Unveiling the Impact of Peer Teaching in Interprofessional Education: a Mixed-methods Exploration

Principal Investigator: Dr Helen He, BIMHSE (E: helenhq@hku.hk)

This project aims to evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of employing peer facilitators in interprofessional education (IPE), which will be conducted in three phases. Firstly, recruitment will target students from different health professions, followed by an online training session to equip them with teaching strategies and facilitation skills. Thirdly, peer facilitators will independently lead group discussions in IPE sessions. Data will be collected in a mixed-methods approach through questionnaires, focus group interviews, video recordings, and reflective reports to assess the impact of peer facilitators on IPE. The project’s objectives are to fill literature gaps in student facilitation in IPE, extend the application of peer teaching in this context, and promote scholarship in peer teaching and learning. The project holds practical significance by supporting students in their teaching, learning, and career development and fostering a community and culture of peer support. Additionally, the findings will provide insights for course coordinators for innovation in teaching practices. It also offers an opportunity to explore the perspectives of IPE learners and examine cognitive and social congruence in engaging with peer facilitators. Ultimately, the project aims to enhance the sustainability and quality of IPE delivery and promote collaborative learning among health professional students.

Game On: Unlocking the Power of Gamified Interprofessional Education to Foster Knowledge Co-construction among Health Professional Students

Principal Investigator: Professor Ganotice Fraide Jr. Agustin (E: ganotc75@hku.hk)

Student engagement is crucial for the successful implementation of interprofessional education (IPE@HKU), a program provided at the Faculty of Medicine through in-person and collaborative online international learning. To enhance student engagement and facilitate knowledge co-construction (KCC) among students, the use of gamification has been recognized as an effective approach. However, the understanding of KCC processes in interprofessional settings and how gamification as a contextual trigger facilitates this process remains poorly understood.

This study aims to investigate KCC processes within a gamified IPE setting and explore how gamification promotes KCC among health professional students. Guided by Gunawardena’s Interaction Analysis Model, the study will involve approximately 200 students from Chinese Medicine, Food and Nutritional Science, MBBS, Nursing, and Social Work. These students will be divided into two conditions: gamified IPE (gIPE) and traditional IPE (tIPE). Both students from two conditions will participate in an IPE Cancer Management simulation, with team interactions recorded, transcribed, and analyzed to identify KCC processes. Non-cognitive and cognitive variables will be examined to differentiate students’ achievements across the two conditions.

Using quantitative and qualitative data, this study aims to provide valuable insights for educators on how KCC occurs and how to design gamified teaching effectively. Findings will contribute to the continuous development of IPE that trains students who value cooperation rather than competition, and collaboration rather than division in delivering optimal patient-centred care. This proposal is particularly timely and relevant as IPE@HKU expands its scope and inclusivity, involving around 50+ teachers, 20+ student-as-partners, and an annual average of 1,826 students from different faculties in HKU.

Using ‘Interactive Escape Room Incorporated Generative AI’ to Enhance Clinical Prioritization and Cultural Competence of Health Discipline Students in Community Health Practice

Principal Investigator: Dr. Polly Siu Ling Chan (E: pollycha@hku.hk)

Over the past three years, the COVID-19 pandemic has further demonstrated the significance of developing a strong primary healthcare workforce within the community, in which community-based healthcare services provided to people in need are much embraced through an interdisciplinary approach, both locally and internationally. Indeed, most of the healthcare curricula in higher education highlight the need to equip the health discipline students with the necessary skills in community care in order to be effective.

To prepare health discipline students for effective interdisciplinary learning in global learning environment, a novel pedagogical innovation is proposed in this project – using interactive ‘escape room’ that encompass situational and cultural awareness to enhance the delivery of appropriate prioritized care for community people in home setting. ‘Escape room’ is a game-based learning that shows evidence in motivating and engaging students in the learning process.

This project aims to connect health discipline students from local and overseas countries to go through adventure-based escape rooms embedded with home setting scenarios. The online rooms will be designed by the interdisciplinary teachers of involved institutions collaboratively, based on the concept of situational awareness that includes perception of the elements in the environment, comprehension of the situation, and projection of future status. To achieve the overall goal of developing prioritization skills and cultural competence skills of participating students, they will be empowered in mastering generative AI (ChatGPT) to acquire answers that pertain to specific scenarios, in which they need to analyze if the answers generated from AI are valid, helping them in prioritizing the solutions and resolving the situation correctly.

It is expected that interdisciplinary and intercultural learning among health discipline students from different regions will be enhanced, and therefore the development of their global citizenship through collaborative effort.

Shaping Health in China

Principal Investigator: Professor Abraham Ka Chung Wai (E: awai@hku.hk)

This course will explore the factors contributing to health and well-being issues and the healthcare system in China. It will introduce the socioeconomic determinants of health from the World Health Organization (WHO) as a framework to guide students to reflect and analyse the population health issues in China. Participants will explore the physical, mental and social issues in China throughout this course, and have the opportunities to evaluate existing health-related issues and interventions.

This course is entirely issue-based and problem-oriented through experiential and problem-based learning to facilitate students’ exploration and reflection. Introduction of the essential concepts and theories will be uploaded to Moodle prior to the class. Students will engage in class activities and discussions within the class hours.

Upon completion of this course, students will be able to apply their knowledge learnt to analyse, develop and evaluate health interventions. Subsequently, bring influence to healthcare practice and policy in their career.

A Game-based Approach to Understanding Healthcare Inequality and (In)accessibility

Principal Investigator: Dr. Pauline Po Ling Luk (E: pluk@hku.hk)

Healthcare inequality is an increasingly pressing issue in Hong Kong, with underprivileged patients facing significant challenges in accessing healthcare and receiving necessary treatments. To increase awareness about healthcare inequality and accessibility problems and foster greater empathy among future healthcare practitioners, this project aims to co-design a game with medical students that immerses learners in a simulated environment where they experience the difficulties faced by underprivileged patients.

Using a game-based approach that is engaging, interactive, and enjoyable, the game aims to effectively achieve its educational objectives. This project aims to develop a game as an essential tool for student learning in higher education, encouraging critical thinking, decision-making, and creativity while promoting empathy and compassion towards others. The game could be applied to medical humanities teaching, in MH2 and MH4, it has potential to establish cross disciplines teaching, with nursing, pharmacy, social work and social science students as well. We hope this could help create a more equitable healthcare system in Hong Kong.

The project’s effectiveness will be evaluated through pre and post-game surveys, focus group discussions, and longitudinal data collection. If successful, the project will seek extra funding to convert the board game into an online game or structured game-based learning workshops that can benefit students outside the MBBS curriculum.

One of the highlights of this project is its strong connections with stakeholders in the community, including a faculty member of the Department of Social Work and Social Administration to extend the game’s reach to other professions outside HKU Med. We have also lined up with a founder of an NGO working on grassroots health advocacy and a game design expert to discuss the potential of bringing this game to the community. In addition, we have connected with an award-winning video director renowned for her expertise in producing documentaries for underprivileged communities, who can assist the project to produce impactful story for the game. Lastly, this project is well-supported by a group of MBBS students from different years who are engaged in the project planning.

