This study explored parents' views on kindergarten and primary school students' distance learning experience and support needed as well as the amount of time children spend on screen media at home during COVID-19 class suspension. Between February 19 and 22, 2020, three weeks after classes were suspended in Hong Kong, responses from 6,702 parents (93% mothers) of kindergarten students and primary school students were collected via an online survey. Research Findings: Three major findings emerged: (a) Most children encountered difficulties in completing distance learning tasks at home, with major difficulties being children's lack of learning interests and home environment related limitations. Most children were not able to complete the learning tasks independently; (b) More parents without online learning were dissatisfied with distance learning during class suspension than those with online learning. Parents wanted more interactive online learning to facilitate children's learning during class suspension and desired better learning support from schools, flexible work arrangements, and government subsidies; (c) There was a high usage of electronic devices without parental mediation during class suspension. Practice or Policy: Together, the findings have important policy and pedagogical implications for delivering a distance learning curriculum and working with families during class suspension. The findings also suggest the need for schools to work on a balance of types of learning during class suspension by introducing diversified on- and off-line activities as well as supporting parents in navigating children's screen time. Copyright © 2021 Routledge.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a tremendous impact on the pedagogy and learning experience of students in sub-degree education sector of Hong Kong. Online learning has become the “sole” solution to deal with student learning challenges during this chaotic period. In this study, we explore online learning for sub-degree students by using a community of inquiry (CoI). As such, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted on survey data gathered from 287 sub-degree students from the business and engineering disciplines. Results indicated that the network speed for online education determines the perceived cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence of students, whereas gender and academic disciplines of students are not moderating factors that create a significant difference in perceived cognitive presence, social presence, and teaching presence of students. Our study findings for creating and sustaining a purposeful online learning community are highlighted. Copyright © 2021 Lau, Tang, Chau, Vyas, Sandoval-Hernandez and Wong.

COVID-19 and the shift to online teaching necessitated a change in approach for English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teachers in preparing their students for university studies. This study explored how EAP instructors coped with and adapted their provision for emergency remote teaching. The study was conducted at an English-medium university in Hong Kong and a qualitative case study approach was adopted. The results revealed two overarching themes of opportunity and challenge. While the sudden shift to online teaching forced innovation and fostered collaborative learning and feedback, teachers experienced difficulties in communicating with students and monitoring their learning. The study voices teacher perspectives in delivering EAP courses online and highlights important implications for the successful delivery of future online EAP provisions. Copyright © 2021 by the authors.

This paper intends to study the beginning stages oftechnology adoption during distance learning in early childhood education (ECE) and focus on digital tools and equipment used during this period. We circulated a questionnaire to a representative group of teachers, seeking to find out more about teacher and school preparedness, strategies to provide distance education, and teachers' experiences while making this transition. Findings from survey results and interviews from forty-three teachers indicate that technological factors are strongly linked to school readiness. Teachers do not have pedagogical techniques for the current distance education learning environment. The pedagogical implications of these specialised tools were discussed. Four different pedagogical practices are central for distance education in a crisis and several difficulties encountered during the process. Although being prepared to ensure the continuity of education was challenging, schools and teachers found ways to overcome the obstacles. Results build on previously reported findings regarding school closure during virus outbreaks, and they may serve as guidance for teachers and school leaders as they move into technology adoption in ECE education. This research can also help create emergency response educational plans for kindergartens and provide an excellent historical record. Copyright © 2021 The 16th International Conference on Computer Science and Education.

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to widespread change in people's lives across the world. Indeed, such change is especially evident in the education sector, where this global phenomenon has arguably triggered some of history's most significant advancements. In this study, we explore how the early childhood education sector in Hong Kong has coped with schooling during this period. Furthermore, we investigate the extent to which players in Hong Kong's early childhood education scene had to adjust in light of dynamically changing local government guidelines and why that has led to long-term improvements. To derive meaningful conclusions from this study, we use a mixed-methods approach that relies on data collected from surveys, interviews, and case studies relevant to the topic at hand. This data is then analysed, and themes are formed through coding. We also explore teachers' feelings, technology adoption, and examples from practice to determine how schools have supported young children's education. The research demonstrates how early childhood education and care centres innovatively provide education during a crisis. Traces of success in making teaching and learning possible and meaningful are visible, even with children of a young age. Consequently, this research yields key lessons about ECE learning and teaching during crises. Copyright © 2021 The International Academic Forum.

