In the third week upon the formal opening of the school, the Department of Electronic Engineering continued to develop its online teaching steadily. After experiencing two weeks of online teaching, teachers and students have gradually adapted to the new class platform, got familiar with online teaching mode, and got used to the learning progress as normal. On such basis, the teachers and students of the Department of Electronic Engineering not only have finished the teaching tasks, but also have promoted the high-quality "online courses" to other colleges and universities in response to the call of school.
On March 1, professor Zheng Xiaoping of our department gave classes to nearly 60 students from Tsinghua University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences through Yu Class and Tencent Conference Platform. The class is about "ultrafast optics", which mainly studies the generation, compression, measurement and control of ultra-short pulse laser. This course involves ultra-fast physical laws, transmission theory and technology with respect to the interaction between ultra-short pulse laser and matter, so it has important applications in the field of optical communication, signal processing etc. To get prepared for the online course, professor Zheng Xiaoping has already done a lot of preparatory work before the start of the spring semester, including modifying courseware, getting familiar with Yu classes, configuring online teaching hardware, etc. After receiving the online teaching task for more than 20 students from other schools, he felt very stressed and honored, so he carefully prepared for the course in courseware making and interaction method. "As a teacher, it is his duty to give class, and he should also bear the responsibility to help students from Wuhan's colleges and universities to attend classes." On March 3, teachers and students from Southwest Petroleum Institute and the University of Hong Kong participated in teacher Li Maokun's course-Theory and Method of Inverse Electromagnetic Problem.
Photo 1: Professor Zheng Xiaoping gave classes to nearly 60 students from Tsinghua University, Huazhong University of Science and Technology and Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences Source of photo: news.tsinghua.edu.cn
Two cloning classes of Xinjiang University also participated in Teacher Ou Zhijian's course-Probability Theory and Stochastic Processes, with a total of 83 students involved. Due to the time conflict with other courses, the students of Xinjiang University attended the class by watching the playback. The Xinjiang University has arranged two teaching assistants and the Lifelong Education Department of Tsinghua University also has arranged one teaching assistant, which is currently under good progress.
Photo 2: Teacher Ou Zhijian's opened two cloning classes for his course-Probability Theory and Stochastic Processes, which is available to students of Xinjiang University with a total of 83 students involved.
Li Dongmei, Deputy Party Committee Secretary of Department of Electronic Engineering of Tsinghua University, said that in response to the school's call to "share Tsinghua's curriculum resources and tale social responsibilities", the Department of Electronic Engineering actively encouraged teachers to open "cloning classes" and organized/ recommended corresponding courses and opened relevant resources to other schools, hoping that more support will be given to other schools, especially those in Wuhan.
The overall work progress for the third week is summarized as follows:
I.Teaching overview
In the third week upon the opening of the school, the Department of Electronic Engineering additionally opened two experimental courses based on the 102 online classes in the first two weeks. The introduction courses forBasic Experiment of Electronic Circuit and SystemandCommunication Circuit Experimentwill be opened this week. After opening the 61 undergraduate classes and 43 postgraduate classes, the average daily number of online students reached more than 1,000. Besides, as corresponding courses were opened and relevant resources were opened to other universities this week, the teachers and students from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan Institute of Physics and Mathematics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Southwest Petroleum Institute and the University of Hong Kong also attended classes.
In terms of course operation, some other minor problems relating to the network still occur: The interruption of Unicom broadband occurred during Teacher Li Xing's postgraduate courseModern Information Network Technologyand after switch to 4G network, the normal teaching can proceed. The zoom connection was lost during Teacher He Yun'sImage Codingfor 30 seconds. Network failure also occurred during Teacher Zhang Zhijun'sElectromagnetic Field and Wavecourse, which was solved within five minutes. In the English course of Teacher Shen Yuan'sProbability Theory and Stochastic Processes, some students reflected that they could not see PPT, however, it is due to the problem of student-side upon the quick investigation In Sun Jiasong's course-Fundamentals of Computer Programming, students cannot hear the teacher at Tencent Conference when switching PPT page, and there was a mixed sounds in the Yu class for a very short time of period In Huang Yidong's courseFundamentals of Solid-state Physics, students reflected the skip problem of PPT page in Yu class. When playing back the courseCommunication Circuit Experimentof Huangfu Liying and Xu Shuzheng in the Yu class, the problem of intermittent sound signals occurred.
