1. General information of the participants
Of the 206 students surveyed, 38.8 percent were male and 61.2 percent were female. Of the 52 teachers surveyed, 38.5 percent were male and 62.5 percent were female. Teachers with intermediate, sub-senior and senior professional titles accounted for 51.3, 25.6, and 20.5 percent of teaching respondents respectively. Their level of experience was divided into categories: 2-5 years, 5-10 years, and over 10 years. Of the teachers surveyed, 23.1, 33.3, and 43.6 percent belonged to each of these categories respectively.
2. Opinions and Selection of Online Teaching Models
During the pandemic, most teachers in our school chose either the synchronous model (live video streaming), or the asynchronous model (MOOCs). The latter was then divided into two forms: one from the “Chinese University MOOC” website, taught by famous Chinese professors; and the other comprising video courses recorded locally, by teachers at the university. The results of our study showed that 53.9 percent of teachers and 63.5 percent of students were more inclined to choose the synchronous online teaching model, in the form of live video streaming, while 33.3 percent of teachers and 26.2 percent of students preferred the asynchronous online teaching model in the form of a MOOC (Figure 1). There was no significant difference in the preferences of teachers and students in each model. Those in the synchronous online teaching model believed that live video streaming provided more of a classroom atmosphere, and was more conducive to students’ understanding of the course content. The students and teachers who preferred the asynchronous online teaching model thought that this kind of teaching/learning provided students with more flexible viewing options, and enabled them to access the video repeatedly, at times of their own choosing.
3. Opinions and Assessment of Online Teaching Effects
To better understand the teaching effects of the different online models, this study conducted a survey of teachers and students. The results showed that 28.2 percent of teachers believed that online teaching had a great impact on students’ learning effects, while 64.1 percent thought that it had little effect. Only 7.7 percent of teachers believed that it had no effect at all. The study demonstrated that although both teachers and students thought that teachers’ methods were the main influencing factor, their opinions on other factors varied widely. Most students believed that the models in the survey had a greater impact on their learning than online teaching platforms or teachers’ PPT/video production, while most teachers believed the opposite: that PPT/video production had the most significant effect, followed by online teaching platforms and teaching models (Figure 2). Additionally, it was found that the impact of online teaching on student learning was mainly observed in the attention span of students in the classroom, followed by classroom atmosphere and activity, the professionalism of the teacher’s lesson preparation, classroom interaction between teachers and students, and student attendance (Figure 3). In the evaluation of students’ learning effects, most teachers believed that the students’ pre- and post-class completion of questions relating to the course content was most important, followed by examination results, classroom interactions, and student attendance (Figure 4).
4. Comparison with Traditional Teaching Modes and Corresponding Analysis
Compared with offline teaching, 38.8 percent of students experienced an increased frequency of interaction with the teacher in live-streamed online teaching activities, while 32.5 percent had a decreased interaction frequency and 28.6 percent found no significant change. When learning through a MOOC, 94.7 percent of students chose to re-view lessons before they took an exam. When there was no exam, 48.5 percent would re-view the MOOC at the teacher’s request, 23.3 percent would re-view repeatedly according to their own needs, while the other 38.2 percent did not re-view at all. When asked about the role of online teaching in the future, 15.4 percent of teachers thought that online models could be used as the main teaching method, 10.3 percent thought they could gradually replace the traditional teaching model, and 74.4 percent thought that online teaching should only be used to supplement traditional methods.
5. Problems with Online Teaching
Although online teaching has already been employed for a long time, the ongoing pandemic has made it the main teaching model for the first time, problems will inevitably arise. Our survey found that both teachers and students thought that the susceptibility of online teaching to students’ learning autonomy was its main obstacle, followed by a general concern over the lack of an online teaching management system. Additionally, both groups worried that online teaching could not emulate the classroom atmosphere of offline teaching, and that it was too dependent on the stability of the app or network, which may not be reliable. Another major problem, specific to the asynchronous MOOC online teaching model, is that the lack of communication with teachers can have a negative impact on the learning effect (Figure 5).