Tianchong Wang
Swinburne University of Technology, Education, Faculty Member
- Dr Tianchong Wang is currently a Lecturer (Secondary STEM Education) as well as the LANTITE and Course Delivery Data ... moreDr Tianchong Wang is currently a Lecturer (Secondary STEM Education) as well as the LANTITE and Course Delivery Data Coordinator in the Department of Education at Swinburne University of Technology. Tianchong has an Ed.D. from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, an M.Sc. from the University of Hong Kong, and a B.A. (Hons) from Hong Kong Baptist University. Tianchong also holds several ICT professional qualifications such as MCP, MCSA, MCSE, MCDBA, MCTS, MCITP, ACSP and ACTC. He is a member of IEEE.
With his dual expertise as pedagogist and technologist, Tianchong’s academic journey has been a quest to explore promising and inclusive technology-enhanced practices that improve learning experiences; identify effective technology-enabled solutions that promote positive change in learning environments; search for sustainable technology-driven approaches that can empower teachers and learners in under-privileged communities; and inform policies that can close gaps in educational access and quality. His current research interests focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in education – a global priority area and a cutting-edge component of STEM education for the upcoming Industrial 4.0 era. Before relocating to Melbourne, Tianchong served as a post-doctoral fellow at the Education University of Hong Kong, where he explored how best to infuse AI into the Special Administrative Region’s K-12 STEM education curriculum and identified missing links in current teacher education programmes. He also developed and taught Hong Kong’s first-of-its-kind master-level course Artificial Intelligence in Education (MITE7353) as a PT Lecturer at the University of Hong Kong.
Being an advocate of the United Nation’s Education 2030 Agenda, Tianchong has been actively engaged with international and national-level stakeholders. He has contributed to several large-scale research and development projects to promote education quality, equity, and inclusion, especially those involving new technologies. In 2016, Tianchong co-developed UNESCO’s framework and self-assessment tool for quality blended learning adoption. Over 3,000 copies of the publication have been distributed to all 46 UNESCO member states in Asia-Pacific as a policy advocacy tool. Notably, the framework and self-assessment tool were successfully applied in Cambodia’s higher education system in 2017, where Tianchong worked closely with the kingdom’s Directorate General for Higher Education via a jointly funded IDRC (Canada) and HEAD Foundation (Singapore) project that introduced blended learning as a possible solution to urban-rural disparities in STEM education quality. These projects were featured in IAU Horizons, the official magazine of the UNESCO-affiliated International Association of Universities.
To catalyse further positive changes in education, Tianchong advises governments and NGOs in various capacities. In 2022, he served as a consultant for UNESCO Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education. In this role, he drafted UNESCO’s synthesis report Transforming Teaching and Learning through New Digital Technologies and reported his findings in UNESCO and UNICEF’s 2nd Asia Pacific Regional Education Minister’s Conference. Tianchong is often appointed as a resource person by development aid agencies to conduct teacher capacity-building activities in the Global South. Recently, as a content expert of the UNESCO International Centre for Higher Education Innovation, he led workshops for the centre’s IIOE Pilot Project Digital Educator Micro-credential in Malaysia.edit
The rapid advancement of technologies and their ubiquitous use in our daily lives have dramatically changed the way knowledge is created and disseminated. As a technology-enhanced pedagogical approach, blended learning – the deliberate... more
The rapid advancement of technologies and their ubiquitous use in our daily lives have dramatically changed the way knowledge is created and disseminated. As a technology-enhanced pedagogical approach, blended learning – the deliberate combination of online learning with face-to-face classroom-based learning – provides higher education institutions (HEIs) with the opportunities to enhance the quality of teaching and learning. While many of these opportunities have been well-documented in the literature, implementing and scaling up blended learning courses pose enormous challenges for HEIs in the Asia-Pacific region.
To address these challenges, UNESCO Bangkok in partnership with The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) launched a two-year project to build the capacity of HEIs for blended learning. One of the outcomes of the project was this book by a team of blended learning experts and leaders in the region. Blended Learning for Quality Higher Education presents a framework and self-assessment tool developed from a holistic view of building institutional capacity to drive, sustain, and scale up blended learning. It incorporates case studies from experienced HEIs in the region to demonstrate how the framework and its dimensions could be operationalised, and how the gaps identified in the self-assessment exercise could be addressed.
