Happy New Year! Welcome to the e-bulletin of Communities of Practice (CoPs), where you will be able to catch up with our most updated events and information of the five CoPs in PolyU.

This knowledge exchange forum was held on 14 November 2014 and featured short presentations by representatives from MTR Corporation, China Light & Power (CLP), Hong Kong Police, Huawei, and PolyU, which have established their own CoPs. These representatives gathered together to share their experiences on how to cultivate a CoP to enhance knowledge sharing, learning and other purposes. More than 70 participants attended the forum and discussed the establishment of their CoPs, the purposes that they served, the nurturing progress of these CoPs, and the critical factors of succeeding in and sustaining the impact of CoPs.

Videos of the forum are available here. Please note that the videos are for internal use only in PolyU. You may also download the presenters' PowerPoint slides at http://www.polyu.edu.hk/CoP/events_galleries.php.

The eight funded departmental projects on academic advising commenced in April 2014 and were all completed by end of December 2014.

On 3 December 2014, Dr. K.L. Yick and Dr. Joanne Yip of the Institute of Textiles & Clothing (ITC) held a 5-hour workshop to help students prepare for the examination. Over 100 ITC undergraduate students joined the workshop. The workshop provided students with advice on organizing subject materials for the examination and formulating suitable study plan. It also helped students understand the examination questions better and therefore answer the questions more effectively.

In addition, Dr. K. W. Kwok from the Department of Applied Physics (AP) held an Alumni Sharing Session for AP students on 20 December 2014. The session helped AP students prepare for their placements before graduation. Four alumni working in different fields were invited to share their working experiences and knowledge required for local industries. Job opportunities were also introduced.

For further information, please visit http://www.polyu.edu.hk/CoP/academic_advising/showcase.php.

"What will it take to educate the next generation of thought-leaders for a complicated world?" This 6 weeks exhibition (1 December 2014 -16 January 2015), generously hosted in our library, centres around this burning question. It is an important question in the midst of an ever changing fast paced world filled with contradictions, ambiguity, uncertainty, increasing competing demands and immense opportunities. As soon as you enter the library, you will find 11 columns at various locations showcasing answers to this burning question from the key stakeholders of PolyU (teachers, researchers, administrators and industry leaders) and international scholars of leading universities around the world.

Please come to this exhibition, visit as many exhibition columns as you can, and take a moment to pause and reflect on the answers. At the end of three weeks, we will post a new set of answers for your contemplation. Students are also encouraged to share their opinion by submitting their answers to this burning question on this website: http://goo.gl/forms/KqOWkPX7XZ (the first 80 thought-provoking replies will each receive a $50 cash coupon from Habitu Cafe).

We believe this exhibition has the power to captivate the imagination and inspire us all to work together to help make this world a better place.

Please go to this website for more details: http://www.polyu.edu.hk/CoP/excellent_teaching/exhibition.php

The CoP on Enhancing Students’ English Abilities re-ran its popular workshop “The Use of Concordancer & Collocations in Research Writing” on 16 December 2014. When it was first ran in October 2014, 60 people registered, and 57 people registered this time.

This workshop was for academic staff members who would like to further advance their research writing skills or are keen to help students become better communicators in their disciplines. The workshop explored two Cs that can be valuable tools for research writing and other genres of written or spoken communication: Concordancer and Collocations.

Supported by the Member Development Fund of Blackboard LMS CoP, Dr. Doris Chong (Department of Rehabilitation Sciences) attended the LEARNTech Asia Conference in Singapore on 13 - 14 November 2014. The conference theme was “Rethink Training!” with three workshop tracks – Learning with design, learning with technology and learning with leadership. The panel of international renowned speakers reviewed the current issues in education and training, and shared the future trends in learning technology.

The conference was found very useful. Prof. Curtis Bonk’s lecture on “50 transformational learning technology trends and innovations that will impact business and society” was very practical and he reviewed various ways to connect current technology with pedagogy. Mr. Patrick Hollingworth’s workshop on “Delivering deep leadership and teaming experiential learning opportunities via visually engaging real-world simulations” was especially impressive. He demonstrated the use of a mountaineering expedition simulation program in training decision-making and teamwork skills. This conference provided a great opportunity for participants to reflect and rethink how technology can be used in current teaching practices.