Evaluation of Clinical Competence and Reasoning with Innovative Applications of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI), Scenario-based 360 Immersive VR and Debriefing

Principal Investigator: Dr. John Tai Chun Fung (E: bigjohn@hku.hk)

HKUSON is committed to using innovative pedagogical designs, – feasible and immersive teaching approaches to enhance students’ learning. Here, we propose an initiative to explore incorporating generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in a range of teaching activities, unique to HKUSON and the faculty. These include the use of GenAI in scenario-based and problem-based learning. In particular, focusing on areas – clinical reasoning, health informatics, communication skills, and most importantly, clinical competence.

We also aim to significantly enhance the AI literacy of our students. This initiative will adopt ‘Students as Partners’ principles as part of our ongoing – nursing education. Using GenAI Models, we aim to compare -its effectiveness – against immersive 360 VR cases that we built and implemented on VideoVox. The use of GenAI can train the student leaners to become a competent clinical nurse across all years of our undergraduate nursing programme. The ability to allow students to train their analytical skills that involve a multitude of health data is important to train a student’s competence in medical training. GenAI tools can also be trained to produce computer source code (e.g., in R, python or SPSS) for data analysis and visualisation.

All these new tools will be deployed on an electronic manner, supplemented by active learning sessions and debriefing in class. Besides, new scenarios can be easily added and created based on our available simulation platform in VideoVox. The success of this proposed project will be the first blueprint for developing a new pedagogical approach to professional baccalaureate training and generate new knowledge and evidence that would have significant educational implications to the curriculum, tertiary education, and profession of nursing.

Case-based Peer Review and Interactive Medical Education (Case-PRIME) in Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology

Principal Investigator: Professor Iris Yan Ki Tang (E: tykiris@hku.hk)

The Case-PRIME project initiative addressed the increasing student=to-teacher ratio in undergraduate medical education by leveraging the “Students as Partners” concept. This project, proposed by the Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology Unit (RCIU), aims to evaluate the efficacy and limitations of using student-submitted clinical cases in teaching, while facilitating learning and knowledge exchange in rheumatology and Immunology.

Year 6 medical students will select and submit a case scenario as a group, including patient history, physical examinations, and clinical or radiological images during their RCIU attachment. Students will draft a clinical question with proposed answers based on the learning objectives identified from the case. After academic staff verification, the clinical scenario will be archived in a question bank and contribute to the continuous assessment of the rotation. HKU Moodle will be utilized for case submission, distribution, and student evaluation.

By the project’s end, a question bank containing 60 case scenarios will be established and retained for future problem-based learning materials. Student feedback and quality assessment of student submissions will be collected, offering valuable insights into the effectiveness and limitations of the “Students as Partners” approach in preparing learning materials, potentially guiding its broader application in higher education where case-based learning is applicable.

Developing Innovative Teaching Methods for Occupational Medicine (OM) to Improve Student’s Knowledge and Skills in OM Counselling

Principal Investigator: Dr. Phyu Phyu Thin Zaw (E: drphyu@hku.hk)

According to the evidence, most medical schools, including HKU, do not adopt any specific approach to undergraduate occupational health teaching. Additionally, undergraduate programs in occupational medicine encounter several challenges, namely lack of student interest and limited curriculum time. A study stated that occupational medicine has been poorly represented in undergraduate training. A study conducted in the UK also provided evidence of a reduction of undergrad medical students enrolled in the OM field. Such kind of declines could lead to medical practitioners being poorly prepared in management of occupational diseases. Since the need of well-trained doctors in the field of OM in the 21st century is highly important especially in industrialized countries, the abovementioned gaps should attract the urgent attention of higher education sector to reverse such kind of decline. Now is the time to give higher priority in the development of innovative teaching and learning methods of OM in undergraduate medical programs. If innovative teaching and learning methods are used, OM could be satisfactory and attractive for medical students to nurture fundamental skills and advance their learnings in this field. In this regard, we conducted an intensive literature review on different teaching methods of delivering OM and a further exploration of the Jigsaw teaching method as a cooperative learning strategy emphasizing collaboration, active participation, and shared responsibility among students. A meta-analysis by Springer, Stanne, and Donovan (1999) found that the Jigsaw teaching method positively impacted academic achievement across various subjects and grade levels. Students who participated in Jigsaw activities consistently demonstrated higher levels of content knowledge acquisition compared to traditional instructional approaches. Likewise, Research by Slavin (1995) indicated that Jigsaw learning promotes the development of critical thinking skills. By engaging in collaborative problem-solving and discussions within their assigned groups, students learn to analyse information, evaluate different perspectives, and construct well-reasoned arguments. Thus, our study aims to develop new teaching materials using Jigsaw methods for OM enhancing student’s OM clinical and public health management skills and evaluate the effectiveness of Jigsaw teaching method on students’ learning by comparing students’ knowledge, attitude and self-perception of achievement of learning objectives before and after the introduction of the new method. Within each tutorial, students will evaluate, too, if the use of Jigsaw method and case studies improved their knowledge, attitude and perception for OM cases.

Justifications: To increase the ability to systematically identify the OM diseases and counselling skills are of vital importance for any general practitioner or specialists especially after the Covid-19 pandemic (Kammoun et.al. 2022) Through this project, we aim to develop new innovative teaching and learning methods engaging students in the process of OM learning. The budget requirement reflects our need to secure resources for teaching material development and course evaluation analysis. We believe that this study will have a direct impact on the student teaching and learning and will become a reference or even applicable in other courses in the wider medical field.

Use of Large Language Models in Enhancing Knowledge Transfer and Consultation Skills for Students: a Cohort Study

Principal Investigator: Professor Lawrence Chun Man Lau (E: laucml@hku.hk)

Background: The proposed project seeks to explore how students utilize Large Language Models (LLMs), a newly developed branch of artificial intelligence, for their education, particularly for self-study on knowledge and communication in the fields of medical education. Here we use the topics of arthritis and joint replacement as proxy as they are more consistent, and questions posed by patients are notably similar. Additionally, the nature of osteoarthritis as a disease and the associated surgical options are well-standardized, making them easily comprehensible for students.

Aims: The project aims to investigate the role of LLMs in enhancing medical education. By offering students the opportunity to utilize LLMs for knowledge transfer, clinical consultations and practice, we hope to potentially improve their clinical knowledge and practice. Methods: This project aims to innovate medical pedagogy by transitioning from the conventional method, where medical students passively listen to lectures and observe real patient-doctor interactions, to a new approach. In this new method, students are provided with a specialized LLM both before and during clinic sessions, enabling them to experience its potential in facilitating learning. The effectiveness of this knowledge acquisition will be evaluated using a prospective cohort study design. This study will compare exam performances between the same groups of students: they rely solely on traditional didactic lectures without LLM support during learning, then they are equipped with the specialized LLM for self-learning and consultation. The academic performance of these two periods will be compared.

Delivered Outcome: knowledge transfer (assessed by objective structured clinical examinations), the efficacy of LLM will be comparable to traditional didactic lectures. Differences in terms of knowledge acquisition, retention, or clinical application between the two groups will be compared.

