How Digital Classrooms Bring New Possibilities to Teaching and Learning

　　How Digital Classrooms Bring New Possibilities to Teaching and Learning

　　In the Huike Yuan Universe Education Experience Center in Houchang Village, Haidian District, Beijing, the guests were experiencing the multi-person interactive system in a large space.

Photo by our reporter Zhou Shixiang

【Observation by reporters】

Editor's note

The new crown pneumonia epidemic has made people no longer unfamiliar with online education, and has also paid more attention to the quality of online education.

Compared with some online courses in primary and secondary schools that were launched on a large scale in response to the epidemic, universities actually started the construction of online education resources as early as ten years ago.

2012 is the first year of the international MOOC, and the MOOC boom has emerged in the field of higher education in developed countries in the world.

Since 2013, due to its advantages such as "remote participation", "sharing" and "number of learners", higher education in my country has begun to embrace the tide of MOOCs to promote educational equity and quality improvement.

The "Double Ten Thousand Plan", a first-class undergraduate course launched in 2018, has made MOOCs take root in the curriculum construction of colleges and universities.

Now, the "Double Ten Thousand Plan" has ushered in its fifth year. Has the construction of my country's online first-class courses achieved the expected results, and has it really achieved high-quality teaching results?

"The first time I felt the shocking beauty of the Forbidden City's turret in the sunset was in the evening after finishing the examination of "Ancient Chinese Architecture Art"; after studying "The Art of Immortality", going to the museum is no longer to accompany my son to complete the task. .The comparison between before and after learning MOOC (MOOC), what impressed me the most was Bob Dylan's sentence 'I used to be old, but now I am flourishing'." Chen Rui, a civil servant in a public institution in Beijing, said in the MOOC Write down the experience of listening to the class in the message column of the platform.

Digital curriculum resources are helping more people "rejuvenate".

In recent years, new digital courses such as MOOCs, online and offline mixed teaching, and virtual simulation courses have entered university campuses and even expanded to a wider range of social learners.

The Ministry of Education introduced at a press conference that by the end of February 2022, the number of online MOOCs in my country has exceeded 50,000, with nearly 800 million electors, and the proportion of college teachers using blended teaching has increased to 84.2%. A digital development plan for higher education with Chinese characteristics, including methods and evaluations, has been basically formed.

In addition to "trying early adopters", are these new methods and new resources easy to use or not?

What new directions will the future development bring, and what profound changes will it bring to "teaching" and "learning"?

Reporter conducted an interview.

Enriching experience, improving efficiency, and expanding the breadth of learning through digitalization

　　Putting on the VR glasses, the "big heart" on the screen suddenly becomes three-dimensional, as if suspended in the air; 360-degree rotation, free zoom in and out, and "anatomy" along the plane, under the guidance of the operating pen, these functions can be easily realized.

At the Metaverse Education Experience Center of Huike Group, Houchang Village, Haidian District, Beijing, the staff introduced the desktop VR all-in-one equipment to reporters.

Through 4 cameras and gyroscopes, it can achieve high-precision tracking of operating pens and glasses, and also supports virtual shooting of digital content, and meets the needs of students for online independent learning and online seminars through the live broadcast platform.

"It's really the welfare of medical students!" The audience praised one after another.

　　What impressed Zhu Qinwen, a business English major at Heilongjiang University, was the intercultural communication MOOC course he took this semester.

"The assessment of this course is not a traditional test question, but gives us a Project, designs a practical environment, and brings us into a role. After completing a part, we must convey the learning results in the role of this role, and use video Form feedback to the teacher, the task is quite challenging.” She bluntly said that she has benefited a lot from it. “For example, one of the roles is a corporate staff member who has to introduce the Forbidden City to customers in China. To complete this task, the course will provide a lot of materials, such as The Forbidden City documentary, and the introduction of models that embody cultural elements, help us consolidate theoretical knowledge and deepen understanding through practical sessions.”

　　Not only is the learning content more intuitive and the tasks more diverse, the digital curriculum also broadens students' horizons.

