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General Education / Programme Development
A standing committee for ensuring the proper conduct of General Education
General Education (GE) has become a significant part of the curriculum in higher education in Hong Kong. An institution sets up a standing committee to assist its senate committee and administration units to review and supervise its general education programme.
Purpose
The purpose of this practice is to maintain a high standard of the GE programme to help respond to the changes of academic structure and the full development of the institution’s General Education. The main roles of the standing committee include (i) to examine the proposals for GE courses according to the objectives of the institution’s GE and the specific curriculum areas concerned, and to make recommendations for the approval of new GE courses (ii) to carry out regular review to revalidate the status of a GE course and (iii) to ensure that all GE courses are meeting the institution’s GE objectives, matching with GE desired characteristics and fitting in with the area specification of the institution’s GE programme. Members of the standing committee provide their independent and impartial views on the GE proposals and recommendations for the senate committee’s consideration.
Outcome
The standing committee has contributed to the maintenance of the academic standard of the institution’s GE programme and ensures that the approved courses are aligned with the stipulated GE objectives.
24 Jun 2019
Programme Development
Quality principles for service-learning programmes
A set of quality principles is established to guide the development and implementation of service-learning programmes. These principles can serve as guidance for similar programmes.
Purpose
The purpose of this practice is to ensure the quality delivery of service-learning programmes by providing a set of quality principles for the programme team to use during the programme development and implementation stages. The principles cover a wide range of aspects. These include identifying genuine community needs and obtaining a pledge of cooperation from prospective community partners. Some principles are about ensuring that students are adequately prepared for community engagement, for example, providing proper training for them; making efficient arrangements for site visits; and briefing students about the importance of sharing team leadership responsibilities. Other principles concern the learning process, such as, having appropriate reflective tools and templates, and relevant assessment methods; building constructive learning relationships with students, instructors, and partner organisation representatives; combining course related concepts with community services and reflection; and aligning programme objectives and intended learning outcomes. To ensure a high quality of service-learning programme delivery, the programme team should adhere to these quality principles, closely monitor their application to programme implementation, and take corrective actions in cases where departures from these principles are identified.
Outcome
The outcome of employing this practice is to ensure that the programme is implemented in a coherent and reliable manner that successfully achieves the desired outcomes. The practice of establishing a set of guiding quality principles can be applied to both existing and new service-learning programmes, and when adapting existing departmental courses to include service learning.
19 Oct 2018
Programme Development
Good practice classified under: Programme Development Student Assessment
Good practice classified under: Programme Development Student Assessment
Use a multi-method approach for evaluating the programme outcomes
A multiple-method evaluation mechanism is built-in to the service learning programme to assess student learning outcomes and the effectiveness and satisfactory operation of the programme.
Purpose
The purpose of this practice is to help the service-learning programme team to assess student learning outcomes in a comprehensive way as a means for ensuring the quality of the programme. An institution adopts a multi-method approach for collecting information and feedback from different stakeholders in order to evaluate student performance and learning outcomes.
The methods include asking students to complete pre and post-programme questionnaires, which measure their perceptions of changes in their knowledge, skills and attitudes across various domains. Students can also be invited to join focus group discussions, and reflective and consultation meetings, to provide deeper insights into their learning experiences. Through summative questionnaires and evaluation meetings, feedback can be collected from course instructors, agency supervisors and programme coordinators, to identify the problems that they have encountered during the programme implementation, and their suggestions for programme improvement.
Outcome
The outcome of employing this practice is a more comprehensive and reliable body of evidence about student learning processes and outcomes. This approach makes better-informed decisions about refinements to the programme curriculum, design, and implementation. Drawing on inputs from all key stakeholders, a comprehensive set of outcome measures and process indicators is obtained. This approach can also be applied as an evaluation tool for other learning programmes.
19 Oct 2018
Programme Development
Student representation for direct feedback
Student participation in different stages of the quality assurance of a programme, for example meetings to collect the views and expectations of students on new programmes and their experiences in existing programmes, contributes to programme development and improvement in teaching and learning.
PurposeThe purpose of the practice is to help the programme team understand students’ concerns on existing programmes and their views on new programmes. Different cohorts of students have different needs. Students’ participation in the quality assurance process of a programme directly reflects their needs. This helps the institution take timely actions to refine and adjust the programme content, teaching and learning activities as well as support services to best cater for the needs of the students.
Outcome
The outcome of employing this good practice is that the programme team understands students’ needs, thus helps ensure that new and existing programmes meet the expectations of students.
19 Jul 2017
Institutional Governance And Management / Programme Development
Appropriate inputs for approval as a means to enhance programme quality
Ensuring that appropriate inputs are collected and analysed as part of the approval process for programme development.
Purpose
This practice aims to ensure that inputs are collected and considered in programme development. An institution collects inputs from stakeholders ranging from module to institutional levels through its established feedback collection mechanisms. A structured approval process ensures that the feedback collected from stakeholders is duly considered and the programme team is required to respond to the feedback before proceeding to the next level of approval. For example approval by a department board ensures currency of discipline-specific programme content, and approval by academic board ensures, among others, that the programme continues to meet the institutional goals.
Outcome
The outcome of employing this practice is the upholding of standards and enhancement of programme quality through an effective approval process.
18 May 2017
Transnational Education / Programme Development
Upholding TNE programme standards comparable to home-programme standards
A mechanism is in place to ensure that the transnational education programmes offered are comparable to the home programmes.
Purpose
The purpose of this practice is to ensure the academic standards of the transnational education programmes and safeguard the interest of the students studying offshore or by distance. An institution adopts the same academic regulations as well as assessment criteria and practices, and comparable admission requirements to both the home and TNE programmes. To enhance the relevance of transnational education programmes to non- local students, an institution exercises flexibility to customise the curriculum and delivery.
Outcome
The outcome of employing this practice is ensuring the academic standards of the graduates of the transnational education programmes are the same as those of the home programmes.
27 Apr 2017