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Can you briefly describe your education and career background before coming to HKU?
I received my B.S. degree in Educational Information & Technology from East China Normal University in 2006, M.Ed. degree in Educational Technology from Beijing Normal University in 2009, and Ph.D. degree in Language, Literacy and Technology from the University of California, Irvine in 2013. After graduation, I worked as an assistant professor in the Department of Counselling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education in the College of Education from 2014 to 2017, and later an assistant professor in the Office of Medical Education Research and Development in the College of Human Medicine from 2017 to 2021, both at Michigan State University. My research focuses on use of technologies to facilitate teaching and learning, online learning effectiveness, and self-regulated learning. During my work in the U.S., I have collaborated with multiple school districts in California and Colorado to examine students’ use of emerging technologies in language and literacy education, and have built partnership with Michigan Virtual to investigate factors influencing students’ online learning success. I was selected as a National Science Foundation (NSF) Community for Advancing Discovery Research in Education fellow, and also served on an expert panel and working group for a national study by the U.S. Department of Education to create guides for educators and technology developers on providing digital learning resources for English learners.
What makes you come to HKU Med? What would be the expectation of being a new member in HKU Med?
I am very excited to join BIMHSE as an associate professor in April 2021 and to reunite with my family in Hong Kong. In BIMHSE, I would like to apply my knowledge and expertise in Educational Psychology and Educational Technology into Health Professions Education. My work will involve teaching in the problem-based learning (PBL) small group discussions and in the Interprofessional Education Collaborative Practice. I will also be the co-coordinator for the MEd program in the Health Professions Education starting from fall 2021. Besides, I will be collaborating with the Center for Enhancement of Teaching and Learning to develop a student mentoring certificate program, designed specifically for medical students in their senior years who are interested in being student mentors who facilitate the PBL small group discussions. In addition, I will also organize a series of advanced Professional Development seminars. The first seminar will focus on creating a Community of Inquiry to promote engagement and deep learning, while the second seminar will focus on online assessment, and the third one focusing on effective feedback. This advanced PD series will be open to all HKUMed staff who are interested in advancing teaching skills in blended learning environments, particularly for those who are interested in becoming PBL tutors.
What are your upcoming plans for teaching and research?
The research I plan to conduct will be focused on use of technologies to promote student engagement, collaboration, and deep learning in health professions education from a social constructivism perspective. I would like to examine in PBL especially e-triggered PBL settings, how students collaboratively construct knowledge through discussions and reflections in technology-facilitated learning activities, and how to use learning analytics to predict student learning outcome, identify problems and challenges, and inform instructional design. I am also interested in examining how student mentoring in PBL could help shape medical students’ professional identity formation. The second line of my research focuses on medical students’ self-regulated learning strategies. I am interested in investigating the relationship between students’ academic motivation, self-regulated learning strategies, and learning outcomes, and further to explore what kind of institutional support and instructional interventions can be provided to help students develop these important life-long learning skills. I would welcome collaborative opportunities with colleagues in the Faculty of Medicine and beyond to work on interdisciplinary project, with the goal to better prepare our students to be future healthcare professionals and educators, and to improve healthcare quality as the ultimate goal.
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