Liao Minyue, a student of Hunan University Law School, chose the English writing MOOC course, "I find it very interesting. More than one teacher teaches a course, different faces add to the freshness of the course, and there are many small sitcoms. For example, learning phonetic symbols, on the interface The two classmates communicated, and the teacher corrected their pronunciation."

　　Information-based curriculum resources have also been extended to vocational school classrooms.

　　"The jewelry and jade identification and processing teaching resource library we built has passed the acceptance of the Ministry of Education and has achieved excellent results." Wei Zhonglong, vice president of Beijing Economics and Management Vocational College, introduced that high-level jewelry and artwork design and processing have to go through many links. The school has hired Chinese arts and crafts masters and national-level jade carving masters as part-time teachers, and has recorded 35 courses, forming a rich digital teaching resource library.

　　Yao Youjie, director of Beijing Normal University's Smart Learning Research Institute and Educational Robotics Engineering Center, said that the impact of digital technology on education includes four dimensions: teaching equipment, teachers, students, and teaching environment.

"Take virtual experiment and digital twin as an example, it changes the way of experiment and training, and uses highly simulated virtual equipment to simulate the equipment in real physical space. Students first operate in the virtual environment to consolidate knowledge and skills, and then go to Practice in the real environment plays the role of learning and training." Yao Youjie introduced that my country has started to build virtual simulation experimental teaching projects in 2017, and plans to build 1,000 national-level projects from the first phase to 2020, which will be incorporated into the "Five Gold" after 2019. In November 2020, more than 700 courses were announced, including 168 majors in 46 major categories. Vocational colleges are also focusing on building professional-based virtual simulation training bases.

　　"2012 is the 'first year of online education' in the world. From then to now, the form of 'teaching' and 'learning' has undergone great changes in terms of content, form and scene." Zhongguancun Education Investment Management Partner Yu Yu Jin Yong said, "A teacher said that he has taught a total of 2,000 students in the past 20 years. One online class this afternoon has reached 3,000 online students. The number of students taught in one semester is equivalent to the number of students taught in the past 20 years. In sum, this is the huge value brought by online education, the efficiency is greatly improved, and the cost will naturally drop.”

Insufficient personalized service, poor interactive experience, and resource bottlenecks still to be solved

　　So, are these digital course resources favored by students?

　　"Online courses are generally more refined, unlike some offline classroom teachers who are a little divergent, so that we can't grasp the key points. Most of the MOOC courses are focused and clear, and the supporting exercises will also focus on the key points and difficult points to make targeted In addition, listening to MOOCs can also control the time by oneself, unlike offline courses, sometimes 'not in state', but must attend classes according to the timetable, which is more flexible and more efficient." Liao Minyue appreciates MOOCs most. "In addition, traditional courses are generally more serious, and the discussion area of ​​MOOCs is very active, which can easily understand other students' views on the course content."

　　"I think the best thing about MOOCs is to maximize the advantages of multimedia. We can watch documentaries while listening to the class, so we have a more diverse understanding of knowledge and greatly expanded information channels." Zhu Qinwen said that the 45-minute content of the class In fact, it is very limited. If you want to truly learn the knowledge thoroughly, or to deeply study the subjects you are interested in, you must use information resources to obtain more systematic and professional knowledge.

"Send more knowledge to everyone, break the limitations of time and space, and make it accessible and accessible to the public. This is the greater significance of the digital course platform."

　　"Compared with offline classes, there is actually a lack of interactivity in online courses, and some exercises seem to be repetitive exercises, but they must be done in order to complete the task, and there is a big gap between the degree of fit and the actual mastery of students." Liao Minyue Say.

Zhu Qinwen also observed that in addition to the failure to provide personalized and targeted services in course practice and evaluation, the requirement of "punch-in" also caused a certain "swipe" phenomenon in the comment area.

"In order to get the score of the discussion part, many students 'follow the popularity' in the discussion area. As long as you utter a few words, no matter whether you think about it or not, you will be considered as 'completed the task'. Digestion is not great."

