awards went to four winners: Fung Ying Cham (LRC), Chunyan Ji (DSTCST), Dr Yi-Lung Kuo (DST-APSY) and Dr Sheena Van Der Mark (DHSS-TESL).

Deputy College Librarian Ms Cham and her team presented two library e-resources: MyET, an English learning software, and ProQuest Research Companion, which helps with effective scholarly research. Chunyan Ji’s group introduced their new IT course design that utilised the online resource system both in and out of classroom. Dr Kuo gave colleagues tips on how to engage students in learning with online systems and multimedia, such as Blackboard Learn and WeChat. Dr Sheena Van Der Mark shared how she integrated videos to create a blended learning classroom.

Other exhibitors included DST-ENVS, DHSS-CFLC, DHSS-SWSA, DBM, WPEO, ELC, FPECO and the DST-HKBU CSD Joint Research Centre for Active Media (0756)3620035

Language Consultation: ELC

Computing. Administrative units such as ITSC provided information on their support facilities for e-learning implementation.

UIC President Prof Ng Ching-Fai addressed the people present at the showcase day and said: “Unlike some of our colleagues who have silver threads, including myself, and are digital migrants at best, our students are digital natives. They are born with e-skill sets. Thus it seems very natural to try to design online teaching and learning activities to engage students in their learning.”

He believed this sharing of good practices was essential to encourage the “learning from one another” culture at the college.

“ITSC has witnessed the college’s elearning progress,” Chief of ITSC Dr Ricky Hou spoke. “With e-learning becoming more and more popular among staff and students, ITSC will cooperate with other units and business partners to further the application of e-learning.”

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Chief Editor: Hi Hing CHAI

Executive Editor: Deen HE

Designer: Jack XIAO

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College Life

Teaching and Learning

On-the-job Trainings

The Institute of Quality Assurance and Education Innovation Research has organised a series of Teaching and Learning Workshops. This semester, Prof Lilian Kwan (Associate Vice President) and Dr KP Mark (Associate Director of ITSC) talked of “Flipped Classroom Pedagogy and Implementation” to teaching staff from the three divisions. In April, two guest lectures were offered. Prof TingChuen Pong (Senior Advisor to Executive Vice-President and Provost, HKUST) shared his experience on offering open online courses. Dr Eva Wong (Director of Centre for Holistic Teaching and Learning, HKBU) ensured the audience to understand OBTL and CRA, giving examples and details of how to adopt these practices.

Staff members from various units received a two-month training in Photoshop during tailored workshops with a focus on graphic design, given

by Jack Xiao (Communication Officer of MPRO).

Serving and Developing Dr Shi Lei (Associate Professor of DBM and Coordinator of PEC) is leading his team to map out Zhuhai's sports development while on sabbatical leave. They are focusing on areas such as sports undertakings, the sports industry, seaside leisure sports and activities, and football industry reform. The Zhuhai Culture, Sports and Tourism Bureau expects their research will come to fruition in July and serve as a plan for local sports development in the next 10 to 20 years.

Cantonese newbies took the opportunity to advance their language level at the Cantonese Language and Culture Intermediate Class this semester, instructed by native speaker and Zhuhai born and bred KK Wan (TA of DHSS).

Another colleague taking the advantage of sabbatical leave as a faculty development initiative, Dr Nazrul Islam (Associate Professor of General Education Office), is working as Visiting Associate Professor in the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia. On 12 April he gave a lecture at UBC on “Branding Asia: Chinese and Indian Medicine Today”, examining the scenarios in China and India through an ethnographic investigation.

FO and RO staff members took part in a professional employee training camp, which aimed to enhance their professional competences, values, spirit and attitude.

Welcome, newcomers! (April to June)

Ms ZHANG, Lancy Lanxin Communication Assistant (MPRO)

Ms CAO, Chi Senior Administrative Assistant (AR)

Ms ZHANG, Carmen Jiawen Administrative Assistant (AR)

Mr SU, Lingcheng Research Assistant (DST)

Ms XIAO, Morgan Wenjing Junior Counselor (SAO)

Ms NG, Kennis Assistant Academic Registrar (AR)

Mr YANG, Louis Haohan Administrative Officer (DBM)

Ms WANG, Yuki Yue Teaching Assistant (DST)

Ms ZHUANG, Ruoting Junior Residence Assistant (SAO)

College Life

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Guiding Stars A team of four DBM students won the second place at the 2016 HSBC Mainland China Business Case Competition South China Section in April, with coach Dean Prof Stella Cho and advisers Dr Minyu Wu, Dr Uchenna Eze, Mr Joseph Liang and Dr Darren Weng. The team later represented South China in the larger Asia Pacific contest held in Hong Kong between 31 May and 4 June.

Sports People The Sixth Staff Badminton Competition, organised by PEC, HRO and the College Life Committee between 26 and 27 April, welcomed participants from all departments and administrative units.

The eco-system of external teacher training Learning from other teachers is good to understand their styles and the ways they engage their students. The Academy of Continuing Education (ACE) offers teacher training programmes and for 2016 they have been cooperating with International House London to provide a certificate Cambridge in English Language Teaching - Secondary (CELTS) programme.

The CELT-S course helps teachers to create strategies for the key challenges of teaching English as a foreign language in a secondary school context. Teachers build on their teaching knowledge and skills, through a combination of online study and observed teaching practice with an approved trainer.

