STUST held the "2020 Innovative Teaching and Assessment Conference" (ITAC 2020) in the International Conference Hall of the university in the morning of October 30. The conference was hosted by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, STUST, and co-organized by the Language Test and Training Center (LTTC). During the meeting, President Deng-Maw Lu of STUST led the school supervisor and invited Dr. R&D Director Ruo-Hui Wu of the Language Training and Test Center (LTTC); Dr. Ming-Juan Shie, Researcher of the Institute of Education, Deputy Dean Hui-Jing Yeh of the College of Humanities and Sciences, Yunlin University of Science and Technology; Professor Yu-Wen Chang from the Institute of International Human Resources Development, National Taiwan Normal University; and Dr. Hinterlong, Visiting Professor of the School of Management, Tunghai University; and many other internationally renowned experts and scholars in testing. The conference was grand and meaningful.

[Deng-Maw Lu, President of STUST, was delivering a speech at the 2020 Innovative Teaching and Assessment Conference.]

The content of the conference was greatly diversified, rich and distinctive, attracting a total of more than 250 people from inside and outside the university to participate. The atmosphere of the event was heated and the exchanges and interactions were enthusiastic. The results of the conference were highly recognized and enthusiastically echoed by the participants. In addition to 15 oral and 31 poster papers, there were also special lectures, 3 group special lectures, and 3 group workshops to improve the teaching skills of participants, helping to activate theories and integrate practical applications. The overall direction covered literacy-oriented assessment, digital creative teaching, University Social Responsibility (USR) assessment, and other issues emphasizing both theory and practice, fully demonstrating the characteristics of the conference and the ambition of the organizer. It also illustrated the importance and investment of STUST in the management of academic seminars.

[STUST held the 2020 Innovative Teaching and Assessment Conference, inviting President Deng-Maw Lu of STUST (first row, fifth from left), and R&D Director Ruo-Hui Wu of Language Training and Testing Center (first row, third from left) , Researcher Ming-Juan Shie of the National Academy of Education (first row, second from left), and many other honorable guests.]

The conference set the two major educational pillars of "teaching" and "assessment" as the main axis of the conference discussion, providing a platform for dialogue between the scholars of humanities, social, and academic circles and the educators at all levels, re-examining, defining, and giving new life to teaching innovation and assessment models. Through the participants’ brainstorming, ideological inspiration, and feedback sharing, the conference offered guidance for educators at all levels to pay attention to and improve teaching innovation and assessment literacy, making contributions to the upgrading of the education standards in our country. In addition, many domestic publishing houses supported and cooperated with the book exhibition activities, providing the participants with various latest publications related to foreign language teaching, research, and learning as well as other references, so that the conference would add to the academic value and great atmosphere and to STUST.

[R&D Director Ruo-Hui Wu of Language Training Test Center (LTTC) was giving a speech at the 2020 Innovative Teaching and Assessment Conference.]

Dr. Wu, who is in charge of this lecture, used "National English Test" and "English Reading Literacy Alliance" as examples to explain how assessment can be used to improve the effectiveness of language learning. Dr. Shie explained how principals of primary and secondary schools should make use of the leadership assessment model after the promulgation of the 2019 literacy-oriented curriculum of the Ministry of Education. The conference also invited Hui-Jing Yeh, Deputy Dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences, Yunlin University of Science and Technology; Professor Yu-Wen Chang from the Institute of International Human Resources Development, National Taiwan Normal University; and visiting professor Dr. Hinterlong from the School of Management of Tunghai University to give speeches in the three groups of seminars.

President Deng-Maw Lu of STUST said that the 2020 ITAC Conference was originally planned as an international conference. Yet, as the world is still affected by the new coronavirus pandemic, many foreign scholars and experts cannot come to participate in the grand event, which is a regret of the conference. However, compared with the situation where life in many other countries is still greatly restricted, Taiwan’s successful pandemic prevention measures enabled the conference to be successfully held at the STUST, allowing interdisciplinary scholars and experts to gather together to innovate teaching and assessment. It is not easy to conduct quantitative knowledge exchange and practical experience sharing. It is also hoped that through this conference, more ideas can be stimulated, so that educators at all levels can improve their teaching innovation and assessment literacy, and promote the upgrading of education in Taiwan.