THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG
Teaching Development Grants
Please tick: / Progress report / Final report / √1. Project Title: Teaching Development Grant 2006
Support for internship and final year projects for undergraduate students at The University of Hong Kong
2. Investigator(s)
Name / Faculty/Department/CentrePrincipal Investigator / Dr Sam Chu / Program Director, BSc [Information Management], Faculty of Education
Co-investigator(s) / Dr Agnes Tiwari;
Dr Francis Lee;
Prof Nancy Law;
Dr David Kennedy;
Dr Alvin Kwan;
Mr Peter Warning / Department of Nursing Studies, Faculty of Medicine
Department of Social Work and Social Administration, Faculty of Social Sciences
Division of Information & Technology Studies, Faculty of Education
Division of Information & Technology Studies, Faculty of Education
Division of Information & Technology Studies, Faculty of Education
Division of Information & Technology Studies, Faculty of Education
3. Project Duration
Start Date / Completion Date / Duration(in months)
Original date / 1st March, 07 / 30th March, 09 / 25 months
Revised date (if any) / 1st March, 07 / 30 September, 09 / 31 months
(Note: / Any request for project extension should be made separately in writing, with justifications, to the Secretary, TLQC.)
4. Project Expenditure
4.a Account Code: 10100269.27089.10000.304.01
4.b Other Source(s) of Funding (if any)
Source Amount (HK$)
4.c TDG Budget and Expenditure
Staff / Equipment / General Expenses / Others (please specify) / TotalBudget as approved by TLQC / 362,024 / 10,000 / 17,000 / 389,024
Expenditure up to last report (a)
Expenditure during current report (b) / 373,030.05 / 0 / 13,784.68 / 0 / 386,814.73
Total Expenditure to date (a + b): / 373,030.05 / 0 / 13,784.68 / 0 / 389,024 (including encumbrance but not yet spent $2209.27)
5. Progress
5.a Project objective(s) and deliverable(s) as per original project proposal
Objectives:
1. To examine HKU undergraduate students’ experiential learning experience in their internships and Final Year Projects (FYP) in order to provide useful information on how to enhance students’ experiential learning outcome.
2. To investigate the effectiveness of IT in supporting such learning activities.
Through collaborative work across faculties, we compare students’ experiential learning experience from three programs i.e. Bachelor of Science in Information Management in the Faculty of Education (BScIM), Bachelor of Social Sciences in the Faculty of Social Sciences (BSS) and Bachelor of Nursing in the Faculty of Medicine (Nursing). Please note that the FYP data are only collected from BScIM and BSS (Psychology) students as Nursing students are not required to do any FYP.
Deliverables:
1. Report(s) on using technologies for supporting internship/ FYP √
2. Report(s) on different types of final year project offered at HKU and in other universities √
3. Report(s) on the identification of preparations needed prior to internship/ FYP √
4. Report(s) on the relationship between the students’ knowledge and skills and expected tasks of the organization √
5. Report(s) on desirable supports for students doing internship/ FYP √
6. Report(s) on students’ reflections on their learning during internships/ FYP incorporating both their online reflections and survey/interview results √
7. Report(s) on a comparison of various assessment strategies and on students’ and supervisors’ opinions of the different kinds of assessment tools √
8. Report(s) on an analysis and an evaluation of the entire project √
9. Final report for the entire project √
5.b Activities organised, findings or output of the project during this reporting period (please also indicate the rough % of project completion)
The project generates a number of findings and outputs which will be elaborated via the deliverables (corresponding to the deliverables listed in 5a) as follows:
1. Deliverable 1: Findings on using technologies for supporting internship/ FYP are reported in the several papers to be mentioned in 5d.
2. Deliverable 2: Different types of final year project offered at HKU and in other universities[1]
Besides examining the FYP offered by the Faculty of Education (BScIM) and Faculty of Social Sciences (Psychology) at the University of Hong Kong, we have also looked at those offered by other local universities through interviewing the supervisors concerned[2]. For students from another information management program, they are required to collect their FYP data during their internships. Therefore, FYP and internships are linked closely together. However, for BScIM students at our university, their FYP may not be linked to their internship as they can approach other organizations to collect data. In this way, students have more freedom to choose their target organization yet more effort may be required in gathering information about the organization.