　　The reporter learned that at present, many "double first-class" construction colleges share some online course resources with the society, but the degree of openness of professional courses in some famous schools still needs to be improved.

"For the courses of my own major, sometimes I am not satisfied with listening to the teacher's lectures in the classroom, and I will find the courses of teachers of other schools on the MOOC platform to listen to. However, the number of related courses in top law schools is not large, and it is ranked in the ranking. Only later institutions can find relevant courses." Liao Minyue said.

　　"For students who have a strong desire to learn actively, online courses expand their learning paths, and the content that cannot be developed in offline courses due to time constraints can be completed through online assistance, which is more helpful for students to form a complete 'knowledge tree' '. In addition, most of the online courses have been carefully polished and have a strong logic. For students who have not kept up with the class and do not understand, they can locate key knowledge points in time, check for gaps, and learn to understand." North China Electric Power University Academic Affairs Liu Chongru, director of the division, said, "Online can provide useful supplements to offline."

　　"But in general, online communication is always less clear and pleasant than offline." Liu Chongru also said that teachers' body language, movements, expressions, and interaction with students are difficult to fully complete online.

"In addition, some course platforms have supervision problems and are mixed. If students lack the ability to discriminate, they may be misled and misunderstand professional knowledge. For students with weak self-control, they still need offline unity and a sense of ritual. ."

Enhance interaction, expand scenarios, and contain more possibilities in the future

　　"The experience of online education needs to be improved. This problem comes not only from 'teaching', but also from the process of 'learning'. Generally speaking, there is not much problem in the transmission of information by teachers. The biggest challenge is to adapt to the new situation after facing the camera and reducing communication with students. The new environment of the scene, but some students cannot receive information effectively, which will seriously affect the learning effect. I believe that in the future, through immersion, interaction and other means to further stimulate students’ interest, the learning effect will be greatly improved.” Yu Jinyong analyzed.

　　Many experts believe that the development of online education technology in the future should better optimize the interactive experience, expand the scene, better meet the needs of learners for personalized services, and help learners achieve higher learning efficiency and better experience.

　　Wei Zhonglong said that in the future, on the basis of the database, the jewelry processing process should be refined and decomposed to create interactive digital teaching products.

"The process from design to generation of a high-level artwork is irreversible. We use digital technology to decompose each link, so that students can integrate into it, immerse themselves in the scene, and achieve more full interaction, so that students can better experience In each process, they have the hope of gradually getting closer to the skill level of the masters." He introduced that there are currently fifty or sixty jewelry colleges in higher vocational colleges across the country, and there are millions of practitioners in the jewelry industry across the country. "If these resources are integrated, it will be very useful for the development of the entire jewelry industry and the cultivation of talents."

　　"I think there will be companion reading robots in the future, which can provide learners with 24-hour personalized services, such as combining knowledge maps and artificial intelligence-related technologies to provide personalized tutoring; some learning content will also be put into games, Improve students' interest in learning and sense of achievement, such as referring to gamified level settings." Yao Youjie analyzed that for high-risk, extreme, unreachable, irreversible, and some large-scale comprehensive scenarios, technologies such as virtual experiments can solve safety, human, and material resources. , financial problems, deepening the depth of learning, "For example, digital twins, directly operating the twins in the virtual world can control the entities in the physical world, without having to operate in the real world, and students' learning efficiency is improved."

　　"The development direction of digital courses in the future is to take the 'high-quality route' and present knowledge in three-dimensional form; the second is virtual simulation. Even if it cannot be presented in 3D, it will help students explore, operate, and feedback results through human-computer interaction, and will also help students understand knowledge. It is very helpful. In addition, we can further promote the virtual teaching and research room, realize the joint preparation of lessons and synchronous interactive teaching across colleges and universities, break down the barriers between schools, and improve the level of teachers and teaching quality. , you can present extended and supplementary digital content." Liu Chongru analysis.