New Hybrid Learning Mobile Desk Console System by The Centre of the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning of the University of Hong Kong

Abstract

Higher education institutions across the globe have taken advantage of off-campus delivery to reconsider and reconfigure learning spaces. At the heart of these re-designs is an effort to embrace all that has been learnt during campus closures and remote, online instruction (Raes, 2021). Like most institutions, The University of Hong Kong (HKU), experimented with various models of on-campus provision with staff surveys and research into student choice identifying synchronous hybrid (dual-mode), also referred to as concurrent hybrid/ HyFlex, as the most challenging for teacher facilitation and student engagement (Zeng & Bridges, 2022). Teacher facilitation is challenging given: a) existing lecture-room layouts (fixed desk settings) and technologies (online participant display; audibility); and b) the coordination and monitoring of collaborative group work in large classes with many resorting to a ‘divide and conquer’ approach separating online and in-person groups. Despite the return to on-campus learning for undergraduate students, the team at the Centre for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning (CETL) predict that faculty development programmes and seminars will continue to include online and hybrid options. The University Grants Committee (UGC) funded CETL Learning Lab was launched in May 2022 with the key design principles of ‘flat’, ‘flexible’ and ‘interactive’. Our goal was to support seamless physical–virtual group collaboration and effective teacher facilitation by placing virtual/online group members at the center rather than the periphery of breakout and whole-group discussions. In the design process, we successfully obtained a patent in the People's Republic of China for a ‘New Hybrid Learning Mobile Desk Console System’. This presentation outlines the CETL Learning Lab design which was featured as an ‘exemplar project’ under “Hybrid Learning Spaces in Practice” in the 2022 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report | Teaching and Learning Edition.