Discover HKBU
Empowering students to thrive in class and beyond
30 Jun 2025
Professor Chen Li remembers trying to calm her nerves when meeting her undergraduate class for the first time as a new teacher. “I was so nervous that I found it difficult to look at my students in the eye!” she recalls.
Now an experienced teacher who has been with HKBU for 16 years, the professor of the Department of Computer Science speaks to her class with passion and ease. Over the years, she has taught a total of 14 courses, including six new ones that she developed, covering a broad range of topics. She not only has a profound understanding of the subject matter she teaches, but she also motivates students to think, learn and innovate.
Professor Chen serves as a great example of the quality teaching that takes place in HKBU’s classrooms every day. Her dedication to education has earned her the President’s Award for Outstanding Performance in Teaching (Individual) this year.
Research-intensive teaching inspires creativity
Known for her innovative teaching approaches, Professor Chen is enthusiastic about instilling a passion for knowledge in students and nurturing their creativity. In the course “Human-Computer Interaction” which she developed, she has employed a research-intensive teaching approach by integrating her project findings into the teaching materials.
“The course focuses on the different ways users interact with computers, and how to redesign user interfaces to improve system accessibility,” Professor Chen says. “To help students evaluate the usability of an interface, I presented an experiment that tracked users’ eye movements as they interacted with a variety of interface designs.”
By integrating research and real-life findings in class, students can discover what makes a good interface from the users’ perspective and develop a critical mindset about human-centred design.
Professor Chen also provides students with opportunities to create new mobile interfaces and prototypes. Students interact with actual users from the community to understand the challenges they face when using smartphones, they then modify the interfaces to make them more user-friendly. “Incorporating service-learning components into the course has made the class more interactive, and it empowers students to tackle real-life issues within the community,” says Professor Chen.
She believes that guiding undergraduates through the research process can better equip them for the future. “In recent years, rapid technological advancements have underscored the importance of human creativity. As educators, we not only impart knowledge, but we also enable students to leverage the latest information and technologies to create new solutions,” she continues.
A lasting impact on students
In addition to undergraduates, Professor Chen teaches, guides and supports master’s students and PhD candidates. She capitalises on the uniqueness of her students in terms of their background, motivation and level of knowledge, and develops teaching strategies that give students the agency to pursue their own projects.
She has also played an important role in designing new interdisciplinary programmes, namely the Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Computer Science - Data and Media Communication Concentration as well as the Master of Science (MSc) in AI and Digital Media. Both programmes are jointly offered by the Faculty of Science and School of Communication to train interdisciplinary talent who can excel in the digital age.
A keen learner, Professor Chen is on a constant quest to improve her teaching. Early in her teaching career, she would humbly reach out to seasoned colleagues in the department to gain practical tips and insights for success in the classroom. She also participated in workshops for faculty members where they shared pedagogies that enhanced student learning.
Most of all, she listens to her students, whose feedback has encouraged her to keep refining her teaching approaches and produce class materials that are relevant and engaging. “The students’ experiences towards the use of technology and artificial intelligence are rather diverse and vary from year to year. I try to get to know my students first, understand their needs and interests, and think of ways to motivate them to learn new knowledge,” she remarks.
Professor Chen’s teaching has brought a lasting impact on students long after they graduated, as many of her former students have successfully applied what they learnt in her class to their work. “Seeing my students thrive gives me a great sense of achievement; that’s how I know I have made a difference,” she reflects on what makes her own journey fulfilling.