I was fortunate to spend two days at the
Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) which is located in Sha Tin, in the New
Territories, and about 25 minutes drive from the Chinese Mainland.
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| View from Transport Hub |
Arriving at the University, I discovered
that CUHK shared something with the University of Birmingham, a train station
called “University”
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| This is much prettier than ours!! |
Like the University of Hong Kong, CUHK is
built into a mountainside, but unlike HKU it is located over an extremely wide
area. As a result the only real way to
travel through the campus is to use one of the many shuttle busses that run
throughout the day and into the evening from the very busy transport hub at the
base of campus.
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| Extremely necessary facility |
At this hub, buses, mini buses and taxis
await to transport visitors, students and staff to where ever they wish, either
on campus or off.
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| Transport hub serving the university |
The campus is notionally split into 3, the
upper level, the mid-level and the lower level.
Just to try to put the size into context,
this picture (below) shows the view down the mountain from the United Colleges
at the top of campus, it also shows one of the fleet of pink buses that take
students around campus from building to building and lecture to lecture throughout
the day. Note the tall green building in
the background right in the centre of the picture.
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| View down the mountain |
This tall green building is in fact an
Hyatt Hotel, built on university land, but working in partnership with the
University to provide training for students in all areas of hospitality
management. This building is actually
located by the transport hub at the bottom of campus.
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| Hyatt Hotel and the Business School (white building) |
As with all Universities in Hong Kong
(there are 8) the University is investing heavily in it’s infrastructure to
ensure that it is ready for the double cohort of students that will be arriving
in September as a result of structural changes to the Secondary and University
Education system in Hong Kong, To facilitate these changes, the University has
developed a Campus Master Plan for developments up to and including 2021
The developments include an extension to
the Main Library (the University has 7 libraries on campus) and the creation of
100 new classrooms to accommodate approximately 3,000 extra students.
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| Main Library |
The University has an educational research
unit, Centre for Learning Enhancement and Research (CLEAR) which identified
that there was a need for evidenced based recommendations to guide the
University and co-ordinate the developments and strategies regarding new
generation learning environments.
This work was undertaken by two CUHK
Academics, Professor Bob Fox (who has since returned to HKU) and Professor Paul
Lam. Details of their study and findings
can be found in their paper “Balancing Context, Pedagogy and Technology on
Learning Space Designs: Opportunities Amidst Infrastructural Developments in
Hong Kong”
A number of papers were received by the
University which shaped and influenced the decisions for developments in
learning spaces, including the need to create many more smaller rooms which
were flexible in their design and supported group interaction and the creation
of a number of new Learning Commons for personal study.
Learning
Spaces
My first day at CUHK was spent with the
Manager of the Audio Visual Services Unit.
I had visited this unit in February very briefly with colleagues from
HKU and felt that there was much more to see and learn.
The Team is relatively small and currently
reports into Registry Services and is separate and distinct to the University’s
IT Service. It has staff who are able to
provide comprehensive support to lectern PC’s and even has a full time Crestron
Programmer, which is important as every room is Crestron controlled and managed
through “RoomView”.
In the reception area of the Unit there is
a touch screen monitor delivering information about the team and it’s services,
including short training videos for
equipment created by the technical staff
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| AVSU Interactive Information unit |
The day started with chinese tea and a
discussion about the facilities in lecture theatres and seminar rooms. This discussion was held in the unit’s
presentation room which is used not only for meetings and general
presentations, but can all be used for small group teaching.
Almost all rooms are equipped as standard with
data projection (single or dual), PC’s, DVD playback, visualisers, sound reinforcement and some form of writing
board. Interestingly though, one or two
OHP’s still exist and find their way into some of the rooms!! Echo360 is the lecture capture system here, Echo
have an office in Hong Kong, which makes support much easier to manage.
We then left to go on the campus tour, via
the unit van (other vehicles used are motor scooters), and on the way to the
car, we saw the porters starting to get the exam desks ready for use….
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Getting ready for exams, interestingly, these desks can
be used for students to store items |
Law
Building
The first stop on the tour was the law building, where
a new Moot court has been built, providing a sophisticated facility for
teaching and mooting.
