Description

An open lecture and workshop series were held in March by Dr. Andrew Furco. Dr. Furco is Associate Vice President for Public Engagement at the University of Minnesota, who oversees the advancement of community-engaged research, teaching, and outreach initiatives across the University. The theme of this series is research and assessment in SL. This series attracted 170 academic staff and practitioners from local and Macau universities.

Impact

The distinguished scholar, Dr. Andrew Furco, updated the present trend of SL research in U.S. and shared how to conduct outstanding SL research to the practitioners of Hong Kong. The open lecture promoted good practices and sharing of experiences on the research of SL (Objective i) and received excellent feedback from the attendees (Appendix C). 92% of the respondents (n=26) indicated that it was a very excellent or good learning experience (mean score=4.36) as well as it was very useful to their practice (mean score=4.31).

The open lecture also encouraged a scholarly/evidence-based teaching pedagogy in SL (Objective ii). Through the lecture, 96% (n=26) agreed or strongly agreed that they learned the state of the research on SL (mean score=4.38) and 100% indicated that they knew about the impacts of SL (mean score=4.31). 94% stated that they had learned some of the methodological challenges and debates in conducting research on SL (mean score=4.35) and 88% showed that they identified possible areas for research in the future after the lecture (mean score=4.24).