Interview Articles on Practices toImprove Class Quality Volume 15

INTERVIEW WITH PROFESSORPROFESSOR Bui Thanh Huong
CONDUCTING
CLASSES INTHE NEW
COLLEGE OFSUSTAINABILITY
AND TOURISM:
Active Learning
Utilizing
Beppu’s RapidlyDeveloping
Tourism
Industry

PROFESSOR Bui Thanh Huong
From the observations of Academic
Learning Resource Core Staff(ALCRS) Project Q-Team members,
the APU campus has witnessed asurge of excitement and enthusiasm in the AY 2023 Springsemester. Factors contributing tothis positive atmosphere include
the opening of our new College of
Sustainability and Tourism (ST)and the revision of our curriculum,
including courses under APU's evercrucial Education Development andLearning Support Center (EDLSC).
In this semester's Project Q articles,
we hope to help faculty members
navigate these new frontiers byinterviewing and analyzing theteaching methods of two celebrated
professors from the ST and EDLSC
departments.

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Interview Articles on Practices to Improve Class Quality

I. INTRODUCTION
Professor Bui Thanh Huong received herPh.D. in Tourism Management from
Griffith University, Australia. Her academic and professional background spansfrom anthropology to tourism and humangeography, following her education andwork experience in Vietnam, Australia,
Europe, and Japan. Subjects she teaches
include Tourism Economics, Event andFestival Management, and Travel Industry. She also teaches a collaborative
online integrated learning (COIL) coursewith Kyushu University and supervises
Master and Ph.D. research students.

II. Q&A SECTION
1. ABOUT THE ST COLLEGE

Q: Can you introduce us tothe ST college and its uniquecharacteristics?
The Sustainability and Tourism
College is the newest initiative ofAPU. It was born out of ouruniversity’s need to catch up withthe global trend of sustainable development and the increasing demand
for tourism, locally in Japan andinternationally across the globe. The
foundations of this college were,firstly, the strength of APU as a
global and diverse university and,secondly, the connection of ouruniversity to the local community ofBeppu.

As for our expertise, the ST curriculum
includes management and entrepreneurship lessons inspired by APM
courses and, at the same time, tourism,
environmental development, and economic studies which intertwine with
the APS discipline. In this way, ST
draws on strengths and competitiveadvantages from both APS and APM tobecome a new and attractive program.
On top of that, we also capitalize on theglobal trend of digitalization and datascience. Overall, ST College offers
students in-depth and interdisciplinary
programs in which social science andmanagement studies interact andfertilize
eachotherinsteadofremaining isolated.

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2. THE PROFESSOR’S TEACHING STYLE
Q: Can you give us some insight into how you conduct yourclasses?
I have been teaching tourism at APU for ten
years, and the experiences I have gained
have helped me to form my unique approach.
As you know, tourism is an international
phenomenon. Therefore, researchers andstudents in this discipline need constant
updates on the developments and global
practices of tourism in various countries andregions. For this reason, I am grateful for
APU's multicultural environment, whichmakes our university an excellent laboratoryfor experiencing cross-cultural learning andgathering input from students of diverse
backgrounds. From students' experiences
and interests, I tailor exercises and projects
to allow students to approach issues theymight face in their student lives on campus
and prepare for their future careers in thetravel and tourism industry. Examples of myteaching applications include organizing
student events and multicultural weeks atAPU, as well as having students learn about
pricing in the travel and tourism industry. As
a result of this approach, my students
become more engaged in each activity andcan learn from each other.

Another critical feature of courses
underST
Collegeistheembracement of practical education
approaches. In my class, I tailor thelessons to the local resources andencourage students to interact
directly and gain experience fromreal-life, local settings. This way,
students can see how academic
knowledge reflects reality and how
the real world, in turn, contributes
to furthering their education. Such
exercises are regularly conducted in
my seminar class, such as having mystudents visit tourist attractions in
Beppu and utilize what they havelearned to interview tourists andunderstand local issues from a
tourist perspective. From this input,
we then discuss and work out
solutions for these local problems oreven develop methods to promote
tourism in Beppu using the diversebackgrounds and experiences ofAPU students.

Photo: Professor Bui’s Class on a Nakatsu Field TripVOL. 15

2023 SPRING Edition
Byadjusting
myteaching according tostudents’ interests andthese practices, I try to
motivate students toactively study the reallife issues that they arefascinated by.

I try to motivate students
to actively study the reallife issues that they arefascinated by

For example, in one of my seminarclasses, we studied methods of encouraging international guests to experience
Beppu’s signature traditional Japanese
hot springs. Our project began bygathering class members’ interests andpinpointing
sharedconcerns,
thusforming a research topic. Then we
decided on the scale and target of ourexercise, which included 40 foreigners ofvaried genders and ages, all of whomhaveexperienced the famous Hyotan Onsen. My
students then went tothe site and interviewed
theguests.
Finally, from their data,
we discussed

the psychological impact of hot
springs on international customers
and how to adjust various aspects ofthe experience to attract moreinternational visitors. Overall, I considered this experience a remarkablesuccess as the students were able tore-examine and understand theirconcerns from the tourists’ perspectives instead of merely a scholarly ormanagerial approach.

