Funded Projects

The present project aims to break the physical limitation of English speaking training for secondary students through the promotion of self-directed VR learning with AI feedback. Spoken communication is one of the key competencies for all students, but training and assessments of that have been seriously disrupted since 2019 for various unforeseeable reasons. While classrooms have been reluctantly moved from offline to online, students are not benefited by the boundless virtual world if they want to receive help on their English speaking from their teachers, as the total teaching hours have decreased. Given teachers’ tight schedules, it is infeasible for the teachers to find sufficient time to help students with their needs for English public speaking. While there are some existing solutions for providing writing training and feedback, there are not any comparable solutions that focus on speaking training and feedback.

The project team consists of experts from language education (HKUST Center for Language Education, and HKU Centre for Applied English Studies), VR and AI in education (HKUST Visualisation Research Lab), and edu-tech development (Trumptech). The success and feasibility of the project rely on all the 3 parties. While the HKUST VisLab has extensive experience in developing VR and AI system for e-learning, Trumptech has experience in developing education solution for local schools and a strong secondary-school client base, which is pivotal to the sustainability of the project. Together, we plan to offer a self-directed learning solution with VR English speaking training cum AI feedback system (with gamification and blended learning elements).