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Strategic Moves, Quick Facts and Achievements

FACULTY AWARD

Award for Teaching Innovations in E-learning 2021-22

"Innovation in education means doing what is best for all students. As student learning approach has been changed, teachers need to adapt rapidly to the changing circumstances to meet the student learning needs."

 

Dr Angela Tong, Department of Chemistry

Dr Angela TONG
Associate Head (Teaching & Learning) and Associate Professor of Teaching, Department of Chemistry

Today’s students are digital natives. As smartphones and digital gadgets become ubiquitous, instead of seeing them as a distraction in class, Dr Angela Tong has sought to utilise them to engage students more deeply in learning.

With the help of Faculty Teaching Innovation Fund on ‘The Enhanced Use of Technology-based Laboratories in Undergraduate Chemistry Education’, Dr Tong redesigned two experiments in CHEM1042 General Chemistry I for students to utilise their smartphones by installing an app to connect with a sensor probe, which could be used to obtain data and identify relationships between variables more quickly. As a result, this new approach received positive comments from both demonstrators and students for its entertaining and engaging quality. Four hundred students already benefited from the laboratory training, resulting in higher-order thinking skills.

Besides in-class teaching, Dr Tong encouraged out-of-class involvement by developing a mobile app called HKU ChemApp, funded by HKU Teaching Development Grant. The app provided students with a richer and more diverse learning experience through a virtual learning environment that complemented traditional face-to-face learning. It is hoped that with this app, always-on connectivity and a self-paced learning environment can be made available to our students.

 

Dr Angela Tong received the Award for Teaching Innovations in E-learning 2021-22