This Course Guide has been taken from the most recent presentation of the course. It would be useful for reference purposes but please note that there may be updates for the following presentation.
TC S371
Product Certification and Laboratory Accreditation Practices
TC S371 Product Certification and Laboratory Accreditation Practices is a one-semester, five-credit higher-level undergraduate course. This course is a compulsory course for the BSc/BSc (Hons) in Product Design, Testing and Certification programme. This course provides a comprehensive coverage of two important topics: Product Certification and Laboratory (Non-medical) Accreditation Practices.
Although there is no compulsory prerequisite, students enrolling TC S371 are advised to have completed SCI S319/TC S319 Quality Management for Science and Technology.
This course introduces you to the principles of product certification and laboratory (non-medical) accreditation practices.
Aims
TC S371 aims to:
Course learning outcomes
Upon completion of TC S371, you should be able to:
The following table gives a general overview of the course structure. It suggests the amount of time you should allow for completing units and provides a broad schedule for you to plan your work. These times are intended as a guide only and should be adjusted to fit your personal needs more closely. You will need about 10–12 hours per week to work through the course. This estimation includes time for reading the units, completing activities, self-tests and assignments, attending tutorials and preparing for you final examination.
| Units | Weeks | Assessment | |
| 1 | Introduction to product certification | 3 | Assignment 1 |
| 2 | Product certification schemes worldwide | 3 | |
| 3 | Overview of laboratory accreditation | 2 | Assignment 2 |
| 4 | ISO/IEC 17025: Management requirements | 3 | |
| 5 | ISO/IEC 17025: Technical requirements and application | 4 | |
| Revision | 1 | ||
| Total | 16 |
| |
The course materials include a printed course guide, study units, on-line readings and Assignment File. Students do not have to subscribe to other additional materials. However, students are recommended to read updates on quality activities from the Internet.
Materials
In addition to this Course Guide, the course has the following important components. Please ensure that you have all of these materials available.
Study units
The five study units in this course are:
Unit 1 Introduction to product certification
Unit 2 Product certification schemes worldwide
Unit 3 Overview of laboratory accreditation
Unit 4 ISO/IEC 17025: Management requirements
Unit 5 ISO/IEC 17025: Technical requirements and application
Set textbook
There are no compulsory textbooks for this course.
Audiovisual materials/software
You will need access to a computer with Microsoft Windows/XP/Vista/7/8 and an Internet browser.
Assignment File
The Assignment File (available on the Online Learning Environment, OLE) provides you guidelines for working on your assignments. You can refer to the Course Guide section on assessment that follows, and to the Assignment File itself for more information.
Presentation Schedule
The Presentation Schedule is available on the OLE. It gives the dates for completing assignments, attending tutorials, surgeries, and so on.
Supplementary readings
Selected websites
Online readings from selected websites are assigned in this course.
Laboratory sessions
Due to the nature of the course, there will be two laboratory sessions (also called day school) in TC S371. Each session lasts for three hours and students are required to attend at least one of these. These laboratory sessions are usually scheduled on weekday evening or weekend afternoon. Students will work in teams to complete various assigned tasks. Otherwise, students will fail the course (even though they passed both the continuous assessment and the examination).
Assessment
This course is designed to assist you in moving easily from the subject material to the assignments and examination. You are expected to apply concepts and techniques introduced during the course in attempting the assignments. Some problems require qualitative and narrative responses.
There are informal and formal assessments in this course. The informal assessment includes guided laboratory exercises, self-assessed activities and self-tests stipulated in each unit. The formal assessment includes two assignments and one final examination. Assignments must be submitted to your tutor for formal assessment according to the stated deadlines. The non-assessed activities are not part of your formal assessment, but it is very important that you complete all these activities as you work through the units.
Tutor-marked assignments
There are two assignments for this course. They are distributed evenly within the whole course. The first assignment covers Units 1and 2; while the second assignment covers Units 3, 4 and 5. You can find the assignments in your Assignment File (available from OLE in about 4 weeks before the due dates) along with detailed instructions on how to complete them. You must submit all assignments to your tutors for marking.
Your assignment schedule can be found in the 'Course overview' section. These assignments will be marked by your tutor. Each assignment counts for 25% of the final assessment contributing 50% in total for the course. The final examination also accounts for 50%.
In order to pass TC S371 Product Certification and Laboratory Accreditation Practices, you must attended at least one laboratory session and passed both the assignments and the examination.
Assignment submission extension policy
The assignment policy of the University as stated in the Student Handbook should be observed. You are required to submit assignments for this course in accordance with the dates communicated by your course coordinator. You may apply for a submission extension on the grounds of illness, accident, disability, bereavement or other compassionate circumstances.
