THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

KNOWLEDGE TEAM

Minutes of a meeting of the Knowledge Team held on Friday, June 9, 2006 at 12:30 – 2:00 pm in the Conference Room, 4th Floor, Main Library.

Present: Dr Anthony W. Ferguson (Convenor)

Dr John Bacon-Shone

Dr Bruce Cheung

Professor Francis Chin

Dr Colin Day

Dr Bob Fox

Mrs Amanda Harizan

Professor Nancy Law

Professor John Malpas

Dr Elaine Martyn

Dr Nam Ng

Mr David Palmer

Mr Peter Sidorko

Dr R.S. Thilakaratne

Dr Frank Tong

Ms Antonia Yiu

Dr Y.C. Wan (Secretary)

Apologies: Dr David Johnston

Mr Anderson Kwan

Dr John Nicholls

Ms Tina Pang

Mr Benny Tai

Mr Jeremy Tay

Ms Lillian Wong

The Convenor extended his warm welcome to Professor Malpas, Dr Thilakaratne and Mrs Harizan for attending the meeting.

1.  Minutes

The minutes of the meeting, held on April 21, 2006, were confirmed without amendment (documents distributed).

2.  Matters arising from the last meeting

Matters arising from the last meeting have been included as agenda item 3 of this meeting.

3.  Learning Commons updates

(a)  Learning Commons – reports on UK and USA visits

Dr Fox noted that the ‘Learning Commons Visits UK and USA’ PowerPoint presentation had been jointly prepared by Professor Law and himself, based on their respective visits to Learning Commons environments in the States and the UK. A copy of the presentation would be uploaded to KT’s Learning Commons webpage (http://lib.hku.hk/kt/learning_commons.html) after the meeting. [Post-meeting notes: the file was uploaded on 12 June.]

Dr Fox began his presentation by first discussing why new learning environments are required, followed by observations and comments of Warwick University’s “Learning Grid” (http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/study/grid/) and University of Gloucestershire’s “Centre for Active Learning” (http://www.glos.ac.uk/ceal/index.cfm).

Professor Law shared with members details of the University of Washington’s “Catalyst” (http://catalyst.washington.edu/home.html), which provides web tools, learning spaces and knowledge services. She also referred to other examples of innovative learning spaces, namely Wallenberg Hall at Stanford University (http://wallenberg.stanford.edu/), the evolving MIT campus (http://mit.edu/evolving/index.html), Ray and Maria Stata Centre, MIT (http://www.csail.mit.edu/events/news/stata.html), and Lewis-Sigler Institute for Integrative Genomics, Princeton University (http://www.genomics.princeton.edu/topics/building.html).

Dr Fox concluded the presentation by suggesting the following issues should be considered by HKU with reference to its Learning Commons:

-  HKU needs to develop a clear vision for the ‘Learning Commons’ concept and how it will support learning, teaching and research

-  HKU needs to ensure the Learning Commons is well articulated with other key University initiatives and especially with the 4 Year Curriculum

-  Planning for the Learning Commons should articulate with the institution’s strategic vision for learning and teaching.

-  There should be broad stakeholder involvement and careful planning for the Learning Commons design.

-  Space management procedures should be reviewed to ensure effective reporting and decision making is in place.

-  Staff development should be initiated that focuses on learning and teaching in technology-rich environments.

-  A pilot small scale well equipped learning and teaching environment should be established that can act as a catalyst for wider change and as a test-bed for new pedagogic approaches in the year or so.

-  Links should be established between the concept of a Learning Commons and a Teaching Commons.

-  Learning Commons concept is different from an Information Commons concept.

Professor Law added that space is not neutral to pedagogy and that building environments should support teaching and learning, particularly group-based learning, in an innovative way. And in addition to space, services and support are also important.

Dr Bacon-Shone remarked that a flexible approach needs to be adopted in planning our Learning Commons to meet with changing strategic visions for learning and teaching. It is not possible to predict what would happen in 15 years and a flexible building could better cope with changes.

Professor Malpas noted that the University is working against time in planning the Centennial Campus and more details about space availability for the proposed Learning Commons have to be worked out in the near future. The suggestions made by Dr Fox and Professor Law, including articulating planning of the LC with HKU’s major initiatives and articulating the LC concept with the forthcoming curriculum reform, were well taken. And he asked KT to serve as the focal point in consulting with other parties and stakeholders before coming up with an understanding of HKU’s Learning Commons concept and how it might be best designed to meet the University’s flexible and changing learning and teaching needs in the future.

