From time to time, we receive enquiries from course designers who look for the capability in the WebCT courseware to collect students' feedback based on specific teaching contents. Since we find this function to be very useful, especially for social sciences subjects, in stimulating the students' thinking process in learning, the Computer Centre has developed a 'Feedback System' which provides a simulated debate capability to address this need.

What can be done?

This 'Feedback System' can associate discussion questions to teaching materials. Questions can be 'open-ended' which stimulate student discussion on a topic related to the course content, or they can be 'debate-type' which contains 2 choices for students to choose from and elaborate on. In either case, students will obtain sample answers from course designers and responses from the whole class after submitting their own. If it is a debate question, a statistic showing how many people choose choice 1 and choice 2 will also be provided. In this way, students can learn from others' view points. Further discussion is encouraged via the use of the WebCT bulletin board.

How does it work?

1. The course designer defines a question related to the course contents.

2. Students attempt to respond to the question when going through the course contents.

3. The course designer and students read the responses from the entire class of the WebCT course.

Details on using the "Feedback System" can be found from the URL http://www.itservices.hku.hk/webct/feedback.html. For further questions, please contact the undersigned.

C.P. Lau
Tel: 2241 5183
E-mail: cplau@cc.hku.hk