【TheAchievement & Highlights of Providence University’s Higher Education SPROUT Project in 2022】
I. Implement Teaching Innovation & Optimization
A. Intensify the school-wide model of innovative teaching and learning
1.Be nominated by the CHEERS Magazine as The Top 20 Best University Performance in 2022. We were not only ranked No.7 in Taiwan but also famed No.2 among private universities. Besides, we were honored as The Top 20 University for our growth in managing performance for five consecutive years.
2.Accomplished the reformation and the steady practice for the courses of microcredit and service-learning. Since 2021, we have comprehensively integrated the courses of “Microcredit Interdisciplinary Learning” and “Design Thinking & Practices” with the general domain of “Interdisciplinary Learning & Design” to break the hedge of professional subjects and gather the capacity of course innovation. Further, we also provided the resources of the Multi-Interdisciplinary Learning to inspire students’ motivation on self-directed learning.
3.Based on the four new domains of general-connotative courses in 2021, our talents-course group in IF Program has developed the four professional and systematic objectives to fully expand the network of general education, such as “Environmental Healing”, “Eco-system Evaluation”, “Social Entrepreneurship & Regional Revitalization”, and “Civic Science & Circular Economy”.
4.Since 2022, there has been totally 25 departments which engaged in unifying and promoting Capstone Course. Meanwhile, they designed and constructed the questionnaire surveys to collect students’ feedback on their learning process. In this sense, we could evaluate the learning efficiency and the possible ameliorating measures. This way not only could synthesize students’ learning and strengthen their theoretical knowledge but also could enhance their ability on the practical applications.
B. Steady support for students to practice Interdisciplinary Learning
1.Follow the success of TEDx Annual in 2018 and 2020, we continually uphold the principle that teachers should support “Student Team for TALK” to manage the event. In 2022, we attained the authorization from the TED official in the USA again. In the annual event of TEDxProvidenceUniversity (2022 Knowledge Discovery), there were totally 344 participants of the event, and we had successfully produced 7 outcome videos to keep expanding the influence of oral narration.
2.The broadcast production team has transformed into a new media production team. They cooperated with the National Education Broadcasting Station to promote the transformation of broadcasting by means of the live studio broadcast and pre-recorded broadcast programs. We tried to break through the shackles of traditional broadcast styles by being familiar with the applications of new media technology.
3.We gathered the professional practical competence of Department of Taiwanese to establish the three multi-featuring student teams─Editorial Interview Team, Creative Team, and Cultural & Creative Team. We founded a cooperative mechanism between the student professional teams and the core teacher groups to deliberately design the training sessions which could meet the common objectives of the teams. Furthermore, we also set up a branded website, Island Keynote, to display student teams’ works and their creative achievements. This website can be seen as a platform for students to learn and observe.
4. The College of Computing and Informatics is continually promoting the four main teams for self-directed learning─CloudMobiler R&D Base, Maker Education Learning Organization, Competitive Programming Cultivation Base, and Geek Informatics Groups. These are mutually guided and instructed by teacher groups and practitioners, and the programs are operated based on the mentorship between the juniors and seniors. They are in charge of many cases on and off campus, such as developing Informatics system and setting up the websites, participating in the programming related competitions, and cultivating students’ interdisciplinary practical competence.
C. Prompt teachers to dedicate themselves in school-wide teaching innovation
1. Based on the previous implementing experience, we have refined many innovative systems and programs. By means of this, we have stabilized teachers’ capacity for teaching and researching, and have strengthened the instruction supporting system. Moreover, through the professional workshops, teachers’ learning community, and the research in teaching combination, we keep making efforts on acquiring professional knowledge in teaching and innovating courses. Therefore, since 2022, nearly 80% of our tenure teachers have been involved in multi-teaching innovation systems.
2.We have been consecutively entrusted by the Ministry of Education to organize a practicing project from 2020 to 2022, “The Annual Teaching Practice Research Plan Regional Base Planning Project”. We are regarded as the central base of the six district bases in the country, and we are the only private university among them. We have pragmatically gathered the energy of cross-school exchanges in the central region of Taiwan.
3.We have optimized the question database for the reading and book review writing assessments, and we are continually developing the literacy-based testing items. To respond accordingly to the modifications of the Master Framework for the 12-year Basic Education Curriculum Guidelines and 2021 Literacy-based Pedagogy Materials, we have adopted the SDGs issues from UN to design and produce the two volumes of related materials (totally around 10 thematic units). More than that, we will keep expanding the efficiency of literacy-based pedagogy.
