Teaching in higher education is urgently moving towards active learning approaches given the various disruptions from the competition from non-traditional educational providers, commoditisation of content, and advancement in digital technologies, especially artificial intelligence. Overwhelmingly, students tell us that traditional lecturing (sage on stage) and students passively listening to teachers speak is no longer acceptable.

Common Core strongly encourages teachers to adopt flipped classroom approaches for both large and small classroom environments and integrate learning activities for students to exercise collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, and multimodal communication skills (written, oral, visual, digital). Teaching should be a two-way conversation between teachers and students.

As inter- and transdisciplinary courses, teachers should:

• 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: For example, Mentimeter, Padlet, Kahoot, Miro, multimodal generative AI applications
• 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

Experiential Learning: A Guidebook for Facilitators

Improvisation and design thinking are increasingly integrated approaches in university teaching and learning due to their potential to foster students’ creativity, adaptability, and problem-solving skills.  While both methodologies seem very different, many of the techniques and desired outcomes overlap and complement well with each other. Improvisation focuses on responding to unpredictable circumstances by embracing adaptability and innovative thinking. Design Thinking principles empowers students to approach challenges with a solutions-oriented mindset, emphasising empathy with students, collaborative ideation, and a willingness to iterate and improvement.

Here’s a guidebook by Dr Jack Tsao and Ms Tanya Kempston (Faculty of Education) exploring how teachers can adopt these methodologies into their teaching repertoires: Guidebook on Improvisation through Design Thinking

Gamification and game-based learning, while often used interchangeably, represent distinct approaches to the integration of gaming elements in education, particularly in higher education settings.

Gamification refers to the technique of applying game-like elements to non-game contexts, such as education. Common approaches in gamification includes leveraging elements like point scoring, competition, and leaderboards to incentivise behaviours to enhance student engagement and motivation. Gamification transforms a typical learning experience by integrating competition, cooperation, exploration, and storytelling, making it a dynamic and socially engaging process.

Game-based Learning (GBL), on the other hand, involves the use of actual games designed for the specific purpose of learning. These games are not just about adding game elements to the learning environment but are structured around the game itself. The content is embedded within the gameplay, meaning that students learn by playing a game specifically designed to teach particular concepts or skills. This approach is deeply rooted in experiential learning, where students learn through experience and reflection on doing, which can be more effective for certain subjects or competencies. Storytelling is closely associated with game-based learning although these methodologies may be used separately in the classroom.

For more information, here’s a guidebook for teachers by Dr Jack Tsao on play games, and storytelling for teaching and learning: Guidebook on Game-based Learning and Storytelling

Examples gamification and game-based learning within Common Core courses

CCST9003 Everyday Computing and the Internet

CCST9068 Artificial Intelligence: Utopia or Dystopia?