Scholarly Activities

An Investigation of GenAI Writing Rubrics. NUS Provost Special Grant. (2024)
Kooi Cheng Lee, Principal Investigator
Misty So-Sum Wai-Cook, Co-Investigator
Ziqian Zhou, Co-Investigator  

The two main questions of this study are (1) What are key constructs for AI-resistant writing rubrics? and (2) To what extent are the writing rubrics AI-resistant? In this study, we develop AI-resistant rubrics by re-examining language, writing, and critical thinking rubrics; and we test the validity of AI-resistant rubrics based on six writing scenarios. Two experienced raters grade the scripts using an existing rubric and a newly constructed set of rubrics. Outcomes of our study will not only enlighten courses that our Centre offers but also other courses at higher education as well as subjects at junior colleges and secondary schools which have a heavy emphasis on language, communication, writing, and critical thinking. 

Enhancing Faculty Educational Video Production Proficiency to Elevate Teaching Practices and Boost Learning. Teaching Enhancement Grant (TEG), Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning (CDTL), Learning Community (LC) Project. (2024)
Akshay Narayan, Principal Facilitator
Lieu Zi Zhao, Co-Facilitator 
Marissa Kwan Lin E, Team Member 

Our Learning Community aims to investigate two things: firstly, what makes educational videos engaging for students; and secondly, what challenges educators face in producing such videos. All these are done in the context of enhancing the educational experience of blended learning for both educators and students. We are currently planning our activities for the upcoming academic year and our immediate plan is to survey a sample group of faculty members from various departments in the university to find out what their perceptions of blended learning are, as well as the challenges faced when it comes to educational video production. 

Providing Relational and Sustainable Feedback to Students. Teaching Enhancement Grant (TEG), Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning (CDTL), Learning Community (LC) Project, National University of Singapore. (2023 – 2024)
Norhayati Bte Mohd Ismail, Principal Facilitator 
Patrick Bernard Gallo, Co-Facilitator 
Jessie Teng, Team Member 
Yurni Said-Sirhan, Team Member 
Yasmin Merchant, Team Member 
Susan See Tho, Team Member 
Danielle S. Tan, Team Member 
Erik Birgersson, Team Member 

The team completed focus group discussions with students from different faculties on their feedback experiences. Preliminary analysis shows that students value the effort teachers put in to provide timely, targeted and actionable feedback. Acceptance of negative feedback hinges on the student’s academic resilience but is well received when tactfully delivered and there is an opportunity to clarify the comments made. For peer feedback, the potential impact on peer relationships matters. These findings are largely aligned with established insights into effective feedback practices, emphasizing the importance of timely, specific, and actionable feedback, and the relational aspects of tutor and peer feedback.

Students’ Reaction to and Regulation of Emotions in Receiving Feedback. Teaching Enhancement Grant (TEG), Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning (CDTL), National University of Singapore. (2022 – 2024)
Kooi Cheng Lee, Principal Investigator
Misty So-Sum Wai-Cook, Co-Investigator
Derek Wong, Co-Investigator
Eric Chan, Co-Investigator
Chng Hui Ting, Co-Investigator
Chen Wenqian, Co-Investigator

Teacher feedback to students forms an integral part of the learning process but its impact on the learner can vary widely depending on several factors such as the nature of feedback, how it is delivered and the relationship between teacher and student. In this study, we explore a key but often ignored condition – the students’ emotional responses to teacher feedback. In particular, we study four dyads of final year Pharmacy students’ emotional regulation of teacher feedback on their final year research projects, given by their content supervisors, co-teachers, and the language instructors, in an interdisciplinary module. Data collected include audio-recorded or zoom-recorded feedback episodes. The interaction analysis is used to identify relevant categories of emotions. The findings will help further our understanding of the complex emotional feedback engagement between student and teacher and in turn, better inform our feedback practices. 

Collaborative digital whiteboards in a blended science communication course: Promoting online engagement, self-regulated learning, and writing performance
Brenda Yuen, Principal Investigator
Amelyn Thompson, Co-Investigator 

This study aims to investigate how the use of collaborative digital whiteboards in a blended science communication course ‘SP1541 Exploring Science Communication through Popular Science’ promotes students’ online engagement and the extent to which students’ online self-regulation and engagement are associated with writing performances. Given its potential in promoting students’ engagement, particularly in cognitive and collaborative dimensions, in both synchronous online and face-to-face learning contexts (Thompson & Yuen, 2022, 2023), an online collaborative whiteboarding platform, Miro, was incorporated into the asynchronous online learning component for purposeful peer interaction. This study adopting an embedded mixed-methods design will offer insights into the use of collaborative digital whiteboards to enhance students’ online engagement in asynchronous online learning and the interactions of students’ motivational beliefs, self-regulated learning strategies, and engagement in their learning. It will also provide practical implications for the design of collaborative blended learning in higher education. This is in progress. 

Community Engagement: Validation of assessment tools
Misty So-Sum Wai-Cook, Project Co-Leader, NUS Teaching Academy 

In alignment with the NUS communities and engagement (CE) pillar, this CE project are to measure the effectiveness of the course by measuring students’ ability to show empathy and communication skills, and exploring ways to assist the tutors on the ground with best practices in teaching a CE course. Based on the identified objectives: literature review on existing scales to measure empathy and communication skills, development of assessment tools, and validation of assessment tools by course coordinators.

