Ninety percent of college students adapt to online classrooms, and 80% of teachers and students expect smoother online lessons—

"Cloud Classroom" Speeds Up

Teacher Fan Jiansheng of Shangqiu Teachers College was born in Jiyuan's hometown and climbed the roof to give students online lessons. Fan Shengsheng

"Did you understand?" Facing the teacher's question on the screen, Huang Peiming, who was studying at a college in Jiangxi, responded reflexively: "I understand." She realized that after speaking, the teacher in the video at this time She couldn't hear her voice.

Hold a mobile phone holder, download the specified learning materials, sit at the desk in the room, and hold a little expectation Huang Peiming took the first online class on February 17. "I usually attend class. I like the teacher to ask questions and set aside time for us to think in real time, but it ’s difficult to interact in real time with the recording and broadcasting course." Huang Peiming was a bit confused. There are certain limitations in the form of online classes. The questions you can only ask the teacher after class, and the process of answering questions online did not communicate smoothly face to face.

Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, many colleges and universities across the country have delayed the return to school, and online courses have begun. Online videos and snippets about the teacher's avatar "Eighteen Line Anchor" and live broadcast of "Super Beauty" by mistake have revealed that the new teaching mode is a "test" for teachers and students.

CY Youth Media launched a survey on the experience of online courses for 1,777 college and university teachers and students across the country. It was found that 39.25% of the respondents were well-adapted to online courses. 49.86% thought that although there were some difficulties, they could basically adapt, and 10.89% thought Difficult to adapt.

Over 70% of teachers and students go online for the first time

The CYTS survey found that 10.38% of college students did not go well during the first online class, which affected learning. 62.39% did not have a smooth class but basically completed the course content. Only 27.23% had a smooth class and went through all aspects smoothly. .

From the perspective of Li Zhaorun, a Japanese major, online classes are far less interactive than offline classes. The teaching of language courses is inseparable from the vivid "scene drills", but then the hands-on, word-by-word instruction has become a step-by-step recording course on the cold screen.

Since the first online course on February 12, Li Zhaorun has been unable to adapt to the teaching mode of online courses. The app used for online lessons was not smooth, the teachers and students were not proficient in operation, and the information for assisting learning was incomplete, which made Li Zhaorun and her classmates sigh: "It is too difficult to go online." "Occasionally, there are emergencies. For example, in the middle of a live lesson, the app is too stuck or it's" collapsed ", which delays a long time. In the end, the teacher can only let us pass the recorded course after the class. Learn."

The survey shows that college students think that the network or online course software is unstable, which is the biggest problem in online classrooms (79.86%). In addition, the class experience is not good (53.11%), and teachers and students cannot face each other, which makes students easy to get lost (54.93%) It is also difficult for teachers to judge whether students can keep up with the progress of explanations (54.48%). The surveyed students also reported that it takes a lot of time to switch back and forth between teachers using different software for different courses; there are no textbooks, which makes learning a bit inconvenient; some teachers and students are not very skilled in operating online software.

The challenges brought by online classes not only make students uncomfortable, but also make teachers say "too difficult".

Recalling the experience of using the App to hold a class for the first time, Ren Yanlin, who is also the class teacher and the teacher of the chemical experiment class, was a little embarrassed. "I thought I could adapt quickly. Whoever thought of the first class meeting, I forgot to turn on the microphone and talked for 10 minutes before I found it."

"I just have a class meeting, and other teaching teachers must have more problems." These days, Ren Yanlin often receives "Tucao" from teachers and students for the online course app. It is too difficult to get started, the system is unstable, The lack of interactive functions, etc., has caused the teaching links set by teachers not to start as expected.

The hardware and software facilities of teachers and students at home are very different. It is okay when the Internet and computers, mobile phones and other facilities are relatively complete, but where the network and hardware conditions are limited, it is more difficult to take classes.

He has taught for 7 years. This is the first time that Lu Zhen, a teacher at the School of Finance and Taxation of Central University of Finance and Economics, has taught through an online classroom. When she learned that she was going to go online, she was immediately worried and anxious. In order to prevent epidemics, she was "closed" in her small village in her hometown, with no wireless network. She was worried that she could not go online with the help of mobile hotspots, and she was more worried about the learning conditions and results of the students. Fortunately, students have a more positive attitude towards online courses. "Some students specifically sent me a message saying that they expected the teacher to become a 'net female anchor'."

The Central University of Finance and Economics starts classes on February 17. In the first 10 days of the official start of the course, under the organization of the college, Lu Zhen began to refer to the online platform manual to learn how to build courses, record courses, and upload video materials on the platform.

Facing the online class of "First Meeting", Lu Zhen anticipated various possible difficulties. The reality was as expected. Many colleges and universities started classes that day, and "Learning collapse" went on Weibo. She uploaded the learning materials on the platform in advance, which the students could not watch and download. Fortunately, before the start of the class, the school instructed the teachers of each subject to establish a WeChat group with the students of the corresponding teaching class in advance. Most of Lu Zhen's first online class communicated with students through WeChat groups.

