Search results

The purpose of this paper is to compare the use of WebCT in support of online and blended learning in the Faculty of Architecture of a Hong Kong university.

Paper questionnaires are used to collect students' experiences, perceptions and attitudes towards the online course they have undertaken. Focus group interviews are conducted with two groups of students at the end of the semester. In addition, both formal and informal interviews are conducted with the instructor to understand his perceptions and perspectives.

In general, students prefer to have course management systems (CMS) as a supplement to face‐to‐face lectures rather than as its replacement. They perceive WebCT as mainly a platform for downloading materials and submitting assignments rather than a platform for teaching and learning. Learning fully online is perceived as self‐learning. The traditional lecture is considered more effective and efficient by many students to grasp concepts and principles.

This is an exploratory study at a Hong Kong university. However, it provides initial evidence to shed light on issues concerning the use of CMS in support of online and blended learning.

In order to ensure a more engaging and rewarding online learning experience, teacher's online presence should be strengthened. Other than teacher presence, the cognitive presence could be fostered through engineering the student‐to‐student interaction in co‐located settings.

The paper usefully demonstrates how the blended mode of learning that combines face‐to‐face and online learning has become increasingly popular, while the courses conducted entirely online are comparatively rare at universities in Hong Kong.

The purpose of this paper is to propose that the measurement of salivary amylase activity is an effective index to evaluate the stress of a ship navigator for safe navigation training and education.

Evaluation comes from the simulator and actual on‐board experiments. The subjects are real captains who have unlimited licenses and cadets who are senior students at Kobe University, navigation course. Stress is evaluated for several situations where a ship navigator makes a lot of decisions, in this case in a narrow passage, entering a port and leaving a port.

Salivary amylase activity occurs when a ship navigator makes a decision regarding ship handling and collision avoidance. By measuring salivary amylase activity when a student is under duress, cadets' ship‐handling training can be evaluated while onboard a vessel.

Future research will develop cross‐indices with the salivary amylase activity and other physiological indices (nasal temperature and heart rate variability (R‐R interval)), complementary to each other. The salivary amylase activity registers the stress quickly on the spot. Then the nasal temperature and R‐R interval registers the trend and the quick response to the stress (mental workload).

The paper describes an effective index which is useful for evaluating a ship navigator's stress for safe navigation.

Ship navigator's skill and cadet's on‐board training have been evaluated according to performance and a questionnaire as a quantitative evaluation; moreover, stress is evaluated using salivary amylase activity.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce some new functions achieved in a web‐based multimedia courseware, which is developed by Flash software and used by part‐time graduate students.

The courseware uses Adobe Flash CS3 as its development software, which supports Actionscript language, FMS and FLV technology as well.

The courseware developed by Flash can meet the needs of students because of its high speed and interaction in network.

Some part‐time graduate students have already used this courseware system. Compared with the traditional online courseware, students like this kind of courseware more for its humanized interface. It is no more a question to achieve internet face‐to‐face conversation and streaming media play because Flash supports FMS and FLV technology.

The paper summarizes experiences in using Flash to develop a web‐based multimedia courseware and it is valuable to those who intend to develop an educational platform for teaching and training.

The purpose of this paper is to present an example of how the synergy of different competences in students' teams, out‐of‐the‐box thinking style and various motivation factors in a culturally diverse learning environment is the foundation for knowledge construction, driven by the idea generation process and co‐creation – the so‐called Medici effect, one of the benchmarks for excellence in eLearning.

Developing this case study in the area of eLearning and Virtual Education Community (VEC) involves passing through various stages: from providing social presence and cooperation of students to co‐creation in the eLearning environment by contriving “e‐students” in the VEC whose profiles and learning processes are managed by pairs/teams of real students with different experiences and types of behaviour.

The paper presents outcomes of the research focused on the formation of the VEC for students who are motivated in sharing common passions and principles, in developing good communicator‐and‐listener techniques, in studying and creating situations of success.

In order to use and promote this pedagogical approach, enhancement of the desk‐top technology is needed in terms of a user‐friendly interface for creating a VEC where everyone, including people with special needs, feels comfortable, interested, and motivated to communicate, learn, construct, and share knowledge.

The original “4A” (attention, actualization, attraction, and action) pedagogical model applied in eLearning is aimed at ensuring students' social and cognitive presence through their e‐profiles for self‐assessment and positioning, adjusting learning trajectories and monitoring learning results, as well as assessing progress and final outcomes of learning.

The purpose of this paper is to exhibit the integration of learning and study strategies inventory (LASSI) with the City University of Hong Kong information systems to promote teaching and learning within the university.

From the 2006 entry cohort, all undergraduate freshmen at City University of Hong Kong are required to complete LASSI online through Administrative Information Management System (AIMS). Each student is required to take LASSI at three specific times during their undergraduate careers. With the cooperation of H&H publishing, City University has developed a program within AIMS to upload LASSI results of individual students so that the students can view their scores whenever they wish to. In addition to helping the students develop their learning and study strategies, the integration between LASSI and the university's information system provides academic staff with aggregated LASSI scores for their students.

The integration of LASSI with the university's information systems is found to be useful as students have the possibility of reviewing their progress in terms of learning and study strategies while teachers can design appropriate teaching and learning activities according to the relative strengths and weaknesses in learning of their own classes to assist students. In addition, the input of LASSI data to the City University AIMS helps administrative personnel correlate LASSI results with the other detailed information available in the AIMS.

This paper provides other institutions with insights into the integration of LASSI with the university's information systems to enhance the teaching and learning environment within the university. It aims to inform decision makers of issues in centralizing and accessing students' data to improve teaching and learning.