As of today, the epidemic in China has basically ended, which means that online teaching, which has lasted for more than half a year, has gradually faded out of people’s sight in China. The traditional offline mode has returned to schools in China. When asked how it felt to be back on campus, many Chinese students said they missed the days of online classes. Even students who previously said, “I hate online classes” and “I will die if the school does not come back to offline classes” now say that online classes are fine, and it is hard to get used to suddenly not having them. So, since this is the last piece on the online education beat story, let us listen to some Chinese students talk about how they spend their days in online classes. Through the feelings of some Chinese and American students in the online class, to understand why Chinese students are reluctant to leave online classes and discuss the future of online classes in China and the world.
Whether it is China or the United States, online education can be broadly divided into the following two categories. One is the video-on-demand model. This is the most primitive way for students to get the only passive watch, lack of participation. The other is the online live broadcast interactive mode, which can provide a virtual classroom where students can participate in the live broadcast and ask questions. And the course will be recorded automatically and watched repeatedly in the later stage. Through online educational system can realize knowledge sharing and virtual interactive learning. It provides teachers and students with resource retrieval, query, download, etc. The network storage and sharing of knowledge resources are the core features of online education.
Although online courses’ teaching mode is the same worldwide, there are significant differences between different countries regarding how teachers teach in videos and how students accept online courses. According to interviews with several Chinese and American students, it is clear why Chinese students are reluctant to leave online classes because it seems more comfortable and more relaxed to take online classes in China.
Huiling He, a student at Lanzhou City University in China, gave us a rundown of what almost all Chinese universities do: ask students to download an app called “Dingding.” That is a special offer online communication teaching application. During the outbreak, it became an essential tool of national student learning online classes. In this application, students find a list of Numbers from their class and then go to the classroom to watch a live broadcast. Also, this “Dingding” contains recorded and live courses from all famous teachers in the country. Students can choose to watch lectures by professors from China’s most famous universities, such as Tsinghua University, and enter Tsinghua University’s live classrooms to have classes with the top students. Despite the opportunity is valuable, Huiling said she never tried to join other classes, or even live classes on other campuses, because “I felt inferior in front of top students, I was too embarrassed to discuss problems with them, and I was too embarrassed to ‘sit’ next to those who were excellent,” she said. That points to a common trait among Chinese students: high self-esteem, too sensitive, and a fear of communicating with excellent people. What is more, they are afraid of answering teachers’ questions, dislike expressing their opinions in front of classmates, and prefer to do all tasks alone rather than work in a team. In the study of knowledge, this is undoubtedly harmful but not beneficial. It also partly explains why students feel more relaxed in Chinese online classes.
For Chinese students, the Internet is a good platform to avoid directly meeting with teachers and conflicts of opinions with classmates. China has a large population base. There are usually more than forty students in one class. On the Internet, it is impossible for teachers to get everyone involved in class discussions. Most Chinese teachers choose the “no questions, only lectures” teaching method, so students don’t need to worry about the teacher suddenly calling his name and asking questions. And in front of many students, it is unrealistic to ask everyone to turn on the camera. Participating in the class as an “invisible person” gives Chinese students a sense of security and does a lot to protect their self-esteem. This is their psychological “relief.”
What makes online classes substantially more relaxed for students is that they don’t even need to listen to the class. As mentioned above, all the students have to do is sign in, turn off the camera, mute the radio, and it’s up to them whether to listen to teachers or not. One male student, who wanted his name kept secret, said he and his buddies often play games on their computer while using their phones to listen to the class, and they compare who gets the highest scores after a class, but of course, this refers to the game score.
Yin Zhao, another senior from China, said: “During the online class, I really experienced the pleasure of taking classes under the covers. It was a childish dream of mine when I was little, but I didn’t expect it would come true one day!” Yes, this application Dingding supports mobile phone downloads, and most students do, so they can listen to lectures just by holding their mobile phones. You don’t even need to get out of bed in the morning, just open one eye and pick up your phone from your bedside table and enter a live class. That’s how “taking classes under the covers” came to be.
Students participate in the live classes at Fort Hays State University in the United States through the ZOOM meeting. It is the same function as Dingding, but most students take the course more seriously. Hairong Song, a Chinese student studying in the United States, said that he does not know if he can turn on a zoom meeting with his phone. He has never tried that before because he has been using a computer to participate in live classes. He believes that learning should be taken seriously, at least sitting at a desk, so he has never enjoyed studying under the covers. “And,” he said, “I do not know about other teachers, but my teacher encouraged us all to turn on the camera when we went to class and make some eye contact with her so that we can not play video games or sleep in class.”
Of course, the interviewees are not representative of all students, so we cannot say that all Chinese students are not paying attention during the online class, nor can we rule out that American students never play games during the online class. Nevertheless, one thing is for sure: not all students are suitable for online courses. Online courses are only suitable for students capable of learning, demanding themselves, and willing to interact with teachers actively. For students with weak learning ability and autonomy, online courses have become an excellent way to escape the traditional classroom pressure. The advantages of online courses are undeniable. Apart from the comprehensive coverage of education, online courses can also save offline traffic time and money. However, this will make them lazier and laxer in their study attitude for students with no self-control. If everyone taking classes under the covers, would learning be achieved?
There is no doubt that online courses have many advantages. With the development of the Internet and the Internet of things, online courses will definitely become a trend and have a very bright future. However, it will not wholly replace offline education, which is determined by the nature of education.
Is the object of education merely to enable children to learn knowledge? No, the most crucial thing is interpersonal communication. The offline school itself is like a small society. Children from different backgrounds and families learn how to get along with each other, communicate, cooperate, compete, and mutual help. Moreover, it is that online education cannot complete.
In general, offline teaching brings a higher effect on temperature, atmosphere, and supervision. However, it is undeniable that online teaching is far better than offline teaching in terms of convenience and cost. Therefore, offline teaching and online teaching belong to the relationship of mutual substitution, rather than mutual substitution. In the future, the education industry’s development direction is bound to be the combination and mutual promotion of online and offline education to make the education industry shine.