To address these challenges, UNESCO Bangkok in partnership with The Education University of Hong Kong (EdUHK) launched a two-year project to build the capacity of HEIs for blended learning. One of the outcomes of the project was this book by a team of blended learning experts and leaders in the region. Blended Learning for Quality Higher Education presents a framework and self-assessment tool developed from a holistic view of building institutional capacity to drive, sustain, and scale up blended learning. It incorporates case studies from experienced HEIs in the region to demonstrate how the framework and its dimensions could be operationalised, and how the gaps identified in the self-assessment exercise could be addressed.
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SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition) model is a framework that offers educators direction in advancing technology integration in their teaching practice. It has been praised for its elegance and capacity to... more
SAMR (Substitution, Augmentation, Modification and Redefinition) model is a framework that offers educators direction in advancing technology integration in their teaching practice. It has been praised for its elegance and capacity to help teachers design and implement learning activities where technology can play a role, although it has been criticised for its lack of academic rigour and emphasis on product over process. During the global Covid-19 pandemic, the question of whether and how the SAMR model can support quality instruction in an online/blended environment warrants investigation. The teacher-researcher, a higher education EFL teacher based in Zhuhai, China, has assessed the SAMR model with an action research. The study spanned a challenging transition–from a period of fully online instruction in Spring semester 2019–20, to a blended learning (BL) format during Autumn and Spring 2020–21. The findings of this paper illustrate that SAMR can be useful as a compass to help teachers navigate towards effective technology-based education, despite the fact that using the model may not always lead towards promising practice. The findings also challenge the general conception of the SAMR model as a ladder that must be climbed. This study contributes to a critical discussion of SAMR, with examples of how the model was utilised to cope with rapid change in educational mode. The study also provides BL practitioners with some lessons learned from utilising SAMR as a guide for high-impact technology integration. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.
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Governments have identified higher education as a major driver of economic competitiveness and have invested substantially on improving the access of their population to higher education. While the improvement of access through the... more
Governments have identified higher education as a major driver of economic competitiveness and have invested substantially on improving the access of their population to higher education. While the improvement of access through the expansion of universities has helped to build a foundation for the development of the higher education sector in developing countries, there are quality gaps between universities, especially between urban and rural ones. This chapter presents a case study of how blended learning has been adopted to close the urban-rural quality gap of a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) course at three universities in the Kingdom of Cambodia. The country’s flagship university in the city worked collaboratively with two provincial universities to design and develop a STEM course with online resources and activities that were then implemented at all three universities using a blended learning approach. This chapter examines how the blended learning approach is adopted in the rural university contexts to address the existing quality and access challenges of teaching and learning in the STEM course. It documents the impact of the blended learning approach through interviews and focus-group discussions with the key stakeholders. Based on the enabling and hindering factors identified in the study, the chapter discusses and suggests the blended learning strategies to close the urban-rural quality gap of STEM teaching and learning in the Cambodian higher education context.
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Governments have identified higher education as a major driver of economic competitiveness and have invested substantially on improving the access of their population to higher education. While the improvement of access through the... more
Governments have identified higher education as a major driver of economic competitiveness and have invested substantially on improving the access of their population to higher education. While the improvement of access through the expansion of universities has helped to build a foundation for the development of the higher education sector in developing countries, there are quality gaps between universities, especially between urban and rural ones. This chapter presents a case study of how blended learning has been adopted to close the urban-rural quality gap of a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) course at three universities in the Kingdom of Cambodia. The country’s flagship university in the city worked collaboratively with two provincial universities to design and develop a STEM course with online resources and activities that were then implemented at all three universities using a blended learning approach. This chapter examines how the blended learning approach is adopted in the rural university contexts to address the existing quality and access challenges of teaching and learning in the STEM course. It documents the impact of the blended learning approach through interviews and focus-group discussions with the key stakeholders. Based on the enabling and hindering factors identified in the study, the chapter discusses and suggests the blended learning strategies to close the urban-rural quality gap of STEM teaching and learning in the Cambodian higher education context.
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The recent COVID-19 pandemic has presented challenges to post-secondary education, including that campuses have been closed, removing face-to-face instruction options. Meanwhile, this crisis has also presented unique opportunities to... more
The recent COVID-19 pandemic has presented challenges to post-secondary education, including that campuses have been closed, removing face-to-face instruction options. Meanwhile, this crisis has also presented unique opportunities to create a “tipping point” or conditions that foster innovative teaching practices. In light of such a “danger-opportunity,” the feasibility of introducing microlearning (ML), a technology-mediated teaching and learning (T&L) strategy, has recently been revisited by some institutions. ML offers learning opportunities through small bursts of training materials that learners can comprehend in a short time, according to their preferred schedule and location. Initially considered as “add-on” complementary online learning resources to provide learners with an active and more engaging learning experience through flexible learning modes, the possibility of an institution-wide implementation of ML has been further explored during the COVID-19 lockdown. This paper...
