Mobile phones have found a new application: a mobile learning tool. Dr. Peter Clarke in the English Language Teaching Unit has recently tested an innovative mobile learning strategy using SMS (short message service) with mobile phones. During a 7-week course on Social English in the second term of 2006-2007, he found that it was quite convenient to send a brief question to each of his students every day for the duration of the course, using the SMS server newly set up by ITSC. Students received an SMS question on their phones each day. The answer of the question was then sent to the students through SMS the following day, together with the next question.

This course offers one weekly 2-hour class, but Peter believes that English cannot be learnt effectively if students have contact with the subject only once a week. The SMS quiz tackled this problem by reminding students of the material every day, and prompting them to look at their notes to find answers.

This is a sample of the questions he asked, together with the answer:
"The view from your hostel room is 'very nice': what other word? - Splendid, awesome or gorgeous". Peter noted that there was a technical limitation in that the SMS messages had to be short. The questions were thus largely closed-ended and unambiguous.

Nevertheless, Peter is happy to report that the strategy successfully engaged the students. Despite the fact that no marks or external incentives were given to students in completing the quizzes, Peter learnt in the course-end survey that most of the students were motivated in the activity. Students remarked that they did indeed revisit the notes in order to answer the questions. They liked the daily challenges to be in the mobile format. Also, as the quizzes were 'pushed' to them, students did not have to look for the questions as they would have if the quizzes were administered by being placed on a website or e-learning platform such as WebCT or Moodle.

Peter is already thinking about further extending the strategy in his next attempts by encouraging the students to reply. He is planning to use the approach in his other courses too.

Teachers interested in the SMS quiz approach can contact Peter by email at pgclarke@cuhk.edu.hk For more information about the SMS server see below.

Dr. Peter Clarke

CUHK is about to move to the new version of WebCT starting in the 2007-08 academic year. This new version of WebCT includes a variety of additional improvements designed to further support teachers of all experience levels with online learning, and also to improve students' management of their assignments and online assessments. For example, instead of grouping learning activities by functional base, the new Learning Module function allows teachers to organize different learning activities, such as lecture notes, assignments, discussion topics, according to the designed learning sequence. The uploading of files has also been streamlined. Teachers can easily move files - more than one at a time if desired - from their computers into their courses, using the intuitive desktop-style navigation. A number of training sessions will be held to prepare teachers for the updates. Please read the 'forthcoming events' in this newsletter for some of the activities and please also pay attention to our future announcements.

WebCT CE6

Emails are convenient but yet they may not be able to reach students quickly enough when compared with SMS messaging. In Hong Kong, where nearly everyone owns a mobile phone, the advantage of using SMS to communicate may be even more obvious. ITSC has recently developed an online system to let teachers send batch messages to single or groups of students conveniently through a web-based interface. This SMS gateway service can be found at https://sms-gateway.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/ The messages go to the phone of the students regardless of the network they are using. Interested parties please contact Christina Keing (Keing@cuhk.edu.hk) for details.

SMS gateway service

LAMS (http://www.lamsfoundation.org/) is open-source software developed at Macquarie University in Australia. James Dalziel, the originator of the tool, has described LAMS as the lesson plan for eLearning activities. LAMS provides educators with a highly intuitive visual authoring environment. The building of sequences involves easy drag-and-drop actions. It creates sequences of learning activities, rather than isolated learning objects or online exercises. It also supports activity sequences that involve multiple types of activities.

LAMS has the potential to benefit both online and in-class learning. Disorganized eLearning objects may offer little learning support, and so the introduction of sequenced online activities provides more guidance over what and how students can learn. Also, while traditional classroom activities may be too structured and restrictive, sequenced online activities can be used in the classroom to allow some measure of flexibility to be introduced to class activities.

A testing LAMS server has been set up at CUHK for individual teachers. Please visit http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/clear/lams-cuhk/lams.htm Contact Paul Lam (paul.lam@cuhk.edu.hk) for more details.

LAMS@CUHK

In order to accrue necessary clinical experience, qualified Chinese medicine practitioners need to go through a lengthy period of clinical training in which they are involved in the treatment of an extensive number of clinical cases. Prof. Z. X. Lin in the School of Chinese Medicine is developing a considerable number of case-based eLearning materials to provide students with real clinical cases. The online learning format is not designed to replace the existing clinical placement practice but should enrich it by giving students an additional opportunity to benefit from viewing and interacting with a greater number of real clinical cases.

