Communication-intensive Courses Symposium 2022

Date: 26 May, 2022 (Thursday)
Time: 9:30 am – 1:30 pm
Venue: Zoom
Target Audience: All HKU staff (including those who have badged CIC courses and those who haven’t)
Organisers: CETL, CAES, Common Core


Objectives

At the end of the Symposium, participants will be able to:

1. Gain insights into the benefits of the initiative from students’ perspective.
2. Learn different ways to embed communication knowledge, skills and attributes teaching in their courses from the experience of HKU and non-HKU teachers.
3. Be motivated/inspired to evaluate the possibility of badging their own courses or show further support for the initiative.

Programme

Time	Activity
9:30 – 9:35	Opening Speaker: Professor Ian Holliday Vice-President and Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Teaching and Learning), HKU
9:35 – 10:20	Keynote: Disciplinary Differences in Oral Communication This will focus on what is considered important in successful oral communication in a range of different disciplines (e.g. science, engineering, medicine, business, arts, social science, architecture) and how this impacts student learning and assessment in undergraduate courses. Speaker: Dr. Amy GAFFNEY Oral Communication Centre Director, Hamilton College, USA Amy is Director of the Oral Communication Center (OCC) at Hamilton College in New York, U.S.A. Her responsibilities include managing peer consultants for the OCC’s tutoring program, working with faculty and courses on speaking assignments and pedagogy, teaching a course on genres of oral communication, and pulling together a variety of activities on campus including two speaking competitions. Amy has directed the OCC since 2016 and previously was a faculty member at the University of Kentucky after completing her Ph.D. at North Carolina State University in Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media. Her scholarship focuses on the role communication plays in the classroom as well as ways to teach and assess communication. She co-authored “Oral Communication in the Disciplines” with Deanna P. Dannels and Patricia Palmerton, and has consulted with a variety of departments and institutions looking to increase their curricular attention to oral communication.
10:20 – 10:30	10 min break
10:30 – 11:00	Oral Communication in CIC courses – Part 1 Students, teachers and teaching assistants will share their experiences of enhancing oral communication skills in two CIC courses. (Social Sciences and Common Core) Speakers: Ms. Jhalak Rakesh Sheth BBEd & BScoSc (Year 4) (CIC Badged course PSYC2062) Jhalak is majoring in Education Social Science (BBEd & BScoSc). She has been an intern for Dr Tom Barry in the Faculty of Social Science and worked with Doctor Barry on the design of PSYC2062 Introduction to Psychopathology. She has designed materials for the research presentation and podcast assessments using Miro, an online collaboration tool. Dr. Shihiu Feng Faculty of Education, HKU Shihiu is Assistant Professor in the Academic Unit of Human Communication, Development and Information services in the Faculty of Education, HKU. Her key interest is in network effects on student development. She has been studying the theoretical and practical implications of this new form of social capital mediated via digital environments within the context of education. Mr Kim Chow Teaching Assistant, Academic Unit of CDIS (CIC Badged Course CCST9076) Kim is a Teaching Assistant in the Academic Unit of Human Communication, Development and Information Sciences, HKU. He has been working with Dr Feng on CCST9076 Attention Magnet – The Psychological and Technological Aspects of Social Media Addition.
11:00 – 11:10	10 min break
11:10 – 11:40	Oral Communication in CIC courses – Part 2 Teachers will share their experiences of enhancing oral communication skills in two CIC courses (Medicine and Science) Speakers: Dr. Joanna HO Faculty of Medicine, HKU (CIC Badged course BBMS3004) Before coming to Hong Kong, Joanna worked at the AstraZeneca Central Toxicology Laboratory, Alderley Park, UK followed by a brief stint working at the MRC Center for Protein Engineering in the UK. Her working track records in biomedical research since 1998 can be traced by publications via the HKU Scholar hub, PubMed and Google Scholar. She has been a full time lecture in Biochemistry since August 2010, her previous experience, training and exposure in the research field form the rich building blocks for constructing her present and future teaching profiles. Equally, the prior full-time lecturer experience in teaching Biochemistry at HKUST during early post-doctorate period also helps her to scaffold a more comprehensive portfolio in teaching and teaching development in the area of basic biomedical sciences in tertiary education. Dr. Edmond LEUNG Faculty of Science, HKU Edmond is a Lecturer in the Faculty of Science, HKU. He has taught on a number of Common Core courses including Hidden Order in Daily Life : A Mathematical Perspective, Science and Technnology : Facts and Fallacies, and Material World : Past, Present and Future. He is also teaching on the foundation Science course for Year 1 Science students SCNC1112 Fundamentals of Modern Science with Dr Jason Pun. Dr. Jason Pun Faculty of Science, HKU (CIC Badged course SCNC1112) Jason is Principle Lecturer in the Department of Physics, Faculty of Science HKU. He teaches on a number of Common Core courses and his research interests include Observational Astrophysics, Supernovae and Supernova Remnants. He has published a number of articles in these areas and won the IDA Dark Sky Defender Award from the International Dark-Sky Association in 2018.
11:40 – 11:50	10 min break
11:50 – 13:20	Workshop on Oral Communication This is a companion session to the keynote session. In this workshop participants will be encouraged to think about what constitutes successful oral communication in their discipline, and how this is taught and assessed in the course(s) they teach. They will share their experiences with other participants, thinking about what helped their students attain success in oral communication and what could be improved in their courses / what they would like help and advice with. At the end of the session we will create a summary of the similarities and differences in the different disciplines and courses. Speaker: Dr. Amy GAFFNEY Oral Communication Centre Director, Hamilton College, USA Amy is Director of the Oral Communication Center (OCC) at Hamilton College in New York, U.S.A. Her responsibilities include managing peer consultants for the OCC’s tutoring program, working with faculty and courses on speaking assignments and pedagogy, teaching a course on genres of oral communication, and pulling together a variety of activities on campus including two speaking competitions. Amy has directed the OCC since 2016 and previously was a faculty member at the University of Kentucky after completing her Ph.D. at North Carolina State University in Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media. Her scholarship focuses on the role communication plays in the classroom as well as ways to teach and assess communication. She co-authored “Oral Communication in the Disciplines” with Deanna P. Dannels and Patricia Palmerton, and has consulted with a variety of departments and institutions looking to increase their curricular attention to oral communication.
13:20 – 13:30	Closing Speaker: Professor Gray Kochhar-Lindgren Director, Common Core, HKU Dr. Miranda Legg CAES, HKU

For information, please contact:
Ms. Lavina Luk, CETL
Phone: 3917 5272; Email: ytluk89@hku.hk