Applications for extensions of up to seven days should be submitted to the tutor. The tutor shall consider valid and unexpected emergencies on an individual basis. Normally, documented proof of the extenuating circumstances is not required for extensions of up to seven days. The tutor shall decide and advise you of the revised date for submission.
For extensions of over seven days, you should note the following:
If the assignment is posted to the tutor, it is your responsibility to check that the assignment has successfully arrived (see Assignment File). Extension applications without supporting documents on the grounds of postal loss will not be accepted. The University cannot accept any responsibility for assignments that are not received by your tutor due to problems with the post. As a precaution, you are advised to keep a copy of each assignment you submit and obtain a certificate of posting from the post office when you post your assignment.
According to the University's policy, there is no extension of the cut-off date for the final assignment.
Final examination and grading
The final written examination for this course will be a two-hour closed book examination and will account for 50% of the total course grade. It covers all the units and knowledge gained from the laboratory sessions. You are suggested to use the time between finishing the last unit and the examination to review the entire course. You might find it useful to review your non-assessed activities, guided laboratory exercises, self-assessment exercises, assignments and your tutor's comments on them in preparing for the examination.
Course marking scheme
The structure of the course marking scheme is summarized in the following table. Assignments and final examination each account for 50% of the total course marks.
| Assessment | Course area covered | Weighting | |
| Assignment 1 | Units 1 and 2 | 25% | 2 assignments (i.e. 25%+25%) 50% |
| Assignment 2 | Units 3, 4 and 5 | 25% | |
| Examination | All materials | 50% | |
| Total | 100% | ||
Compared to the mega classes attended by hundreds of students in a typical university, the tutorials with 30 students or so at OUHK provide a good opportunity for you to meet your classmates and to get to know your tutor. You will find that support and encouragement from classmates and tutors are very helpful.
Attendance in tutorials is optional but you are urged to take advantage of them. You can get the most from tutorials by pre-studying the relevant materials, making comments and asking questions. Remember that learning does not happen passively. Your active participation in tutorials is crucial.
Your assignments will be marked and commented on by your tutor, who will keep an eye on your progress and assist you if you encounter problems during the course. Marked assignments will be returned to you as soon as possible.
It is good practice to keep a copy of each assignment submitted for marking, so that you can always refer to queries with the tutor during discussion. Please contact you tutor should the following arise:
Tutors and tutorials
Compared to the mega classes attended by hundreds of students in a typical university, the tutorials with 30 students or so at OUHK provide a good opportunity for you to meet your classmates and to get to know your tutor. You will find that support and encouragement from classmates and tutors are very helpful.
Attendance in tutorials is optional but you are urged to take advantage of them. You can get the most from tutorials by pre-studying the relevant materials, making comments and asking questions. Remember that learning does not happen passively. Your active participation in tutorials is crucial.
Your assignments will be marked and commented on by your tutor, who will keep an eye on your progress and assist you if you encounter problems during the course. Marked assignments will be returned to you as soon as possible.
It is good practice to keep a copy of each assignment submitted for marking, so that you can always refer to queries with the tutor during discussion. Please contact you tutor should the following arise:
Apart from self-study, tutorials will also be organized to assist you in your learning process.
It is strongly recommended that you attend all these tutorials, which will provide considerable assistance in your study of this course. Moreover, you will have the chance to meet fellow students and be with other distance learners who are studying at the OUHK.
While you may think you are studying on your own, it doesn't need to be that way. You can be in regular contact with your tutor and, once you've met for the first tutorial, you can be in contact with your fellow students. Make a point, when you meet fellow students, to exchange phone numbers or email addresses. In this way, you will be well on the way to developing a learning network of your own.
Tutorials and regular surgeries will be held throughout the course. All TC S371 tutorials and surgeries will be video recorded and are available for playback on the OLE. Tutorials will be based on the major course units and tutors may also introduce further explanation, examples and readings. Full details are given in the Presentation Schedule.
We have mentioned in previous section that there will be two laboratory sessions in TC S371. The schedule of the laboratory session will be available for download from the OLE in due course. It is important to note that students are required to attend at least one of these laboratory sessions. Otherwise, students will fail the course (even though they passed both the continuous assessment and the examination). Of course, we strongly encourage you to attend both laboratory sessions.
