The study examined an ESL writing class, which consisted of 36 students, at a community college of Hong Kong. The students took part in three online collaborative writing tasks by sending drafts to peers who gave them suggestions and comments for improvement and working together on the completion of the writing tasks via email.The 36 students worked in small groups of four to six. They wrote, responded and revised using the email system offered by the WebCT interface of their course book. The results were evaluated by means of questionnaire, interview with participating students, report of the peer observer, written work, e-responses and reflective summaries of students.The overall results suggest that students generally enjoyed the supportive atmosphere created by online collaborative tasks and regarded the use of online collaboration as a means of improving their writing by enhancing their motivation, awareness of the audience and the importance of revising, and by reducing their stress and cultivating their positive attitudes towards writing. The data show that the inclusion of the online component has potential in supporting learning and bringing about positive learning effects on writing as learners were found to enjoy the benefit of interacting with the other learners both in-class and out-of-class in the study.

The purpose of this case study is to illustrate the changes that took place in a self-access centre of a Hong Kong university. The author describes how she adopted several new approaches for the Centre after taking over the post of the Centre Manager. In the face of the changing needs of users and the University and the growth of e-resources, the author tried to convert the Centre into a social gathering place where different kinds of interactions could be promoted. Research was conducted into the theories that had been adopted to make the Centre an attractive place for the students of the university. The re-shaping story of this Centre might offer some ideas or thoughts for educators or language centre managers in their own situations.

The concept of self-access learning has been widely promoted and implemented in the higher education arena around the globe. As a result, the establishment of the self-access centre can be found in nearly every institute. The review of this paper emphasizes on the importance of needs analysis in the development of self-access learning materials and tasks by including different stakeholders, such as students and teachers, in the process. The purpose of this study is to find out the perceptions that a group of second language (ESL) learners and instructors have of their/students' English skills and learning needs for self-access English learning. A total of 110 ESL students majoring in different academic fields and 6 English instructors participated in the questionnaire survey of this study. Among them, 20 students and 4 instructors were invited to attend in-depth interviews to provide further information. Survey and interview information included respondents and interviewees' perceptions or evaluations on two major areas: English skills and learning needs. The results show there are both discrepancies and similarities of perceptions between students and instructors on English skills and learning needs. Finally implications for the present context are provided.

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This chapter offers insights into, the benefits, and the problems behind the use of MOOC courses in the higher education arena. For the last two decades, the education world has been obsessed with the use of technology, particularly with respect to course development and delivery, which has changed the way courses are created and taught. In addition, higher education institutions are now open to knowledge sharing and the role open online programs can play in the new ecosystem is worth looking at. The emergence of open online programs strengthens innovation as co-creation, co-operation, and joint ventures among institutions are now made possible. Nevertheless, more and more research is beginning to highlight the concerns of the development of free open courses. In some cases, such developments are seen as a growth, but in other cases, a threat. This chapter analyses the current situation and suggests ways to better utilize the development.