The online cases are designed to be a rich, interactive and enabling multimedia learning environment:

-	There is a wide array of clinical cases.
-	There are questions that require student input at various decision points of the cases and students receive feedback based on their input.
-	Follow-up activities are suggested to facilitate discussion of the cases in class.
-	The clinical cases are presented in a near-to-real scenario via web links together with high resolution digital photos, video and graphics.

The first phase of the development has resulted in more than 20 cases concerning three main areas of illnesses. Students in the School are currently using the materials as additional learning resources. Feedback from the students will be collected soon and their suggestions will be incorporated into the second phase development.

Prof. Z. X. Lin

Case story

Case questions

Asking students to submit their assignments electronically is not only an environmentally friendly practice (less paper), but can also lead to direct benefits to both teachers and students. First of all, it can mean convenience to teachers as they should find punctual submission less of a problem because the system provides a date stamp. If they feel comfortable reading students' assignments on-screen, they are also relieved of the need to carry heavy assignments around and they can access students' work virtually anywhere as long as there is an internet connection. Perhaps, most importantly, online submission may lead to improved learning, as most online submission systems allow teachers to easily type in feedback. Feedback can be given to the whole class as group comments or can be through links to additional online materials. There is also the possibility of facilitating peer-discussions on assignments if all pieces of work are now stored online. Both WebCT and Moodle, the online learning platforms supported by the University, have easy-to-use and powerful assignment submission functions. Contact us for more details: elearning@cuhk.edu.hk

A workshop on how to use eAssessment tools for formative and summative assessment purposes was successfully held on 29 March, 2007. In the workshop, the speakers explained with real examples how formative online exercises can provide opportunities for students to practise and learn, and also assist teachers in understanding the learning progress of their students. Real cases of summative online tests were also mentioned to illustrate how the technology can provide certain level of convenience to teachers and students. After the practical ideas of how eAssessment can be useful in the local context, there was a quick demonstration about how some of these ideas can be easily accomplished by the technology now available at the University. The PowerPoint file used in the workshop is now available here for those who missed the session: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/eLearning/resources/download/ATT695788.ppt

"Launch of WebCT CE6 for Trial" seminar
Date: 4 May 07, Friday
Time: 10:00am - 11:30am
Venue: ITSC Seminar Room (Room 120-121, Pi Chiu Building)
Online registration: http://training.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/coursedetail.aspx?id=ELN0601

Workshop: Supporting learning communities: How to do it for free
Professor David M. Kennedy, HKU
Date: 8 May 07, Tuesday
Time: 12:30pm - 1:45pm
Venue: Room 804, William M.W. Mong Engineering Building
Online registration: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/clear/registration/form-52.htm

Workshop: Appropriate assessments for case-based teaching & learning
Professor Paul Lam, CLEAR, CUHK
Date: 10 May 07, Thursday
Time: 12:30pm - 1:30pm
Venue: Room 804, William M.W. Mong Engineering Building
Online registration: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/clear/registration/form-51.htm

Workshop: Dos and don'ts for writing multiple-choice items
Professor Carmel McNaught, CLEAR, CUHK
Date: 17 May 07, Thursday
Time: 12:30pm - 1:30pm
Venue: Room 804, William M.W. Mong Engineering Building
Online registration: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/clear/registration/form-51.htm

WebCT CE6 Workshop (for current WebCT teachers)
Date: 28 May 07, Monday and 7 June 07, Thursday
Time: 9:30am - 4:30pm
Venue: Room 127, Pi Chiu Building
Online registration: http://training.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/coursedetail.aspx?id=WCT10E01 or http://training.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/coursedetail.aspx?id=WCT10E02

mLearn
http://www.mlearn2007.org/
Submission deadline: 1 June 2007
Date: 16-19 October 2007
Place: Melbourne

Ascilite
http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/singapore07/
Proposal due: 23 July 2007
Date: 2-5 December 2007
Place: Singapore

eLearning clinic: We provide free face-to-face assistance to teachers on eLearning matters. Contact us to arrange for appointments at: elearning@cuhk.edu.hk

Course outline revision service: We assist teachers in reviewing course outlines of their courses (based on CUHK's teaching and learning 'Integrated Framework'). The version of a course outline put on the course website should provide students with rich information about the course. See http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/eLearning/resources/course_plan.htm. Please contact us for more details: alex.wong@cuhk.edu.hk