Pandemics: From Science to Societal Impact

Principal Investigator: Dr. Bonny Bun Ho Yuen (E: yuenbbh@hku.hk)

Throughout history, pandemics have indelibly shaped the course of human civilisation. From cholera and the bubonic plague to influenza, these global health crises have left an indelible mark on societies worldwide. COVID-19, once an all-encompassing force, now lingers like a shadow of the past. As we cautiously emerge from the shadow of social distancing measures, this course aims to dissect the intricate interplay of science, policy, and societal responses during pandemics.

This course will delve into two crucial aspects of pandemics: 1) the science behind their spread, diagnosis, prevention, treatment and the breakthroughs in mathematical models; 2) the role of public health and global governance, social contracts, and political trust. Through a combination of lectures, tutorials, group projects, and presentations, students will draw on their own experiences to critically evaluate the strategies employed by governments, assess their effectiveness, and contemplate potential approaches to future pandemics.

This immersive learning experience will not only deepen your understanding of pandemics but also equip you with practical skills and knowledge that are highly relevant in today’s world. It will provoke thought on pressing questions, such as how concerned we should be about viruses, the feasibility and ethical implications of eradicating all contagions, and the balance between public health and personal freedoms. Upon completing this common core course, you will have honed key intellectual skills that will complement your disciplinary studies, enabling you to actively contribute as responsible individuals and citizens in both local and global communities, and making you a valuable asset in any field you choose to pursue.

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered Virtual Reality (VR) Simulation to Enhance Nursing Students’ Self-efficacy and Communication Skill Competence in Clinical Handover

Principal Investigator: Dr. Maggie Mee Kie Chan (E: maggiemk.chan@polyu.edu.hk)

Effective communication is vital in ensuring the continuity of patient care and promoting patient safety. The World Health Organization (2023) has highlighted that a breakdown in communication among healthcare teams contributes to patient harm. However, nursing students often struggle with organizing and conveying important information during clinical handover, which can result in miscommunication, errors, and compromised patient outcomes. It is crucial to build self-efficacy and communication skill competence among nursing students to improve their clinical handover delivery. VR simulation has been implemented in schools to enhance nursing students’ clinical reasoning and situation awareness. Nonetheless, the teaching of clinical handover practice is not given much emphasis in practice. This is where artificial intelligence (AI) can make a significant impact. AI has the potential to revolutionize communication in healthcare. By leveraging the power of AI in simulation, nursing students can be provided with a transformative learning experience. They can practice assessments and clinical handovers in a realistic environment. Through the utilization of AI, nursing students can gain valuable experience and confidence in effectively conveying crucial patient information during handover.

This project aims to develop an AI-powered VR simulation specifically designed to enhance nursing students’ self-efficacy and communication competence skills in clinical handover.

Co-creating Systematic Learning towards Clinical Mastery – an Interprofessional Student-educator Partnership Approach

Principal Investigator: Dr. Mei Li Khong (E: khongml@hku.hk)

When health professionals work in collaboration, new practice-transforming solutions emerge, medical errors decline, and patient outcomes improve. A health professional team’s concerted expertise is essential for managing the growing complexity of patient needs. Likewise, when preparing for future practice, health professional students should learn in collaboration and achieve synergy in their clinical approaches. But how?

We believe student involvement in co-designing their education is key. Our initial student-educator partnership experience in the medical curriculum suggests that when students co-design teaching and learning (T&L) with educators, students shift from learning to being metacognitively aware of how they should be learning. Student co-designers created step-wise approaches to bridge gaps in their knowledge. This systematic learning trained conceptual and clinical mastery for both student co-designers and learners. However, these learning approaches were developed in silos within the Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) programme.

Therefore, we envisage a pioneering move from siloed student-educator partnership (SEP) to interprofessional student-educator partnership (IP-SEP). We endeavour to bring together students and educators from three health professional programmes (Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy) to co-design curriculum and pedagogy for synergy in future clinical approaches.

This project has three phases:

Phase 1: Workshops for students and educators across the three health professional programmes to generate interest, identify key areas requiring development of systematic learning, and mobilise interprofessional student-educator collaborations.

Phase 2: There will be two tiers to this phase. (1) We will form interprofessional teams of students and educators to co-create learning content and resources using a design thinking model. The prototypes will be implemented in the formal curriculum via online modules or in-person pedagogy. (2) We will seek opportunities to transform some of these developments to AI-enriched resources e.g. chatbots, AI as prompt tutor, etc.

Phase 3: Feedback from the T&L community will be gathered from a showcase of IP-SEP projects and a mixed-methods study of all stakeholders (student co-designers, student learners, educators) to assess the overall impact of IP-SEP.

Ultimately, this project seeks to further mediate wide-scale partnership between students and educators from Pharmacy, Nursing and Medicine programmes at The University of Hong Kong. The short-term goal is to create systematic, fit-for-practice learning resources and activities. The long-term goal is to foster a culture of interprofessional collaboration in healthcare.

Students-teachers Co-creation of Anatomical Variation Dissection (AVD) Digital Repository

Principal Investigator: Dr Jada Chia Di Lee (E: jadalee@hku.hk)

Teaching anatomical variations has been emphasised during the clinical phase of medical school. However, instilling the concept of anatomical variability during the early stages of medical school has been suggested can further strengthen the student’s knowledge for their clinical years and may play a significant role in influencing different aspects of clinical practice.

Our proposed pedagogical approach aims to enhance students’ knowledge of common anatomical variations and raise awareness of the possible variations during their preclinical training. Coupled with our current human body dissection practicals, two cohorts of medical students (MBBS year 1 and 2), a total of 600 students per year will be tasked to explore the anatomical variations and co-create an Anatomical Variation Dissection (AVD) Digital Repository based on the unique cadavers they are working on. We believe that throughout the process, from task-oriented in exploring anatomical variations and identifying the structures to sharing the findings with peers via the online repository platform may help promote active learning, problem-solving and knowledge application. In the long run, the building process of the digital repository not only benefits the medical students but the accumulated knowledge may also be disseminated across different programmes, such as Biomedical Sciences, Bioinformatics, Biomedical Engineering, Chinese Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing with the need for anatomical knowledge to learn about human diseases or for product designing. Besides, as there is an underrepresentation of teaching materials on Asian bodies, the digital repository may provide more diverse and inclusive supporting materials in anatomical variations of the local population to the field, promoting anatomy decolonisation. This may further benefit health services as the accumulated clinical knowledge built in the digital repository is highly clinically relevant.

