Engaging Our Community

The activities that were identified with input from the Flagship Community present opportunities for collaboration with private sector partners and across institutions. Through our newsletter series and social media, we will update you on these activities and inform you of  ways in which Flagship Programs may get involved. The following are some of the short-term activities the Tech Center is supporting.

Implementing blended learning pilots

In 2016, the Tech Center pilot-tested a 6-week blended learning program at the University of Hawai’i to enhance language learning experiences through a simulation. A fictitious company (https://greenIdeas.world) was created to simulate authentic scenarios that learners may experience in interactions with the target culture. As part of this activity, the Tech Center seeks partner Chinese programs to test the simulation in a multi-institutional context.

Expanding discourse domains in Blended Learning Experience

The blended-learning experience implemented in the Spring 2016 presented opportunities for learners to engage in discourse domains relevant to their professional interests. As the simulation grows, more professional discourse domains need to be represented (e.g., legal Chinese) and relevant domain tasks need to be designed. The Tech Center has created the basic structure to implement the blended learning experience through a simulation and can facilitate the creation of more content and tasks so that they are relevant to the particular learners in your program. Contact us if you wish to participate in this process.

Creating a shared repository (Flagship Commons)

An important common wish that was identified by the Tech Center through its activities in the first year of operation is the need to create channels for the Flagship Programs to better share their technology-based projects and practices. In a recent analysis of technology tools used in the Flagship Programs, the Center discovered that the Canvas learning management system is the learning platform most commonly used across Flagship institutions. In order to take advantage of this shared resource, the Center is facilitating the creation of a common repository of resources, named The Flagship Commons. This repository will contain a collection of searchable materials created by Flagship instructors and tutors which can be shared with the whole Flagship community.