The Convenor enquired about the time frame for presenting a report on the Learning Commons. Professor Malpas remarked that a Centennial Campus masterplan concept has to be identified by end of this year. KT has to include in its report whether the 6,000-square metres LC would provide enough space to accommodate all the proposed functions and facilities as well as the draft vision of the LC concept.

(b)  Online survey progress report

The Convenor remarked that a questionnaire on what our LC should be like had been developed based on a summary of the interviews with staff and students. With this questionnaire an online LC survey started recently and received more than 120 replies. A document summarizing the feedback statistics collected so far was distributed at the meeting. The survey will be publicized again in the fall when the new semester begins.

During the summer he would seek the assistance of some members to come up with a draft vision and functional specifications of the LC. The draft will be shared with members by emails to seek comments. A preliminary report would be available by the fall and in this case, KT would not submit an interim report to the Centennial Campus Planning Committee now.

Professor Malpas noted that a report on 4-year curriculum reform was completed recently by the group chaired by Professor Amy Tsui. This report should be shared with KT members. [Post-meeting note: the “Transforming Student Learning” report was sent to KT members on 15 June 2006, together with the covering memo issued by the Steering Committee on 4-Year Undergraduate Curriculum.]

4.  Use of Turnitin at HKU: first year’s report

Ms Yiu provided an overview of the document 2006 Turnitin@HKU Survey: Report, which she sent to members before the meeting. She highlighted that during the first year of implementing Turnitin at HKU, there has been a significant increase in the number of active instructors, papers submissions and classes created in Turnitin, compared with the trial period. The percentage of red originality report (75-100% match) dropped notably and that of green originality report (0-24% match) increased substantially. Results of the survey (conducted during 2-19 May 2006) also indicate that the instructors are generally satisfied with the Turnitin software. The report further recommends that:

- Subscription to the Turnitin software should be renewed upon the expiry of the current subscription on 12 September 2006 in order to continue making the software available to users campus-wide.

- The Libraries should continue supporting the use of Turnitin at HKU.

- Annual evaluation of the Turnitin software should be continued.

- Given users’ acquaintance with Turnitin and resources devoted to training and support, HKU should stay with Turnitin unless users are not satisfied with the software or if another text comparison software package outperforms Turnitin significantly.

Dr Martyn noted that a software package similar to Turnitin, but with the capability of handling Chinese, is being developed at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Dr Bacon-Shone supported renewing the subscription to Turnitin since it is still the best that is available. Members supported the suggestion and the Turnitin subscription would be renewed for one year.

5.  iTunes university

Mr Palmer remarked that audio recordings of a number of HKU Libraries book talks had been converted into audio files in mp3 format and submitted to iTunes. These files are now filed under “University of Hong Kong” in the “Higher Education” sub-section of the “Education” section. These files can be downloaded to a PC and then to an iPod. This provides an effective channel to disseminate information among students and teachers, particularly at a time when normal lessons are suspended owing to an outbreak of bird flu.

Mrs Harizan provided to members an introduction to podcasting, which distributes free, radio-style programmes online as downloadable mp3 files and allows subscribers to listen to selected podcasts anytime anywhere. Her PowerPoint presentation “Podcasting” can be accessed from Knowledge Team’s “Podcasts” webpage (http://lib.hku.hk/kt/podcasts.html). Ms Yiu took the initiative to create this webpage to help promote the use of this popular communication medium.

Mrs Harizan also referred members to Vodcasting, which handles video contents, and that Apple Computer has accepted 24 US universities as iTunes Universities. She also distributed at the meeting two documents, namely Duke: iPod First Year Experience and Podcasting & Vodcasting: a White Paper.

6. A.O.B

The Secretary distributed to members a document entitled “Learning Platforms: Recent Correspondence between Ms Irene Chong, Secretary to the Senate Teaching Quality Committee and Dr Ferguson, Convenor of the Knowledge Team”.

7.  Date of the next meeting

The next meeting will be held in September 2006. The exact date is to be confirmed later.

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