In addition, the majority of teachers said that the online class was smooth, where the students still actively interacted with each other, showing a good teaching effect: For example, LvHui and Ma Xiaohong's course-Basic Experiment of Physical Electronicsis still divided into four parallel classes which will be given in different times. Many animations and videos are included in the courseware, with eight objective questions. Discussions are held in case the wrong answers are provided for objective questions. The voice speech and random calling are available in Tencent Conference, and students all gave good feedbacks on the interaction effect.
Photo 3: LvHui and Ma Xiaohong’s online Q&A interaction during the course ofBasic Experiment of Physical Electronics
Teacher Shen Yuan opened the video during the break hours, showing the students the scenery outside the window of the Rohm Building. The students told the teacher that they missed the school and the Rohm Building very much. There were nearly 200 feedbacks from students in the chat box of WeChat Conference during Teacher Gu Yuantao's courseSignal and Systemaccording to preliminary counting, and he answered these questions for nearly an hour after class, of which more than 100 students participated in the discussion in the first 20 minutes.
Overly speaking, the online teaching effect of our department is good, and we actively responded to the school's call and actively shared our high-quality teaching resources to others. Students were enthusiasm in class, and gave good comments in terms of classroom interaction, group discussion and classroom feedback. In the third week upon the opening of the school, teachers and students of our department gradually adapted to online teaching and on such basis, they further improved the overall teaching quality.
II.Teaching interview
This week, the students conducted an online interview with the teachers who are in charge of the core courses in our department. Nearly ten teachers, including Li Xueqing, Song Jian, Sun Changzheng, Wang Yu, Li Guolin, Ou Zhijian and Wang Shengjin, received such interviews organized by the students and they all enthusiastically answered the problems that the students are concerned about. Excerpts of interview with some teachers are shown as follows:
1.What kind of difficulties did you encounter in the process of preparing lessons and teaching?
Teacher Wang Shengjin: We did not face too much difficulty. Compared with the heroes fighting in the front line against epidemic, it cannot be regarded as difficult things. The main problem is that we have to learn new things. When preparing lessons, we need to know operations and functions of the Yu class room system and Tencent Conference, to ensure following the right operation sequence. Sometimes I had to consider the stability problem of the network. One problem once occurred that the Internet speed for students in different places is different. So when the page is turned at my side, the student’s side did not work. For single choice question, when the time is up, the question did not display the question fully at the student’s side. But fortunately such problem occurred occasionally, not often.
Teacher Li Guolin: It was not too much difficult, and I just could not adapt to such mode at first. I can’t not walk during the class. Due to sitting in front of screen all the time, I suffered from the problem of blood circulation, and felt dizzy after the a few classes. Due to the adoption of the following measures such as opening the window before class to get smooth and fresh air, moving legs and doing exercise during break hours to avoid blood circulation problem, I did not feel uncomfortable right now.
Teacher Li Xueqing: Compared with the class preparation works in previous years, I felt that the main difference lies in the different teaching forms and teaching tools, which can lead to more efforts in exploration and preparation. During the time when everyone is actively carrying out online teaching, we have conducted tests with respect to the classroom and Zoom teaching platform in advance, and asked each student to take targeted questionnaire interviews, so as to ensure that all students can adapt to online teaching and communication. The course contents are also designed based on the characteristics of the platform. Here we have the strong support from the teaching assistants and all members of our entire course design team.
