A cross-departmental PolyU team has won the Silver Award in the Asia Region at the QS Reimagine Education Awards 2023 – the Oscars in the education sector – for their project “Immersive Learning on the Run: Student-Staff Partnership for Technology-Facilitated Ubiquitous Learning”. This project demonstrates innovative teaching by leveraging technology, multimedia, and immersive virtual environments. PolyU is the only institution in Hong Kong to have won the Regional Award for Asia across all categories out of 1,200 applications worldwide.

The PolyU team was led by Dr Rodney Chu, Senior Lecturer of the Department of Applied Social Sciences, with members coming from the same department and the Educational Development Centre.

The team adopted an innovative Cave-cum-Studio Device for the PolyU General University Requirements subject “From Gloom to Bloom: Global New Urbanism”. With the provision of an immersive virtual environment and digital production studio, and the embedding of a student-staff partnership approach, students and teachers are empowered to co-design teaching and learning content and method tailored to students’ needs and interests.

For example, the team has co-created videos on topics related to intangible cultural heritage, urban landmarks, suburbs, and markets, and then showcased them in the Hybrid Immersive Virtual Environment (HiVE) at the University’s Industrial Centre, the first large-scale X-Reality hybrid classroom in Hong Kong. This approach allows students to assess sustainable development goals and enhances their learning experience.