Message from the Common Core Director (Nov 15, 2019)

Dear Common Core Students,

As you are all aware, on-campus classes have been cancelled for the rest of the semester and various forms of online connections will be used instead.

Here is the message from the Senior Management Team:

In view of the uncertain and unsafe traffic conditions for travelling to HKU, we are suspending classes on the Main Campus for the rest of the semester and making teaching and learning accessible online. This will enable students to stay away from campus, and even leave Hong Kong should they wish, while at the same time completing their courses and assessments.

Individual instructors will upload to Moodle detailed arrangements for course delivery and assessment. Examinations will be moved online or replaced by alternative forms of assessment. Details will be circulated in the next few days.

 For help with travel arrangements out of Hong Kong, non-local students are advised to contact either the China Affairs Office or the International Affairs Office.

All of your teachers are now engaged with how best to transition to a different learning format at this juncture, including how best to handle assessments. Moodle will be the primary point of contact with your course, but keep an eye on the Common Core Facebook Page and your email as well.

I will have a meeting with Professor Holliday, VP and PVCT&L, and the Faculty Associate Deans for Teaching and Learning next week, so as I get further details I will pass those along to you. All of this information concerns important logistical questions for how we will wrap up the semester and assign marks.

Even more importantly, however, this is a time of high anxiety, stress, and unpredictability. Please find ways to take good care of yourselves and your friends and let any of us know if we can be of help.

And, as I said on the Facebook Page last Wednesday, keep learning. Keep a journal, draw, paint, code, calculate, dance, photograph, film, read, write, talk. These events will deeply mark your lives, so do all that you can to understand the multiple strands of histories, social formations, and meanings that are at work in the events we are all living through.

Thank you all for your contributions to learning at HKU, especially to the Common Core. I will be in touch again as I get more information.

Take good care–

All best,

Gray

Gray Kochhar-Lindgren, PhD
Professor and Director: The Common Core