Evaluation of a general education program in Hong Kong : results based on multiple evaluation strategies

Abstract

To respond to the growing concerns about the need for university students to learn generic skills to complement their disciplinary expertise, many universities have included General Education (GE) in their curriculum. A new general education framework entitled "General University Requirements" (GUR) has been implemented at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) since the 2012/13 academic year. A five-year longitudinal project using multiple evaluation strategies was conducted to evaluate the GUR, including objective outcome evaluation (online survey), Collegiate Learning Assessment Plus (CLA+), subjective outcome evaluation (Student Feedback Questionnaire), and qualitative evaluation (focus groups, longitudinal case studies and document analyses). With reference to the second year of program implementation, results from different evaluation strategies consistently demonstrated that the GUR subjects were effective in promoting the five desired graduate attributes as defined by PolyU (i.e., problem solving, critical thinking ability, effective communication, ethical leadership and lifelong learning) in students. Both students and teachers perceived the subject contents, teaching and learning methods, and teaching staff in GUR subjects favorably though several challenges were also noted.