Teaching Support Resources
This is a collection of teaching resources for Common Core teachers, collected from our community of teachers and advisors. As the conditions and circumstances of every course are different, not everything here may be applicable. So please take what is useful for you. Any suggestions for improvement and sharing with us your best practices will strengthen the collective quality of teaching and uplift the student’s experience of trans- and interdisciplinary learning.
Framework for higher education teaching and Learning
University Educational Aims (UEAs) and Institutional Learning Outcomes for Undergraduate Curricula
Pursuit of academic/professional excellence, critical intellectual inquiry and life-long learning
Tackling novel situations and ill-defined problems
Critical self-reflection, greater understanding of others, and upholding personal and professional ethics
Intercultural communication, and global citizenship
Communication and collaboration
Leadership and advocacy for the improvement of the human condition
The above is articulated within the context of an enabling curriculum structure and an outcome-based approach to student learning (OBASL).
Two fundamental concepts for guiding teaching and learning in Higher Education are Constructive Alignment and SOLO Taxonomy.
Course DESIGN
The template provides a foundational framework to ensure your course aligns with HKU’s outcomes-based approach to student learning (OBASL) and addresses important issues around academic integrity (for example, plagiarism).
Shared Common Core Syllabus Template Language
Teachers should also keep in mind how course learning outcomes feeds into the educational aims and institutional learning outcomes, and ensuring an constructive alignment between learning outcomes, teaching and learning activities, and assessments.
Communication-Intensive badged courses are courses that consist of a syllabus with components that explicitly develop communication-related knowledge, skills and attributes, an educational aim of the university and supports the building of student future readiness. Students that have completed CiC-badged courses will have the C-I course badge visible on their transcripts, also known as Academic Attainment Profile (AAP).
In line with the HKU’s T&L strategy, teachers should strongly consider CiC badging of their courses. For more information on C-I badging, visit the CiC website or contact Michelle Raquel.
Integrating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDG) into your course and teaching them to your students can empower them to become advocates of a more sustainable future and step up as global actors.
You can badge your course as a UN SDG course through the Student Information System (SIS) and by emailing the Common Core Office.
With the assistance of TELi, we can help teachers and tutors with the design and produce a short trailer video for your course. Course trailers are posted visibly on the Common Core website here and boosts your course enrolment numbers.
Contact us to arrange to create a trailer for your course.
Teaching Your Course
- Make explicit points of contact with different disciplines
- Build clear pathways—intellectual and social—between the Class, the University, the City, & the World
- What will be newly discovered in each class? How will the students claim this knowledge and transport it toward the next stage or into other contexts?
- Organise off-campus fieldwork, labs, studios, ethnographies, photo trips with drawing, photography, writing as forms of reflection
- Decide what classroom policies and uses of e-devices serve your students’ learning and support the best teaching atmosphere
- Increase the use of digital activity for learning in your class: games, clickers, Mentimeter, Wordles
- Work with students to help them create lively and effective presentations and styles of
communication.
Resources for Online Teaching
- Active Learning in Hybrid and Physically Distanced Classrooms by Vanderbilt University
- Hybrid-Flexible Course Design (2019) by B.J. Beatty
- Monash University’s Hybrid Teaching Models
- Great Teaching Toolkits by Cambridge Assessment International Education (applies to both online and hybrid teaching)
- Use of the Seven Principles of Effective Teaching to Design and Deliver an Interactive Hybrid Nursing Research Course
- The Jigsaw Classroom
- Effective Teaching Methods for Large Classes, by J.M. Carpenter
- Three Keys to Using Learning Groups, by L. Michaelsen
- What is TBL and Why Does it Work? by J. Sibley and S. Spiridonoff
- The Essential Elements of Team-Based Learning, by L. Michaelsen, M. Sweet and D. Parmalee
- Team Based Learning Academe Article, by L. Michaelsen and M. Sweet
- A Model for Teaching Large Classes: Facilitating a “Small Class Feel”, by Rosealie P. Lynch and Eric Pappas
HKU is moving away from teacher-centred lecture styles of teaching towards more interactive delivery methods. You may want to consider implementing Flipped Classroom in your courses.
Student-as-Partners is an important focus at HKU and a trend in higher education. Teacher can include students in the design of assessments and learning experiences as a way to increase engagement.
