eCitizen Education 360 stems from the initial findings of the “Learning and Assessment for Digital Citizenship” Project, to find out what are the challenges, wellbeing issues and status of learning outcomes during and after school suspension in primary and secondary schools, support at home, and the most urgent needs and actions after school resumption.

The study adopted a multi-level survey-based design to investigate the experiences and needs, before, during, and after the school suspension, of different stakeholders in Hong Kong, including school leaders, ICT coordinators, teachers, students and their parents in primary and secondary schools. Each school also completes a school profile form to provide basic information about the school. This study takes a broad perspective on school leadership to include all staff members having formal responsibilities to contribute towards school-level decisions, including principals, vice principals, academic masters/mistresses/curriculum leaders, subject/KLA panel chairs, heads of e-learning, heads of STEM, moral/civic education coordinators, counselling/guidance coordinators, discipline masters/mistresses, life-wide learning coordinators, etc. School leaders contribute much to a school’s decisions related to its e-learning preparedness before the school suspension, contingency plans during the suspension, and the strategies and actions as the school resumes. Teachers serve a key role in implementing these decisions and contribute directly to the learning experiences and outcomes of their students. For school leaders who have teaching roles, the survey also asked questions about their teaching practices. Together with the responses from the student and parent surveys, we can get a comprehensive 360 degree understanding of how school and family conditions contribute to the learning experiences and outcomes of students before, during and after the school suspension.

All schools in Hong Kong were invited to participate and participation was on a voluntary basis. The specific grade levels and numbers of classes participating in the study was also decided by the schools based on their perceived needs and administrative possibilities. Parents of the participating students were invited to complete the parent survey. All surveys were conducted online, starting from June 8 at Secondary school level, and from 20 June at Primary school level. Data collected until July 14 were included in the analysis reported in this first bulletin.

A total of over 550 school leaders, about 790 teachers, 1300 parents and 6300 students from primary, secondary and special schools participated in the survey. Participating schools are distributed over a wide geographic area including nearly all of the 18 districts in Hong Kong, encompassing government, aided, Direct Subsidy Scheme (DSS) and private schools.

Prof. Catherine KK CHAN

Prof. Nancy LAW

Dr. TAN Cheng Yong

Dr. LAN Min
Dr. PAN Qianqian

In conjunction with research assistants in the Learning and Assessment for Digital Citizenship Project, which is funded by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China, under its Theme-based Research Scheme [Project No. T44-707/16-N] and jointly conducted by researchers from The University of Hong Kong and The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.

This project is a comprehensive 360-degree survey study with widespread support from academics, The HK Jockey Club Charities Trust, parents, professional and community organisations. We aim to enhance our comprehensive capacities to act as a community to reduce the negative impact of school suspension as well as to realise the vision of eCitizen Education 360.