Gary Cheng

Digital video for fostering self‐reflection in an ePortfolio environment

The ability to self‐reflect is widely recognized as a desirable learner attribute that can induce deep learning. Advances in computer‐mediated communication technologies have led to intense interest in higher education in exploring the potential of digital tools, particularly digital video, for fostering self‐reflection. While there are reports pointing to the salutary effects of digital video on learners’ reflective ability, a systematic inquiry into how digital video can be utilized to promote self‐reflection in an ePortfolio context remains under‐reported. In this paper, we pose two questions: (1) Do students have the confidence to create their own digital videos for reflection and do they find this activity relevant to their learning needs?; and (2) To what extent does digital video affect the level of self‐reflection and the nature of peer feedback? Results from this small‐scale exploratory case study provide evidence in support of video use as a reflective tool in an ePortfolio context and highlight the need for considering pedagogical and technological issues that are of significance for teachers, educators and ePortfolio developers.

Implementation Challenges of the English Language Eportfolio System from Various Stakeholder Perspectives

Electronic portfolio (ePortfolio) is no longer a new term in the area of educational research. It has been widely adopted by various tertiary institutions as a learning and assessment tool in different countries. A major feature of an ePortfolio is that it supports lifelong learning by archiving and showcasing selected artifacts from individual learners, recording their professional development and sharing their best work with others. To facilitate learners to produce their ePortfolios effectively and conveniently, the development of an online platform is necessary. The objective of this article is to explore and analyze the realistic problems faced by various stakeholders, including system developers and administrators, students as well as teachers, during the implementation of an ePortfolio system in the English Language Centre at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. This article paints a clear picture of concerns raised by various stakeholders with regard to an ePortfolio system, how the system design responds to their concerns, and how the stakeholders are impacted by the system.

The Greater the Online Participation, the Better the Learning Achievement? A Study of Integrating Moodle into Learning

This study aimed to explore the relationship between students’ online participation in Moodle and their learning achievement. Participants in the study were 78 undergraduate full-time students who were enrolled in a general education course entitled “Digital Citizenship” at a higher education institute in Hong Kong. They were required to choose from and participate in different types of Moodle activities including information access (e.g., reading online supplementary resources), interactive learning (e.g., running online simulations), networked learning (e.g., discussing in online forums), and materials development (e.g., writing reflective journals). The online participation of a student was measured by the number of completed activities, while the learning achievement of a student was determined by his/her essay grade. This study applied the Partial Least Squares (PLS) method to the collected data in order to identify whether there was a link between online participation and learning achievement. The results indicate that online participation in networked learning or in materials development, but not in information access nor in interactive learning, was positively and significantly related to learning achievement. This finding highlights the importance of social interaction and individual constructivism for effective online learning.

Topic Classification on Short Reflective Writings for Monitoring Students’ Progress

Reflection has been widely considered as an important element in student learning in higher education. Among different forms of reflective writing, one-minute papers can quickly and easily get students to reflect on their learning. Unlike short quizzes, the responses to one-minute papers could cover a wide open range and could require more time to review and summarize. When one-minute papers are administrated online, their responses are available in electronic form and this facilitates a computational approach for analysis. In this paper, we propose a machine learning approach to analyzing the students’ responses to one-minute papers. We build a text classifier to identify the topics discussed in the responses. Our results of a preliminary study conducted in a blended learning course demonstrate that the classifier can effectively detect the topics and the proposed method can be used to monitor student progress based on the detected topics.

Reflective practice with digital portfolio for teacher readiness and maturation of prospective teacher within the TPACK framework

This study explores the influence of digital portfolio on reflective practice of prospective teachers (PTs) with the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge framework (TPACK). A total of 36 PTs studying in a teacher education course (one-year full-time) at a tertiary education institute in Hong Kong took part in the study. Blended learning approach was adopted to facilitate the completion of digital portfolio with various applications of Web services as a pedagogical tool. At the end of the course, the PTs completed the same questionnaire again as a post-test. Results showed that engaging PTs in digital portfolio integrated with different levels of Web services can increase their degree of readiness and maturation in different dimensions under the TPACK framework. The findings shed light on the development of teacher readiness for their entering of teaching profession in terms of technical, pedagogical and content knowledge individually and holistically, and further cultivated a higher degree of sustainability in reflective practice for the prospective teachers.

An Approach to Identify Levels of Reflection Using Latent Semantic Analysis

This paper reports and discusses on the initial stage of developing an educational tool to support Chinese undergraduate students in reflecting on their English language (L2) learning experience. By using a classification framework called A-S-E-R and Latent Semantic Analysis, we developed a digital tool to automatically classify reflective L2 learning skills into different elements and hierarchical levels. This paper begins by presenting the background and objectives of the study, followed by the details of method and results. Preliminary findings show that the tool performed satisfactorily on our testing data and the computer-generated reflection ratings were comparable to human ratings.

Lessons Learned from Planning the Use of Mobile Technologies at Schools in Hong Kong

This paper reports and discusses the findings from the first phase of a research study concerning the use of mobile technologies for teaching and learning within 10 schools in Hong Kong. Implementation plans devised by the schools were evaluated by an extended framework for analyzing mobile learning with a view from teachers’ perspective. Initial finding reveals that teachers could contrive limited learning activities involving the use of mobile technologies in a range of subject areas within school environment. Insights derived from the finding highlight a need to guide teachers towards cultivating a more student-controlled and socio-constructive learning environment mediated by mobile technologies.