Two Duke Kunshan University faculty members have earned honors for teaching innovation, with projects that blend digital tools, including a project that also earned national-level recognition in December 2025.
Wen Zhou, an assistant professor of evolutionary anthropology in DKU’s Division of Social Sciences, won second prize in the higher education group of the 2025 “Linghang Cup” Jiangsu Province Teacher Digital Literacy Enhancement Practice Activity for a digital courseware project titled “Survival Simulation: Hunters and Gatherers,” which was also recognized at the national level in December 2025, the university’s first national-level award for teaching achievement.
Built as a scenario-based simulation, the project places students in a prehistoric setting where they must make choices under uncertainty — a way to practice judgment and decision-making rather than learn the concepts only in theory.
Zhou, who first came to DKU in 2014 as a visiting undergraduate for a semester-long Global Learning Semester program at DKU. She joined DKU’s faculty in 2022 after earning her Ph.D. at Duke University.
“From an evolutionary anthropology perspective, humans thrive because we pass on and expand collective knowledge,” Zhou said. “Communication sparks innovation, and innovation continues through new rounds of communication and iteration. AI extends that process in ways we’ve never seen before — not only as a tool for carrying knowledge forward, but as a partner that can help accelerate the cycle of insight and improvement.”
She said she plans to continue exploring practical ways to use AI to support teaching and learning, and to build on the project through collaboration with colleagues and students.
In a separate provincial competition, Junyi Li, lecturer at DKU’s Language and Culture Center, won third prize in the finals of the 2025 Jiangsu Foreign Language Teaching Competition for joint-venture universities. The contest evaluates teaching design, classroom delivery and cross-cultural teaching competence.
Li’s award-winning teaching drew from a course module titled “Introducing Suzhou to the World: Oral Communication across Cultural Boundaries,” which focuses on cross-cultural communication.
“In my course design, I combine project-based learning with community-based learning to build students’ critical thinking and global citizenship,” Li said. “In the classroom, I use student-centered activities that foster students’ agency to support their academic and professional development in a more holistic way.”
Li said she hopes to build on the recognition by continuing to strengthen English-medium instruction, deepen the integration of technology in the classroom, and develop courses that connect local context with a global perspective.
