Speaker: Dr Sam Chu, Faculty of Education, HKU
Date: 20 July 2016 (Wednesday)
Time: 9:00-13:00
Venue: Room 802, Meng Wah Complex 8/F, HKU

Abstract

Based on his award-winning gamification project “Strengthening students’ reading comprehension ability (both Chinese and English) through developing children’s literature e-quiz bank on cloud (May. 2013 – June 2016); Quality Education Fund (USD $364,872)”, the speaker will illustrate how he made use of the various kinds of data collected in the e-quiz platform to help students learn.

Reading is the basis for learning. However, many students have not developed an interest and ability in reading. As a result, they suffer in courses and assignments that require good comprehension ability. Through applying various game mechanics (points, e-badges, levels) into the design of an e-quiz platform called “Reading Battle”, many primary and kindergarten students in Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China and the US have been motivated to read a lot and to take many e-quizzes about the books they have read. Many of these students have improved their reading abilities quickly and enjoyably. The top 6 students have read and answered over 300 books (with one read over 400 books) and achieved an average score of 82-97 out of 100. The e-quiz system has essentially helped produced many “young scholars”.

“Reading Battle” was released in Feb 2014. Over 5,000 students in 48 schools/libraries have used it. Those who have used it a lot have improved not only in their reading ability, but also in their writing ability. The speaker will share how he has made use of data from the system to fine-tune the system design to excite the students and to help them learn effectively. Since “Reading Battle” has successfully helped many students in various countries/regions to improve their reading ability, the speaker recently obtained a Knowledge Exchange Award from his university. In this talk, the speaker will share his “secret of success” in designing and managing this highly effective learning system for students.

About the speaker

Dr. Samuel Kai Wah Chu is the Head of Division of Information and Technology Studies and an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education. He is also the Deputy Director (Centre for Information Technology in Education) in the Faculty of Education, The University of Hong Kong. His research interests lie in the areas of gamification and game-based learning, social media in education, 21st century skills, collaborative inquiry project-based learning, digital literacies, school and academic librarianship and knowledge management and intellectual capital.

He has published over 240 articles and books including key journals in the area of IT in education (e.g., Computers & Education, International Journal of Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning), information and library science (e.g., Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Library & Information Science Research), school librarianship (e.g., School Library Media Research, School Libraries Worldwide), academic librarianship (e.g., Journal of Academic Librarianship) and knowledge management (e.g., Journal of Intellectual Capital). His publication comprises 6 scholarly books with one on “21st century skills” published by Springer. He is also the author of a series of children story books published by Pearson Longman Hong Kong, including My Pet Hamsters and The Chocolate Boy.

Dr. Chu is the Managing Editor for Journal of Information & Knowledge Management and the
Associate Editor for Online Information Review: The International Journal of Digital Information Research and Use. He is also an Editorial Board Member for Library & Information Science Research and School Libraries Worldwide. He has involved in over 50 research/project grants with a total funding of US$ 3,626,851. He has received a number of awards including his Faculty’s Outstanding Researcher Award in 2013 and his university/faculty’s Knowledge Exchange Award in 2016. He is ranked as the top 66th author in the world regarding his publications in library and information science (DOI 10.1007/s11192-014-1519-9).