For performing arts education, Sage on the stage and Learn from the Masters were halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, and so did everything else. All lectures, tutorials and other face-to-face skill-based training sections were cancelled and were replaced by the online model. Such a model was only seen as one of the supplementary components for performing arts education in the past. From January 2020, this online pedagogy was inevitably placed to surmount the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The social distancing measures demanded the blended pedagogy into a new online approach, in which the traditional face-to-face teaching to be replaced by synchronous online learning (facilitated by technologies such as Zoom, Cisco Webex, Google Class, Panopto etc.). Meanwhile, to offer opportunities for cognitive participation which allows students to process the learning and be reflective, webinar and innovative performance projects were launched from the concept of ‘flipped classroom and outcome-based education.’ This mixed approach (blended learning, flipped classroom, and outcome-based education) is described as ‘hybrid learning’ in this study. The ‘hybrid learning’ pedagogy is implemented at the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) for all teaching activities in the 2nd semester 2020/2021 to overcome the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. A questionnaire survey about how it affected the performing arts education, and how the new pedagogy was implemented took place in July 2020. The survey results from both the teachers (76) and students (163) share lessons, insights, and new understandings on teaching and learning online. Hybrid learning has been widely investigated and researched, yet study on hybrid learning in performing arts such as creative art, theatre art and music, remains insufficient. This study fills the research gap.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has been raging across the continents, performing arts educators have unlearned and adjusted their pedagogies in course delivery to surmount the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Subject to the COVID-19 pandemic situation easing in Hong Kong and around the world, the whole education sector seems to be bouncing back to normal gradually. Meanwhile, there are effective lessons and insights to be learned from the hybrid pedagogy during the pandemic, which could further benefit the new normal period (post-pandemic) of performing arts education. To examine the current practice of digital learning among students and faculty (attitudes towards hybrid, online, and face-to-face learning and preferences about learning mode for professional development/training workshops), this empirical study looks at 408 students and 17 faculty members at a leading performing arts institute in Hong Kong. This study locates the key issues for performing arts educators regarding online/hybrid teaching and learning. It presents lessons and insights for quality insurance and improvement. Findings can inform the future development of digital teaching and learning for the performing arts as well as for other practice-based subjects.

Senior management in tertiary institutions desires an efficient system that could help them assess and evaluate learning outcomes so that effective policies can be implemented to enhance teaching and learning. This gets intensified as broader issues arise and higher expectations are put on tertiary education—build a creative workforce and adapt to new technologies to analyze the large volume of teaching and learning data. Government and higher education policymakers have to rapidly adjust relevant policies to surmount the challenges from the pandemic and also to keep up with technological advancement. This demands a novel and efficient way for policymakers and senior management to see and gain insights from a large volume of data (e.g., student course and teacher evaluation). In this study, the researchers present such a system through various examples. The findings generated from this study contribute to the scholarship, and they provide a solution to senior management in tertiary institutions wanting to implement effective policies efficiently. The use of online analytical processing, virtual campus, online, and machine learning in education is growing. However, the use of these technology-enhanced approaches is rare in performing arts education. There has been no in-depth study, especially on technology-enhanced learning that leads to the improvement of teaching. This study utilizes a multi-dimensional analysis approach on the course student evaluation, a key aspect of the teaching and learning quality assurance for higher education. A novel analytical framework is developed and implemented at a leading performing arts university in Asia. It analyzes the course evaluation data of all courses (669 courses and 2664 responses) in the academic year 2018/2019 to make evidence-based recommendations. Such a framework provides an easy and effective visualization for senior management to identify courses that need closer scrutiny to ascertain whether and what areas of course enhancement measures are warranted.

The COVID-19 pandemic has left a profound impact on higher education, prompting the need to assess its effects and provide guidance for future pandemics or disasters. While previous research has often focused on individual courses and short-term consequences, there is a limited understanding of the broader college experience. This study conducts a comparative analysis of graduate performance throughout different phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, utilizing a Graduate Learning Experience questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale. Scores for graduate attribute items were collected and compared across three distinct phases: pre-pandemic, pandemic era, and post-pandemic. The results reveal significant shifts in the student learning experience during these timeframes, with notable differences between on-campus and off-campus learners concerning their learning environments. The study also examines the reasons behind these variations, particularly among students living in on-campus hostels versus those off-campus. Additionally, it assesses the university’s response to the pandemic’s adverse effects and evaluates the effectiveness of these response measures. These findings offer valuable insights into the factors influencing graduate attributes in the context of online learning, with a specific focus on Hong Kong. They also provide policy recommendations for shaping the future of higher education in the aftermath of pandemics or disasters. Furthermore, these results can serve as a guiding framework for addressing similar challenges in other regions dealing with post-disaster recovery.

Under the assumption that each node has delayed channel state information at transmitter (D-CSIT), this letter studies the achievable degrees of freedom (DOF) for K-user multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) Y channel in frequency division duplex (FDD) systems, where each user exchanges messages with other K-1 users simultaneously via an intermediate relay. We propose a new retrospective network coding alignment (RNCA) scheme and derive the closed-form expression for achievable DOF.

Performing arts education has been significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic crisis around the world since early 2020. Educators had to adapt the classes with remote learning when face-to-face instruction had been suspended during the pandemic. Although frustrations and confusion continued to abound with the implementation of new pedagogies, online teaching, and learning spurred new practices, innovative ideas, and breakthroughs. Some performing arts educators took this opportunity to explore new skills and strategies and provided performing arts students with more impactful learning experiences. Presently, with the COVID-19 pandemic gradually showing a sign of easing, many Hong Kong schools have returned to in-person instruction. Meanwhile, the impactful learning feedback from students triggered calls for redesigning the pedagogy of performing arts education. This study placed the impact of COVID-19 on performing arts education into context and drilled down into the delivery of performing arts education in the post-pandemic era. This study reviewed teaching and learning experiences of performing arts education, with the following three research questions addressed: (a) What is the correlation between performing arts students’ academic traits and their proficiency in utilizing technology during the COVID-19 pandemic? (b) What are the influential factors impacting the hybrid learning experience and outcomes of performing arts students during the COVID-19 pandemic? (c) What are the anticipated expectations of performing arts students regarding future models of arts education? Furthermore, practical solutions and insights for performing arts educational delivery in the post-pandemic era are provided in this study.