• Abstract

Lingnan University (LU) in Hong Kong provides whole-person education combining the best of Chinese and Western liberal arts traditions. LU recently enhanced its liberal arts education by developing critical skills and attitudes required for long-term success in the rapidly changing world (e.g., critical thinking, entrepreneurship, innovation, and leadership), refocusing the balance between disciplinary/vocational training and whole-person development, establishing new programs that meet student and societal needs, encouraging high-impact pedagogies, and expanding residential education. Assessments of student and employer satisfaction indicate appreciation for LU’s liberal arts approach. Other universities in China are likely to face similar opportunities and challenges, so LU’s experiences can provide a roadmap for success and evidence of the ultimate value of liberal arts education.

• Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic made the business of global higher education more complicated and competitive each day. Globalization with changes in the world’s economy, increasing diversity, the ubiquitous use of technology, and the COVID-19 pandemic are impacting higher education in ways no one could have predicted. The sudden move of instruction to online learning presents tremendous challenges for global higher education institutions. Adding the precarious nature of face-to-face instruction as a result of the pandemic, the future is complicated with most universities using online learning as an innovation to continue instruction. The road ahead for global higher education is filled with questions, hazards and uncertainties that began before the pandemic but was exacerbated with the sudden move to online learning.

• Abstract

In this paper I discuss the necessity for educational and cultural exchanges between China and the West — and especially with the United States. As the title indicates, these exchanges are both risky and challenging, and I will discuss both the risks and the challenges. In Part One I briefly indicate the primary risks facing the international community: war, abject poverty, and planetary collapse. In Part Two I argue that the spirit of coopetition — competition within a larger spirit of cooperation — is needed to manage these risks. In Part Three I consider the challenges involved in preparing leaders and citizens to embrace the spirit of coopetition and the essential role of higher education in disseminating that spirit throughout our societies. In Part Four I focus on China’s recent higher education reform. The major challenge is that the traditions of humane learning in both the West and China have been practically abandoned. Working together, and finding inspiration in their joint efforts, educational leaders and scholars from China and the West must now restore and re-vitalize these traditions.

• Abstract

Listening is a dynamic and complex process which can be considered as one of the most difficult skills for various reasons. Research has found that using audio-visual (e.g. videos) can help learners engage in listening and develop better listening skills as they were exposed to a richer language context compared to using audio materials only. Drawing on these perspectives, this article reports a study investigating the effectiveness of using videos to facilitate listening comprehension and promote active learning in teaching listening skills. This action research study was conducted over one semester with second- and third-year undergraduate students majoring in English with a TESOL concentration in one liberal arts college located at southern Guangdong province. In this study, the students took a pre-listening test, watched five HTML5 Package (H5P) videos, and completed a pre- and post-questionnaire. The results from the pre-listening test and post-questionnaire showed that the use of H5P videos tend to facilitate listening comprehension in classroom based learning activities and promoted active learning to some extent. However, some students reported that viewing H5P videos was less effective in promoting active listening due to unfamiliarity of the format of the video. This article also offers insights to pedagogical and research implications of using H5P videos as a tool to teach listening skills to language teachers.