Empowering the Medical Educators of Tomorrow: Training Clinical Year Students for Clinical and Teaching Success

Principal Investigator: Dr Ginger Wai Kuen Ko

This project aims to revolutionize Orthopaedics and Traumatology (O&T) bedside teaching by implementing a flipped classroom approach with 200 clinical medical students in year 5 and 6. Students will prepare for class by familiarizing themselves with the content and concepts outside of class time. During scheduled bedside teaching sessions, students will take on the role of Student Teachers (STs), leading their peers in performing various clinical practices on real patients in the hospital O&T wards. STs will make critical decisions, instruct their peers on suitable clinical examinations, and demonstrate procedures based on the patients’ conditions. Throughout the learning process, clinical doctors and teaching assistants will be present to monitor and oversee student performance. After completing the procedures, STs and their peers will receive feedback from clinical doctors, teaching assistants, and fellow classmates. This feedback will encompass clinical decision-making, patient management, teaching skills, clinical examination proficiency, and coaching abilities. In addition, the project aims to develop a comprehensive teaching reference tool integrated into HKU Moodle. This tool will include e-modules, training materials, 3-5 minute teaching videos, and best practice guides. Teaching assistants will manage an online forum for student queries and conduct consultation sessions. Evaluation will be conducted to assess participants’ medical knowledge, clinical skills, communication, and teaching abilities, providing valuable feedback for improvement. A survey will also be administered to gauge the effectiveness of the flipped classroom approach, with a target response rate of 70% indicating its usefulness. The anticipated outcomes include increased student engagement, improved clinical decision-making skills, enhanced teaching and leadership abilities, immediate feedback, and the creation of a comprehensive teaching reference tool. Ultimately, this project seeks to optimize the learning experience of medical students in the O&T field, preparing them for successful careers and contributing to the advancement of medical education.

Audio-visual Intervention to Enhance Students’ Learning Engagement in Microbiology Class

Principal Investigator: Dr Chun Sing Lam (E: thomas.lam@hku.hk)

Microbiology is one of the essential life science subjects embedded in nursing curriculum. Essential microbiological knowledge facilitates hospitals and healthcare organizations to draft infectious control guidelines to ameliorate risk of disease transmission, prevent potential epidemics and safeguard public health. However, pre-registration nursing students often perceive the concepts as too abstract to learn, leading to a lack of motivation and engagement in learning. To tackle this challenge, the current proposal sets forth a plan to enhance the Bachelor of Nursing (full-time) curriculum—a cornerstone program within the faculty boasting an intake of over 200 students per cohort—with the integration of cutting-edge audio-visual aids. These enhancements include 1.) Animated videos, 2.) 360 Video and 3.) PhotoVoice learning activity.

Animated videos will be developed to focus on clinically relevant foodborne pathogens-induced diseases with the use of daily life scenarios. For example, Staphylococcus aureus-induced food poisoning cases occur in Dai Pai Dong hosted by chef with poor hygiene knowledge. These micromodule teaching videos will be uploaded to Moodle in advance and used as teaching template by lecturer who will provide detailed pathogenic infection mechanisms in the tutorial class afterwards.

The 360 Video will document laboratory techniques of microbiological enumeration and classification that are relevant to the ‘Laboratory Diagnosis’ module of microbiology lectures. The video will be uploaded to YouTube channel that provide explorative learning environment for students to view laboratory procedure and enhance students’ engagement. Experimental principles and good laboratory practice will also be discussed in the tutorial class afterwards.

PhotoVoice learning activity comprises photo-taking and in-class sharing sessions is carried out in the lecture. It aims to empower students’ learning autonomy which can increase learners’ engagement. Students are first divided into groups and asked to think of one cleanest and one most contaminated place nearby the lecture room. With the use of rapid ATP checker for bacterial load measurement, students are required to record the data by taking pictures at the chosen sites. They are then invited to present their picture findings and elaborate in the class afterwards according to the SHOWED questions.

The study is poised to furnish some of the initial evidence substantiating the feasibility and efficacy of audio-visual interventions in bolstering students’ engagement within microbiology education. The outcomes of this research will be pivotal in guiding the broader application of such interactive methodologies across various health-related and science disciplines, including pharmacy, Chinese medicine, and food and nutrition sciences. This evidence will serve as a cornerstone for the potential scaling of these interactive educational strategies, thereby enhancing the pedagogical landscape in these fields.

Enhancing Pedagogy and Promoting Digital Literacy through Self-Publishing E-books with Student-as-Partners

Principal Investigator: Ms. Nicole Ka Man Lau (E: niclkm@hku.hk)

In recent years, the advent of digital platforms has revolutionized the way content is created, disseminated, and consumed. Self-publishing e-books on platforms like Amazon have created new opportunities for authors to share their work with a global audience. In the context of higher education, self-publishing e-books can be employed as a powerful pedagogical tool to foster communication-intensive learning, encourage digital literacy, and provide real-world applications and deliverables for knowledge exchange in courses, deepening the understanding and enhance the ideas learnt from different courses across disciplines.

The primary objective of incorporating self-publishing e-books as a pedagogical tool is to enhance student engagement, learning outcomes, and skill development through innovation in pedagogy, the development of prototypes and exceptional examples holds the potential to expand into other courses across the campus. Students will be required to research, analyze, and synthesize complex information to produce a well-structured and coherent e-book, which will ultimately strengthen their critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills. This inquiry-based learning approach will cultivate students’ sense of autonomy and ownership of knowledge and skills (Spronken‐Smith & Walker, 2010).

Another key objective is to promote digital literacy among students, equipping them with the necessary skills to navigate the rapidly evolving digital landscape (Martin, 2008). By engaging in the process of self-publishing e-books, students will gain first-hand experience in using digital tools and platforms, thereby enhancing their ability to adapt to new technologies in their future professional and academic pursuits.

This innovative teaching approach will provide real-world applications and deliverables for knowledge exchange from a multidisciplinary perspective, encompassing various subjects and disciplines. Students’ e-books can serve as valuable resources for other learners and researchers, contributing to the broader academic discourse on the subject. By disseminating their work on an international platform such as Amazon, students will have the opportunity to engage with an international audience, receive feedback, and build their professional networks.

The project’s evaluation and assessment mechanisms will be based on collaboratively designed rubrics, periodic assessments, feedback collection, and performance metrics (Boud & Falchikov, 2007). These mechanisms will help assess the project’s effectiveness in achieving its objectives and enhancing students’ critical self-reflection, understanding of others, personal and professional ethics, and leadership (Bruffee, 1999).

In conclusion, integrating self-publishing e-books as a pedagogical tool has the potential to significantly enhance student learning experiences and skill development, promote digital literacy, sense of autonomy in learning and provide valuable real-world applications. Through the implementation of this innovative teaching approach, we aim to create a more engaging, dynamic, and effective learning environment for our students. The project’s evaluation and assessment mechanisms will enable a comprehensive assessment of the project’s effectiveness in achieving its objectives and aligning with HKU’s educational aims. The dissemination strategy will ensure that the project’s outcomes and insights are shared with a wide audience of educators, students, and stakeholders, inspiring other institutions to adopt this innovative teaching method and contribute to the ongoing advancement of teaching and learning in higher education across disciplines.

Unit 731 and History-informed Professional Identity Formation

Principal Investigator: Dr. Zohar Lederman (E: lederman@hku.hk)

The recently published Lancet Commission on Medicine, Nazism, and the Holocaust recommends adopting the paradigm of history-informed professional identity in medical school curricula worldwide. It specifically laments the lack of attention of medical schools to the atrocities committed by Nazi healthcare professionals, and argues that including issues of medicine during the Holocaust will contribute, and is in fact imperative to medical professional development.