The course she recorded could not be uploaded to the platform smoothly, and she frequently "transcoded failed". The students were on time, but could not complete the check-in on the platform. These are the current problems in online courses. "Schools and online lesson platforms are actively processing them. The school's educational affairs department separately sets up a WeChat group for each day's class teachers. If problems are encountered during the class, we will promptly report back to the technical staff in the group and the other party will assist in solving it."

All parties strive to escort the online course

Mao Hongkui, a teacher at the School of Materials Science and Engineering of North University of China, was studying how to share his computer desktop with students when preparing for the lesson, and prepared to use the shared desktop as a blackboard. But at the beginning of the online class, the students swiped the screen in the course group: "Stuck." "Maybe the shared desktop is taking up traffic." Mao Hongkui turned off the shared desktop, but the video screen of his lecture was still stuck on the student computer Halfway through the screen. He simply switched off the video and switched to a voice lecture. "However, only the voice that attracts students' attention in this way is a test of the story of the lecture."

Never before has such a large-scale online education been offered. Although some online teaching software has been put into use for a long time, the existing platforms at the same time host the classrooms of national universities, primary schools and middle schools, which has brought "unbearable weight" to these platforms.

According to Zhang Yong, director of the Training Center of Anhui Foreign Studies University, online teaching is a challenge for universities. The difficulty comes from the short introduction time of the technology and its immature use, and the bearing capacity of the introduction platform.

Before the beginning of school, universities began to prepare online teaching systems. Zhang Yong introduced that the information technology center of his school increased the configuration of front-end server load balancing during the holidays, and technical staff instructed teachers to use the system online. However, the current problems are mainly on the main server of the online teaching platform introduced by the school.

Like many colleges and universities that have already started classes, Zhang Yong also encountered the problem that the student feedback teaching platform could not be accessed. "The number of online users has surpassed the maximum carrying capacity of the platform design. We have communicated with the platform to expand capacity, and we are also introducing other teaching platforms to ease the pressure on existing platforms."

Guo Dandan, a teacher in a college in Changchun, Jilin, told reporters that her school started on March 2. As early as two weeks before the start of the school, she uploaded the courseware on the platform. "My colleague and I play the role of teacher and student respectively, and try it little by little in the online course system to see how we can make students have a better class experience."

However, some of the methods she envisioned did not work smoothly. The school has established a docking group of teachers and staff of super-stars, wisdom trees and other online course platforms to facilitate technical staff to solve teachers' problems at any time. "Technical staff told us that live broadcast is the least recommended way." Guo Dandan can understand the pressure faced by the platform. Teachers and students on the Internet frequently come to “titch” the online course platform, but the sudden increase in users is beyond the expectation of these platforms, and it is difficult to achieve technical improvements in a short period of time.

Fortunately, under the condition of limited objective conditions, schools and teachers have their own methods.

After the first lesson, Mao Hongkui communicated with other teachers, and the topic they talked about was which company developed the conference platform more smoothly. There are several softwares on his phone, and he is ready to try them all, and use whichever works well.

What if the situation where teachers and students can only communicate through sound waves? Mao Hongkui must consider many details. He shortened the presentations for lectures, increasing the content of each page and reducing the number of pages to prevent students from turning pages repeatedly. The content of his lectures also changed from "fine" to "fine" in order to teach more about the relationship between key points, difficult points and knowledge points based on the self-learning of the students.

Lu Zhen has taken 3 online lessons. She summed up her experience and found that the effectiveness of online courses depends largely on the fluency of the learning platform. "Every Monday there is more demand for lessons, and the platform is more crowded." In order to respond to unexpected situations, she prepared class materials in advance on the platform to ensure that various materials can be played or downloaded normally. Before each class, she will make a study schedule. In order to make up for the lack of interaction in the online classroom, she set a discussion time for each class, started topics in the discussion area, and checked the learning effect through student responses. In addition, she will also make alternatives for each class, "If the platform currently used is not powerful, then 'switch' to other platforms in time to ensure class time."

Because the experimental lessons could not be taught online, Ren Yanlin himself compiled some experimental-related theoretical data and authoritative experimental videos and shared them with the class group, and listed the principles and precautions of each experiment separately. "Of course, talking online is useless. These experiments have to wait until they start school to arrange for supplementary work before they can really master them."

Students' homework must not be delayed, and all sectors of society are escorting an online lesson. Not long ago, the story of Slangbazhen, a Tibetan girl who was studying in a university in Jiangsu, was circulating online. The village surrounded by snow-capped mountains could not find the network signal. Slambazhen would spend 30 minutes to climb the snow-capped mountains and take online classes in the "open-air classroom" in the snow. The staff of Tibet Changdu Mobile Co., Ltd. learned this situation and rushed to the village where the girl was located to improve the signal, ensure normal communication under 2G conditions, and start to build 4G base stations. At the same time, many colleges and universities and mobile operators in some regions provide subsidies for online courses for students in need, helping students improve the conditions for online courses.

According to the survey of CYTS media, after the teachers and students have had their first online lessons, 30.91% of college students think that the online lesson experience has improved a lot, and 59.67% think that the experience has improved. 9.42% thought the improvement was low and the class was still not smooth.

