The Possible Role of IT in Reconciling Disciplinary Practices with the Desired Learning Outcomes of a New General Education (GE) Programme

Wendy Chan
Milen Jissov

BNU-HKBU United International College, Zhuhai, Guangdong, China 

 

Abstract: 

Following the “3-3-4” academic reform in Hong Kong, the BNU-HKBU United International College (UIC)

redesigned its General Education (GE) programme to bring it closer in line with the new curricular structure of its parent institution, Hong Kong Baptist University. The redesigned programme consists of “core” and “distribution” requirements, each of which has specific learning outcomes. While core courses aim at providing students with transferable skills, such as IT, language and numerical skills, and attitudes and values that will help them to lead a balanced life during and after their college education, distribution courses seek to broaden students’ learning by having them pursue areas of knowledge outside their major discipline. The new GE programme, moreover, encourages students to connect and synthesize information produced by different disciplines, and to employ the interdisciplinary knowledge that they have thus developed to gain insight into contemporary issues. However, having been trained and teaching in a discipline with established conventions and practices, faculty find that enabling students to achieve these learning outcomes could be challenging. Can IT help? This presentation scrutinizes UIC’s redesigned GE programme and reflects on the possible role of IT in reconciling established disciplinary practices, in, for example, course design and teaching strategies and objectives, with the programme’s very different set of learning outcomes. Also, using courses in history as an example, it explores their traditional pedagogy and the potential of IT to align that pedagogy with UIC’s new GE learning outcomes. These inquiries hope to enhance the examination of IT’s impact on university education at eLearning Forum Asia 2013.