Acknowledgments and References
Here you will find thanks to the many people who have helped put this highly bespoke hybrid course together. You will also find a list of references used when researching culture and issues related to cultural awareness, as well as research on best practice for supporting learning autonomy, especially where students are learning online.
Acknowledgements
This course was designed and written by Sarah Toogood. Grateful thanks to Cissy Li (Head of the Language Centre at HKBU) for requesting the course and to Yvonne Lee (Director of the International Office at HKBU) and Sandy Lee (Manager of Global Engagement in the International Office at HKBU) for helpful feedback and encouragement in course design. Thanks to various colleagues in the Language Centre at HKBU from office and technical staff to teaching colleagues. In particular, thanks to Rita Singh for her HKBU style OBTL and syllabus writing guidance and Wil Luk and Noah Lai for setting up recordings of HKBU staff who provided culture stories which have been included in Units under Research Time. Thanks to Joyce Leung for her initial advice on technical features, for her hard work in creating a prototype platform and helping convert tip-fairy into Su, the superhero guide. Thanks to Joy Wong for taking excellent meeting minutes and Alis Chan for assistance with documents and suggestions for edits in the videos. Thanks to Amber Matthews for creating the Toonly videos and spending hours sourcing text-to-speech software, helping to match voices to each of the 7 Toonly cartoon characters who guide and teach students through each of the Units, and for working out how to use the Natural Reader software in conjunction with the Toonly software. Thanks too for being so patient and accommodating when presented with dialogue changes due to changes in platform design and programming! Thanks to Dorothy Lam and Wil Luk for invaluable help in sourcing new programmers and liaising with the finance office to ensure that acceptable contracts could be drawn up for the programmers from Pilot Simple Software, Ltd. Thanks again to Wil Luk and to Dave Fung for working with Ahmad Salih and Muhammad Backer from Pilot Simple Software, Ltd. on links and access issues to HKBU’s online systems for students and teachers. Thanks again to Dorothy Lam for her insights and help in meetings with programmers to discuss needs and functionality for the admin platform, as well as to give input on the outlook and navigation for the student and teacher platforms. Thanks to Gladys Cheung for overseeing finance and contract payments as well as for joining one of our very long meetings between the Language Centre and Pilot Simple Software, Ltd. to discuss details regarding the wireframe and the blueprint for each of the platforms. Thanks to Connie Leung and Jenny Choe for early proofreading and insightful comments on the first proofs of the Units and character developments. And finally, grateful thanks to Michelle Fong for ensuring the course platforms are in working order and for coordinating the first running of the course with help from Connie Leung, Jenny Choe and Dave Fung.
