Real Experience and Reflections
Posted on May 20, 2009 by Li Feng
Recently, we had the valuable chance of meeting a group of Chinese students in the Tsinghua-UMass Boston Academic Bridge Program. The Academic Bridge Program is a collaborative effort between Tsinghua University and UMass Boston in preparing students located in Beijing, China for undergraduate education at UMass Boston. There is currently an online component in this program. In March, we offered an online Economics course which was well-received by the students in the program. The students that we met with were a lovely group and they were kind enough to share with us their experience with the online Economics course. We really enjoyed the conversation with them.
Our first impression was that these students had approximately an upper intermediate level of English proficiency and were fairly fluent in communicating in English orally. They seemed to have a fairly large vocabulary as well, according to their spoken English. Their relatively high English proficiency seemed to ensure their ability to comprehend the course materials in English, both in text and in multimedia format.
The students said that they appreciated how engaging the online Economics course was. They really liked the interactions with their instructor, which made a huge difference for them. They liked the fact that their instructor related to real life cases and her personal experiences in the instruction.
On the other hand, they pointed out a challenge which is common among online students worldwide – the demand for self-discipline. In their reflection, the workload was easier than their typical homework, but a lot of discipline was needed as they had the control over their own study.
Another interesting point the Academic Bridge program students made was that they wished there were more videotaped lectures and wished the instructor had told them more directly the “key points” in the book/lesson. As a person who grew up in Chinese classrooms and was a teacher in China, I realized these would be typical reflections from a Chinese student. Chinese students are used to watching videotaped lectures in online courses and they are used to being told what the “key points” are, especially in preparation for exams.
These simple reflections taught us a lot! What are your thoughts on these viewpoints? Look forward to hearing your comments and insights!
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Fascinating findings. They remind me both of articles that I’ve read on second language acquisition (and language teaching) and articles that I’ve read on instructional design.
I do agree on the part about self-discipline. When the instructor is far away there is definitely more “carrot” than “stick”. When you are in class and you can see the instructor the fear of the “stick” can be motivation to achieve self-discipline.
I also find it interesting that they were looking explicitly for “key points” - this is something that I’ve come across when data driven learning is used to teach grammar in the classroom. Students sometimes feel that they haven’t learned grammatical points (even though they have) because they haven’t explicitly been told what the grammar rules are.
As far as video goes - this can be tricky. Personally I dislike talking heads, however some videos of the instructor do help students make a connection to the person instructing them.
I would be interested in learning more of the student’s reactions.
Thank you very much for your insightful comment!It is very interesting that you related to second language acquisition, although these students were reflecting on their experience in an online Economics course. Your point about the “key points” issue in second/foreign language classrooms is so true. There is differentiation between explicit learning and implicit acquisition of a second/foreign language. A lot of language learners tend to have explicit explanations of the rules as they do not have a large amount of language input to foster implicit acquisition of the target language. When I was teaching English in China, my students used to say to me that they felt they did not learn much from their American teacher’s Oral English class as the class was not structured they way they were used to – with lectures/instructions on important language points and practice to follow.
On the other hand, many Chinese students, not just language learners, are used to being told what the “key points” are, especially in helping them to prepare for tests. Traditionally, many courses are content-centered. Of course there is always a lot of content to cover in a course, all of which will not be tested in an exam. Drawing out the key points is considered very important by the students so that they don’t have to waste time on things that won’t be tested. Of course, things are changing in classrooms in China, like other aspects of Chinese society.
My take on the video is that it is a common practice in online courses in China and students feel it more like a class if they can hear the instructor talk while looking at the slides/text.
Thanks again for the thoughtful comment! We look forward to hearing more from you and will share more information in the future!