聚焦未来技能，宁波诺丁汉大学英籍教师的创新毕业设计课程获评省一流

将课程与生活相结合， 

培养适应未来所需技能

设计匿名反馈系统，

提升教学满意度

“马修上课的时候很可爱，有时候为了监督同学们上课有没有走神，他会故意讲错，看同学们有没有认真听讲。在大课上，他还会走到后面吓唬那些开小差的同学们。但是说实话，在马修的课上很难开小差，干货很足。加上他说一口标准的英语，自带英式幽默。在他的课上，同学们都是百分百的全神贯注。”

Innovation and co-creation lead UNNC module to be recognised as ‘first class’ at provincial level

The Final Year dissertation module convened by Dr Matthew Pike, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC), has recently been recognised as a “first class” module course in Zhejiang Province. Because of his student-centred teaching philosophy and future-facing teaching style, Dr Pike has gained considerable popularity among the students.  

Dr Pike joined UNNC in September 2018, and his principal research interests centre around human-computer interaction, which is the simulation of human performance in real environments. In addition to this, he is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy and is responsible for the UK Professional Standards Framework.

“Computer science is a rapidly evolving field, with new technology paradigms and technological approaches being introduced at a continuous rate. In this environment, delivering 'knowledge' alone, will not equip students with the skills necessary to adapt and evolve to future developments,” Dr Pike introduces.  

Dr Pike’s teaching philosophy is essentially constructivism, which views learning as the process where learners generate meaning and construct understanding based on their previous knowledge and experience. He places a strong emphasis on linking course material to students’ existing experiences and promotes this practice by explaining theoretical concepts using practical, everyday examples to develop students’ capabilities to deal with the changing industry environment in the future. 

In order to keep students interested and productive during class, Dr Pike has devised an approach that places students at its centre and employed a number of techniques. For example, he has implemented in-class quizzes that reflect students’ learning outcomes, and has even championed a continual feedback system in all of the modules he convenes to collect students' anonymous feedback on a recurring basis, which enabled him to improve his teaching methods continuously. It is because of such highly transparent and interactive communication channels that students became increasingly satisfied with Dr Pike’s teaching. 

Xiaoying Yang, a Year Three student of Computer Sciences at UNNC, said that Dr Pike is one of her favourite lecturers as he is fully prepared for each lesson, offers a comprehensive set of teaching materials, and is patient in explaining answers to students’ questions.  “He is very funny. Sometimes he will make little mistakes on purpose to check if we are listening carefully. He speaks very beautiful British English with typical British humour, so it isn’t difficult at all for us to pay attention in his classes.”

The key principle behind this recently recognised provincial first-class module is to allow students to create their own success by promoting open and free communication between students and supervisors through classroom practices and technological innovation, which ensures an equal relationship between student and teacher. Thanks to this continuous reviewing of the module, many graduation projects have been graded as “outstanding research achievements”.