Seven Faculty Members, One Shared Vision: Fu Jen’s Department of Statistics and Information Science Team Wins the Outstanding Teaching Achievement Award

“When teaching is no longer the effort of a single instructor, but a learning journey collaboratively designed by a team, teaching innovation can create a far greater impact.”

Fu Jen Catholic University recently announced the results of its 2025–2026 Teaching Achievement Awards. Led by Dr. Hung-Yi Lu, Chair of the Department of Statistics and Information Science, a team of seven faculty members—including Dr. Chia-Jen Tsai, Dr. Jung-Hung Su, Dr. Chien-Chou Chen, Dr. Chen-Wei Yu, Dr. I-Hung Kung, and Dr. Wei-Ming Wang—received the university’s highest honor, the Distinguished Award, for their innovative curriculum, the Educational Big Data Microprogram.

The team’s award-winning project, titled “The Beauty of Connection: Learning Happens Through Connection—Teaching Practices in Interdisciplinary Co-Teaching, Modular Curriculum Design, and Capstone Project Integration in the Educational Big Data Microprogram,” demonstrates how collaborative teaching can transform students’ learning experiences through interdisciplinary curriculum integration.

The most distinctive feature of this achievement is that, unlike traditional teaching achievement awards, which typically recognize an individual instructor or a small group of co-teaching faculty members, this award was jointly submitted and received by all seven faculty members.

The review committee highly praised the team’s interdisciplinary collaboration and sustained collective commitment. The project was recognized not simply as an example of multiple instructors teaching together, but as a genuine collaborative mechanism spanning multiple courses and faculty members. It demonstrates the value of integrating curriculum modules and innovating teaching practices, offering a model for collaborative and interdisciplinary education.

The Educational Big Data Microprogram consists of four core courses: Database System Design, Data Exploration and Information Visualization, Machine Learning, and Educational Big Data Capstone Project. Through a modular curriculum design, the program progressively develops students’ comprehensive competencies in data governance, data analytics, artificial intelligence, and hands-on project implementation.

The courses also make use of real-world educational data for analysis. By combining interdisciplinary team projects, multi-instructor co-teaching, and hands-on capstone projects, students develop their abilities in data analytics, interdisciplinary collaboration, and problem solving within authentic contexts.

Unlike conventional team-teaching models, in which instructors are each responsible for separate units, the seven faculty members jointly develop a competency map and curriculum content before each course begins. Throughout the course, they collaboratively adjust teaching materials and instructional strategies in response to students’ learning progress. During the capstone project stage, they jointly mentor students and participate in evaluating their final outcomes.

In this way, the team puts into practice the spirit of multi-instructor co-teaching through four key principles: co-design, co-teaching, co-mentoring, and co-assessment.

Since the launch of the Microprogram, students have completed a number of research projects based on educational data and publicly presented their findings through poster presentations. These experiences have strengthened their abilities in data analytics, communication, presentation, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

In particular, the Data Exploration and Information Visualization course received the Gold Award in the Education Category of the 2025 Ministry of Education Humanities Youth Award, further demonstrating the strong recognition received by both the curriculum design and students’ learning outcomes.

The team emphasized that this honor belongs not only to the seven faculty members, but also to all the students who have participated in and contributed to the Microprogram.

Looking ahead, the team will continue to deepen interdisciplinary co-teaching and modular curriculum design, promote further collaboration across academic fields, and nurture talent equipped with data analytics capabilities, artificial intelligence literacy, and the ability to apply these skills to real-world educational contexts.

Finally, the team expressed its vision for the future of teaching through the theme of their award-winning project:“Learning happens through connection; innovation is realized through co-teaching.”