This project finds merit in the Commission’s work and conclusions, but is at the same time motivated by the Commission’s neglect of similar atrocities committed by a group of Japanese healthcare professionals in Manchuria during WWII. Unit 731 has conducted horrific experiments in hundreds of thousands un-consenting Chinese citizens and prisoners of war, and unlike their Nazi counterparts, received full immunity from, and a safe haven in the USA. Yet, this history seems to be absent from the medical curricula of medical schools across Asia, including HKU.

This project aims to amend this gap, starting from HKU and potentially expanding it globally. This project seeks to empower 2-3 medical students from year 2-4 and 2-3 non-medical students across all years to become emissaries of history-informed professional identity formation at HKU MED and HKU generally. Together with the PI and Co-Is, they will be expected to develop and implement a program to teach research ethics initially across HKU through historical case studies such as the Holocaust and the operations of Unit 731.

Utilizing CheckTab to Enhance Formative Assessment and Near-peer Teaching in a Large Cohort Setting

Principal Investigator: Dr. Rong Liu (E: liurong@hku.hk)

In dissection teaching, formative assessment can quickly identify students’ misconceptions, while instant feedback can correct these misunderstandings and prepare them for subsequent learning steps. These teaching strategies generally improve the quality of anatomy education, which play critical roles in enriching students’ learning experiences.

At LKS Faculty of Medicine, dissection is a significant component of medical students’ preclinical year curriculum. With over 300 students being taught simultaneously by 6-8 teachers and a team of 3-6 near-peer anatomy teachers, each instructor is responsible for 5-8 dissection groups per session. Although the program has demonstrated efficacy, the vast amount of information and limited time make it challenging for instructors to pinpoint missed concepts or provide personalized feedback. Additionally, near-peer teachers may unintentionally overlook crucial concepts due to their own limitations, requiring additional review by the anatomy teachers.

To address these challenges, we propose implementing a tablet-assisted formative assessment system, CheckTab, for each dissection group. Utilizing Microsoft Forms, this system incorporates a checklist and several multiple-choice questions that focus on essential dissection steps and key concepts. Immediate results collection from CheckTab enables instructors to identify missed concepts and learning difficulties when approaching each dissection group. This allows them to provide individualized feedback to all students at the onset of subsequent dissection/learning step. CheckTab also ensures that key concepts are covered by both anatomy teachers and near-peer anatomy teachers, guaranteeing that students receive consistent, high-quality anatomy education necessary for their future careers. Furthermore, CheckTab can be easily adapted for any scientific knowledge-based laboratory and instructional settings, providing an innovative approach to formative assessment. The success of this initiative could serve as an example for other faculties and institutions seeking to integrate technology into formative assessment, enhance the near-peer teaching programs, and promote student-centred learning.

Scientific Thinking in Life and Society

Principal Investigator: Professor W.L. Yang (E: yangwl@hku.hk)

Welcome to an exciting interdisciplinary course designed for undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds! In today’s world, where our cognitive biases often cloud our judgment and misinformation is rampant on social media, it’s essential to develop strong scientific thinking skills. This course will introduce you to the power of scientific thinking and its applications in a wide range of personal, professional, and societal contexts.

In this engaging and interactive course, you will explore the principles and methods of scientific thinking, such as critical thinking, skepticism, and evidence-based reasoning. You will learn how to identify and overcome cognitive biases, and apply scientific thinking to understand various social, political, and professional issues. By analyzing real-world cases, research topics, and news articles, you will see firsthand how scientific approaches can provide reliable, evidence-based insights that inform decision-making.

Throughout the course, you can expect a high level of participation and engagement as we delve into lively discussions and debates on pressing issues and their implications for society and our lives.

Upon completion of this course, you will have gained a deeper understanding of the impact of scientific thinking on personal and professional decision-making. Furthermore, you will be equipped with the skills necessary to critically evaluate information and claims related to social, political, and professional issues. Get ready to embrace the power of scientific thinking and its transformative potential in your everyday life!

Moral Compass and Ethical Crossroads: Navigating Healthcare Dilemmas with Interdisciplinary Insight

Principal Investigator: Dr. Olivia Miu Yung Ngan (E: olivian1@hku.hk)

Ethics plays a pivotal role in healthcare, as it involves making complex decisions that impact individuals’ well-being and society at large. The project “Moral Compass and Ethical Crossroads” is designed to delve into the intricacies of ethical decision-making within the multifaceted realm of healthcare. It seeks to uncover the challenges in determining the right course of action when confronted with the complexities of patients’ histories and their diverse social, religious, and cultural backgrounds.

Leveraging an inquiry-based learning framework, the content capitalises on the collective expertise of an interdisciplinary team of students and educators from fields such as law, public health, nursing, pharmacy, and medicine. By considering the perspectives of various healthcare professionals, the primary goal is to foster continuous ethical awareness and reflective capacity among students in health professional programs.

Deliverables include:

1. Interactive decision-tree videos that dramatise cases, weaving together ethical quandaries and expert analysis;
2. An interprofessional repository of case studies and commentary featuring real-life clinical situations tailored to the Hong Kong context;
3. An online ethics education platform to host the developed resources, serving as a publicly accessible open-access educational hub.

The deliverables of the project will lay a robust ethical foundation for future healthcare professionals, equipping both aspiring and practising healthcare practitioners with the discernment needed to appreciate the critical importance of ethics and professionalism in their daily practice.

Integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence-powered Case Simulation in Pharmacy Education

Principal Investigator: Dr. Ann Ka Yan Leung (E: annkayan@hku.hk)

The benefit of incorporating virtual patients and computer-based simulation in pharmacy education is well documented. These technologies offer experiential learning that improves communication, clinical reasoning skills and student engagement. There is conflicting evidence on whether such simulation activities improve student knowledge and performance.1 The effectiveness of virtual case simulations is contingent on strategic design to complement existing learning activities in the pharmacy curriculum and ongoing evaluation and refinement. There is great opportunity to harness the power of generative artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools to create realistic case simulations in the training of future pharmacists.

Currently in the Bachelor of Pharmacy programme at HKU, therapeutic knowledge is mostly delivered in a didactic manner with some in-class opportunity to practice application through problem-based learning (PBL) sessions and ward visits. In the objective structured clinical examinations (OSCE), students often struggle with information gathering and subsequent clinical reasoning to make an appropriate recommendation. Students consistently express that they can benefit from more patient examples to practice application.

This project leverages the existing HKUMED prototype mega chatbot to create and integrate chatbot cases in the Bachelor of Pharmacy curriculum, specifically in BPHM3144 (Endocrinology) and BPHM3145 (Central Nervous System, Musculoskeletal and Connective Tissue Disorders) as a pilot. Following a didactic lecture, students will have access to a chatbot presenting as a patient or healthcare provider with specific drug therapy issues. Students practice gathering relevant information in a conversational manner, which is more realistic than offering all relevant information in a traditional paper-based case. Students will then answer multiple choice questions on the management of this scenario, applying their therapeutic knowledge from class to make a clinical decision in the context of the case. Immediate feedback will be given through the system for all answers, reinforcing why an answer is correct and guiding students if they choose an incorrect answer. This asynchronous learning arrangement overcomes scheduling barriers for additional application activities and promotes student engagement and autonomy.