For BSS students who worked on their FYP (thesis) at this university, they only have one academic year to prepare for it and some of them reported not having enough preparation time. Through interviewing a thesis supervisor from another local university, however, we learnt that they allow 2 years for students to work on their theses, from the drafting of research proposal to handing in the final written report. Therefore, it is suggested that faculties should try to announce the details of FYP as early as possible so that students can have sufficient time to prepare for it. Moreover, it is suggested by a FYP supervisor that the university should provide more platforms for students to share their research findings so as to increase the perceived importance of doing FYP.
On the whole, the FYP supervisors from all three universities acknowledged that FYP is a valuable learning opportunity for students through which students can apply their subject knowledge and enhance their research skills.
3. Deliverable 3: Types of preparations required prior to internship/FYP
Internship. Each of the three faculties provided some kinds of seminars and/or workshops to prepare students for their internships/practicum. For example, two briefing sessions and a workshop on internship application skills were arranged for BScIM students in order to provide details in internship opportunities and arrangement. Skills in writing application letters and attending interviews were also taught as students had to apply for their interested organizations. The two most common types of preparation by students before internships are to gather information online and to read relevant books or watch videos. For further details on this part, please refer to Table 1 in the Appendices of this report and Reports 1-3 (http://web.hku.hk/~samchu/TDG/Report1_Alvin_Prepare_BSIM_students_for_PE.doc, http://web.hku.hk/~samchu/TDG/Report2_Francis_Prepare SS_students for Internship.doc, http://web.hku.hk/~samchu/TDG/Report3_Irene_Prep Nursing Studs-Clinical Practicum.doc).
FYP. Both faculties required students (i.e. BScIM and BSS students) to take a research method course in the first year to equip students with the essential research skills in their FYP. Besides, students are provided with work of previous students as reference. The most common types of preparation for both groups of students are acquiring research skills and subject knowledge prior to their FYP as shown in Table 2.
4. Deliverable 4: Relationship between the students’ knowledge and skills and expected tasks of the organization
The tasks assigned to Nursing students are largely related to their field of learning as they undertook their practicum in hospitals. However, the tasks assigned to both BScIM and BSS students varied much that some reported that they learnt skills beyond what their programs teach them. For further information, please refer to Report 4 (http://web.hku.hk/~samchu/TDG/Report4_Francis_Relationship bt-interns & org tasks.doc).
5. Deliverable 5: Desirable supports for students during internship/ FYP
Internship. Students identified various sources of support during their internships including colleagues, work supervisors, faculty supervisors and internship partners. For BScIM and BSS students, their main source of support was from their work supervisors. On the other hand, Nursing students identified their main source of support as other staff in the ward e.g. registered nurses. A possible explanation for such difference is due to the teamwork nature of nurses which requires Nursing students to work closely with their colleagues during their practicum.
FYP. Students from BScIM and BSS who completed their FYP consider their supervisors’ regular feedback much desirable, especially when they encounter problems on defining the research topic and analyzing data. It is common for students not knowing what information to search for when they first started. Many of them also mentioned the importance of having basic research knowledge and skills before they started working on the FYP. Therefore, some preparation course on research skills beforehand would be useful to facilitate students’ work during FYP.
6. Deliverable 6: Students’ reflections on their learning during internships/ FYP
Internship. Students across the 3 programs gave a considerable amount of positive comments on the learning outcomes brought by their internships. From Table 3, more than one third of the participants from each group regarded internship as an opportunity to apply what they have learnt and enhance their learning experience in that area. Many of them shared about learning new skills at work that is out of their expectation. However, quite a number of students reported feeling stressful and worried during their internships as shown in Table 4. This is especially true for the Nursing students who mainly worried about harming patients due to their inexperience.
FYP. From Table 5, majority of the students from both faculties regarded doing FYP as a good opportunity to enhance their subject knowledge and research skills because they can have in-depth investigation into their research topics. Almost all the students (90%) think that FYP is an essential component of their program because it allows them to apply what they have learnt and produce a significant piece of work. However, a majority of the participants suggested that the faculty should introduce FYP and provide sufficient guidelines as early as possible. This allows students a longer period of time to prepare for this project.
