On October 25, 2022, the Internationalization Team of the ECE Department received two guests from the Foreign Languages and Translation Studies Department of Korkyt Ata Kyzylorda University in Kazakhstan. Dr. Aizhan Makasheva and Ms. Zhadyra Daribayeva came to learn how the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) initiative has been conceptualized and implemented in our Department. They had recently received a grant to run a similar project at their University and hope to learn from our experience.
Dr. Alfredo Bautista and Ms. Sofie Chua received the guests and shared their COIL experiences. The team invited Dr. Artem Zadorozhnyy from the Department of English Language Education, a Kazakhstani, specializing in informal language learning and digital literacy to join the meeting. After this meeting, the EdUHK colleagues brought the guests for a campus tour, followed by lunch at the Chinese dim sum restaurant to have some local fare.
Dr. Makasheva and Ms. Daribayeva’s visit to the ECE Department signals a break to the dry spell of physical visits to the campus since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic and a new beginning where physical visits will be more commonplace again. Dr. Bautista and Ms. Chua hope that this meeting is the beginning of a new cross-cultural partnership where our faculty members can work collaboratively with Dr. Makasheva and Ms. Daribayeva and their University to enhance COIL international learning between their students and ours.
Exchange of gifts between Hong Kong and Kazakhstan
Taking a tour around the EdUHK campus
Concluding the visit with dimsum at the Chinese restaurant