Pharmacy students are important partners at all stages of this project, from identifying areas that are most challenging for students, designing and building cases and questions, to evaluation of project outcomes. Outcomes include impact on pharmacy students’ performance in mock objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) and students’ perspectives through a mixed-methods approach. This project will inform how the programme team can optimally integrate generative AI-powered case simulation throughout the 4 years of pharmacy curriculum. This project will also develop functions in the HKUMED prototype mega chatbot that can be used within the faculty and beyond, including assessment and feedback features, data extraction functions, and tracking functionalities. The HKUMED prototype mega chatbot is supported by the faculty and is a sustainable platform. This project is proposed in collaboration with the faculty EdTech and SIMHSE team.

Development of An Interactive, Immersive Screen-based 360 Virtual Reality Videos Combined with Facilitated Structured 3D Debriefing to the Teaching of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy for Medical Students

Principal Investigator: Professor Lung Yi Mak (E: lungyi@hku.hk)

The study will establish a novel pedagogy for teaching in a wide array of disciplines in healthcare settings. Building on an innovative virtual teaching platform, we will design interactive, immersive 360 virtual reality videos on Video-Vox with a facilitated structured debriefing platform in endoscopy teaching. In medical teaching, clinical exposure is indispensable to students’ learning process. However, some premises are not easily accessible, such as operating theatres and endoscopy suites. By using 360° virtual reality technology, students can be immersed in online screen-based learning in health situations that are difficult to visit in the real world.

The evident advantages of this technology will pave the way to novel approaches to medical education and training. Other real-life clinical settings, such as resuscitation scene in wards, surgical procedures in operation theatres, patient care in intensive care units, can adopt similar teaching platforms for the learner to get a ‘first-hand’ experience of the situation. The learning process is further reinforced by time-stamps and inquiry-based debriefing. This project will set a springboard for innovative pedagogy not limited to undergraduate teaching in the medical curriculum, but also in other disciplines such as nursing and all healthcare providers including endoscopy trainees, physicians, intensivists and surgeons.

An Innovative Model of Learning and Teaching in Operative Theatre Environment by Mixed Reality Technology: A Cross-over Designed Study

Principal Investigator: Professor Ping Keung Chan (E: cpk464@hku.hk)

The operating theatre is a complex workplace-based learning environment. It is a unique place for teaching surgical anatomy, basic surgical skills, theatre etiquette, and the patient’s journey, but the existing teaching setups have difficulties achieving these teaching objectives. The hurdles include limited teaching staff, increasing medical students, expectations of having more surgical cases in the operation theatre to cope with increasing service demand, taking care of more complex patients, and tandem teaching responsibilities with patient care. The project aims to provide an immersive learning experience that allows students to experience the 1st person’s view as a surgeon through mixed-reality technology.

The related educational materials, such as mixed reality video, will be prepared by the Department of Orthopaedics and Traumatology, which will better prepare our students and enhance their learning experience about orthopaedic operations during clinical attachment in our department.

This cross-over designed study will compare test performances and satisfaction scores among the same group of students in two learning environments: (1) traditional learning in the present operative theatre environment and (2) proposed learning in a mixed-reality environment in operation theatre

Utilizing Immersive Large Language Models (LLM) – Empowered Simulated Patients in Interprofessional Psychiatric Education

Principal Investigator: Dr. Angie Ho Yan Lam (E: angielam@hku.hk)

The prevalence of mental illness has made it crucial for healthcare professionals to interact with patients who have mental health conditions. However, many healthcare professionals are inadequately prepared to handle the wide range of real-life acute situations that may arise. While traditional standardized simulated patients provided an experiential learning experience to help students grasp the skills in all levels of psychiatric training (Piot, Attoe, Billon, Cross, Rethans, & Falissard, 2021), the increasing number of undergraduate healthcare professional students (School of Nursing: 210, MBBS: 300) poses challenges regarding the availability of standardized patients and the limited time and resources to facilitate clinical practice for every student during classroom teaching. Additionall, simulated patients might find a challenge to accurately replicate the experience of engaging with individuals facing acute mental health crises (Piot et al., 2021). The availability of virtual simulated patients offers a potential solution to address the limitations posed. However, current virtual simulations often present fixed non-acute scenarios and restrict students to select correct answers, which limits the opportunity for meaningful interaction with the simulated patients.

With the advent of large language models (LLM) technology, the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-chat simulated patients holds great potential to closely resemble real patients and real-world practice. Studies emerged to investigate the feasiblity on using AI-chat simulation in health professional trainings in the areas of communication skills (Merritt, et al. 2022), surgical decision making (Koljonen, 2023; Lebhar, et al. 2023), resuscitation medicine (Ruberto, et al. 2021), clinical interview skills and diagnostic process (Pereira, et al. 2023, Furlan, et al. 2021). Chen et al. (2023) also developed ChatGPT-powered chatbots to simulate depressive patient’s responses. They found that the ChatGPT-powered chatbots were capable of immersing the patient’s responses with appropriate prompting provided, demonstrating the feasibility of using ChatGPT-powered chatbots to simulate patients for health professional training. Meanwhile, there is no specific study examining the feasibility and effectiveness of ChatGPT- or LLM-powered patient simulation in mental health education. This project will be the first study to examine the feasibility and effectiveness of LLM-powered patient simulation in enhancing the clinical competency of health professional students in managing psychiatric patients.

This innovative approach would offer a dynamic and interactive learning experience to undergraduate MBBS students and nursing students (n=510) through problem-based virtual simulated scenario related to common psychiatric patient crises, especially patients with acute suicidal risks and aggressive behaviors. LLM-empowered virtual psychiatric simulations allow healthcare professional students to engage in realistic conversations with patients and relatives, practice clinical decision-making, and develop the necessary skills to effectively manage patients with mental health crisis, and evaluate their own performances through the interactive platform.

A ‘Win-win’ Genomic Science Education Achieved by Student Peer Tutor Programme

Principal Investigator: Dr. Chun Sing Lam (E: thomas.lam@hku.hk)

Genomic science education is essential to pre-registration nursing students for understanding the pathophysiology of diseases such as cancer, neuro-developmental/degenerative and metabolic diseases. Additionally, solid and advanced genomic science education can cultivate a career path for pre-registration nursing students to become genetic nurses whose job is to perform risk assessment, genetic analysis, counselling as well as education for individuals and families. Yet, pre-registration nursing students often perceive the concepts as too abstract to learn, resulting in a lack of motivation and engagement in learning. Besides, due to the large class size, pre-registration nursing students may not be able to gain timely feedback and valuable one-to-one discussion with lecturers.

To address these issues, the current proposal aims to introduce student peer tutor programme providing academic support to enhance pre-registration nursing students’ engagement in genomic science class. Meanwhile, the programme is also expected to benefit student peer tutors by improving their interpersonal and communication skills, assisting them to achieve satisfaction through helping other junior students. Importantly, the programme provides student peer tutors a platform to obtain teaching hours for fellowship application of Advance Higher Education (UK).

