Effective multidimensional learning and advising community: Design and development

Abstract

The core part of the major education reform in Hong Kong was the introduction of a normative 4-years undergraduate curriculum and for some-disciplines a school based admission (SBA) system in 2012. With students one year younger and having just completed a new secondary school curriculum, significant challenges were anticipated at the university level to enable a smooth transition from secondary school to university, and this has well proven to be problematic. On the other hand, accrediting bodies for engineering qualifications, including the Washington Accord, have recently developed a set of graduate attributes and professional competencies for the next generation Engineers, with considerable emphasis on Engineering leadership, teamwork and communication. A 'two birds one stone' solution is introduced in this paper. While the need for an effective academic advising and mentoring system for first-year students is distinct, a large-scale intergenerational, multi-dimensional learning community framework has been developed, within the School of Engineering of HKUST, as a platform for the creation and execution of 'serve and learn' types of transformative learning. The design and development of the framework is discussed and the integration of student mentoring with student and staff developments are demonstrated with examples. Copyright © 2013 Y. B. Chan.