Below are the QESS projects of HSUHK approved for funding, with the information of hosting departments/institutions, key project personnel, grant approved, project periods, and the introduction.
More details of the projects, including their proposals and progress reports, are available on the official website of Quality Enhancement Support Scheme (QESS).
Incorporating Student-Centred Learning (SCL) in the Common Core Curriculum of HSUHK
This project aims to enhance the capacity of HSUHK academic staff in incorporating Student-Centered Learning (SCL) in their teaching, with the university-wide Common Core Curriculum (CCC) as the seedbed. The project addresses concerns about the passivity and low adaptability of local students as well as the constraints on the development of SCL, a pedagogy that promotes students’ autonomy, independence and interests in learning. This project will provide guidance and develop professional resources, trainings and exchange platforms for teaching staff, strengthening their proficiency to incorporate SCL in their curriculum design and to adopt student-centered pedagogical approaches and assessment methods, thus contributing to the enhancement of students’ learning experience in the CCC. Over the 3-year implementation period, SCL is expected to be embraced on a broader scale, leading to improved engagement, critical thinking, and overall educational experience for students at HSUHK.
Chu Hai College of Higher Education, and
HKU School of Professional and Continuing Education
Prof Wai-lun LO (Co-PI),
Mr Dennis WONG (Co-PI),
Dr Henry LAU (Co-PI),
Dr Daniel MO (Co-I),
Dr Trevor SIU (Co-I),
Dr Kaylee KONG (Co-I),
Mr Ken KAY (Co-I),
Mr KY LEUNG (Co-I), and
Dr Keith CHAN (Co-I)
Development of real-time cooperative VR multi-CAVE systems for collaborative and team learning
This project will enhance the current Virtual Reality (VR) Cave Automated Virtual Environment (CAVE) systems and develop real-time synchronised cooperative and distributive multi-CAVE systems and HMD systems to achieve collaborative, interactive and team learning. The popularisation of VR training depends on various factors, including the availability of teaching content, users’ acceptance and their attitude to technology-supported learning platform. The valuable contents developed in the HSUHK, HKU SPACE and CHCHE have been increasing. A knowledge-based sharing and learning VR platform aiming to share the VR content will be developed to facilitate instructors to share contents in the CAVEs and HMDs for efficient teaching and learning. To evaluate the user acceptance, attitude and learning effectiveness of the advanced VR CAVE technology, a comprehensive study with survey and analysis will be conducted to facilitate the further enhancement of the teaching and learning platform. The first-ever multi-CAVE systems, which facilitate the learning in supply chain, journalism and transportation will be the best practice in achieving teaching excellence and learning experience in the universities as well as the industry.
Department of English
Dr Amy KONG (Co-I),
Dr Heidi WONG (Co-I),
Dr Cathy LAM (Co-I),
Dr George HO (Co-I), and
Dr Kenneth AU (Co-I)
Interactive artificial intelligence assisted chatbot for self-improving oral English proficiency
This project aims to develop an interactive learning and self-improvement approach for our students to learn and practice English effectively by using a well-designed and chatbot-assisted learning environment. To achieve this aim, this project is to develop a chatbot-assisted interactive environment for our students to learn and practice English in a mobile App. The App has two main components: First, it allows students to learn and practice topic-specific oral English (e.g. IELTS) in a supervised way without constraints of time and location to improve our students’ speaking and communication skills in English with a richer topic-specific vocabulary bank and enhanced level of efficacy. In addition, to facilitate the environment building and for further development in this project, an open-source chatbot engine – S-Bot will be adopted. S-Bot is under an open-source license that allows topic-specific vocab and IELTS-specific techniques to be developed on top of the engine.
Towards Student Success – Developing Holistic Support for Students with Special Educational Needs
The project aims to enhance support for students with special educational needs (SEN) through developing a systematic support framework and holistic e-platform for identifying SEN students and their needs, establishing a process for self-declaration and requesting accommodations, providing individualised support plans for students to facilitate their adaptation to post-secondary learning and preparation for employment, and enhancing community awareness of diversity and inclusiveness for promotion of inclusive education at The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong (HSUHK). The comprehensive support network for SEN students at HSUHK will be forged through the collective intelligence and effort of counsellors, academic and teaching staff, Student Affairs Office, Registry and other departments.
