In line with the Digital University initiative pursued at the University of Hong Kong to develop an effective teaching and learning environment employing Information Technology, the Computer Centre has introduced a web-based teaching and learning tool, namely the WebCT, since late 1997. This facility has been very well received by many teachers from different faculties and departments. More than 300 courses have been developed or are being developed; and we have already recorded a million visits to online electronic course materials and bulletins mounted on the central E-course server by students and staff.

The Computer Centre has been very much encouraged in the development of web-based courses by our teachers as we can see many of them are so enthusiastic and have been spending much extra effort in exploring the innovative use of the advanced IT infrastructure built at HKU. In order to allow other colleagues to share the valuable experience of our pioneers in web-based course development, the Computer Centre with the generous help from a number of teachers has published a booklet called “Web-based Course Development using WebCT at the University of Hong Kong".  We hope that this booklet will serve as a vehicle to promote the new means of teaching and learning and to stimulate new ideas on how I.T. can be employed in course development and delivery at the University.

Contents

This booklet is divided into two sections. In the first section, the facilities and services provided by the Computer Centre to facilitate web-based course development are described. The second section is a "Course Showcase" which shows 16 online electronic courses built with WebCT. With the help from teachers of different departments, we are able to include online electronic courses from different disciplines.  These courses are good examples to illustrate the use of a wide variety of functions provided by WebCT, including electronic bulletins and interactive exercises, for course development and teaching by our teachers..

Distribution

A copy of this booklet has been distributed to all heads of departments and registered WebCT course designers.
Any staff members who would like to obtain a copy of this booklet may forward their requests to the undersigned.
 

Alice Lam
Tel: 2241 5184
E-mail: alicelam@cc.hku.hk