Brief write-up
Project objectives
The proposed project is for funding the operational and developmental work for uReply during the project years (a set of campus-wide mobile-ready tools developed for active learning). The system has not only attracted growing popularity among teachers at CUHK but has also been used by teachers in other sister institutions. Extra features have been implemented during the COVID-19 pandemic to further support online teaching and learning as well as hybrid teaching and learning.
Activities, process and outcomes
During the project period, the system recorded accumulated pageviews of over 14 million as of 31 March 2022 (due to some technical issue of google analytics, the number of pageviews was not recorded between Dec 2019 to March 2020 and staring from March 2020, the records were recorded by Matomo. The growth of usage comparing the semester of 2020-21 and 2021-22 (until 31 March 2022) is significant. The pageviews recorded in the first and second term of the academic year 2021-22, compared with the same period in 2020-21, has increased for more than 67.5%. Other increases in usage by comparing the growth in the recent year are observed too. And for the newly added feature (uReply Attendance) in response to the pandemic, we can see that teachers continuous to use it after changing back to face-to-face class in the term 2021-22 and significant growth has been spotted.
Deliverables and evaluation
The project has set a number of deliverables in the proposal.
Operationally, resources are needed to sustain the service for healthy running of uReply in the campus as well as the support/ promotion needed to enable teachers to use the system for the best learning outcomes. Developmentally, work is needed to refine the functions and features of the system – mostly based on requests collected from users. The deliverables and outcome that have been achieved are shown below:
Operational:
Upgraded the system to meet updated security purposes
Keep running of healthy service
Teachers and students’ user guide has been updated for the new features
More than 4 workshops on zoom or hybrid mode have been held during year 2021
Consultation services has been conducted to assist individual teachers to use the tools
Three posters have been presented in the CUHK Teaching and Learning Innovation Expo
Developmental:
further refinements that enhance usability has been done
CUHK O365 SAML login implementation has been approved by the Information Technology Services Centre (ITSC) and tested in Dec 2021 and deployed in May 2022 without affecting the normal service period
Attendance report has been updated for teachers enabling them to combine the records for further use
Assessment has been upgraded supporting for large class
System OS and platform structure upgraded during the Christmas break of 2021
Dissemination, diffusion, impact and sharing of good practices
We have achieved the following dissemination and sharing of good practices actions in the period:
– Promotion and newsletter: at least 4 times a year announcing new features to CUHK teachers
– Workshops: uReply basic and uReply new features workshops run regularly
– Conferences: Presented posters in the Teaching and Learning Innovation Expo at CUHK
Impact on teaching and learning
We have conducted survey, meetings and interviews with teachers and students. Various features and improvement have been deployed to the system during the time. We will continue to receive comments and recommendations from users in the coming periods.
