Abstract
The Covid-19 pandemic has greatly restricted the possibility of large numbers of undergraduate students attending classes on the CUHK campus. However, this reality has also presented new opportunity to exploit hybrid teaching (HT) as a staple of the university’s pedagogy in the future context. Therefore, thinking ahead with regard to teaching and learning in the Arts, how can HT be expansively utilized so as to, for instance, enrich learner engagement, stimulate innovative instruction, and remodel how students’ core skill-sets are acquired and expanded?
Building upon the teaching and grant-conferred experiences of the PS* and Co-S, the proposed project will focus upon two outwardly contrasting Arts Faculty Departments, namely History and Music. Yet, in actuality, both Departments have curricula grounded in students undertaking various hands-on, in-class activities under the close supervision of their teachers. Of significance, since early-2020 the COVID pandemic has greatly undermined the implementation of such fundamental teaching and learning-guidance exercises and, so, the Departments’ capacity to uphold their outcomes-based approach (OBA) within undergraduate programs. Accordingly, to ensure ongoing COVID-pandemic related pedagogical challenges dissipate and, in conjunction, to fuel fresh, stimulating teaching and learning occurrences that will wholly support the OBA in the future, how may HT be taken advantage of in terms of the performance of learner engagement with topics introduced within Arts curricula, the students’ performance of assembling and augmenting core skills, and their performance of self-confidence?
*For example, the PS has an ongoing TDLEG to Enhance Student Engagement project, “Deepening Cognizance of Student Needs and Engagement with the Learning Process in the Arts: A Faculty-wide Enquiry”. The project is due to end in August 2021.
Brief write-up
Project objectives
The project was formed with the following pedagogical intentions: to enrich learner engagement and stimulate innovative instruction; to evaluate how students’ core skills sets are acquired and can be expanded in the hybrid Teaching and Learning (T&L) environment; and, to ensure COVID-pandemic related online pedagogical challenges dissipate so as to stimulate late T&L occurrences re performance of learner engagement, performance of assembling and building core skills, and learner performance of self-confidence.
Activities, process and outcomes
In undertaking the project numerous activities have been carried out. These include handing out questionnaires to students, interviewing students, interviewing teachers, designing a website (and so liaising with the Information Technology Services Centre (ITSC)), undertaking independent research, etc.
Deliverables and evaluation
The core deliverable of the project is a webpage built around 10 fundamentals as to how hybrid teaching (HT) can work best. These 10 key issues were identified in student and teacher questionnaires and interviews, and will be available to both students and teachers ahead of the 2022-23 academic year.
Dissemination, diffusion, impact and sharing of good practices
In June 2022 the Principal Supervisor and Co-Supervisor will give a talk arranged by the Arts Faculty. Also they have submitted an abstract so as to speak at the Community of Practice Symposium (to be held in June 2022). In addition, a short paper for a peer reviewed education journal is planned, it to be submitted in late-2022 ahead of publication in 2023.
Impact on teaching and learning
The project’s impact will occur via a number of conduits. Principally, talks within CUHK are used to share the project findings and the generic sharing of pedagogical knowledge among Arts Faculty staff. However, to reiterate, the PS and Co-S are each open to meeting with Faculty teachers to discuss pedagogical affairs, and in this way aid them should they wish, for instance, to create hybrid tools to aid the development of either core or advanced skills.
