Xinhuanet Beijing, July 20. Recently, the Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Education issued the "Notice on the Pilot Construction of Virtual Teaching and Research Sections", which attracted the attention of universities from all over the world.
What is a virtual teaching and research room?
How is it different from traditional teaching and research offices?
How to better build a virtual teaching and research section in the future?
Recently, teachers in charge of national first-class undergraduate courses related to "Circuit Principles" from Tsinghua University, Zhejiang University, Harbin Institute of Technology, Guizhou Institute of Technology and other universities have shared their experiences and suggestions based on teaching practice.
A new type of grassroots teaching organization in the era of "smart +"
The "Notice on the Pilot Construction of Virtual Teaching and Research Sections" pointed out that the virtual teaching and research section is an important exploration in the construction of a new grassroots teaching organization in the information age.
Many teachers interviewed believe that virtual teaching and research offices are different from traditional teaching and research offices, which help broaden their horizons and make up for the shortcomings of traditional teaching and research methods.
The teaching and research section generally refers to a basic-level teaching organization composed of teachers of the same course or the same type of course in the school.
However, with the popularization of mobile Internet and the emergence of online and offline deep integrated teaching, especially the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, network-based teaching and research activities are increasing.
For the practice of virtual teaching and research offices, many schools have already carried out preliminary explorations.
Take Tsinghua University as an example. Since 2013, the electrical circuit principle course of the Department of Electrical Engineering has carried out online online courses, and the MOOC resources have been shared with Nanjing University, Qinghai University, Guizhou Institute of Technology and other schools free of charge, driving these schools to jointly promote the reform of teaching methods , The formation of cross-school collaborative teaching and research based on online technology.
Since then, as the leader, the leader of the national first-class undergraduate course "Circuit Principles", the leader of the online teaching/integrated teaching expert guidance group of Tsinghua University, and the party secretary of the Department of Electrical Engineering of Tsinghua University, Yu Xinjie also established the "Circuit Virtual Teaching and Research Office", " Interest groups such as "Home of Circuit Teachers" have attracted the active participation of circuit principle teachers from universities from all over the world. Teachers can raise confusions in teaching anytime and anywhere in the group, share teaching experience and insights, and discuss related topics.
At the press conference held by the Ministry of Education on February 23 this year, Wu Yan, Director of the Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Education, said that this year will closely follow the theme of building a high-quality education system, and focus on building quality benchmarks, strengthening teaching management, and promoting professionalism. Efforts should be made in the three aspects of certification to guide the development of education and teaching reform in colleges and universities to deepen.
When talking about strengthening teaching management, Wu Yan further pointed out that it is necessary to explore and promote the construction of virtual teaching and research section projects and deepen the reform of education and teaching.
Tsinghua University has driven teachers from all over the country to conduct cross-school collaboration based on online technology. It is based on the new exploration of teaching reform in the "smart +" era, and to a certain extent is the first trial of the virtual teaching and research section.
Sharing to help education fairness
"Why did we start doing this so early?" Yu Xinjie talked about a past event.
"Your story is so well told, your exploration sounds really exciting, but what does it have to do with us? We don't need it, only appreciation." In 2012, Yu Xinjie gave a report sharing circuit in other schools During the reform experience of the principle course, an audience asked him questions.
Yu Xinjie realized that Tsinghua University should not only share its own experience, but also pay more attention to the development of targeted guidance and cooperation in order to truly influence and help others.
Therefore, starting in 2013, he used MOOC resources to share it with some college teachers free of charge, and went directly to various schools to listen to classes and inspect them, combining the actual conditions of different schools to formulate personalized teaching plans.
According to Yu Xinjie, one of the basic starting points for MOOC is to promote education equity.
Online MOOC resources can be used not only to serve social learners, but also to carry out teaching reforms. On the one hand, it can improve Tsinghua’s own curriculum governance, and on the other hand, it can also help other schools innovate teaching methods.
Chen Yanxiu, the head of the national first-class undergraduate course "Circuit Principles" and a professor at the School of Artificial Intelligence and Electrical Engineering of Guizhou Institute of Technology, was one of the first teachers to join the inter-school cooperation. After several years of exploration, she truly experienced the inter-school teaching and research to the school. And the benefits brought by the students.
Chen Yanxiu said that when first using Tsinghua University's MOOC resources on circuit principles, many students found it too difficult to keep up.
To this end, while using Tsinghua University MOOC resources, Chen Yanxiu also tailored learning programs and targeted teaching resources for students based on the school's own situation.
Inspire sparks through communication
"When the teachers in my school discuss, there are many similarities in ideas and teaching methods. Different schools have completely different ideas." said Liu Hongchen, the head of the national first-class undergraduate course "Circuit" and a professor at the School of Electrical Engineering and Automation of Harbin Institute of Technology .
According to Zhang Qiang, who is in charge of the national first-class course "Circuit Principles" and a professor at the School of Water Conservancy and Electric Power of Qinghai University, the school's internal teaching and research sections generally hold teaching and research activities every two weeks, and teachers will discuss topics such as improving teaching quality.
There are also occasional exchanges between different schools outside the school, through WeChat groups, online conferences and other network carriers, to exchange ideas on the course of circuit principles.
"By communicating with colleagues outside the school, we often gain new inspiration and ideas, thereby breaking the limitations of thinking."
Yao Yingying, the head of the national first-class undergraduate course "Circuits and Analog Electronic Technology" and a professor at the School of Electrical Engineering of Zhejiang University, believes that the virtual teaching and research section currently proposed is a very convenient way of teaching and research, reflecting the diversity, and the teachers contacted are better than the staff on campus. It is more extensive and richer in levels. Whether it is teaching, teaching materials, methods, tools, or teaching reforms, the demand for supply and demand is richer, and it is easy to brainstorm when encountering specific problems.