From Technology to Pedagogy - Using E-learning Initiative to Drive Pedagogy Reflection and Redesign

Abstract

Using technology to enhance teaching and learning has been a heated discussion and a well-explored topic in contemporary education. The adoption of educational technology has shed light on addressing the challenges presented by the learning styles and habits of millennial students. It is now common to see teachers using multimodal teaching resources, interactive tools, online learning management systems, and the like to empower and engage their students. This paper presents a case study on an e-learning initiative at The University of Hong Kong with three cases of teachers developing their Small Private Online Courses (SPOCs) with the support from the e-learning unit. The project documents were reviewed and teachers and project team members were interviewed to understand their collaboration model and their perspectives towards the initiative. Findings revealed teachers’ positive experience with and attitudes towards e-learning, as well as the collaboration with the e-learning unit. More importantly, all three teachers reported their pedagogy reflection and redesign in the process of developing their SPOCs. Lastly, challenges were identified and some strategies to tackle them were shared in the hope of provide recommendations for institutions and teachers facing similar difficulties.