As the number of new cases of people affected by COVID-19 continues to rise in many countries, the world's "epidemic" is having a major impact on the lives, work and learning of all people. On February 24, the university officially launched its online teaching program. International students in the university also participated in online teaching in their respective countries as scheduled, successfully realizing the transformation of the learning methods and locations from "offline to online, domestic to cross-border".
International students of Dalian Neusoft University of Information are from Russia, Korea, Japan and other countries. During the winter holidays, most of them returned to their home countries, but the outbreak of the epidemic disrupted their plans to return to school.
In order to ensure that the learning progress of international students will not be suspended due to the epidemic and the distance, the Chinese teaching team of College of International Education and the professional teaching teams of Logistics Engineering, E-commerce and Software Engineering have been actively discussing and preparing for the online teaching arrangement plan for international students since mid-January. The entire program, which covers nearly 40 specialized courses, language courses and public courses to be completed by international students and advanced Chinese language students, was officially implemented on March 2.
Due to many factors such as cross-border network technology, time difference and language, international students face many challenges in cross-border online teaching. However, with the joint efforts of the professional teachers, international students and resident management teachers, after a period of operation, the students have gradually adapted to the change of teaching methods. Although they cannot attend classes face to face, this kind of cross-border "cloud" learning does not affect the international students' thirst for professional knowledge and their interest in Chinese language and culture in any way.
E-learning in the eyes of international students
(1) How to choose a learning platform? How to overcome jet lag?
After trying various platforms, the teachers of the Chinese teaching team of the School of International Education finally chose ZOOM and Rain Classroom as the preferred teaching tools, and formulated the "Online Learning Guide for International Students" to guide the teachers and international students on how to use the online teaching platform.
Now that we have solved the problem of teaching platform, how can we overcome the time difference? Most of our international students are sent from Russian partner universities, and the students from the Russian State Transport University are located in China with a 5-hour time difference. If classes start at 8:00 a.m. Chinese time, it means that they need to start studying at 3:00 a.m. in the morning. In order to ensure the attendance of these students and the effectiveness of the teaching, we compromised the online teaching time, starting the first class at 13:20 Beijing time and ending the course at 21:40 Beijing time.
(2) A plan for implementation and unexpected situations
In order to monitor the teaching quality and find out the problems in time for effective improvement, the college has set up an International Students Online Teaching Quality Monitoring Team, which consists of all the faculty members of the college, to monitor the attendance and learning status of international students in the online courses, provide support for the emergencies in the online classes, and provide support for the questions and problems encountered by international students in the online classes. It also provides consultation service for the problems and needs raised by professional teachers when teaching online to international students, makes every effort to ensure the quality of online teaching for international students, and makes international students feel at ease, settled and confident with quality online teaching.
From the podium to the screen, teachers have the following feelings:
In order to ensure that the teaching is conducted in a proper and orderly manner, I will log on to my mobile phone and computer at the same time, rehearse and prepare in advance, practice using the teaching software several times, and post preview assignments and relevant content to the international students before the class to ensure the quality of the class. So far, the international students are quite satisfied with the course and the online learning method, and we can see that they are trying to adapt to the online teaching method through the homework completion and their performance in class. Online teaching is a manifestation of the university's responsibility for international students' education and teaching, which can ensure their learning progress and keep them motivated and tense in learning.
Instructor Fan Lu
There is a time difference between international students in their own country and China. I often see students who ask questions in early morning local time and students who have submitted all their assignments at 5:47 am in the morning. A hard-working student can't be stopped no matter where the class is. When there was a dictation interaction in class, I would say to them: the teacher can't see which one of the words you can write and which one you can't, but you definitely know for yourselves which words are not well written and where you are not mastering them. The next day, I would see the feedback that a student had written the vocabulary a few more times. Online learning is really a competition between you and yourself.
Instructor Wang Yanan
From offline to online, students have expectations:
“I find distance learning very convenient. Even though my teachers and classmates aren't around me, I can talk to them and we learn a lot every day. I think distance learning is basically the same as offline learning. We use ZOOM to learn from teachers, communicate with classmates, and I still use it to chat with my Chinese friends. If I hadn't started online learning by now, I wouldn't have been able to continue my university course, but now the school not only gives me a new experience, but also allows me to learn Chinese better. I'm very happy to have this kind of learning opportunity.”
“I find it very convenient to learn Chinese online, and learning Chinese online is very special. But I miss the way I learned in China in the classroom even more. Also, some lessons are hard to understand thoroughly better online, and I hope we can go back to the classroom soon.”
“The online teaching method is very interesting, I can interact well with the teachers and students in the classroom. The teachers are very patient, and I can ask any questions I don't understand at any time, and the teachers will answer them in time, but I also look forward to returning to China and the campus sooner.”