- CETL: Student-as-Partners seminar series
- CETL Seminar: Partnerships in Transdisciplinary Third Space (5 Nov 2021)
Presented by Dr. Giedre Kligyte, University of Technology Sydney - 15 case studies of partnership work generated from the 2020 Students as Partners Roundtable at Deakin University
- Guidelines on Use of Inclusive Language in Student Work
- Resources on Feminist Pedagogies
- Powerpoint Presentation on “The Need for Inclusive Collaboration across Cultures in Group Work”
- Meaningful Intercultural Interactions in University Classrooms: A Guidebook for Teachers, compiled by T. Zou and J. Yu
CCST9003 Everyday Computing and the Internet
CCST9068 Artificial Intelligence: Utopia or Dystopia?
Assessment and Feedback
- Give early and regular feedback
- Build-in simple and quick practices, assessed and otherwise, to keep students interacting (including after Reading Week)
- Creating and assessing group projects: clear expectations, assignments, feedback, timelines; individual and group aspects. Consider forming intercultural, interdisciplinary, intergender, interyear groups.
- Clarity of assignments and expectations (and change them up, year to year, which also helps avoid
plagiarism)
Sample Grade Descriptors for Essays
Sample Grade Descriptors for Presentations
Sample Grade Descriptors for Tutorial Participation
Sample Grade Descriptors for Reflective Writing
The sample rubrics should be revised and customised to the course tasks or assignments. Teachers should assist students in understanding the contents of the rubric. If you need assistance with rubrics, please contact the Communication-Intensive Course (CiC) project coordinator Michelle Raquel for further assistance.
Policy on Use of Generative Artificial Intelligence for Teaching and Learning
Under the HKU’s GenAI policy, teachers are encouraged to optimise student learning with GenAI including devising creative, engaging and innovative T&L activities; fostering analytical thinking; developing critical research skills; creating content tailored to individual needs and interests, etc. Teachers are encouraged to embrace GenAI in assessment, and to devise mechanisms for evaluate student attainment authentically and fairly. The aim is to ensure the responsible and effective use of GenAI tools, and to uphold the highest standard of academic integrity.
To address the challenges posed by GenAI on student work assessments, teachers are to clearly communicate expectations and provide guidance on proper declaration and citation of GenAI tools used in coursework tasks and assignments. Alternative assessment methods will be encouraged, prompting students to use GenAI tools in their submitted work. Examples include device-free examinations, oral examinations, live classwork such as demonstrations and presentations, and student peer assessments.
- Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs), by Center for Teaching, Vanderbilt University
- Daydreaming or Deep in Thought? Using Formative Assessment to Evaluate Student Participation, from Faculty Focus
- Wise Assessment Forum, Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning
Innovative assessment ideas:
Supporting Student Learning through Feedback and Assessment Series by e-Learning Pedagogical Support Unit: A series of videos highlighting how technology can be used to help facilitate the feedback process
COURSE APPROVAL AND administration
- Invitation Circular
- Course Proposal Template
- Word doc format
- PDF format
- [Proposals must be submitted online via the online submission system.]
- Access to Common Core Course Proposal Online Submission System
- Common Core Curriculum Committee Structure (March 21, 2024)
- Policy and Guidelines on Offering Common Core Courses (doc 299/819 re-amended)
- Programme Learning Outcomes for the Common Core Curriculum
- Examination Procedures for the Common Core Curriculum (document 300/819)
- Discontinuation of Common Core Courses with Low Enrollments (document 20/716)
Out-of-classroom learning experiences that contribute to the achievement of EAs (and not currently attached to an existing credit-bearing course) may qualify for one (1) or two (2) credits.
Credits can be accumulated one at a time, but students are only able to claim actual, transcriptable credits in blocks of three (to appear on the Academic Attainment Profile (AAP) or transcript), as no course should have a credit value of less than three credits under the University’s undergraduate curriculum structure.
The following information will be presented in the transcripts:
| Name of Activity / Experience | Period | Location | Credits |
Applications may be submitted by teachers or students.
For more information, check out the Recognition of Out-of-classroom Learning Experiences – Credit Award Scheme page.
Professional Development
TALIC faciliates various seminars and workshops to promote professional teaching development and to encourage scholarship of teaching and learning. Check out their schedule for upcoming seminars and workshops.
