1. Imperial China on your Tablet
Technology and Visual Materials in the Teaching of Chinese History
Dr Emma Reisz and Dr Aglaia De Angeli

2. Teaching Chinese history
How to engage students unfamiliar with China?
Research-led, primary sources BUT students don’t have Chinese
World-class collection of 2,500 rare historical photographs of China held at Queens.
Photographs build engagement and confidence
Students often lack confidence to study China, which is unfamiliar to most.
A research-led approach can build confidence.
The convenors taught similar material to postgraduate students and to UG interns through direct access.
To valorise c. 2,500 rare historical photographs of China held at Special Collection in McClay Library, QUB.
We observed that using the photographs gave students confidence to explore Chinese history, and enabled them to develop visual methodological skills
which were otherwise not well covered at either UG or PGT.

3. Challenge: Research-led undergraduate module on China
Model research practice and provide hands-on training
Linked to lecturers’ ongoing research project
Integrates student research
Research-led learning through:
group workshops
and independent student research
How to support students through a research-led module on China?
Lecturers modelling research practice and providing hands-on training.
It arises from the convenors’ ongoing research project.
It’s a research-led module, because both staff and students are actively researching the material in seminars and tutorials; and is taught substantially through group workshops and independent student research.

4. L2 UG history module Based on visual materials Aims:
to make Chinese history research accessible to UG students
to develop digital and visual historiographical skills
To develop transferrable skills
This module is an UG module for 2nd year students;
Taught and assessed substantially through visual materials.
What are the aims of this module?
make Chinese history research accessible to undergraduate students with no previous knowledge of China and integrate primary sources, what photographic material is.
The module aims to develop historiographical skills in digital and visual literacy
- specifically, training for Level 3
Develop transferable digital and visual skills

5. Challenge: Access to visual materials
To scale approach from lab/research context (Special Collections seminar room) to Level 2 undergraduate teaching:
Provide access to photographic databases in the classroom
Support students in visual skills
Engage ‘digital natives’ BUT also support students who are not comfortable
Learning approach developed in a research lab context, specifically the Seminar Room in Special Collections:
Round table (group work)
Large display screen for very high magnification of images
Use of personal devices
Database access
Physical access to materials
To scale up this approach into a Level 2 module, needed to provide student access to similar technology to provide access to photographs held all over the world and to give the students convenient access to the photographs.
Visual materials require special skills – not just ‘looking’ but learning to see need to provide in-class access to train students.
Also develop digital skills, building on the interests and experience of a generation exposed to technology since childhood, while recognising that some students are not comfortable with technology.

6. Technology involved: Microsoft Sway - share visual materials
Flexible Teaching Space – provide digital access during class
Own devices – Support use of own tablets/phones
ContentDM – share unpublished research
PowerPoint – Design an exhibition poster
Students’ learning for each unit begins with a selection of visual materials
curated and annotated by the lecturers in Microsoft Sway.
Staff guide students through each unit’s materials in a workshop in the Flexible Teaching Space,
where students use university tablets and/or their own devices to work collaboratively exploring the assigned photographs and beyond to photograph databases around the world, including the lecturers’ own database on ContentDM.
The module includes training in both using and creating digital visual materials, and the assessment includes the creation of a digital poster.

7. Learning research skills: hand-held access
Support hand-held access in class to develop research skills
Positive student feedback on in-class access: best aspect for several students was ‘using tablets in class and being interactive’
Materials must work well on all devices (laptops, tablets, phones)
Unplanned bonus: Our students rate importance of phone/tablet access at 4.33 on a 5-point scale; 73% used a tablet to access our module; 67% used their phone
To develop research skills, we need to provide access to digital visual materials during class.
This was possible because the Flexible Teaching Space offers:
group-based room layout,
possibility of connecting to main display screen,
tablets easier to combine with group work than laptops
Students have rated the hand-held access positively.
In a survey of module students, 53% gave ‘5’ (‘very important’) to have phone/tablet access to module materials. No student gave less than 3 out of 5 for this question.
All students had used at least three types of device out of university computer, laptop, tablet and phone; 33% had used all four types.

8. Thank You!