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Open Educational Resources (OERs) represent an opportunity to enhance quality access to education. However, OER adoption has not yet made as substantial an impact as might have been expected. This case study identifies strategies for... more
Open Educational Resources (OERs) represent an opportunity to enhance quality access to education. However, OER adoption has not yet made as substantial an impact as might have been expected. This case study identifies strategies for effective OER adoption that can support quality access in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). We conducted a critical landscape review of existing activities, identifying “what works” and “what doesn't work”, noting both enabling and hindering factors. A questionnaire, interviews, and focus groups with students, teachers and workplace mentors in the leading TVET institution in Hong Kong were then used to examine perceptions and reservations regarding OER usage. The findings suggest that OER adaptations with blended learning might be an effective approach to enable quality access in TVET. This may help build learning communities that enable stakeholders to co-develop and to use the OERs and also to share good practices.
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This paper investigated conversations in social media on STEM over the course of a year to find who are the most important people that may influence STEM education discussions as well as the trends in the topics of conversations. The... more
This paper investigated conversations in social media on STEM over the course of a year to find who are the most important people that may influence STEM education discussions as well as the trends in the topics of conversations. The findings reveal that the most influential users represent organizations (businesses and non-profits relating to STEM fields and STEM education), although facilitation of such conversations are influenced by individuals. Further, the trends in conversations largely center on topics, such as K-12 and graduate studies, engaging K-12 STEM practices, specific STEM disciplines, and STEM careers.
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This chapter examines the role of e-portfolios as digital assessment tools in enhancing the quality of student learning outcomes in higher education. E-portfolios tap into the potential of digital technologies to support students’... more
This chapter examines the role of e-portfolios as digital assessment tools in enhancing the quality of student learning outcomes in higher education. E-portfolios tap into the potential of digital technologies to support students’ self-monitoring, self-evaluation, and sharing of learning. Thus e-portfolios have been reported as bringing about improvements in student learning. On the other hand, existing research also shows challenges for teachers of higher education institutions (HEIs) when adopting e-portfolio assessment. To formulate strategies for optimising the learning potential of e-portfolios, a landscape review of research literature is conducted to address the research question: How are e-portfolios used as digital assessment tools to enhance the quality of learning outcomes in higher education? The chapter begins with an overview of e-portfolios as digital assessment tools. A typology of e-portfolios is then presented to analyse the situations where e-portfolios are applie...
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ABSTRACT 'Post-PC' TouchPad technology has been increasingly popularised in recent years. At the same time, the demands for such technology to be used in institutions of higher education are rising. In the context of Hong... more
ABSTRACT 'Post-PC' TouchPad technology has been increasingly popularised in recent years. At the same time, the demands for such technology to be used in institutions of higher education are rising. In the context of Hong Kong, growing penetration of iPads and iPad-like TouchPads means that Hong Kong universities are likely to experience a growth in the number of not only students but also teachers adopting this technology. However, without a proper understanding and preparation for effective curriculum integration of this technology and its effect on students and teachers, there is a danger that we might miss a 'golden opportunity' to maximise the educational advantages that TouchPad technology might afford. To this end, this paper reports the findings of an ongoing qualitative study with multiple cases. We attempt to investigate how higher education teachers use iPads (Apple's popular TouchPad devices) to facilitate their teaching practice, and how their perceptions change through the process. This ongoing study is being conducted for 18-months with ten participants from different faculties at the University of Hong Kong. Data is being collected through interviews with the teachers, direct observations and focus group meetings during workshops, and reflective posts though a mobile-based Social Networking application (App). With narrative and cross-case analysis, the study outcomes will contribute to understanding areas of teacher's private theories that impact the integration of TouchPad technology in their teaching practice. Recommendations for adoption and applications of TouchPad technology to support teaching in higher education will also be provided.
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ABSTRACT Mobile devices (e.g. iPads or galaxy tab) are increasingly being used in educational contexts. There has been growing investment in higher education institutions in Hong Kong by the HKSAR Education Bureau in relation to... more
ABSTRACT Mobile devices (e.g. iPads or galaxy tab) are increasingly being used in educational contexts. There has been growing investment in higher education institutions in Hong Kong by the HKSAR Education Bureau in relation to educational uses of mobile technology. However, current research into educational applications of this technology is limited. This article reports results of a qualitative study that investigated how higher education teachers use iPads to facilitate their practice. The study results provide insight into both the educational affordances of iPad technology and the ways in which teachers’ personal or private theories mediate these affordances. The study outcomes contribute to theoretical understanding of higher education teacher changes through adoption of mobile technology. Furthermore, the outcomes provide a set of recommendations for applications of iPads and similar technologies in higher education and ways to support teachers to effectively adopt such technology in their practices.