TALIC’s Community of Practice A rich repository of teaching-related materials, including an online publication Teaching and Learning Connections and a Wise Assessment forum, which contains guides and case studies on different assessment techniques.
The Professional Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (PCTLHE) course is organised by the TALIC. The programme provides the framework and evidence-based literature for developing into an effective teacher. The course is available for all teaching staff teaching in Common Core courses and more information can be found here.
TALIC’s Teaching in Practice Programme equips new academic and teaching staff with essential knowledge and practical skills in teaching in Higher Education. The workshops are facilitated by experienced staff from TLIC, in collaboration with Information Technology Services (ITS) and Centre for Applied English Studies (CAES).
For more information, click here.
Teachers, tutors, and teaching assistants of the Common Core may apply for Fellowship of Advance HE as official recognition of your teaching. Fellowship is regarded internationally in many places as a teaching qualification in the tertiary sector. Staff at HKU may apply through TALIC.
In partnership with Faculty members across HKU, the Common Core offers a range of different workshops to upskill our tutors and teaching assistants, given they represent one of the most important touchpoint with our students. These sessions aim to develop skills in lesson planning, facilitation and delivery, creating assessments, giving feedback, and design thinking and improvisation in teaching and learning.
Sharing Students' Works
Participate in the Common Core Student Learning Festival, an online and offline event that showcases the achievements of students throughout the entire academic year.
The event is held each year on the last week of teaching in Semester 2.
An online peer-reviewed multimedia journal and exhibit space for CC undergraduates, recent HKU graduates, and peer-collaborators external to HKU.
Run in conjunction with the Bachelor of Arts and Science (BASc) programme, the event showcases students’ interdisciplinary projects undertaken by students through the Common Core Transdisciplinary Undergraduate Research Initiative and the BASC programme to the broader university community. In addition to the project exhibitions, the event includes live presentations, discussion panels, and interactive sessions.
The event runs in Autumn/Fall each year.
Display your students’ artwork in the Main Building hallway or in the Common Core Lounge.
Plagiarism and Disciplinary Options
What is plagiarism? (A useful resources to share with students)
HKU Statutes Under the provisions of Statute XXXI 2(1)(g), 2(2) and 2(3), any complaint against a student in connection with examinations (which include sit-down, written examination as well as other forms of assessment, such as thesis examination) must be submitted to the Registrar within one month of the time when the matter of such complaint arose.
If, in the course of marking coursework or examinations, suspected cases of plagiarism are discovered, please report them to the CC Curriculum Office immediately.
Regulations Governing Students’ Academic Conduct Concerning Assessment
Policy on Student Plagiarism in Undergraduate and Taught Postgraduate Curricula
Diversity and Inclusivity
The University’s Policy on Equal Opportunity prohibits sexual, disability, racial and sexual orientation harassment, and discrimination on the grounds of sex, marital status, pregnancy, disability, family status, and race.
Other
All Common Core courses, teachers, and tutors are evaluated by students each semester. The evaluation is important for improving the students’ experience of a course and the effectiveness of teaching, as well as playing a key part in staff performance review for HR events such contract renewal, tenure, and promotion.
Results are treated confidentially and feedback by students are anonymous.
The SFTL is administered by the Teaching and Learning Evaluation and Measurement Unit (T&L EMU).
For more information, check out the following:
The NEXUS Online repository gathers a diverse range of resources that can assist teachers in guiding students through their trans-, cross-, and inter-disciplinary learning journeys. Learning resources range from videos, presentations, audio, photos, writings, surveys, and other items compiled and shared by Common Core teachers and students. These aim to provide teachers, instructors, mentors and TAs useful resources to support instructional design, and their teaching and learning goals.
Intellectual Property Rights Policy of HKU (for HKU Staff, Students and Visitors)
Intellectual Property Rights: To Protect Educational Materials
ITS’ HKU Statement of Ethics on Information Technology (IT) Use
Copyright in Teaching and Learning at HKU, HKU Libraries
The Copyright Classroom: A series of educational animation videos explaining how the Copyright Ordinance (Cap 528) applies to teaching and learning and beyond.
Questions or Need Assistance?
If you have any questions, suggestions, or concerns, do not hesitate to contact Dr Jack Tsao or Professor Julian Tanner.