The Center for Faculty Development at Tsinghua University recently announced a list of innovative online teaching cases. Five cases by Tsinghua SIGS Associate Professors Dong Yuhan, Li Xiangming, Nie Xiaomei, Wang Fei and his team, as well as Professor Lin Jianwu and his team were selected among 167 submissions.
Information and Communication Technology – Associate Prof. Dong Yuhan
As a course open to interdisciplinary majors, many students in Prof. Dong's class had varying background knowledge in information science. To stimulate interest, Prof. Dong used real-life cases in his teaching, and made use of student group presentations to improve interaction in the online classroom. Diverse types of in-class activities and assignments helped extend learning, allowing Prof. Dong to gauge understanding and adjust content accordingly.
Associate Prof. Dong Yuhan
Business Communication in English – Associate Prof. Li Xiangming
By dividing each four-hour class into eight to eleven sessions, Prof. Li carefully designed her classes with a variety of activities including lecturing, group discussions, role-plays and online demos. Teacher-student interaction and interactions among students were greatly enhanced. The class management style transitioning from “to tell” to “to join” successfully maintained students’ attention in online learning, and helped foster rich and equal opportunities for practice in an English language class.
Associate Prof. Li Xiangming
Quantitative Investment Analysis – Prof Lin Jianwu and team
Prof. Lin Jianwu and his teaching team cooperated with technology companies to build an intelligent learning system which uses artificial intelligence to provide online programming guidance for students. The team also joined hands with the Shenzhen Supercomputing Center to support student learning with cloud computing servers. By integrating AI, big data and cloud computing technology, the course was successfully brought online with the help of modern technology.
Prof. Lin Jianwu
Art Principles – Associate Prof. Nie Xiaomei
Throughout the semester, Prof. Nie explored new ways of online teaching as philosophy theories and analysis of artwork in her class often require high levels of concentration. Nie compared online teaching to planning for a radio drama, and strived to improve the auditory and visual experience for students. She also made full use of online platforms to promote student participation. Nie saw this as a time for teachers to re-examine and transform their teaching methods, and believed that the experience will have a profound impact on in-class teaching in the future.
Associate Prof. Nie Xiaomei
Emergency drill design and practice – Associate Prof. Wang Fei and team
When classes moved online this spring, Prof. Wang and his team had to make major adjustments to their course. With support from the Foshan government, the online course is now being held at the Foshan Emergency Command Center, where Prof. Wang previously provided support during the epidemic fight. With this immersive learning experience, students gain a deeper understanding of China's emergency management system, the important role of an emergency management mechanism and its operation processes.
Associate Prof. Wang Fei
The Foshan Emergency Command Center
To encourage educators to explore new online teaching methods, the Center for Faculty Development at Tsinghua University has set up a special fund to collect innovative online teaching cases. Many professors from Tsinghua SIGS responded and shared their experiences, providing valuable resources for other educators to improve and overcome current challenges in online teaching.
Edited by Karen Lee
