Abstract

Teaching theoretical work involving significant amount of mathematical derivations, as well as hand-on experience of data processing, is challenging in online mode. One important aspect is how to engage and interact with students, because it is difficult for students to follow the entire logic behind the math without face-to-face interactions and analogy examples that are usually very helpful in classroom teaching. Based on a small number of trials, asynchronous-mode lectures do not engage students as anticipated. Complementing lecture-type online teaching, here I propose to implement online tutorials via Zoom, in which students are engaged in hands-on experience of data processing on students’ own computer. The tutorials can be conducted within Zoom via the “Breakout Rooms” function, in which students with different progress can be grouped into different “rooms”. Inside each “room”, one experienced student helper with necessary technical skills can offer hands-on help. Such approach will engage students in small groups, where the hands-on help can be tailored according to students’ background and experience. This is expected to be better than regular tutorials and thus greatly enhance the overall learning experience and outcomes.

Brief write-up

Project objectives

The objectives are to enhance the learning experience through better engaging students and encouraging student participation in class by conducting online tutorials, which can help engage students and offer them experience as good as in the classroom.

Activities, process and outcomes

In total four online tutorials have been conducted during the teaching semester from February to May 2020. As planned and supported by this Special Funding for Online Learning, a few postgraduate students have been recruited as student helpers. For each tutorial, student helpers prepared in advance and went over the tutorial materials to ensure that it was easy to digest from students’ view. Before the tutorial, student helpers organized additional sessions to offer technical help for students to build the packages. During the tutorial, they assisted the instructor to offer hands on skills.

The students have significantly improved their subject knowledge by gaining hands-on experience. They also learned how to build a computer code from scratch, which will benefit them for future career.

Deliverables and evaluation

Online tutorials were listed at the Principal Supervisor’s webpage,
http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/sci/essc/yang/teaching/course/ESSC_4140/ESSC_4140.html. Based on the survey conducted after the tutorials, most students were very satisfied with the implementation of online tutorials complementing lectures.

Dissemination, diffusion, impact and sharing of good practices

In the past, we opened the course registration for postgraduate students in other local universities, where relevant courses were not available. However, the participation rate was very low, partly because of logistical challenges such as transportations. Such online teaching makes a course available across institutions easily. We are hopeful that our online teaching materials will be beneficial for other local and nonlocal students, which will in turn enhance the reputation of CUHK.

Impact on teaching and learning

Although online teaching was a big challenge for both instructors and students, it offers certain unique advantages as well. Such online tutorials offer hands-on experience for students to learn with a flexible schedule and can be used to combine with classroom teaching.