Developed and Taught Subjects

Teaching Philosophy

Integrating authentic research tasks into teaching practice to motivate students and develop the skills of self-directed and lifelong learning

I believe the art of teaching is to motivate students to develop the skills of self-directed learning. This has become increasingly critical, especially for fast-changing fields like engineering and information technology, as the life-cycle of new technologies has become significantly shortened. For example, we were thinking about 5G technologies just about 5 years ago or so, while now, research into 6G is already underway and 5G has been rolled out for years. Within these 5 years, which is about the time it takes for a student to complete an engineering degree, what they have been taught may become less relevant by the time they graduate. It is even worse as most of the time, the teaching and learning materials would have been prepared a few years before subjects are taught. This fact asks us to re-think what universities should do to better train the next generation of engineers. What can we do to equip our students with state-of-the-art knowledge so that they can be job-ready and become innovative leaders? Addressing these questions is not a trivial matter, especially when a too frequent review of courses and subjects is not a viable option. 

The World's first Real-Time Radio Spectrum Map developed and showcased at Sydney Tech Exhibition CeBIT 2017 by our undergraduate students

Moreover, with the penetration of the internet, distance-learning and the availability of various learning resources, students are exposed to ever-growing learning opportunities and sources of knowledge. Beside the positive side, the abundance of resources also requires students to have the skills to navigate themselves to make the most of their limited time. How can we, as teachers in engineering and information technology, leverage these new learning opportunities to transform the way our students learn during their time at university?

The answer to the above questions for myself, as an engineer and an educator, would be to integrate authentic  research task into undergraduate teaching practice. I also believe  early exposure to research and doing research also inspires and helps undergraduate students to have a better view of their later career pathways. 

The role of feedback for integrating authentic research tasks into teaching practice to motivate students and develop the skills of self-directed learning

(selected to be presented at UTS Learning and Teaching Forum, Nov 2021)

Key Words: feedback, self-directed learning, flipped learning, authentic assessment, research-based teaching 

 

Abstract: The art of teaching is to motivate students to develop the skills of self-directed learning. This has become increasingly critical, especially for fast-changing fields like engineering and information technology where the life-cycle of new technologies has become significantly shortened. In this presentation, we discuss on how to motivate and equip undergraduate students with self-directed learning skills via authentic research tasks and the roles of feedback in this process. Specifically, as part of authentic assessments in flipped learning, we expose undergraduate students with authentic research tasks/activities in which they collaboratively work in groups to investigate emerging technologies, replicate research results or an aspect of the technologies, then identify shortcomings, and offer ideas to improve the practical systems. This process allows students to learn through not only reading, experimenting, and but also by applying what they learn/read to work on state-of-the-art systems/technologies.  

 

Unlike postgraduate/HDR students, the success of authentic research tasks for second- or third-year undergraduate students who don’t even have fundamental background knowledge of the field is underpinned by creating effective and timely feedback channels. First, the collaborative research task requires students to discuss and then give peer feedback to each other. Second, early feedback from teachers/instructors plays a pivotal role in motivating and shaping the students’ research directions and methodologies, guiding them through the early challenges of what to read, where to find and select the right materials, right simulations/coding tools. Students enjoy from actively discussing with their peers, tutors, and instructors for feedback on why their simulations/experiments do not work and how to fix them. In our teaching, especially during the COVID pandemic, we even created​ on-demand or 24/7 feedback channels via Teams where students could reach their peers/instructors/tutors for answers/comments mostly whenever they had questions and in an interactive manner. Thirdly, to provide and design suitable research tasks for students, we regularly seek feedback from our colleagues and industry partners on emerging technologies. In this regard, our students benefit from UTS industry partnership as well as the collaborative teaching/coaching team (e.g., via UTS Rapido, a technology transfer initiative at our faculty). Being motivated by the research tasks, various students then work on open practical problems for their capstones, winning various awards, and presenting their working prototypes/systems at industry exhibitions (e.g., CEBIT Sydney).  

Students's Awards and Recognition (my PhD and undergraduate students)