II. The Development of University Features
1.We frequently attained the financial subsidy from Ministry of Education to support “Oversea Project Series”, and the total amount were ranked at the top position in Taiwan. In 2022, based on the favor of Ministry of Education, we founded a project office for “Enrollment Expansion Project for International Students in Key Industries” to accumulate and unify international resources and further exert the educational synergies.
2.By reviewing the diverse patterns of 411 study tour activities, our Office of International Affairs has cooperated with Luking Library to hold a 411 oversea study exhibition, Forever Young Adventure: LEVEL UP! They invited the representatives around the world to join the opening and expected to promote international communication and inspire students to plan and arrange their oversea study.
3.The College of Foreign Languages and Literature connected the language teaching with Master Framework for the 12-year Basic Education Curriculum Guidelines. We grouped a teaching team with the teachers and students from the English, Japanese, and Spanish Departments. We continued to compile teaching materials with different themes of foreign languages teaching, and we entered different high schools in the Taichung area with the forms of course cooperation, activity camps, and workshops. The project reached around 2,300 people, and it pragmatically deepened the local diffusion mechanism of language international power.
4. For the sake of corresponding with the developing global sustainability issues, we followed the diverse globalization mechanisms to keep promoting the various types of SDGs related workshops, study groups, the in-class interaction with international students, and so forth. Our International College also guided students to actively attend in a global business proposal contest, Hult Prize. Meanwhile, we invited practitioners to instruct the related knowledge, and we tried to combine our university specialties, the development of sustainability, and the business practice with the pedagogies so that we can establish the foundation of international learning and application.
III. Promote The Publicity of Higher Education
1. We gathered the resources throughout the university to construct a supporting mechanism for the students who have the financial difficulty. There were totally 13 departments of staffs, 11 categories, and 35 items about counseling and assistance, which involved in the operation. In 2022, we expected to add “Character Education” into the mechanism, and we will continue to enhance the diversity of the program to practically support students’ study, character cultivation, and their financial situations.
2.In order to foster the students with the financial difficulty to have the interdisciplinary learning competence and to motivate the students with poor academic performance in their learning, we offer a wide range of supporting programs to boost their learning motivation. Jiang, a student of Accounting Department, could be seen as one of the good instances. We supported the student to fulfill language proficiency test, public service learning, and professional certificate tests. The students further attended in the program of off-campus internship in the fourth year of the college. The student accumulated abundant practical experience in one of Taiwanese accounting firm during the interning period and successfully got the position of auditor in the company after graduation.
3.We keep strengthening the functions of “One-stop Service” in the Resource Center for Aboriginal Students. We can provide comprehensive services, including conveying the important information through the gateway of aboriginal students and building up a caring network for them. We guide aboriginal students to apply for many options of financial support and hold many events, such as freshman orientations, aboriginal cultural and relics exhibitions, and career lectures to meet their diverse needs. In this way, we can construct a mechanism that not only can realize multi-cultural diversity in the campus but also can optimize the operation of our student counseling systems.
4. Follow the principles of school development plan, we need to evaluate the conditions of autonomy all the time. Further, we would actively reveal the related information and details in public and fulfill the responsibility of self-evaluation.
IV. Fulfill Social Responsibility
1.To diversify our service networks and the contents of international volunteer service, we initiated the cooperation by means of on-line teaching. For example, we distantly instructed Cambodian students how to improve computer skills on a weekly basis. Meanwhile, we tried to globalize our services in Taiwanese rural areas by leading in the worldwide SDGs issues to domestic elementary schools. To accomplish the objective, the international volunteers designed a SDGs Monopoly board game to inspire those young students to dedicate themselves to the actions of environmental protection and encourage them to fulfill their responsibility for the development of local sustainability together.
2.To keep practicing the professional service learning involved colleges and departments, until 2022, we have organized 32 cross-field service teams to offer various items of local services, such as legal consultancy services, ecological education in related issues and solutions, humanity attainment, media attainment, and long-term care design. We combined the features of each department’s professional specialty and social care to encourage all of the staffs and teachers to participate in the program.
3.We prompted five teachers to use the USR HUB single-point plan to lead student teams into local communities. Through Local Topic-based Learning mode, students not only can improve their professional knowledge but also can understand the local needs and try to figure out the suitable solutions for the problems.