China Overseas Chinese Network, May 21, according to the British "Huawen Weekly" WeChat public account "Huawen School" news, foreign media reports, 2020-2021 school year, Cambridge University all major courses (referring to a class that many people take together) The online teaching mode will be adopted.
There are rumors that all courses at Cambridge University in the new academic year will be taught online. This news caused various discussions on the Internet. Cambridge University has sent a clarification email to Cambridge students on this matter. The email pointed out that Cambridge University is currently only planning to use the "big class" that many people participate in at the same time, using pre-recorded or cloud live broadcast methods for online teaching, other small-scale courses, group teaching, seminars and tutors one-on-one tutoring The teaching methods are conducted face-to-face as usual while ensuring social distance.
Cambridge also emphasized in the email that not all subjects have major courses.
Cambridge University also detailed in the mail the teaching methods normally carried out while ensuring social distance, including: Small Scale Lectures, Small Group Teaching, Seminars, Practice (Practicals), Lab Sessions, College Supervisions, etc.
Subsequently, Cambridge University confirmed in an official statement: "Group teaching, seminars or individual tutoring will become the core of Cambridge University's teaching in the next academic year, and will be face to face as much as possible."
The statement also stated: "The next major year will be suspended on-site big class teaching, and the big class will be taught online. The big class is only part of the diverse education provided by Cambridge University. The open big class classroom will allow us to focus on group teaching and experiments. And practice. "
Therefore, the teaching of Cambridge University in the next semester does not become all online teaching as the online rumors, and Cambridge University has not changed into an "online school". But for the sake of ensuring the health and safety of teachers and students, more small classes, group discussions and tutor supervision are used offline, and large classes that are likely to bring the risk of epidemic aggregation and transmission are temporarily placed online.
Since the outbreak, many universities in the United Kingdom have adjusted to online courses or chose to leave in advance.
Recently, 20 universities in the United Kingdom also announced the autumn start time and teaching methods for the 2020-2021 academic year. Some universities said that the specific teaching format (offline teaching, online teaching or mixed teaching) will be adjusted according to scientific advice and government policies.
According to British media reports, the University of Sheffield and the University of Manchester also plan to change the major courses to online teaching mode.
In addition to large classes, the teaching methods of British universities also include various methods such as discussion and individual tutorials. Some practical courses will also have workshops, field trips and experiments. Often the teaching of a course will be interspersed with multiple methods, not just a large class.
The major courses in British universities are generally taught by one or more teachers to explain professional knowledge, theory and cutting-edge achievements to help students build a professional theoretical framework. This kind of large class is often conducted by dozens or even hundreds of people in the large classroom together. The duration is 1-3 hours. The amount of information is relatively large. Students need to concentrate to keep up with the teacher's progress.
In fact, it is not difficult to understand that Cambridge University makes such an arrangement. After all, the large class may bring a huge risk of the spread of the new coronavirus.
Chinese students respond differently to Cambridge University online courses
Although Cambridge University only changed its major courses to online teaching, the news caused a fierce discussion between current students and students coming to the school.
Miranda, a Chinese student who will be enrolled in the undergraduate mathematics department of Cambridge University this year, said that she has some concerns about the quality of teaching after the online teaching of large courses. At the same time, she is also worried that it will affect her learning status. The atmosphere is also worried that it will make you become a lazy habit. I think it can be played back anyway, and I can watch the online courseware later. "
In addition, she also regretted that she might miss some ceremonial Cambridge traditional activities due to the epidemic, such as not being able to eat the formal formal dinner for the freshmen.
So, what is the effect of the online courses currently conducted by Cambridge University?
Guo, a graduate student in economics at Cambridge University, said that after the outbreak, their original four-week review course (a total of about 8 hours) has become a one-hour online question and answer on Zoom.
"The end of the semester should be assessed in the form of an exam, but now it has been changed to writing three papers. It turns out that the review class for this semester should be based on the knowledge points and exam questions of the past years. This semester course has been simplified. "Guo said.
"Although I feel less courses, the difficulty of the exam has increased." Guo then added that overall, the quality of Cambridge University's online teaching depends on the major. "Everyone majoring in economics generally feels affected because the review time has been greatly shortened compared to before. Some science majors, such as optoelectronics, feel little difference."
