Impact
The CiC badge was one of the factors that made me choose the course. I really like courses that place a strong emphasis on expressing yourself and sharing your opinion in various ways.
I think the CiC course is the most unique course I have ever taken, not only at HKU, but throughout my life.
Key Impact Card
Communication‑Intensive Courses (CiC) is HKU’s initiative for integrating oral, written, visual, and digital communication skills into the undergraduate curriculum, led by the CiC Committee and CiC Director at the Centre for Applied English Studies (CAES).
403
CI‑Badged Courses
348
Number of Teachers Engaged
115,368
Number of Students Impacted
8
Years of Impact
Figures reflect academic year 2025–26 unless noted otherwise.
Awards
HKU Outstanding Teaching Award
2022UGC Teaching Award (1st Runner‑Up)
2023QS Reimagine Award — Finalist
2024Impact on Teachers
Badging
This badging exercise helps us to reflect on the sequence of the course, and also to reflect on the learning outcomes in general.
After being badged with CiC, the assessments are more inspiring and more fun.
Badging does more than add a label. It changes how communication is taught within a course. 348 teachers across 9 faculties have engaged in badging, and 181 courses have made communication expectations more explicit.
Number of CiC teachers by faculty (2025–26), highest to lowest
+ 3 Cross‑listed Courses (not attributed to a single faculty, so not shown as a bar)
TOTAL: 348 teachers across 9 faculties
Changes teachers made to their courses after CI‑badging (2025–26)
- Added communication skills to course learning outcomes 148
- Improved assessment rubrics 118
- Added in‑class activities, such as workshops, lectures, or tutorials 109
- Created or redesigned assessment tasks 44
- Added out‑of‑class learning support, such as online activities or self‑access materials 40
- TOTAL — courses with at least one reported change 181
A course can report more than one change, so the five changes above don’t sum to the total — the total counts each course only once.
Many CI‑badged teachers continue their involvement by becoming CiC peer reviewers, evaluating new applications from colleagues. This community has grown from a few in 2019–20 to 75 reviewers across 10 faculties today.
Growth in active CiC peer reviewers (2019–20 to 2025–26)
75 reviewers across 10 faculties today.
Support
I think every teacher should attend a session like this, as it helps you to reflect on your teaching practices and motivates you for the next semester. I learned a lot about different teaching and assessment approaches.
The speakers were very concise, well selected, and there were different points of view. This was one of the best professional development events I attended.
Since 2019, over 1,300 staff have joined a CiC professional development event, from the annual Symposium to monthly badging workshops.
CiC professional development activities held (since 2019)
8
Annual CiC Symposium
14
Join‑the‑Conversation events
26
CiC Workshops
70
CiC Badging Orientations
Annual CiC Symposium
Impact on Students
Learning
I actually learned a great deal from the CiC course because I learned how professional speakers organize their visual design, and how it really impacts the overall presentation.
After taking the CiC course, I have been more confident about what I think, and being able to communicate my ideas clearly.
Across all four communication literacies — oral, written, visual, and digital — students rated their competence higher after taking a CI‑badged course. The biggest gain was in digital communication, the area where students reported the lowest confidence before taking the course.
Student self-rated communication competence, pre- vs. post-course (2025–26)
Effect sizes (Cohen’s d): Oral +0.36 (Medium) · Written +0.36 (Medium) · Visual +0.46 (Medium) · Digital +0.52 (Large). N = 864 pre; N = 201 post, 2025–26.
Support
This growth is supported by two channels that students can access directly: self-paced micro-courses for independent skill-building, and Visual and Digital Resources (VADR) for in-class visual and digital support, as well as after-class feedback.
Micro-courses
2,235 total enrolments and 29 partnered courses since 2022–23.
I think the content is very effective and very comprehensive.
The course was useful in giving me an idea of what reflective writing is and how to do it properly. Thank you.
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Visual Design
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Presentation Delivery
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How to Film
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Reflective Writing
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Peer Feedback
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Storyboarding
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Slide Design
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Video Essays
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Critical Thinking
VADR
7,500+ students supported and 89 partnered courses since 2022–23.
Amazing and professional — the peer consultants did a great job introducing how to make a poster. Clear and concise.
The hands-on tutorial made it really helpful to apply the learning from the presentation!
About this data: figures reflect CiC’s internal programme records (course badging, teacher and student participation) and an end-of-course self-rated communication‑competence survey (N = 864 pre-course, N = 201 post-course). Most figures are for academic year 2025–26; cumulative totals are labelled “since 2019” where shown.
A Communication‑Intensive Courses (CiC) initiative — Centre for Applied English Studies (CAES) · CommonCore · TaLIC, The University of Hong Kong