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Abstract This paper reports on a small experiment using Social Networking in an English class in an English Medium of Instruction tertiary-level institution in Zhuhai, Southern China. The investigation was carried out both in the... more
Abstract This paper reports on a small experiment using Social Networking in an English class in an English Medium of Instruction tertiary-level institution in Zhuhai, Southern China. The investigation was carried out both in the classroom and online. Firstly, a Web 2.0 Social Networking Site (SNS) for English learning purposes, AlexCALL, was set up for a case study, and the experiment was conducted in two phases. Inter views with the relevant teachers were also conducted, allowing them to share their concerns and suggestions for ...
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Abstract—A fundamental change in the way education is being delivered is taking place. Using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education has shifted from being an “add-on” to becoming an essential component of the... more
Abstract—A fundamental change in the way education is being delivered is taking place. Using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education has shifted from being an “add-on” to becoming an essential component of the curriculum. Recently, initiatives aimed at reducing the digital divide, and lightening the load of students' backpacks, such as the “e-schoolbag” project launched in Shanghai and other major cities, have reignited the discussion on ICT's increasing role in the classroom. This paper traces some of the ...
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Abstract—A fundamental change in the way education is being delivered is taking place. Using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education has shifted from being an “add-on” to becoming an essential component of the... more
Abstract—A fundamental change in the way education is being delivered is taking place. Using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education has shifted from being an “add-on” to becoming an essential component of the curriculum. Recently, initiatives aimed at reducing the digital divide, and lightening the load of students' backpacks, such as the “e-schoolbag” project launched in Shanghai and other major cities, have reignited the discussion on ICT's increasing role in the classroom. This paper traces some of the ...
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ABSTRACT 'Post-PC' TouchPad technology has been increasingly popularised in recent years. At the same time, the demands for such technology to be used in institutions of higher education are rising. In the context of Hong... more
ABSTRACT 'Post-PC' TouchPad technology has been increasingly popularised in recent years. At the same time, the demands for such technology to be used in institutions of higher education are rising. In the context of Hong Kong, growing penetration of iPads and iPad-like TouchPads means that Hong Kong universities are likely to experience a growth in the number of not only students but also teachers adopting this technology. However, without a proper understanding and preparation for effective curriculum integration of this technology and its effect on students and teachers, there is a danger that we might miss a 'golden opportunity' to maximise the educational advantages that TouchPad technology might afford. To this end, this paper reports the findings of an ongoing qualitative study with multiple cases. We attempt to investigate how higher education teachers use iPads (Apple's popular TouchPad devices) to facilitate their teaching practice, and how their perceptions change through the process. This ongoing study is being conducted for 18-months with ten participants from different faculties at the University of Hong Kong. Data is being collected through interviews with the teachers, direct observations and focus group meetings during workshops, and reflective posts though a mobile-based Social Networking application (App). With narrative and cross-case analysis, the study outcomes will contribute to understanding areas of teacher's private theories that impact the integration of TouchPad technology in their teaching practice. Recommendations for adoption and applications of TouchPad technology to support teaching in higher education will also be provided.
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT Mobile devices (e.g. iPads or galaxy tab) are increasingly being used in educational contexts. There has been growing investment in higher education institutions in Hong Kong by the HKSAR Education Bureau in relation to... more
ABSTRACT Mobile devices (e.g. iPads or galaxy tab) are increasingly being used in educational contexts. There has been growing investment in higher education institutions in Hong Kong by the HKSAR Education Bureau in relation to educational uses of mobile technology. However, current research into educational applications of this technology is limited. This article reports results of a qualitative study that investigated how higher education teachers use iPads to facilitate their practice. The study results provide insight into both the educational affordances of iPad technology and the ways in which teachers’ personal or private theories mediate these affordances. The study outcomes contribute to theoretical understanding of higher education teacher changes through adoption of mobile technology. Furthermore, the outcomes provide a set of recommendations for applications of iPads and similar technologies in higher education and ways to support teachers to effectively adopt such technology in their practices.
