Reinforcing the Importance of Academic Integrity and Ethics in Students through Blended Learning – A Deployment of Augmented Reality Applications

The objectives of this project are to: enhance teaching and learning by helping students to develop the concepts of academic integrity and ethics; and develop a learning environment supported by innovative digital technologies whereby students will be motivated to learn about academic integrity and ethics. In order to achieve these two objectives, a number of intended learning outcomes (ILOs) for students are set: able to share their experiences in making ethical decisions and acting with integrity in real-life contexts; to apply theoretical learning about academic integrity and ethics to real-world scenarios; to internalise the concepts of academic integrity and ethics through immersive collaborative simulations and ongoing discussions; and to reflect on the course of action a university graduate should take in order to make an informed decision to act ethically and with integrity in real-world circumstances. The expected deliverables include the AR system, a learning environment with interactive AR learning trails to support teachers in deploying blended learning for issues of academic integrity and ethics; a repository of activities and scenarios developed based on subject disciplines or using physical locations to create learning trails for the various topics under the umbrella of academic integrity and ethics within the system; a substantial amount of data on student engagement in the learning activities as well as their views and opinions on ethical matters; the strengthened infrastructure support for augmented reality within the partner institutions, or even for the entire education sector in Hong Kong; and with concerted efforts by all involved, the research outcomes from this project have the potential to make Hong Kong one of the regional leaders in the educational use of AR. Coupled with the Learning Analytics Project, there is also the possibility of Hong Kong becoming a regional leader in learning analytics. Training workshops and roadshows will be conducted at least twice per semester at the partner institutions at the piloting stages. Results and findings from the pilots will be shared in conferences and seminars for feedback. The experience gained from the project and the analysis derived from the data will be disseminated regularly at international conferences and in journal publications.

Funding Source: UGC - Block Grant