To elaborate, student peer tutors are selected based on academic credentials and expected to teach in the tutorial class. Briefing and teaching sessions will be first given to them. Student peer tutors will then co-design the lesson plans and co-construct teaching materials such as online interactive discussion forum (Padlet), in-class assessment (Word hunting game), mini videos and presentation files with lecturers who will serve as a facilitator in the class. Besides, genomic science-oriented boardgame teaching kit will be used to allow pre-registration nursing students to perform hands-on central dogma of gene expression in the class.

Additionally, in order to strengthen pre-registration nursing students’ clinical diagnosis technique, student peer tutors and the lecturer will prepare a genomic science-based laboratory experiment (DNA gel electrophoresis) video comprising various clinical genomic science topics such as hypercholesterolemia and DNA fingerprinting. This video will also document the process of image results capture of DNA gel electrophoresis. It will serve as the teaching templates in the class for further explanation.

This study aims to provide initial evidence supporting the feasibility and efficacy of student peer tutoring programme in the enhancement of pre-registration nursing students’ learning experience, engagement and knowledge acquisition in genomic science class as well as augmentation of satisfaction achievement of student peer tutors. The study findings will be pivotal in guiding the wider application of such innovative pedagogies in various healthcare-related disciplines such as pharmacy, Chinese medicine and biological sciences. These evidences can positively impact the pedagogical methods in these fields.

Enhancing Cardiovascular Physiology Learning by Ultrasound Imaging

Principal Investigator: Dr. Enoch Chan (E: enocha@hku.hk)

Physiology is an essential fundamental subject for students in a variety of undergraduate clinical programmes (e.g. Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy and Chinese Medicine) and non-clinical programmes (e.g. Biomedical or Biological Sciences and Biomedical Engineering). However, Physiology is generally considered a difficult subject because of the complex and integrative nature of the discipline. In recent years, with point-of-care ultrasound devices becoming more accessible and user-friendly, there has been increasing interest in using ultrasonography as a tool for teaching Physiology. It is argued that ultrasound can enhance students’ understanding of the abstract Physiology concepts, because “seeing is believing”, but there are significant barriers that limit its widespread adoption.

In this project, a team of biomedical sciences teacher, clinical teachers and undergraduate MBBS students from LKS Faculty of Medicine will work in close partnership to develop a series of ultrasound-based tasks (UBTs) to enhance students’ learning of cardiovascular physiology. The project team will develop step-to-step protocols and instructional videos for each UBT, and then implement selections of the UBTs in practical classes across multiple courses offered by the Faculty. We expect that this project would benefit students in supporting their motivation to learn and promoting their transfer of Cardiovascular Physiology principles to real life.

AI-enabled Self-regulated Learning: Fostering Self-confidence of Nursing Students through Student-faculty-AI Partnership

Principal Investigator: Ms. Yuet Ying Cheuk (E: cheukyyj@hku.hk)

Nursing students have to study a wide range of knowledge to become a competent nurse, including anatomy, physiology, disease management, pharmacology, and nursing care. They often feel confused and frustrated because they are uncertain about their abilities in the learning process. Nursing students were found to have higher levels of academic stress than students in other disciplines (Chow et al., 2018). This stress leads to a decline in motivation in learning, affects academic performance and clinical competence. It also contributes to a high attrition rate in nursing programs globally, and the attrition rate in Hong Kong was 15-20% (Cheng et al., 2023).

Nicol & Macfarlane‐Dick (2006) suggested that feedback fosters the motivation of students to learn. It emphasized that timely feedback promotes students’ self-assessment of their own abilities and develops self-regulated learning. Students become more aware of their strengths and weaknesses, gain a deeper understanding of how they learn best and adjust their strategies accordingly. They become more efficient and effective learners over time. However, current teaching methods cannot offer personalized feedback; it is not easy for students to monitor their progress and engage in self-regulated learning.

The AI-powered adaptive learning system is an innovative idea for this challenge (Hwang et al., 2022). The machine learning algorithms in this learning system provide guiding questions and learning materials according to their learning needs. It generates scenarios and multiple choice questions to help students understand their current strengths and weaknesses in learning. The personalized feedback empowers students to take charge of their own learning process, which improves academic performance and motivation for learning. The AI bot will offer positive encouragement and help students to reflect on their learning. In addition, by collaboration with nursing students, particularly senior students skilled in generative AI. It ensures the AI-generated study guides are tailored to the specific learning needs and challenges of junior nursing students. This partnership enriches the design process by incorporating real student experiences, thus making the tool more relevant and effective in fostering self-regulated learning.

The purpose of this project is to develop AI-generated study guides that promote self-regulated learning, decrease anxiety, and increase self-confidence among junior nursing students.

The results of this project have profound and far-reaching implications for other professional degree programs, such as medicine, pharmacy and other healthcare disciplines. These fields share common characteristics, such as requiring mastery of vast amounts of complex knowledge and involving high-stakes, real-world applications. It could serve as a pioneering model for integrating AI into other professional degree programs.

This development of in-house AI chatbot systems is supported by the EdTech team of HKUMED.

Breaking Barriers: Innovative Addiction Education for Future Pharmacists and Social Workers

Principal Investigator: Mr. Shek Ming Leung (E: lsm836@hku.hk)

Addiction is a growing global issue, affecting individuals worldwide, including in Hong Kong. Despite its significance, the current pharmacy curriculum only briefly touches on addiction. Specifically, it includes just a 2-hour lecture in BPHM3145 that introduces the pharmacology of drugs of abuse. Critical topics such as the neuroscience of addiction, emerging trends in substance abuse (e.g., etomidate, GHB, LSD), and the clinical management and support for individuals with substance use disorders (SUD) are not covered. Also, when pharmacists encounter substance users at community settings (e.g. at community pharmacy or district health centre), pharmacists are the most relevant expert to provide education and counselling, but the current pharmacy curriculum does not include teaching and practice on the relevant skillset. These counselling and stress management skills need input from the social work and social administration (SWSA) department. Nevertheless, the packed and busy schedule of existing courses prevents the addition of more comprehensive lectures on these critical topics.

Given the constraints of the current pharmacy curriculum, there is an urgent need for innovative self-learning electronic materials. These learning resources will allow students to learn at their own pace, freeing up time for case studies and discussions to apply their knowledge.

On the other hand, the social work program may not include the pharmacology and the danger of each substance of abuse, especially the new trend of abuse (e.g. etomidate, GHB, LSD), which may welcome input from the department of pharmacology and pharmacy and are important knowledge when doing counseling their clients with SUD in their future social work careers.

This project aims to address this gap within the BPharm and BSW program by 1) developing a series of multidisciplinary educational videos on substance use; 2) developing SUD cases for assignment at the HKUMED-EHR* platform. The videos will delve into the neuroscience of addiction, the effects and dangers of various addictive substances, withdrawal symptoms, clinical management, counselling skills, help seeking resources and stress management strategies. The videos also include post-activity quizzes, with electronic certificates awarded upon completion. While several SUD case studies will be developed for students to practice on clinical management, and counseling skills for SUD, as an in-class assignment to apply the knowledge, with feedback to improve their performance.