School of Translation
Dr Christopher AU YEUNG (Co-I),
Mr CHAN Chau (Co-I),
Professor KAO Lang (Co-I), and
Dr Joe POON (Co-I)
Establishing the Centre for Asian Languages and Cultures (CALC) at HSUHK
The 21st century is the “Asian Century”, a region that is full of potentials and development opportunities. Utilising the momentum of the Belt and Road Initiatives (BRI) developed by the Chinese government, various projects and collaborations have been kick-started in many parts of Asia. However, the language barrier has often been a major obstacle that one would have to overcome when seeking new opportunities in an unfamiliar country. In Hong Kong, due to its historical, cultural and economic ties, the languages of Japan and Korea have always been some of the most popular Asian languages (other than Chinese) being learnt locally. This can be reflected by the fact that many universities in Hong Kong including The Hang Seng University of Hong Kong have offered modules in Japanese and Korean from elementary to intermediate level. However, the emphasis on the aforementioned meant that other Asian Languages are rarely offered at higher education institutions. The lack of qualified teachers and external examiners are some major challenges faced by local universities and quality assurance mechanism is often hard to carry out. With the increasing demand from students who wish to learn or experience other Asian languages and the needs to make students to be better equipped in catching the trend of the BRI, a proposal of setting up a “Centre for Asian Languages and Cultures (CALC)” (the Centre) has tabled.
Enhancing Students’ Employability through Internship under “the Belt and Road Initiative”
In line with this national Initiative, the HKSAR Government has been encouraging the education sector to strengthen interactions and promote partnership with institutions along the Belt and Road regions to the benefits of Hong Kong students and human capital development in the city.
Facing with the changing socio-economic landscape around the world, the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong (HSUHK) is committed to nurturing the undergraduates and postgraduates to be responsible global citizens and leaders through academic and co-curricular learning. Recognising that hands-on work experience, insights into industry knowledge and workplace culture acquired from internships are conducive in enhancing students’ employment readiness, the University has been upholding its commitment to connecting students with internship opportunities. In fact, internship and global learning exposure have become part of the focal elements in the University’s strategic plan for 2018-2023.
Motivation of our students to tap into internship opportunities in ASEAN and Europe is evident. There has been a surge of students participating in ASEAN and Europe internship scheme from two in 2016 to nineteen in 2018 (increased by 9 times!).
Capitalising the ample opportunities created under BRI, this proposal aims at enhancing students’ employability and career readiness through broadening their global perspectives with hands-on internship and project engagement, enlightening them with opportunities and development in various industries and regions, and effectively guiding them to self-reflect their learning and experiences to align with their academic learning.
Centre for Greater China Studies,
Department of Computing,
Department of English,
Institute for Youth Sustainability Leadership,
Department of Marketing,
Department of Mathematics and Statistics,
Student Affairs Office, and
Department of Social Science
Dr Chi-Kit CHAN (Co-I),
Dr Michael CHAN (Co-I),
Dr Holly CHUNG (Co-I),
Dr Eden CHOW (Co-I),
Dr Muk-yan WONG (Co-I),
Dr Karen YEUNG (Co-I),
Dr Willy YUE (Co-I),
Ms Catherine CHAN (Co-I),
Mr Stanley ZEL (Co-I),
Ms Rebecca CHAN (Co-I), and
Mr Charles CHAN (Co-I)
Integrating Service Learning into Classroom Learning
A land full of talented business brains, Hong Kong could certainly thrive even more with the businesses being operated by caring and compassionate hearts. Hang Seng Management College (HSMC) adopts the “Liberal + Professional” education model, and is also a signatory institution for the Principles for Responsible Management Education, a United-Nations-supported initiative. This funding proposal, with the purpose of introducing service-learning to HSMC, further complements our current curriculum so that our students, with the majority of them studying in business-related disciplines, can develop sustainable and inclusive values for business and society at large. To accomplish the mission, the pedagogy of service-learning (a combination of community service and academic learning) that allows students to gain a holistic educational experience and to develop into a responsible citizen is needed. To fully achieve service-learning’s “Learn to Serve, Serve to Learn” outcome, there is room for improvement regarding the current teaching mode consisting of mainly lectures and internships for our students.