Professor Zhu Guiping from the Department of Electrical Engineering of Tsinghua University mailed a "pocket instrument" to each student. Teachers and students carried out the "cloud experiment" teaching through video, and each student was able to operate in class. Tsinghua University official Weibo feed

"Internet Aborigines" are "active" in online lessons

The first lesson of Chen Xiaoming, a teacher of the TV variety show at Fujian Normal University, was rushing to crash the online course software. Chen Xiaoming immediately switched to the WeChat group. To his relief, for most of his students, adapting to online classes is not difficult.

Although the start was a bit tortuous, Ma Xue, a student in this class, quickly adapted to the new classroom in the WeChat group. In the classroom, the teacher asks a question, and at most one or two students can answer it. On the Internet, Chen Xiaoming raised a question. Ma Xue and your classmates spoke to me in the WeChat group and expressed their opinions one after another. Most students can interact with the teacher.

After a class, Chen Xiaoming also got inspiration from the students. Some students suggested that many domestic variety shows use the form of European and American variety shows, but in recent years, Japanese variety shows have also become very popular. I hope to learn about some Japanese variety shows in class. Chen Xiaoming responded immediately, and a special explanation of Japanese variety shows will be added in future courses.

During the sharing and discussion sessions, the advantages of the online classroom become apparent. Chen Xiaoming asked students to share their favorite short video variety shows and give reasons for recommendation. In the WeChat group, every student can share videos and links, and the discussion between Chen Xiaoming and the students is hot and orderly. "In the past, only teachers shared videos with us. Now we can learn more fun programs through classmates. The contact and classroom activity are not available in offline classrooms," said Ma Xue.

The "90s" and "early 00s", which are "Internet aborigines", are "lively" in online classrooms. "It will be more lively than in real life." Li Zhaorun said. Even if her Japanese translator teacher encountered a sudden failure on the live broadcast platform, she would quickly resolve the embarrassment through jokes. In order to keep everyone motivated, the young teacher occasionally inserts a web buzzword: "Everyone can brush me some '666'". The students were teased and cooperated to fill the dialog box with "666" or "hahaha". The "rope" of the network cable virtually closed the distance between students and teachers.

In order to ensure the quality of the course, Lu Zhen chose to record and upload materials in the dead of night. "Quiet, and the network speed was better during that time, and the platform was not crowded."

Lu Zhen admits that online courses also have their specific advantages. "There is no time and space limitation, and you can study anytime, anywhere." The student's learning status also brought unexpected joy to Lu Zhen. "My classmates are more proactive than I expected." I thought that across the screen, without the direct supervision of the teacher, students might not be able to study seriously according to the plan, and the learning effect would be compromised. However, Lu Zhen found that when he asked questions in the discussion area, the students responded very positively, and he had a good grasp of knowledge points. She felt very moved, "should be more confident in the students."

Now, Lu is really continually summing up the experience of online courses. Speaking of the ideal network teaching mode, Lu Zhen hopes that the operation of the teaching platform can be more simplified. In addition to real-time text communication, voice communication should be added, "this is more convenient."

According to the CYTS survey, 77.25% of the respondents believe that the biggest advantage of online classrooms is that they are not restricted by location. Teachers and students can read the materials at hand at any time (42.48%). Students can easily share their findings and opinions (33.81%). Students and teachers interact more frequently online (20.93%) is also an advantage of online classrooms.

In addition, the respondents hope that the fluency of the online lesson system (80.71%), the friendliness of the operating interface (58.08%), and the similarity of offline classroom scenes (54.91%) can be improved. Some students expressed the hope that teachers can broadcast more live broadcasts, and the online lesson platform can also develop functions for taking notes easily.

At present, Li Yihang of the Central University of Finance and Economics has taken more than one week of online classes, "it is a new experience." The lesson form that the teacher takes is roughly divided into three forms: screen recording, audio, and lesson video. Among them, Li Yihang feels that the best learning effect is in the form of screen recording. Screen recording requires teachers to explain page by page based on the courseware. "You can keep up with the teacher's lecture ideas, which is clearer."

Li Yihang was deeply moved by the teacher's serious responsibility. A professional class teacher divided the course into three parts: video learning, breaks, and discussions in the classroom. According to different course chapters, it was divided into three parts. The teacher who left him a "full impression" made him step up his supervision.

The experience of this online class made Li Yihang think a lot. "Autonomous learning is very important in both traditional and online classrooms."

The survey showed that 39.65% of the respondents hope that after the epidemic has passed, the online classroom can continue to be applied to daily teaching scenarios, including class meetings, increased online interaction in offline classrooms, and download of learning materials.

According to Ren Yanlin, in this era of rapid development of science and technology, "fragmented online learning" may gradually become a trend. He is looking forward to the development of online courses. "Maybe in the future, the teaching of online courses will be more complete. Teachers and students will prefer online courses and rely on online courses."

(In the text, Chen Xiaoming, Ma Xue, Ren Yanlin, and Li Yihang are aliases. Zhang Yusheng, Wang Junli, and Wang Yubing also contributed to this article.)

China Youth Daily • Trainee reporter Bi Ruoxu, China Youth Daily, Source: China Youth Daily