The primary goal is to enhance the BPharm and BSW curriculum by providing essential knowledge and practical skills to pharmacy and social work students to handle SUD in a community setting. The videos and the cases at HKUMED-EHR* system will be incorporated as teaching and assessment of BPHM3145 (Central Nervous System, Musculoskeletal and Connective Tissue Disorders) in year 3 pharmacy program. These videos may also be incorporated into the SOWK2075 (Violence in Intimate Relationships) of BSW curriculum to facilitate future handling of SUD cases in their careers.

The effectiveness of the project will be evaluated by assessing the utilization rate, acceptance, students’ learning outcomes and their feedback on the learning platform through survey and focus group interview. The evaluation results are expected to be published as a research paper at relevant journals.

As a secondary aim, the educational videos will be open to all HKU students to promote a drug-free culture on campus. Additionally, the resources can enhance the learning experience for students in other medical programs.

By incorporating the “Student as Partners” approach, BPharm students will collaborate with the students at SWSA Department. Students are familiar with the education needs of their own and understand the best way of delivering knowledge effectively and interestingly. The videos will be available in both Cantonese and English to ensure broad accessibility and internationalization.

This proposal offers a novel approach to teaching about substance use disorders through active student participation, technology-enhanced learning materials, and Outcomes-Based Approaches to Student Learning (OBASL),

—elements that represent significant advancements over traditional lecture-based instruction. The materials can be sustained and be used in all future school years. It opens the door to the future development of an interprofessional education (IPE) module on substance use disorder.

*HKUMED-EHR (educational electronic health record built by Dr. Ann Leung at the department of pharmacology and pharmacy, TDG #911) is an electronic platform for saving virtual patient electronic health records for students to practice information taking and clinical decision making. We already successfully used it for assessment and feedback for pharmacy students across the years.

Promoting Aging Research through Inquiry-Based Learning: Developing Interdisciplinary Logical Thinking in Academic and Industrial Settings

Principal Investigator: Dr. Qingqing Zhang (E: zhangqq1@hku.hk)

Aging has been implicated in multiple disease areas and is a leading economic burden in the future. There has been soaring attention to ageing research as indicated by the ever-increasing published record in PubMed from 2010 to now. Yet, many anti-aging molecules are being validated in pre-clinical, and very few have been proven successful in clinical settings. With the difficulties in translating pre-clinical innovation to clinical success, it is essential to equip our students with logical thinking in both academic and industrial research.

We plan to explore more effective pedagogical methods for undergraduates of the School of Biomedical Sciences （Year 3 – 4）in this project. This project might benefits to other courses related to stem cell and entrepreneurial science (BBMS3012, BBMS4005, and BIOL2409). This project aims to nuture BBMS studnets through academic-industrial setting about 1) enhanced inquiry-based learning in aging research with the help of artificial intelligence, 2) hands-on experimental training for students to acquire laboratory skills, 3) student-initiated academic research projects with our innovative human cellular aging platform which shorten experimental period and maximize student’s learning experience in research, and 4) research experience in industrial settings in HKSTP to explore students with entrepreneurial science and gain experience in how academic research is translated into products.

This proposal aims to explore students with innovative ideas in biomedical science, particularly the use of stem cells to model the aging process. During the research experience, we plan to introduce students to the differences between academic and industrial research and equip students with the logical thinking necessary for interdisciplinary collaboration.

Development and Evaluation of Interprofessional Education Model for the HKU Med Community Pharmacy: from Simulation to Real Workplace Setting for Effective Collaborative Practice

Principal Investigator: Ms. Jody Kwok Pui Chu (E: chukpj@hku.hk)

Interprofessional education (IPE) is a highly recognised pedagogical approach adopted in medical education to encourage effective collaborative practice with the aim to ultimately optimise clinical care of patients. Over the past decade, IPE Programme has been successfully implemented in HKU Med representing extensive collaborative effort across and beyond the different undergraduate programme of the LKS Faculty of Medicine. Students from different programme participate in well-planned IPE activities throughout their academic journey and are provided with the opportunities to work with each other from different disciplines. Interprofessional collaboration of different programme starts from case planning, case writing to assessment, students work together on simulated cases that are contributed by content experts from different programme in classroom setting. The opening of the HKU Med Community Pharmacy in 2024 and release of the Primary Healthcare blueprint by the Hong Kong SAR Government in 2022 signified a major step forward on the importance of development of primary healthcare in Hong Kong.

This project focuses on developing and implementing an IPE model for HKU Med students from pharmacy, nursing and MBBS in the real workplace setting based in the HKU Med Community Pharmacy and HKU Health System Clinical Centre. Through activities and interdisciplinary group discussion facilitated by HKU Med / Pharmacist tutors and senior students, the model aims to provide an authentic learning environment for our students to enhance their understanding of roles of different healthcare professionals as well as to develop their teamwork and various essential soft skills in the primary healthcare setting. The workplace learning theory by Billett will be utitized as an important reference guide for the development of the proposed IPE model.

A mixed method will be adopted to qualitatively and quantitively collect, evaluate and analyse the impact of our IPE model. Students will be asked to reflect on the experience through focus group interviews after the IPE activity and they will be evaluated on their interprofessional identity and attitude. Validated scales such as Interprofessional Attitude Scale1 (IPAS) and Extended Professional Identity Scale2 (EPIS) may be used for this evaluation. Through the IPE activity and experiences of the students, a new set of integrative scale will be developed to assess interprofessional competencies in a primary healthcare setting.

Once piloted in the HKU Med Primary healthcare setting, it is anticipated that the IPE model can be applied and adopted in training healthcare professional students in a wider primary healthcare setting such as other community pharmacies, health clinic and district health centre. The IPE model developed based on Workplace learning theory can also be applied to other non-health care disciplines.

“What’s your story?”: Empowering Student-led Narrative Action to Enhance Glocal Citizenship through Experiential Interview

Principal Investigator: Dr Olivia Miu Yung Ngan (E: olivian1@hku.hk)

In an era where healthcare increasingly relies on technology, human-centered care remains critical. The project aims to explore ways of integrating medical ethics and humanities into broader learning outside the traditional domain through a civic inquiry-based approach that involves students’ active participation in projects that address global issues of a social, political, economic, or environmental nature.

The “What’s Your Story?” project is grounded in the importance of narrative, emphasizing deep listening and understanding of stakeholder stories. Our work involves student-driven exploratory learning under the guided research space. Students will be trained in interview techniques and presentation skills. They will take on an active role as anchors, conducting interviews with various stakeholders, including healthcare professionals, patient advocates, and academics. Through inquiry-based learning, they will delve into expert knowledge, curate a list of relevant issues, actively listen to stories, gain insights into challenges, exchange ideas, and develop holistic competencies.

From a micro-perspective, students will learn qualitative interviewing as research skills to apply theoretical knowledge in practical application. It exposes students to human-centered healthcare practices that textbooks alone cannot convey. Invited scholars will come from diverse health backgrounds, from microbiology to public health and social policy.

From a macro-perspective, the content generates dynamic educational resources outside the traditional format (e.g., reels, videos), while also providing significant educational value to the student community. These resources will serve as supplementary learning materials, providing students with a deeper understanding of the complexities of real-world healthcare scenarios. Project impact includes raising awareness of critical social issues and fostering a more informed and engaged public.