Investigating Student Difficulty as a Construct in the Ideas and Exposition Programme Context. CELC Education-Related Research Support Scheme. (2024)
Gene Segarra Navera, Principal Investigator  
Marissa Kwan Lin E, Co-Investigator 

This research project aims to investigate perceptions of student difficulty when it comes to teaching academic literacies in the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) classroom. We have finished collecting data from past students in the Ideas and Exposition courses and will be entering the data analysis stage. Both survey and interview data were collected to find out about students’ specific and individualized experiences of the challenges faced while enrolled in an Ideas and Exposition course. With the findings of the study, it is hoped that course design and implementation can be tailored to help students better with their learning. We hope to present our findings via presentation and publication in due course. 

Is ChatGPT any good: Evaluating the potential of ChatGPT-reformulated essays as written feedback in L2 writing 
Yingzhao Chen, Principal Investigator

This study examined whether ChatGPT was able to produce reformulations better than L2 learners’ original essays. In addition, three types of ChatGPT prompts were compared to see which type of prompts yielded the best quality reformulations. Nine hundred sixty argumentative essays written for the TOEFL iBT independent task were submitted to ChatGPT. ChatGPT-reformulated and the original essays were compared in terms of syntactic complexity, lexical sophistication, lexical diversity, and cohesion. Results showed that while ChatGPT reformulations improved in most aspects when compared to the original essays, the reformulations did worse in terms of cohesion. A ChatGPT prompt with specific instructions worked better than a generic prompt, but a more complicated prompt (i.e., one with a persona) did not further improve the original essays compared to the prompt with specific instructions. This is completed and submitted to a journal. 

L2 learners’ perceived knowledge, use, and beliefs of ChatGPT in English language learning
Yingzhao Chen, Principal Investigator

This study adopts a mixed-methods design and examines L2 learners’ perceived knowledge and beliefs about ChatGPT, as well as L2 learners’ use of ChatGPT for learning English as an L2. Focusing on tertiary English learners in Hong Kong and Singapore, we probe learners’ perceived knowledge of using ChatGPT as well as their actual use of the AI tool in various stages of writing, such as brainstorming, drafting, and editing. Regarding use, we further examine reasons why learners use ChatGPT to learn English. Finally, in terms of beliefs, we explore how learners, in light of ChatGPT, perceive the importance of different aspects of English language learning, such as learning grammar and vocabulary, as well as learners’ beliefs about the ethics of using ChatGPT. We also collect data on learners’ proficiency and investigate how it affects their use and beliefs about ChatGPT. This is in progress. 

Presenting Writer’s Perspective in CLIL: A Reading-Writing teaching approach 
Ming Cherk Lee, Principal Investigator
Uma Jayaraman, Co-Investigator
Jinat Rehana Begum, Co-Investigator

In Arts and Social Sciences, the writer’s perspective is an essential part of presenting an argument. The writer’s perspective is demonstrated by synthesizing and presenting ideas drawn from sources that reflect their stance through informed opinion. To achieve this outcome, writing strategies such as summarizing and paraphrasing arguments from specific sources, use of transition markers, reporting verbs, and incorporation of sources, are employed.

Speech-gesture-slide interplay in academic oral presentations 
Tetyana Smotrova, Principal Investigator
Anita Toh, Co-Investigator 

The study is on multimodal aspects of student presentations: Speech-gesture-slide interplay in academic presentations. The findings will be presented on 25 June 2024 at a conference in Tokyo and online conference in the UK in July. Ms Anita Toh and I have conducted a qualitative analysis of a small corpus of student OP videos. Our participants are post-graduate students from different disciplines taking an academic communication course. Having identified the specific ways students use such functions of speech-gesture-slide interplay as “draw attention”, “depict”, “decompose”, “disclose”, and “animate”, we draw on Goodwin’s (1995; 2000; 2014) framework to conclude that when presenting their research, students should strive to employ the different semiotic systems in a coherent way “so that they mutually elaborate each other in a way relevant to the accomplishment of the [communicative] actions” (Goodwin, 2014, p. 238). Other pedagogical recommendations for teaching multimodal aspects of OPs have also been provided. 

Student life
Misty So-Sum Wai-Cook, Team Member, NUS Teaching Academy

The Student Life Task Force 2.0 – Task Force was set up to understand the Student Life 1.0, define the objectives of Student Life 2.0, and explore ways to enhance students’ campus life experience, and how students should navigate Student Life 2.0. Once the Taskforce conceptualised the framework, the Chair, A/Prof Wong Mun Loke finetuned the NUS One framework based on feedback from UCEP and BUS, sought Senate’s approval, and communicated plans to the NUS Community. 

Summarizing and promoting graduate research in the Arts and Humanities: Insights for teaching cross-disciplinary academic communication 
Netty Mattar, Principal Investigator
Christian Chia, Co-Investigator
Owen Harry, Co-Investigator

To investigate the relevance and applicability of the framework for instructing arts and humanities students in summarizing and promoting their research to a cross-disciplinary audience. This is in progress.