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HKUST Alumni News 2015
The HKUST Edge
The buzz in education right now is all about MOOCs, which stands for Massive Open Online
Courses. HKUST is a pioneer in Asia for MOOCs – not just by offering courses, but also, thanks
to the work of Prof Ting-Chuen Pong and his team, for collecting and analyzing data related to
online learning. This knowledge is being harnessed to improve the quality of education received
by students – both on campus and around the world.
I
f you are among alumni who graduated in the early years of
HKUST, you will be aware that the learning environment is very
different today, thanks to the development of new technology.
Laptops and mobile devices are as much a part of students’
equipment as pens and notebooks in days gone by, while the
internet has irrevocably changed the way students learn. Prof Ting-
Chuen Pong, Director of Center for Engineering Education Innovation
of the School of Engineering, and Senior Advisor to the Executive
Vice-President and Provost (Teaching Innovation and E-Learning), is
at the forefront of HKUST’s involvement in one of the most recent
educational developments – MOOCs. The University is a pioneer in
Asia for this global phenomenon.
MOOCs date back to spring 2012, when two Stanford University
professors set up Coursera, followed a few months later by the edX
platform developed by Harvard and MIT. “They attracted a lot of
attention, particularly because Coursera registered its rst one million
users faster than Facebook,” says Prof Pong. “I happened to be at a
Boston conference in the summer of 2012, and took the opportunity
to introduce myself to edX, and then in San Francisco I went to see
the Coursera team. Coursera was thinking to expand into Asia, so
HKUST became a partner in September 2012 – the rst institution in
Asia to offer MOOCs – and a few months later we joined edX.”
The University set up an e-learning taskforce the same year, of
which Prof Pong is chairman. With members drawn from different
Schools, it explores strategy, effectiveness and quality of programs,
with its instructional design team and designated studios producing
Harnessing the
Power of Onlin
Learning