Caritas Institute of Higher Education,
Centennial College,
Chu Hai College of Higher Education, and
Tung Wah College
Joint-Institution Network for Student Success (JINESS)
This project aims to develop a “one-stop shop” by way of a platform for both students of self-financing institutions and employers in offering solutions to searching career opportunities and recruiting talents respectively. JINESS will be the first of its kind in Hong Kong, establishing a tri-partite relationship among employers, students and self-financing institutions. This relationship will help to establish a professional branding of students for prospective employers and the community at large, to enhance students’ self-confidence and self-image through network building and innovative programmes, and to achieve synergy among self-financing institutions through inter-institutional events, such as career fair, HR forum, research, etc.
Dr Tommy CHEUNG (Co-I),
Dr Stephen NG (Co-I), and
Dr Ricky WONG (Co-I)
A Visual Platform for the Design, Implementation, and Analysis of Collaborative Business Simulation Games
Many studies showed that business simulation games can facilitate teaching and learning by bridging the gap between theoretical frameworks and real-life problems. Although the off-the-shelf business simulations are readily available, what is missing is the flexibility to design games and simulations around learning outcomes appropriate to specific teaching areas. In light of the diversity of courses in universities, it is important for academics to be able to tailor their own simulation games. The support of the Quality Enhancement Support Scheme allows for the development of our visual platform for collaborative business simulation games. It is the platform that allows academics to design, implement and share their business games.
Dr Daniel MO (Co-I)
The Development of Educational and Research Center with Automatic Virtual Reality Platform for 3D Interactive Learning and Big Data Analytics
The increased complexity in data and operation processes in global organisations has posted a growing demand for big data and process analysis in most of the industries, especially in logistics and transportation, supply chain finance and healthcare logistics. The current mode of classroom teaching and learning with the help of textbooks and case studies, field studies and on-site visits, are not able to demonstrate the complexity of operations to students. Very often graduates, even practitioners, are not able to visualise the end-to-end process of the entire supply chain, finance, or medical operations. The government of Hong Kong is recently promoting the use of virtual learning initiatives to support education needs. To achieve the development of an interactive virtual reality platform for learning and big data analytics, a Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) system is much needed in setting up various modules for a number of degree programs in the School. This project aims to develop a cost-effective, fully immersive and interactive visualisation CAVE system that provides extremely vivid stereoscopic views of sceneries in 3D design. The CAVE will be applied in teaching, learning and research. The operations of air cargo terminal operations will be first developed in the project.
Prof Alex CHEUNG (Co-I), and
Ms Wai LAU (Co-I)
Developing Language Proficiency for Post-secondary Students: Online Assessment and Self-learning of Putonghua through Gamification and Automation
This project aims to set up the online assessment and self-learning of Putonghua not only to provide students with out of class opportunities to practice Putonghua, but also to ‘humanise’ and improve the interactivity of online learning through gamification and automation. In addition, there will be opportunities for a more social experience. Through this new development, we hope to change the one-way online teaching mode for Putonghua where teaching materials and test instruments are simply uploaded to encourage reflexive responses, and instead to create a motivating experience for students whilst also providing online assessment tasks and self-learning through certification.
Prof Thomas LUK (Co-I), and
Mrs Anora WONG (Co-I)
“Glocality” and Cultural Literacy: HSMC English Enhancement Project
In cosmopolitan Hong Kong, it is important for us to be competent in intercultural communication, and able to express our “glocal” identity in English. The current project aims to boost students’ cultural literacy through English language use. Second, we would like to develop students’ awareness of the “glocal” culture, and teach them how to express such a perception in English effectively. We also encourage senior students to share such literacy competency and “glocal” awareness with incoming freshmen as well as other post-secondary students to foster a sustainable intercultural environment in Hong Kong.