The Implication of Online Teaching Methods for Humanities Public Courses at XJTLU

Nowadays online teaching appears increasingly prominent in the tide of overwhelming pedagogical reform and innovation (Allen & Seaman, 2010). It makes teaching and learning more interactive, facilitates knowledge delivery and acquisition, and thus triggers many transformative practices in higher education (Shearer, 2007). Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU), as a unique international university in China, largely promotes the internetization and platfomization of teaching. It particularly emphasizes to build up students’ core value, rational philosophizing and capability system which are reflected in their knowledge of width, depth and height. To realize the objectives of Five Star Education Mode (FSEM) (The teaching goal of XJTLU is developing global citizens by building knowledge system, philosophy and value system, capability system, comprehensive education strategy and support systems of implementation) of XJTLU, Chinese Culture Teaching Center (CCTC) developed a distinctive online teaching and learning platform (U-talk) as an important complementary method for traditional large-scale classroom teaching for Year 1 humanities public courses at XJTLU.

CCTC is responsible for Year I course teaching at XJTLU. These courses consist of four compulsory modules covering the basic elements of Chinese literature, philosophy, history, management, law and national conditions with some comparison to western culture. These courses are taught not only through lectures in class, but also a distinctive online teaching and learning platform (U-talk) established by CCTC. Currently, the actively used online teaching methods in CCTC include pre-reading material delivery, internet posting communication, course video interaction as well as quiz and assignment assessment through mobile devices. These methods break the traditional lecturer-centered teaching mode, and jointly inspire students’ learning initiative, supervise students’ learning process, build students’ moral character and facilitate students’ future career.

This technology-enhanced teaching method is employed to promote students’ learning initiative and faculty’s teaching responsibilities, encourage contact between students and faculty, and develop cooperation and reciprocity among students in order to realize the ultimate value of humanities public courses. Based on the statistics and analysis of collected massive questionnaires and targeted face-to-face interview transcripts from students, this paper endeavors to examine into the application of CCTC’s current online teaching methods for Year 1 humanities public courses and pinpoint the problems. And, it proposes optimized suggestions for their potential development in terms of their impacts on students’ academic performance and faculty role and workload. Besides, this paper also explores cooperative teaching and personalized teaching at XJTLU since they are now paid a close attention to by educators, and could be the future development trend in higher education.