Faculty of Business Bulletin 15
th
No. 2 - April 2005
Anniversary : 1990 - 2005
The Unique “First Year Learning Experience” Programme at CityU Faculty of Business Professor K K Lai, Associate Dean, Undergraduate Programmes The first year at university is crucial to a student’s development. This is why we have introduced various initiatives in the Faculty of Business (FB) to ensure a comprehensive and integrated learning experience for our first-year students. This is also consistent with our goal to provide “Quality professional education for students” as set out in our 3Q Action Plan 2002-2004, and “high value-added educational programmes” as specified in CityU’s role statement agreed with the University Grants Committee (UGC), the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government’s funding body. Our achievement in ensuring quality work in education has been recognized by external bodies that include the UGC Teaching and Learning Quality Process Review and AACSB International (the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business – the premier accrediting agency for business schools worldwide). The latter commended FB’s First Year Learning Experience as “a truly impressive program which can be a model for other schools to benchmark”. I would like to congratulate and thank all colleagues, students and alumni who have contributed to our remarkable “First Year Learning Experience” programme.
Dr Christian Wagner, Director of First Year Teaching and Learning The first year at university is an important transition for students as they adapt to new ways of learning in a new academic environment.
To help students cope with the
challenges they face, we have strategically redesigned our experience of curricular and co-curricular the following PRIDE themes: ricular initiatives which comprise th Personalized Personalized instruction where each individual matters m Rich learning experiences Integrative tegrative learning Dedicated instructors Ethics oriented learning This Bulletin shares some of our projects that bui build a superiorr first-year learning experience at CityU’s Faculty of B Business.
A Team Effort A culture of co collaboration among on teachers s is crucial to creating an integrated first-year learning experience. en We seek to o achieve this hi through: teaching and learning ng forums involving lv all first-year rs instructors and tutors organized at the beginning of each s semester regular lunch gatherings gs for first-year a instructors o to share experience and good practice A First Year Teaching and d Learning Web e site (http://year1.cityu.edu.hk) t has been created to support the Faculty's c teaching h and learning e efforts within the first year of the BBA programme.
http://www.cityu.edu.hk/fb
Personalized Instruction with Wireless PDAs All first-year students are provided with wireless PDAs (personal digital assistants which are pocket PCs). This initiative significantly boosts faculty-student interaction in large classes by: enabling instructors to ask questions in different formats and view students’ immediate feedback at individual and group levels motivating students to answer or raise questions anonymously or with identities revealed “The use of PDAs has brought on revolutionary changes in the classroom,” said Dr Ron Kwok, Assistant Professor who teaches first year Management Information Systems. “Instead of dead silence, we now get a large number of enthusiastic responses from students to our questions. How to handle numerous students’ responses within the time available poses a NEW challenge to instructors teaching large classes.”
Supplemental Instruction (SI) With senior students serving as SI leaders to review course material with junior counterparts, the scheme helps students to: become more participatory and proactive develop effective study skills “Both SI leaders and students welcome SI because it is disciplined, interactive, proactive and effective”, said Dr. Margaret Poon, Associate Professor in the Department of Accountancy and Coordinator of the Supplemental Instruction Scheme. “It is encouraging to see students become life-long learners through this learning initiative offered by the Faculty of Business.”
e-Organization – Simulated Organization for Problem-based Learning A “Simulated organization for problem-based learning”, code named e-Org, is a “simulated organization” (embedded in first year courses) for students to holistically experience operations in various departments of an organization. (Web site: http://blackboard.cityu.edu.hk/eorg/standalone/)
It aims to:
provide a basis for problem-based learning for first year students in organizational contexts help students to understand the inter-relationship between core courses
Embedded Ethics Education FB’s approach to ethics education: Adopted five core values, i.e. integrity, responsibility, fairness, respect, and compassion Ethical issues and core values are embedded into first year courses Workshops and forums for instructors are held at the beginning of each semester Set up an “Ethics Homepage” on the First Year Teaching and Learning Web site (http://year1.cityu.edu.hk/tiki-index.php?page=Ethics+Resources) which functions as a repository for resources related to ethics education
5 Core Values
integrity ty responsibility onsibility ty fairness ss respect compassion mpassion
ᔌ᳅ Ჵ⪸ ҝᔌ ҝ ᄪ