Research Interests:
ABSTRACT Mobile devices (e.g. iPads or galaxy tab) are increasingly being used in educational contexts. There has been growing investment in higher education institutions in Hong Kong by the HKSAR Education Bureau in relation to... more
ABSTRACT Mobile devices (e.g. iPads or galaxy tab) are increasingly being used in educational contexts. There has been growing investment in higher education institutions in Hong Kong by the HKSAR Education Bureau in relation to educational uses of mobile technology. However, current research into educational applications of this technology is limited. This article reports results of a qualitative study that investigated how higher education teachers use iPads to facilitate their practice. The study results provide insight into both the educational affordances of iPad technology and the ways in which teachers’ personal or private theories mediate these affordances. The study outcomes contribute to theoretical understanding of higher education teacher changes through adoption of mobile technology. Furthermore, the outcomes provide a set of recommendations for applications of iPads and similar technologies in higher education and ways to support teachers to effectively adopt such technology in their practices.
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Governments have identified higher education as a major driver of economic competitiveness and have invested substantially on improving the access of their population to higher education. While the improvement of access through the... more
Governments have identified higher education as a major driver of economic competitiveness and have invested substantially on improving the access of their population to higher education. While the improvement of access through the expansion of universities has helped to build a foundation for the development of the higher education sector in developing countries, there are quality gaps between universities, especially between urban and rural ones. This chapter presents a case study of how blended learning has been adopted to close the urban-rural quality gap of a Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) course at three universities in the Kingdom of Cambodia. The country’s flagship university in the city worked collaboratively with two provincial universities to design and develop a STEM course with online resources and activities that were then implemented at all three universities using a blended learning approach. This chapter examines how the blended learning approach is adopted in the rural university contexts to address the existing quality and access challenges of teaching and learning in the STEM course. It documents the impact of the blended learning approach through interviews and focus-group discussions with the key stakeholders. Based on the enabling and hindering factors identified in the study, the chapter discusses and suggests the blended learning strategies to close the urban-rural quality gap of STEM teaching and learning in the Cambodian higher education context.
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Higher education institutions (HEIs) have recognised the role of blended learning (BL) in enhancing teaching and learning quality; many of these institutions have implemented BL initiatives as part of their quality enhancement efforts.... more
Higher education institutions (HEIs) have recognised the role of blended learning (BL) in enhancing teaching and learning quality; many of these institutions have implemented BL initiatives as part of their quality enhancement efforts. Despite these efforts, HEIs face sustainability and scalability challenges and issues. There have been pockets of innovative BL practices but these practices are not prevalent across courses and programmes within institutions. In response, this paper proposes a framework to inform institutional strategic planning for driving, sustaining, and scaling up BL practices in HEIs. There are seven strategic dimensions in this framework: 1) curriculum; 2) vision and policy alignment; 3) infrastructure, facilities, resources, hardware and support; 4) professional development; 5) student learning support; 6) partnerships; and 7) research and evaluation. When the strategic planning of HEIs considers these strategic dimensions, they are more likely to drive, sustain and scale up BL practices in their institutions.
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In this chapter, we discuss the current state of blended learning (BL) and its impacts on inclusive and quality higher education in Asia through the lens of seven strategic dimensions that have been outlined by (Lim CP, Wang T, Graham C,... more
In this chapter, we discuss the current state of blended learning (BL) and its impacts on inclusive and quality higher education in Asia through the lens of seven strategic dimensions that have been outlined by (Lim CP, Wang T, Graham C, Innov Educ 1:1–12, 2019) for implementing BL in higher education. The seven dimensions include (1) curriculum; (2) vision and policy alignment; (3) infrastructure, facilities, resources, hardware, and support; (4) professional development; (5) student learning support; (6) partnerships; and (7) research and evaluation. We then present insights gleaned from each chapter as they relate to the dimensions of the framework for the strategic planning of BL. As we synthesize the insights and identify the missing links, we discuss six key recommendations and directions for Asian universities as they continue to develop their capacity for BL into the future. First, while Asia can learn from the research done as BL becomes the new normal globally, many issues may be unique to the learning culture and issues in Asia. Second, there needs to be a better alignment between BL and current theories of learning, including how those theories may be modified or creating new theories. Third, congruence building between an institutional shared vision and individual practices of BL needs to be a concerted effort between higher education institution (HEI) leadership and BL practitioners. Fourth, pedagogy and teacher professional development should be prioritized areas for HEIs’ BL capacity building. Fifth, HEIs need to re-envision the role of libraries and be more explicit in how BL can be supported by library services offered. And finally, HEIs need to respond to the rise of K–12 BL to achieve greater inclusive and quality higher education agenda.