External Teaching

Internal Teaching at UIC Associate Professor and Director of ELC, Dr Viola Wong, expressed her opinion on external teacher training. She said, “It is great that teachers are being given the opportunity to get in touch with other professionals and institutes as this is good for self-development and reflection while acquiring formal training.”

The staff football team finished in third place at the UIC Football Championship Tournament on 21 May after a remarkable comeback, scoring a record 12:3 in a match against a student team.

Travelling Around

Staff took a one-day trip to Dongguan City on 23 April.

Another group of staff visited Doumen, Zhuhai, on 22 May.

She explained further: “Each institute has its own culture, own practices, perspectives and approaches for dealing with education and the well-being of their students. However, I believe we all share similar goals. All teachers have responsibilities to improve themselves and gain new ideas. We follow the same old value system, but we can look at it in a different light. ” She finished by saying that “Self-funding courses like the CELT-S teaching training programme is a win-win situation as it provides a good community service by training local teachers while at the same time training our own teachers new techniques.”

Academic Highlights

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Publication Name: Yayuan Tang, Weixi Cai & Prof Baojun Xu (FST) Publication: From rice bag to table: Fate of phenolic chemical compositions and antioxidant activities in waxy and non-waxy black rice during home cooking. Food Chemistry, 191, 81–90.

January 2016.

This study analyses degradation rate of functional substances, such as total phenolic content, total flavonoid content and antioxidant activities, in cooked waxy and non-waxy black rice through different home cooking manners. Results show that greater phenolic and antioxidant capacities are detected in non-waxy rice rather than waxy one. To maintain bioavailability of active components, black rice porridge may have more healthpromoting effects.

Name: Jiaqiang Luo, Weixi Cai, Tong Wu & Prof Baojun Xu Publication: Phytochemical distribution in hull and cotyledon of adzuki bean (Vigna angularis L.) and mung bean (Vigna radiate L.), and their contribution to antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-diabetic activities. Food Chemistry.

201, 350-360. June 2016.

Name: Prof Christian Aspalter (SWSA) & Kenny Teguh Pribadi (Eds.) Publication: Development and Social Policy: The Win-Win Strategies of Developmental Social Policy. Routledge. 2016.

Prof Aspalter worked with a former colleague at UIC on this book. It provides win-win strategies for social policies on the ground, as developed and put forward by the normative theoretical paradigm of Developmental Social Policy (DSP). The book discusses in detail the key win-win strategies that form the basis and core of the DSP paradigm.

It also examines key related issues such as the performance of provident fund systems, the performance of conditional cash transfer systems, universalism and extension in social security provision in the context of especially developing countries, and "non-economically targeted" social welfare benefits and services.

Conference The 2016 Annual International Conference of the Chinese American Educational Research and Development Association was held in Washington DC, USA in April. Prof Mildred Yang (Director of GEO), Dr Yi-Lung Kuo (Assistant Prof of APSY), Dr Kai Pan Mark (Associate Director of ITSC), Chunyan Ji (Senior Lecturer of CST), Dr Mark Perry (Assistant Prof of GEO), Dr Edith Yan (PD of TESL) and Lily Liu (TA of TESL) attended this conference.

Papers they presented were “Survey of Factors

Associated with Amounts of Target Language Use (author: Dr Edith Yan),” “A Change in College Education in China (authors: Prof Mildred Yang, Chunyan Ji, Prof Lilian Kwan, Dr KP Mark, Dr Haipeng Guo, Dr Mark Perry),” and “The Impact of Teacher's Work Motivation Orientations on Creative Teaching Behaviours (author: Dr Yi-Lung Kuo).”

As the Vice President and Co-Chair of the conference, Dr Yi-Lung Kuo has been nominated as the President for the years 2016-2018.

(From left) Dr Yi-Lung Kuo, Dr Mark Perry, Dr KP Mark, Prof Mildred Yang and their students.

Name: Prof Chih-Yung Aaron Chiu (Interim Dean of DCC) Publication: Double Crossover: The Historical Development and Aesthetic Signification of Taiwan Digital Performance Arts (双 重跨越：台湾数位 表演艺术的历史脉 络与美学表征).

Modern Art《现代美 术》, 179. Taipei Fine Arts Museum.

December 2015.

Name: Dr Andy Shui-lung Fung (Assoc Prof with CLCC, Assoc Dir with RICC, Hon Advr with WPE-Arts Centre) & Ms Michelle Wenqian Wang (TA of CLCC) Publication: Retrospective and Prospective: Development of Teaching Materials for Writing for Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language (TCFL) in the Last Two Decades.

Quarterly Journal of Chinese Studies, 4(1), 46-50. January 2016.

More provincial funding for university projects UIC has renewed the funding of the University Innovation and Enhancement Project with a grant of 750,000 yuan for 2016, approved by the Department of Education of Guangdong Province. The amount of funding has increased by 23.4% compared with last year.

Academic Registrar Prof Zhang Genfa reveals that this budget will be used to support the development of the college's Big Data Innovation Centre, key disciplines, and provincial-level teaching and learning projects.

The University Innovation and Enhancement Project aims to boost innovative education research and reform, develop featured universities and establish high-level faculties in Guangdong. It can also help enhance the province's education quality and promote international exchange and cooperation.