【Highlight of Providence University’s Year 109 for Higher Education SPROUT Project Report】
I. Taking Teaching as the Core
A. Deepen the whole university’s innovative teaching and learning model
1. Selected by the CHEERS magazine to be the Top 20 Best University Performance in 2020, we rank No. 12 nationwide and No. 4 in private universities.
2. Recreating an advanced project system. Promote advanced project system and media courses. Drive students to create their own courses according to their needs, and implement the spirit of course modules for advanced project systems.
3. Offering a Design Thinking and Practice course, integrating design thinking into the service-learning system, guiding students to think empathetically, define problems, and creative thinking in the process of practice, and properly use the expertise of the department to help the field solve practical problems.
4. The School of Information and Information Technology promotes the "PBL Creative Thinking Workshop" exploratory micro-topics of the whole hospital. The systematic curriculum structure and creative practical content lead freshmen to complete 35 Lego micro-films and stimulate their motivation and interest in professional knowledge.
5. According to the trend of information professional certification, the MOS license is fully adjusted to the ICDL international license, and the pass rate of the 109 (1) semester is 64.91%.
B. Steady support for students to practice what they have learned across different domains
1. We completed independently with the 2020 TEDxProvidenceUniversity(Uprising) annual conference with a collaboration between PU TALK student team, the broadcast production team, and the new media student team.
2. The PU TALK student team, along with the cross-domain teacher team, continues to refine the oral expression training module. We introduce the VR situational speaker training system, develop multiple supplementary teaching materials, and go to the National Taichung University of Education to open hands-on workshops to deepen oral speaking and influence narrative education.
3. The broadcast production team cooperated with the National Education Broadcasting Station to promote the transformation of broadcasting, by the means of live studio broadcast and pre-recorded broadcast programs. The university tries to break through the shackles of traditional broadcast styles by being familiar with new media technology.
4. Intending to deepen professional courses with the Department of Ecological Humanities, we establish a training module for professional drone operation and examination in the university. To train students to learn on-site, obtain drone operation certificates, and establish a student pilot team. The department implements the self-training of students and cultivation of the professional functions.
5. Encourage the acquisition of cross-domain professional certificates. A total of 63 cases of passing level A professional certificates were recognized by different colleges of the university in 2020. Among them, the professor of the Department of Chinese Literature helped up to 20 students to pass TBSA Advanced Business Planning Ability Certification. College of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, College of Management, and the International College have obtained 17 certificates for the foreign language tour guides, which effectively adds to the students' future employment competitiveness.
C. Drive teachers to invest in innovative teaching throughout the school
1. With the experience of 2018 and 2019, we can innovate many of our courses in 2020. With the guidance of multi-rewards and encouragement, teaching promotions, teacher evaluation, and other administrative mechanisms, 73% of our full-time teachers have been involved in multi-teaching innovation mechanisms.
2. In response to the process of promoting the Design Thinking and Practice curriculum, the school organizes and trains a core team of teachers to drive the change of the service-learning system and to prepare for the change in the curriculums for the future.
3. The university was entrusted by the Ministry of Education to hold the planning project of the 2020 Annual Teaching Practice Research Plan Regional Base Planning Project. It is the central base of the five district bases in the country and the only private school among the base schools. We help gather pragmatically the energy of cross-school exchanges in the central region.
4. Establish a deepening module for creative core writing courses, incorporate SDGs issues into the new version of reading and writing textbooks, and collaborate with the literacy evaluation mechanism and module development to deepen the benefits of college students' reading literacy.
II. Developing University Features
A. We have been nominated for the 2020 Top 30 Internationalized University by the CHEERS magazine. We rank number 9th in the country and rank the 4th among private universities.
B. The Ministry of Education has also awarded Providence University to gain subsidies from MOE’s for the different “Study Abroad Scholarships”.
C. The College of Foreign Languages and Literature connects with 2019’s syllabuses. We formed a teaching team with a total of 177 teachers and students from the English, Japanese, and Spanish departments. We continue to compile teaching materials with different themed foreign languages, and we entered different high schools of the Taichung area in the form of course cooperation, activity camps, and workshops. The trial teaching reached more than 6,000 people, pragmatically deepening the local diffusion mechanism of language international power.
D. We have combined with MOE’s Taiwan Experience Education Program (TEEP), connecting with the foreign language teaching team of our school and 13 international intern students. Through the cultural exchange at local high schools, we can deepen international intern students’ understanding of Taiwan’s teaching environment and culture through hands-on workshops, field teaching, and online interactions.
III. Making Resources More Public
A. Invited by the Ministry of Education in December 2020, the president of the University and the corporate representative Fotexco International Limited participated and received public praises and thanks at the press conference for the College and University’s Improvement of the Education Assistance Mechanism and the Five-year Youth Training Program.
B. With the University’s One Love, Three Strength fundraising grant, we can combine with the SPROUT project, and establish a place to provide an environment for students to train coffee roasting and pastry making. With the two Providence Café as the students’ intern fields, we provide a place for students to manage and operate independently. To support them for their future employment during the school period, and implement the spirit of learning and replace part-time jobs.
C. Gather the strength of the whole university to guide students to achieve their learning goals by combining freely with the multi-student assistance programs. With the support of different learning programs including the classwork, certification, and language tests, student Chen from the Department of Spanish Languages has successfully obtained the admission notice for the Master's Program of the University of Barcelona before graduating from college; With the counseling for the certification project, student Zheng from the Department of Finance has obtained over 25 certificates that are related to finance, strengthening the competitiveness of the future workplace.
D. Follow the school affairs development policy and always check the self-governance situation. Under the supervision of the school’s board of trustees, the internal control work was revised for the students’ participation in the school affairs, protection of the teacher’s rights, and disclosure for the university’s school affairs information in 2020, to fulfill the private school governance and self-responsibility of obligations.
IV. Fulfilling Social Responsibility
A. The new normality of international volunteer service in colleges and universities during the pandemic. As one of the few universities that continues to provide international volunteer services in 2020, the university maintains the principles of strict selection and solid training. Supporting 22 volunteer students in non-synchronized online course recording, and provides applied teaching of overseas cooperative units. The Youth Development Administration of the Ministry of Education also shared the university's practices and invited the co-organizers to provide suggestions and encourage more teams and school youth to participate in the service.
B. Linking with domestic private enterprises and overseas volunteer units, using non-local service methods to continue to hold different services including Send love to Africa, Love Without Borders by donating and collecting different supplies on-campus. The Kingdom of Eswatini’s Love Binti Project, teaching how to make cloth masks, teaching videos on Chinese Culture, and producing teaching materials such as picture books… etc. Our services have been recognized by the service country and cooperative units.
C. Encourage 5 teachers to use the USR HUB single-point plan to lead student teams into local communities. Through local topic-based learning mode, while improving students' knowledge in the professional field, they will guide students to observe local needs and solve the problem.