TC S371 Product Certification and Laboratory Accreditation Practices is designed to develop your understanding, knowledge and analytical skills in product certification and laboratory accreditation practices. To understand the content of this course you will need to analyse the course materials and apply the concepts and techniques you are learning. We hope you will find the course interesting, and more importantly, you will be able to use the knowledge and skills acquired from this course throughout your career or even your daily life. We wish you every success in your study and hope you enjoy the course.
Dr Eric T P Sze (Units 1-4)
Dr Eric T P Sze received his BSc (Hons) degree in Environmental Science and PhD degree in Chemistry from the University of Hong Kong in 1996 and 2000, respectively. His research specialty is in application mass spectrometry. Dr Sze joined the Hong Kong Accreditation Service (HKAS) as a senior accreditation officer in September 2010. Prior to joining HKAS, Dr Sze had worked in HKAS accredited laboratories in various categories for over nine years. During his career in the testing laboratories, he had successfully managed a department of chemical analysis of more than 200 employees, and had implemented effective quality systems according to ISO/IEC17025. Dr Sze had also worked in a food manufacturing plant as head of factory and had assisted the company to obtain ISO22000 certification of food safety management system. Dr Sze is a member of the Royal Society of Chemistry (MRSC) and British Toxicology Society (BTS). He is also a registered six sigma black belt under the Six Sigma Institute (SSI).
Dr H K Lau (Units 1-4)
Dr H K Lau received a BEng (Hons) Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Northumbria at Newcastle in 1990, an MPhil Degree in Electronic Engineering from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in 1993, and a PhD Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from the University of Hong Kong in 1998. Dr Lau joined the Open University of Hong Kong in July 1998, and is currently Associate Professor and Programme Leader (Testing and Certification) in the School of Science and Technology. He is now responsible for the development of programmes and courses in the areas of testing and certification. Prior to joining the Open University of Hong Kong, Dr Lau was a lecturer at the Hong Kong Technical College (Tsing Yi) from September 1995 to July 1998. As a faculty member at the Hong Kong Technical College, he was responsible for teaching telecommunications subjects and participated in a number of industrial consultancy projects in the field of wireless communications. Before specializing in the field of mobile communications, he was a QA engineer at ASTEC for one year and was responsible for R&D activities related to switched-mode power supply. Dr Lau is the first-named author of more than 30 technical papers in the field of mobile communications and satellite communications. His paper entitled 'Performances of Fade-Compensated Digital Signals in Mobile Radio Channels' was awarded 'Centres Premium' (Champion) for the best paper presented at the 1996 IEE Hong Kong (Younger Members' Section) Paper Contest. His current research interests include high-speed personal area networks and multipath-fading compensation techniques. Dr Lau is a member of the IET, the IEEE Communications Society and the IEEE Vehicular Technology Society.
Ms Crystal Ling (Unit 5)
Ms Crystal Ling received a Higher Diploma in Applied Science from the City University of Hong Kong in 1992, a BSc in Applied Environmental Science in 1995 from University of Portsmouth, and an MSc degree from the Polytechnic of Hong Kong in 2009. She worked at commercial testing laboratories, a trading company, a factory and an environmental consultancy and was responsible for both testing and quality assurance. She was a full-time quality system auditor for toy, textile, food, pharmaceutical and medical device factories in the Asia Pacific region. She is an ISO 14001 and HACCP Lead auditor; and a Certified Carbon Leader. She is a member of Chartered Quality Institute. She was a Teaching Assistant at the OUHK from September 2011 to July 2012.
Dr Lotto Lai (Laboratory work)
Dr Lotto Lai received his BSc (Hons) degree in Applied Physics and MPhil degree in Chemistry from the City University of Hong Kong. He also obtained a Master Degree of Science in Environmental Engineering from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, as well as an Engineering Doctorate on Engineering Management from the City University of Hong Kong. Dr Lai has more than 15 years of experience in scientific research and quality management. He is an expert on quality management, environmental and safety management and laboratory management. He has helped organizations in different industries to apply for ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001 and ISO/IEC 27001 certification, as well as ISO/IEC17025 (called The Hong Kong Laboratory Accreditation Scheme — HOKLAS) accreditation. He is a course developer and trainer in the certificate course entitled 'Quality Management for Laboratory' organized by the Hong Kong Society for Quality (HKSQ) and City University since 2005. Dr Lotto Lai is currently a Fellow and Chairman of the HKSQ, a Senior Member of the America Society for Quality (ASQ) and a Member of the Hong Kong Institute of Engineers (HKIE), as well as IRCA QMS Lead Auditor. He has also been appointed as a member of the Industry Training Advisory Committee (Testing, Inspection & Certification) of the Qualification Framework under the Education Bureau of HKSAR Government.