7. Deliverable 7: Comparison of various assessment strategies and students’ and supervisors’ opinions of the different kinds of assessment tools for internship/ FYP
Internship. Upon examining the assessment components for students from the 3 programs, students’ work performance and their ability to reflect on the experience are commonly regarded as the most important aspects to be evaluated. Most of the faculty supervisors and clinical instructors[3] commented that the evaluation of work performance and students’ reflective reports together allows a more comprehensive way to assess students’ learning experience. Interestingly, it is found that the assessment strategies for BScIM and BSS students are quite different from that for Nursing students as the latter put their assessment focus on nurses’ professional care-giving behaviours rather than report-writing. Besides, many of the BScIM students suggested blogging to account for less weighting in assessing their internship performance as such high weighting would make students write blogs for the sake of writing them only. After all, it is important to enhance students’ intrinsic motivation to write blogs.
FYP. Faculty supervisors who employ peer evaluation for FYP (which is usually a group work for BScIM students) think that it is still difficult to determine individual contribution for the project. The criteria for interpreting peer assessment should be made more specific. Some of the FYP supervisors from the Social Sciences Faculty commented that the two-marker approach to assessing students’ work is more objective than the single marker approach on the whole. Students are generally satisfied with the current assessment approach as the assessment components and criteria are clearly stated at the beginning.
8. Deliverable 8: Analysis and evaluation of the entire project
To summarize, we have achieved the main objective of this project which is to examine students’ professional experiences to provide useful information on how to enhance students’ experiential learning outcome. In particular, we had in-depth investigation into the effectiveness of IT in supporting these learning experiences and presented the findings in 5d below. We have summarized the positive effects of internships/FYP and this report hopes to provide useful information to other faculties which are implementing or considering to implement these experiential learning activities.
All of the deliverables promised in the proposal are completed (100% of the project is completed).
5.c Achieving original project objective(s) vis-à-vis objectives of TDG/4-year undergraduate curriculum reform (Please state how and to what extent the project objectives and deliverables have been achieved vis-à-vis objectives of TDG/4-year undergraduate curriculum reform; give reasons for under-achievement(s) and outline action/attempts to overcome problems, if any)
With regard to the 2 objectives listed in 5a, data collected generally point to the positive effect of internship/FYP on Undergraduate students’ learning as it provides an opportunity for students to apply what they have learnt from their programs. With the upcoming 4-year curriculum reform, many faculty supervisors expressed their desire on expanding the scope and duration of internship/FYP. They believe that these professional experiences would benefit students’ learning and provide useful working experience. This TDG report would serve as an initiative for programs that have not adopted these professional experiences to consider implementing them to provide a more holistic learning experience for their Undergraduate students.
5.d Assessment of effectiveness of the (new) initiatives and scope of applicability and impact of these activities on improving teaching and learning at University and/or Faculty level, i.e. what the learning outcomes are and how these have been/would be achieved and assessed; whether students are learning better and how project effectiveness is/would be measured; etc. (please provide details and empirical evidence to demonstrate project effectiveness/success. If supported by TDG funding earmarked for 4-year Curriculum Reform, please comment in the context of curriculum reform development, specifically how the project’s findings/output fit in/address the following aspects in the discussion document “Transforming Student Learning”: i) educational aims; ii) distinctive features of the new curriculum; iii) principles of curriculum design; iv) curriculum content, pedagogy and assessment; v) enabling curriculum structure; and vi) Faculty-based academic advisory system for students.)
Our study provides empirical evidence in regard to the pedagogies introduced in the 4-year-curriculum discussion document titled “Transforming Student Learning”. More specifically, our findings generally point to the positive impact of internship and FYP as experiential learning experience, as mentioned earlier, majority of students evaluated their internships positively and more than one third of the students indicated that they treasured their internships as an opportunity to apply what they have learnt. This supports the notion that the bridging of theories and practices is very important to prepare our students for their future employment. Moreover, the use of technologies, including blogs and Wiki, helps to enrich students’ learning environment as these are shown to be effective communication tools in collaborative work (e.g. FYP). Please refer to the report summaries below and the full reports that have been uploaded onto the web for further details and empirical data that indicate how technologies help enhance teaching and learning.