However, the impact of online teaching on students is not all negative. Classmate Guo said that she actually likes "cloud teaching". "Because there is no need to waste time on the way to school, and in many cases, the content of the online course can be directly recorded on the screen and played back to prevent missing knowledge points. We jointly wrote to the school and recommended that the economic course be recorded and placed online.
She also said: "Another benefit is that after the outbreak, the school opened up more resources. Previously, we needed to go to the school's designated computer to access the information. Now we can connect remotely at home, which is very convenient."
Can I refund part of the tuition fee after switching to online teaching?
In early May, Michelle Donelan, the Secretary of State for University Affairs in the United Kingdom, said that even if the school ’s current courses are offered online, students still need to pay full tuition fees each year.
She believes that students are only entitled to a refund if the course does not meet the teaching goals.
Michelle said: "For the next academic year, some universities have not yet made a formal decision on whether to conduct online or offline teaching. However, if online courses are offered, and students do receive the same quality of teaching as offline teaching, With the established course goals, students ’tuition fees will not be reduced. Because the daily expenses and various expenses of various universities are still incurred during this time, it is not the school ’s fault to be forced to choose online courses."
In this regard, Zamzam Ibrahim, the chairman of the All-British Academic Association, called for the protection of the rights of students. economic."
Students from various universities in the UK have also jointly initiated a petition for the university to refund tuition fees. More than 330,000 signatures have been collected. The petitioners hope that this issue will eventually be discussed in Parliament.
In the past two days, the Office of Students (OfS), the UK higher education regulator, made the latest statement on the issue of drop-out fees, which will be based on the annual national student questionnaire, student scores and graduates announced in April 2020 Employment situation, to comprehensively judge whether the online education conducted by the school is successful.
Nicola Dandridge, CEO of OfS, said: "If students find that online learning is not what they expect, not what they want, and does not bring the results they want, they will tell us, We will intervene. In the same way, if we find that students who study online do not get a graduation grade or find a job, we will also intervene. "
Dandridge also said that students must wait until after completing online and offline courses to decide whether to request a refund from the school based on whether the services provided by the university meet the standards and whether they constitute a breach of contract.
In addition, she also reminded that universities should not use fresh promises to induce freshmen to enroll. Universities must inform applicants in advance whether their applied courses are online courses, so that students can make judgments after learning this information.
The BBC also confirmed that the UK Ministry of Education stated in a statement that if the university "cannot provide enough online teaching resources, it would be unacceptable to charge any additional fees to students."
If a student wants to apply for a refund, the student first needs to complain directly to the school. If the complaint is unsuccessful, students in England or Wales can appeal to the Office of the Independent Inquisitor (OIA), and students in Scotland and Northern Ireland need to appeal to other agencies separately.
The Union of British Universities and Colleges Union called on the government to give more stringent guidance to the university ’s fall semester to prevent the rush to reopen the campus in order to retain students.
"Cloud teaching" or become mainstream?
The new coronary pneumonia epidemic, which is difficult to subside, will inevitably affect the normal teaching work of British universities, but it also provides a good opportunity for universities to promote "cloud teaching" and realize the decentralization of education.
During the epidemic, many British universities have developed various online courses and shared various online resources. Eaton also opened the free online course EtonX to public schools. These have promoted the development of "cloud teaching".
The British Higher Education Quality Assurance Agency-QAA (Quality Assurance Agency in Higher Education) has been paying attention to the impact of the epidemic on schools since March. To share teaching experience to cope with the impact of the epidemic on the education industry and ensure the rights and interests of students.
In addition, the British government has introduced ways to limit the admission of local students, expand international students, provide at least 2 billion pounds of emergency aid funds for the epidemic, and increase funding for poor students to help universities survive the difficult period of the epidemic, and even meticulously use Help with IT facilities and networks.
However, how to improve the level of online teaching by teachers, how to allow students to use campus facilities, how to strengthen the relationship between teachers and students, how to help disadvantaged students, how to organize experimental practice classes, etc., still need to continue to improve and refine British universities.
As OfS Chairman Michael Barber said at the hearing: "We should look at this matter with a very positive attitude, that is, the university will do its best to be responsible for every student." (Leo Liu, Peng Lin)