Bulletin Spring‧Summer 2001

I n t r o d u c i ng Online Teach i ng New Facilities for Teachers Online teaching is an important feature o f the cyber campus. A t The Chinese University, a u n i v e r s i t y - w i d e e x p e r i me n t al p l a t f o rm was set up last September w h i c h a l l o w s t ea c he r s t o use advanced instructional technologies in web-based teaching. The different t emp l a t es and f u n c t i o n s o f the software WebCT , for example, make it easy to upload H T M L files such as lecture notes, course outlines, timetables, notices, and to make homewor k arrangements for students. The software's statistical function will indicate data about the number o f visits by students, the number of pages read, and the number o f questions raised. Teachers can thus monito r their students' progres s and answer their questions through the interactiv e function of WebCT . Th i s enhances c ommu n i c a t i o n be t ween teachers and s t uden t s, and is especially effective for subjects involving case discussions. F o r use r s w h o w i s h t o p r o d u c e sophisticated webpages, the I TSC provides a personal webpage server. Teachers need only apply for and set up an account, and w i l l be a l l o t t e d 15 t o 18 me g a b y t e s o f d i s k space to set up thei r own webpage. Some other users will request the ITSC to design for them clever webpages w i t h lots of animation and interactivity, or highl y creative multi-media CD-ROMs. These webpages are usually for professional training purposes , such as helping practising doctors to acquire the latest surgical skills. Maintaining an Extensive and Efficient Campus Network The University continuously updates its f a c i l i t i es t o k e ep u p w i t h t h e r a p i d ‘By April 2000 ， some 500 courses ... have gone online, with another 180 preparing to follow suit' Prof. Fu Ping-ping of the Department of Management was the first teacher to try out the experimental platform. She had used a similar teaching tool while teaching in the United States and now uses it to teach the course 'Organizational Behaviour'. She sees online teaching as an extension of classroom teaching which enhances communication among students and between teachers and students. Increased exchange of ideas allows students to perform more in-depth analysis of problems and find more solutions to these problems. This virtual classroom is ideal for MBA students whose main mode of learning is discussion. Prof. Ho Man-koon of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction has designed a webpage on 'Methods of Chinese T e a c h i n g ' for students of the Postgraduate Diploma in Education programme. He explained that if students come unprepared to class, teachers often have to spend much time lecturing. To make teaching more effective, he uploads data such as course outlines and required readings onto the webpage so that students can prepare themselves beforehand. There is also an e-mail account for ease of communication with his students. Prof Ho has also designed other websites to help primary and secondary school teachers with their teaching. These include ‘The Young Writer', ‘Write More and Read More', and 'Creative Chinese Language Teaching'. Chinese Universit y Bulleti n Sprin g • Summer 2 0 00