CPCE Connect [People Focus]: An Interdisciplinary Approach to IT Management

Description

Dr Jason Chan, Head of Information Technology, was honoured with the CPCE
Dean’s Award for Outstanding Service Performance/ Achievement in 2014/15
for his distinguished services. Integrating his knowledge and expertise in public administration and e-learning, Dr Chan has been driving the development of the Information Technology Unit (ITU) with an innovative spirit, and passionately promoting the use of IT in education.

Joining CPCE in 2008, Dr Chan led ITU to make an important move in the same year. “The College’s IT infrastructure was previously managed by an external contractor. In 2009, with the aim of raising service quality, ITU took over the helm to provide one-stop IT services for all staff and students. Thanks to my dedicated teammates, the handover was very smooth although it involved the reconfiguration of numerous hardware and systems.”

Describing himself a “professional generalist”, Dr Chan holds a bachelor’s
degree in public and social administration, two master’s degrees in computing and educational technology, and a doctoral degree directed towards the inclusion of ethnic minorities in education. Before joining CPCE, Dr Chan worked at the policy think tank Bauhinia Foundation Research Centre. During his service at CPCE, he continued devoting himself to some consultancy projects by working with the PolyU Public Policy Research Institute.

“My research experience tells me that expectation management is crucial for
public consultation. It inspires me to arrange related customer services workshops for ITU. For example, we need to communicate clearly with users and define the response time to an IT service request. My teammates are not only tech-savvy but also peoplefocused,” said Dr Chan.

As an active researcher in educational technology, Dr Chan spares no effort to
promote the use of IT in teaching and learning. All lecturers are geared up with tablet devices which are connected wirelessly to the AV system. Lecturers
can refer to their electronic presentations anywhere in a classroom so that they can interact with students closely. Students are also supported by a high-speed printing system that can handle over 300 printing jobs concurrently. The printing system is not only accessible at the Student Computer Centres (SCCs) but also in other student common areas for solving the crowdedness issue at the SCCs.

In 2014, ITU introduced the mobile Student Feedback Questionnaire (mSFQ)
system, which enables students to use their smart phones or tablet devices to
complete surveys on teaching-related issues. “Apart from saving paper, mSFQ
significantly reduces the time for collecting and analysing data. Receiving the
statistical results promptly, lecturers can also respond to students’ feedback more efficiently.”

Dr Chan said modestly that the various effective IT strategies were based on
observing the e-learning case studies of local primary and secondary schools.
“Also, I have been invited to share the experience of implementing the mSFQ
and high-end printing system with other higher education institutions. Promoting educational technology is my mission.”