Since the first class suspension, announced in Feb 2020 due to the prevalence of Covid-19, many schools, including all kindergartens, primary, secondary, and tertiary institutions, have redirected their face-to-face learning to online learning to strive for 'suspending classes without suspending learning'. The physical closure has switched face-to-face learning to learning at home, which has given rise to a new role for parents and guardians in children's learning. As a significant stakeholder in the education process, parent-child experiences are among the most influential driving factors contributing to the success of any educational reform, and hence should be analysed to inform future decisions. This research sought to examine parental issues experienced by the parents of children engaged in distance learning. Parents agreed with the policy to keep the learning going, but they also highlighted the challenges they faced while supporting their children's home learning. Parents explained that they were experiencing difficulties balancing their responsibilities, learner involvement, accessibility, and learning outcomes. Some notable implications and recommendations for future implementation of distance learning or blended learning were discovered as a result of the study. Parental views towards the Hong Kong kindergartens' readiness to adopt technology in emergency distance learning adoption were also discussed. Copyright © 2021 The International Academic Forum (IAFOR).

COVID-19 has forced universities around the world to suspend in-person teaching and adopt emergency remote teaching (ERT). To compensate for the suspension of in-person teaching, many universities mandated that teachers utilise video-conferencing software (VCS) to deliver synchronous online lessons conducted through VCS. This study explored the impact of ERT and the requirement to teach synchronously online through VCS on the motivation of university teachers at a major university in Hong Kong. In-depth interviews were conducted with nine teachers who had completed a full semester of ERT. The findings suggest that the teachers fell into two distinct groups. Teachers in one group (n = 5) seemed to thrive, reporting mainly positive effects of ERT on their motivation, while the others (n = 4) seemed to be just surviving, reported mainly negative effects. For members of the “thriving” group, the semester reinvigorated their teaching and provided them with new skills; members of the “surviving” group, by contrast, questioned their ability to teach, found it hard to build a rapport with learners, felt isolated, and struggled to find job satisfaction. The study concludes with a discussion of measures that could help university teachers to maintain their motivation during online instruction. Copyright © 2021 De La Salle University.

This study explored emotions and self-regulatory learning in postgraduate students, forced to transition to emergency remote teaching, at a Hong Kong university after the start of the academic semester. Self-regulation is a critical factor for successful online learning, and emotions are important antecedents of self-regulated learning. The study adopted a two-phase research design, with an initial online questionnaire (n = 52) followed by semi-structured interviews (n = 16) to gain a rich and holistic understanding of students' experiences. Our findings indicate that: (1) locating a suitable location to attend online classes and sharing problems with classmates were the two most frequently self-regulatory learning strategies employed by students; (2) students experienced some enjoyment attending online classes but experienced increased pressure and time commitment to complete assigned work; (3) students found online learning to lack a sense of community, making it challenging to interact with classmates. The findings suggest teachers need to incorporate various synchronous and asynchronous collaborative activities, and they need to increase their own and students' presence online to motivate and facilitate effective teaching and learning. Copyright © 2021 by the authors.

Purpose: This paper examines the way in which higher education participation is democratized in the entrepreneurial city of Hong Kong by the policy innovation that encompasses internationalization. There is a dearth of empirical studies about transnational education in Hong Kong, except for a few which examine students' perceptions of transnational education from a user perspective, situated in marketized conditions (Leung and Waters, 2013; Waters and Leung, 2013a; Waters and Leung, 2013b). The minimal volume of existing research has ignored the innovative aspects of democratizing higher learning by internationalization, namely the operation of international degrees by overseas universities on offshore campuses. This policy innovation by transnational institutions is significant in an era of the globalization of higher education, as access to higher education cannot be otherwise realized given the local education policies. Design/methodology/approach: Employing documentary research, this paper presents and assesses the growth of community college international education at the University of Hong Kong and its unique facets, juxtaposing it with the marketized context of East Asian higher education. It engages in specific reviews surrounding the operational mode and academic collaborations of the international educational programs and practices at the Hong Kong University’s School of Professional and Continuing Education (HKU SPACE). Findings: This documentary research finds that the internationalized academic profession of partner universities enables curriculum design, pedagogy, teaching ideas and assessment methods to be informed by an diversity of international academic cultures and indigenous knowledge. Through this policy innovation, international education is institutionalized in such a way that it takes Hong Kong students beyond the community college context, which is relatively localized. It also illuminates the way in which the "ideoscape" of American community