Q: How do you utilize APU’s new facilities to benefit yourteaching?
Technology and facilities in the new Green
Commons Building promote students' activelearning. These facilities are particularly importantfor collaborative learning and teaching activities
jointly operated with other universities inside Japanand overseas. One of my subjects offers a joint
learning and teaching experience (COIL) withstudents and faculty members from Kyushu
University. AY2023 is the first time this class isconducted utilizing APU's brand-new technologyenhanced distance learning approach. This method
allows interactive discussions among students andfaculty members of both universities despite thephysical distance, which is only possible thanks to
the multimedia, modern equipment, and a flexible
classroom setting. Overall, Green Commons has
enabled innovations in teaching, such as thesejointly taught and managed classes, whichsignificantly improves education quality at APU.
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Photos: Professor
Bui during a JointSeminar withKyushu University2023 SPRING EditionOther on-campus facilities beneficial formy students are the food distribution
areas, including the cafeteria and thenew Olive Cafe located in the Green
Commons building. Aside from being
great spots for students to study,
interact, and bond, observing andexperiencing these places can give mystudents valuable lessons on theoperation of food distribution businesses, an important sector of thetourism industry.

Photo: Cafeteria

Photo: Olive Cafe

3. OPPORTUNITIES & CHALLENGES
Q: What are some opportunities andchallenges you face in teaching ST classes?
As mentioned, the ST curriculum
embraces elements of various disciplines, including technical knowledge
courses such as data science, statistics,accounting, economics, and econometrics. The new aspect of our college
that focuses on these skills can be an
asset for students’ futures, helping them
design entrepreneurial projects or
expand their career choices into
technological fields.

However, challenges also arise from thisopportunity, as many students still
approach ST College from a purelysocial science perspective and thus areafraid to take on the technical challenges presented in its courses.
Therefore, our urgent mission is tochange those students’ perceptions andencourage them to explore and take onchallenging specialized subjects.

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Q: What are you doing tomotivate students to tackle
these technical classes?
The learning path of ST subjects isdesigned with a hierarchy of knowledge
and challenges. Entry-level students will
start with simple insights. Afterward, theknowledge will steadily become more indepth as students move on tointermediate and advanced classes in thefollowing semesters. Students following
thissequencewillmasterthesespecialized fields, just like many APU
students who have become great atlearning languages.

Photos: Professor Bui Having aDiscussion with Students

4. FUTURE ASPIRATIONS
Q: What are your ideas andaspirations for the future ofthe ST college?

Photos: Professor Buiand Interviewer

Our purpose in establishing the ST
college is to provide students with theskills and knowledge from the rapidly
developing fields of sustainability andtourism. Therefore, we must constantly gather and analyze real input
from these fields, then update andcraft our curriculum according to theneeds of local and global companies.
Only by doing so will we fulfill ourresponsibility to our students, opening
the door for them toward a brighter
future.

Q: What are your expectations for your peers and students inorder to achieve these aspirations?
Each person has a unique approach to teaching and studying, but I hope thattogether, we can explore the new ST curriculum, embrace its challenges, and find
our own opportunities.

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INTERVIEWER’S IMPRESSION
INTERVIEWER & AUTHOR
Name: PHAM Tran Duc Anh (An)College: APS (Culture, Society, and Media)
Country: Vietnam
Impression: I am grateful to Professor Bui fororganizing her time for our interview despite her busy
schedule. From our conversation, I was most impressedby her innovative approach of teaching via students’interactions with tourists and service providers inBeppu.
Personally, Beppu’s peaceful lifestyle and natural hot springs were among the primaryfactors attracting me to APU. Therefore, I am glad Professor Bui is guiding her
students to appreciate this city and use what they learn to develop Beppu’s tourism.

WHATISQ?
[Q]uality[Q]uestions[Q]ueue

At APU there are many professors who
put together wonderful classes, and if we
could get to know how these classes areplanned, it would contribute to theimprovement of other professors’ classes.
For that purpose, Project holds
interviews and publishes articles to sharethese good practices. These articles havebeen entitled [Q], comprising a variety ofmeanings such as: increasing the[Q]uality of classes, answering[Q]uestions to increase quality, andforming a [Q]ueue, or line, of class
improvements. We would be very happyif these articles could contribute to the[Q]uest of APU professors’ class quality
improvement.
Project Q consists of student members fromthe Academic Learning Support Program(ALRCS) under the support of the AcademicOffice. For more information, please visit theALRCS booth based in the APU Library.
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