Music, Drama and Theatre (HUMA 2105)
Offered by the Division of Humanities
Instructor: Prof Oliver See Yin LO


The Selection Committee viewed that for a truly outstanding course, imaginative pedagogical design and planning are indispensable. This course adopts a collaborative model that not only promotes teamwork, but also empowers the students to take ownership of the learning process, bringing out their best in creativity and in the pursuit of quality. The chance for students to cooperate, respect and lead their peers on their own initiative is a learning experience valuable beyond words.

The magic of this course is that students are inspired to approach and enter a field that is normally beyond their knowledge or confidence. This course calls for students to create their own musicals. Through the process of developing storylines and performing their musicals, students learn to work in various groups responsible for the break-down of sub-tasks. Together, they make a concerted effort to develop and deliver the very best for the final performance. One student remarked that it is “great to have a project in which everyone contributes his/her own expertise but achieves great success together!”.

In this course, smart design and planning have come together beautifully with Prof Lo’s enthusiastic delivery to produce a course that is exceptionally impressive. In achieving the noble common core course goal of sparking student passion for learning, it stands as a splendid model for other common core courses.

Sharing of Good Practices in other Nominated Courses

Common Core courses aim at broadening students’ horizons beyond their major discipline of study. Instructors often face the great challenge of how to explain the concepts to students who have not been exposed to the subject before, and to arouse their interest in studying the subject, which to some students may look useless, difficult or incomprehensible. The Selection Committee has the pleasure to share the following good pedagogy as noted from the nominated courses that could deal with this challenge effectively.

Videos: One of the courses produces a series of micro-movies (videos) to help explain the subject knowledge through everyday life examples collected by senior-year students. Students become interested in learning more about the subject as the materials in these micro-movies are interesting, easy to understand and highly related to their real-life experiences.

Group Projects: Some courses use group projects to help students connect lecture materials to the real world, to promote teamwork and collaborative learning, and to empower them to take initiatives throughout the learning process. To be effective as a student learning activity, these group projects often exhibit these characteristics:

Peer Tutors: One of the courses selects students who demonstrated excellent performance in the same course in previous terms to be peer tutors to support student learning. With appropriate training from the instructors, these peer tutors offer useful assistance to current students based on their experiences, and to the instructors based on their close observations of students’ progress.

Visualizing Abstract Concepts: Some instructors find it easier to explain very abstract theories and imaginative concepts by giving a clear physical picture of these concepts:

Technology and Innovation: Social and Business Perspectives (ISOM 1380)
Offered by:
    Department of Information Systems, Business Statistics and Operations Management
Instructional Team:
    Prof Yongsuk Kim, Prof Jeevan Jaisingh, Prof Sejoon Hong and Mr Himson Wu


Understanding the successes and failures of technology innovation is an interesting topic to students who are all users of technological products. Grasping the concepts in innovation management will also empower them in their future careers. However, as one of the instructors remarked, there is no “one best way” to manage innovation. Maintaining a comprehensive and balanced view of the complex relationships among business, technology, and society is the key.

The Selection Committee is impressed by the well-planned pedagogy used in this course, as well as the design of a well-structured content, to create a unique, synergistic learning experience for the students. The course brings out interesting yet important innovation dilemmas to challenge students’ conventional assumptions and thoughts, and invites them to develop an intellectual capability to tackle innovation challenges with approaches that may seem counter-intuitive.

The concept of innovation can be abstract and difficult for students to grasp and apply in the real world. The instructors wittily go beyond traditional lecture and take students on an experiential journey to gain a simulated experience about product/service innovation through in-class exercises (e.g. paper airplane flying contest), to be followed by reflection and experience sharing at class discussion. Various elements of product innovation will then be introduced, and students are challenged to apply these elements in case discussion. The interesting case studies not only stimulate students’ curiosity to explore socio-technological dilemmas and challenges, but also broaden their perspectives by guiding them through critical evaluation of possible solutions.

One student remarked that ‘The topics are extremely current, which makes it far easier to generate interest among the students.’ Another student wrote in a personal thank-you email, ‘…many [of the] theories taught [in class] and example[s] really match our reality.’

Students are highly engaged in the group project. They are motivated to learn as the content is relevant to daily life. Empowered by the Wikiboard technology, student-student and student-instructor interaction outside the classroom becomes easy and effective. Students can conveniently make use of this online platform to coordinate activities, sign up for groups, ask questions, give responses and monitor the progress of their project. Through giving constructive evaluation to each other, students learn from their peers and create a collaborative peer-learning experience for themselves.

The diversified teaching pedagogies, effectively delivered through the dedicated efforts of the instructors, make this course well-received by the students. Being able to spark students’ passion for learning and develop their analytical and independent thinking abilities, this course stands out as a unique and outstanding example of our common core courses.

Common Core Course Excellence Award Recipients

2013 Award Recipient

Technology and Innovation: Social and Business Perspectives (ISOM 1380)
Offered by the Department of Information Systems, Business Statistics and Operations Management
 
Citation

Understanding the successes and failures of technology innovation is an interesting topic to students who are all users of technological products. Grasping the concepts in innovation management will also empower them in their future careers. However, as one of the instructors remarked, there is no “one best way” to manage innovation. Maintaining a comprehensive and balanced view of the complex relationships among business, technology, and society is the key.

The Selection Committee is impressed by the well-planned pedagogy used in this course, as well as the design of a well-structured content, to create a unique, synergistic learning experience for the students. The course brings out interesting yet important innovation dilemmas to challenge students’ conventional assumptions and thoughts, and invites them to develop an intellectual capability to tackle innovation challenges with approaches that may seem counter-intuitive. [Read More]

Sharing of Good Practices in other Nominated Courses

Common Core courses aim at broadening students’ horizons beyond their major discipline of study. Instructors often face the great challenge of how to explain the concepts to students who have not been exposed to the subject before, and to arouse their interest in studying the subject, which to some students may look useless, difficult or incomprehensible. The Selection Committee has the pleasure to share the following good pedagogy as noted from the nominated courses that could deal with this challenge effectively. [Read More]

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