2.Do you feel different during the online teaching process compared with the former teaching mode?
Teacher Ou Zhijian: Firstly, it is a new challenge for us. During the special period, we should actively cope with this challenge and perform our duties in all aspects of teaching. The students also have the same feeling. They should listen carefully in class under such new environment. Firstly I felt that although the students cannot take their classes in a real room, they seem to be more active and lively compared with learning in a traditional classroom. Only one student can raise his hand to answer the question at the same time in the traditional classroom, and such means are rarely used in our class test. However, students can do the questions concurrently during online class test, so it allows the teachers to view the answers to the questions in a real time, which shows an obvious advantage. Secondly, the attendance rate of students attending our online class is very high. A total of 215 students took this optional course. Up to now, two classes have been given, with 211 students attending online class each time, which is a very high attendance rate. However, we did not achieve such high attendance rate for traditional class, so it is also a positive effect of online teaching..
Teacher Song Jian: The main problem is how to keep the teaching passion, and then how to use various tools to read the feedbacks of students in time. Basically, there is no problem with the content of the course. The main focus is put on students' feedback. We need to check WeChat message from time to time during the class to see what problems the students have raised in the group. If there was a problem with the network connection, speaker, the voice or the image, or the files sharing etc., the targeted solutions must be given.
3.Can you share some stories that impressed you during lesson preparation, during teaching or after class?
Teacher Wang Yu: Many students often compliment me through bullet screen, which makes me feel shy. But what touched me most was that when the class was over, the students left their messages in an organized manner. They said "thank you for hard working. Thank you, the teacher", which really moved me a lot.
Teacher Sun Changzheng: In case of teaching online, it is easy to see the number of students participating in the course through Yu class or Tencent Conference System. In previous years, for elective classes participated by about 40 students, the actual attendance rate is less than 80% except for the first class and the examination review class. So far, almost all students participate the in online course, and I hope that they can keep taking the online courses.
III.Teacher's wishes
Under current special situation, to ensure the normal learning and life of the students, all the faculties in Tsinghua University will be dedicated to the intense online teaching and research preparation activities. There are both advantages and disadvantages for online teaching. After three weeks of teaching experience, we also want to tell you something about it.
Teacher Liu Yimin: In online teaching mode, the teachers are required to design the rhythm and structure of teaching more delicately and interact with students more frequently. However, such importance of this interaction is not that obvious in traditional teaching design. The online teaching can provide some experience references for the teaching and curriculum design after traditional mode is readopted upon the end of epidemic. My understanding of teaching is more conventional. For many courses, the teaching is just an embodiment of the sociality of people, which means, the face-to-face teaching shows great advantages in this regard. In the future period of time, online teaching is unable to replace the face-to-face teaching mode for some courses. In addition, I think preview before class will help the students to improve their learning efficiency.
Teacher Li Xueqing: The students are highly enthusiastic in participating the course. I hope that all students will realize that when facing the majority of problems, to stay calm is more effective than being nervous, and you will find more methods in face of such difficulties. Make sure to continuously learn and even create new tools and skills, and keep pace with the times, which is one of the best ways for you to create a new situation.
It can be seen that the online teaching mode is adopted to jointly cope with special circumstances in a special period after the spread of the epidemic, which is deemed as a result of joint effort made by all teachers and students. According to the teacher's interviews, we can see that when the students were still enjoying their holidays at home, teachers and teaching assistants have started the preparation work for online teaching, aiming to ensure the normal teaching progress after the beginning of the school life. It was due to their hard work and efforts that the students can be guaranteed in the academic career.
Everything is getting better and better. Teachers shall continue to improve the quality of teaching. Students shall also actively take the responsibility as the member of Tsinghua University, respond to online teaching and continue to study at home. In the March when spring comes and flower blooms, we believe that epidemic will eventually end. Now it is the time for teachers and students in Tsinghua University to fight!
