Covid-19 has brought about many changes to our daily habits and this includes teaching and learning within our Faculty. At the start of the pandemic, our teachers and students had to quickly grapple with new technologies and get used to delivering and attending classes online. Our teachers very soon found out that this was more than just delivering classes through an online meeting. Since there are different objectives and delivery modes for different types of classes, it was important that our teachers not only modify their class’ contents but also the structure and materials of their courses to cater for effective online learning so that our students can make the most out of e-learning.
Thanks to the Faculty’s dedicated IT Team, a Law Studio is set up within Cheng Yu Tung Tower to assist the recording and delivering of online classes. Together with the Faculty’s Teaching and Learning Working Group (the “Working Group”), different online tools and learning methods were explored, tried and tested. This e-learning initiative was led by Principal Lecturers Ms Julienne Jen and Ms Vicci Lau who are both convenors of the Working Group. Both teachers of the PCLL course who had to tackle different teaching and learning exercises from lectures to focused exercises, to practical small group sessions, oral exercises and workshops, Ms Jen and Ms Lau took the courage to try out various online tools available and held regular teaching and learning sharing sessions with teachers within the Faculty to share their experience. These sharing sessions ranged from tutors’ meetings to learn how to use basic online meeting tools, to sharing sessions on lesson and activities’ planning, recording of knowledge-based lectures, editing of videos, preparation of online quizzes to exam setting and proctoring. Partnering with the Faculty’s IT Team, Ms Jen and Ms Lau also recorded demonstration video clips which are uploaded onto the Faculty’s e-learning hub for all teachers’ use and reference. Ms Jen and Ms Lau also conduct regular informal online surveys and online meetings with students to ensure students’ wellbeing and that their needs are met during the e-learning period. Tips of such activities are also shared at the Working Group’s sharing sessions.
Ms Jen and Ms Lau are currently partnering with Ms Alice Lee (recipient of the University’s Distinguished Teaching Award in 2019) and Ms Phoebe Woo (together, “the Team”) and obtained a Teaching Development Grant to further their work on e-learning. Through research and student surveys, the Team believe that whilst some aspects of student learning is still best conducted face-to-face, there is value in e-learning for some aspects of teaching. In addition, it is inevitable that as our students are more advanced with using technology, some teaching and learning activities can be well supported with e-learning tools. For their Teaching Development Grant, the Team are conducting further surveys from other universities in HK and worldwide to gather more information about different e-leaning practices and their impact. The Team are looking to conclude their project by building up an online e-learning resources platform accessible to all law teachers to illustrate their findings and to share their tips and suggestions about the different e-learning tools available.
In the interim, Ms Jen and Ms Lau have already shared their research in different international teaching and learning conferences – the Legal Education Research Conference organised by the University of New South Wales in November 2021[1]; and the BILETA Conference in April 2022. The Team are due to present at the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Directions in Legal Education 2022 Conference in June 2022.
Ms Julienne Jen and Ms Vicci Lau presented at the BILETA Conference
Ms Jen and Ms Lau presented at the UNSW Conference, together with Dr Michael Ng and Mr Wilson Chow
Ms Julienne Jen is a Principal Lecturer and Director of the Full-time PCLL Programme. Ms Jen is the recipient of the University’s Outstanding Teaching Award in 2019. Ms Vicci Lau is a Principal Lecturer and Director of the Part-time PCLL Programme. Ms Lau is the recipient of the Faculty’s Outstanding Teaching Award in 2017. Ms Jen and Ms Lau work very hard to strive to improve our teachers’ and students’ teaching and learning experience. They have been recognised in their professionalism and leadership in teaching and learning and achieved the qualification of Senior Fellow of the Advance HE Scheme in April 2022. Ms Jen and Ms Lau are 2 of the 4 Senior Fellows within the Faculty, the other 2 being Mr Wilson Chow and Ms Alice Lee.
Ms Julienne Jen
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[1] Ms Jen presented about the PCLL programme experience and her online teaching experience in the Civil Litigation course together with Mr Wilson Chow and Dr Michael Ng; and Ms Lau presented individually on her online teaching experience in transactional law courses in the PCLL programme.