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| Moot Court |
Court simulations with a full audience can
be undertaken here managed by staff on the room, or by a technician in the
control room.
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| Control within the room |
The room has been set up with 5 cameras to
give everyone in the room a view of proceedings..
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| View from one of the many screens and cameras |
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| Caught on camera! |
In the technician’s control room, there is
a Sony Anycast unit so that any class can be recorded, edited live and a DVD
given to the lecturer for uploading to the iVLE.
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| Control room with sony any cast system |
All of the active participants in the court
have access to a radio microphone which are independently switched, with no
need for intervention by the technician.
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| space efficiency, radio mic controls on shelf |
On the judges bench is a motorized screen
on which he/she can not only watch what is happening elsewhere in the room, but
can also receive messages from the “lawyers” which cannot be seen by the
audience or the opposing teams.
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| Judges Screen |
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| Motorised Screen |
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| Can select any view of room, or messages |
The events in the moot court can also be
relayed to a suite of rooms along the corridor and even into foyer spaces when
a special event is being held that the college wants to share with a wider
audience.
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| Seminar Room |
Pictures relayed into one or more seminar rooms to
enable live group discussion, the audio is one way only
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| Full view of Seminar room |
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| Access to power etc. |
In most rooms the tables have been adapted and have a lift out section
for access to power, data and data projection
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| Foyer display |
The picture replayed to the foyer area can be with or without sound
Active
Learning Classrooms
CUHK have had a suite of Active Learning
Classrooms for some time (2-3 years).
They consist of rooms set up for groups of
8 students who can work with or without technology
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| Group working tables |
The centre section of the table (which have
been designed in-house) is removable to expose access to power and to the data
projector in the room
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| Removable section |
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| Access to power, data and data projection |
The display of images
from each group is easily managed by the teacher through the Crestron control
system
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| Control panel, pages designed in-house |
The pages on the crestron system have been
designed by the Audio Visual Services unit programmer, and as a result they
have been able to create something simple and intuitive, and which the academic
staff are happy to use.
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Simply touch one of the groups represented by the diamonds
to display that group's laptop |
Further to this, the rooms are set up in pairs and have movable partitions to enable a larger single room to be used
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| Movable partitions |
When the two rooms are used as one, the control system allows one room to have control of all AV facilities, and the other acts as a slave.
These rooms are going to be upgraded soon, and it is proposed that each group be given access to their own LCD panel for group work, and also for sharing.
Language
Laboratories
A number of language laboratories have been
set up using three main layout designs.
The first has students in straight rows
facing each other
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| Language labs, face to face rows |
but this means that all of the students are
“side on” to the teacher, and both students and teachers have said that they
are not fond of this layout
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| Student view of screen, teacher in the corner |
The next layout uses a much more organic
“s” shape
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| "S" shaped layout, less space efficient |
but again, over half of the students have
their backs to the teacher, also, their desk space is slightly reduced in order
to create the curves, and, I am told, this is not a good set up for
examinations
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| Teacher setting up for an exam |
The final layout is much more conventional
and appears to be the layout of choice for staff and students.
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| Round tables for groups of 5 |
Staff have said that this layout works well
for both computer based working, but also the students can easily engage in
group discussions over the screens without any difficulties.
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| Spacious layout |
All of the rooms are exactly the same size, and each has the same capacity, but the "S" shaped room was the least efficient, giving a crowded real to the room, the layout with the round tables gave the impression of a lot more space being available in the room. Teachers are able to get the students to come together as a group in the open central space.
Also, all of the desks in the language labs (regardless of shape) have screens which can be raised for privacy when conducting examinations
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| Screens in place |
The screens are simply lifted into place and a small catch locks them into place.
all these rooms are supported by a member
of the Audio Visual Services Unit.
Recording
Studio
Finally, on the tour we went to look at a
small recording studio co-located with the language laboratories and managed by
the same technician.
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| Small recording studio |
This small studio is available for staff
and students. Staff are able to record
lectures and other course based materials, and can manage the recording
independently, or have the support of the technician.
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| Facilities within the studio |
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| AVSU Service/booking office |
We finished the day with a walk around the gardens at the lower level of campus, with pergolas, koi carp and orchids, delightful!
