As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads around the world, schools in the US are faced with challenges such as remote teaching and student mental stress in prolonged quarantine. Recently, invited by the Committee of 100, which is an elite Chinese American association, faculties and students from Fudan University and the High School Affiliated to Fudan University participated in three live streaming events to share experience with their counterparts in the US.
On April 3, Professor Xu Lei, Vice President of Fudan University, shared the best practices of Fudan and other Chinese institutions of higher education with a focus on remote teaching and learning in this unusual time. Xu Lei said that online education on such a large scale was unprecedented worldwide. However, with strong confidence in the national education system and considerable experience with online courses gained over past five years, Fudan University, at the initial stage of the pandemic, lost no time moving all classes online. Xu shared a checklist of tasks the university completed before the formal launch of online teaching, and explained the difficulties encountered and solutions developed, and how the university timely leveraged lessons learnt and effectively responded when facing new challenges like network congestion, extra work load for professors, heightened pressure for students, copyright protection and online exams. Xu Lei deemed the need to move all courses online as an opportunity to reform teaching methods, reorient the teaching process to students’ development and promote students’ proactive learning. He said Fudan did not demand live streaming for all courses due to the concern about possible technical stability and that professors may lapse into traditional teaching methods in live streaming. The university encouraged teachers to look for and use readily available courses on open online course platforms recommended by the Chinese Ministry of Education, or to record their own video courses. Three days before the class, teachers would share the courseware online and ask students to pre-read and pose questions. Teachers would explain key points, answer questions, organize discussions, and assign homework during the online class. Xu Lei also provided information on the online teaching strategies of Tsinghua University and Peking University during the pandemic, as well as sharing various creative attempts and successful cases of online education in Fudan. Xu Lei said that the feedback from teachers and students was better than expected; in particular, it opened another window for students to ask questions and facilitated interaction between students and teachers, bringing positive changes to the normally “quiet” classes in China, which boosted the university’s confidence in online courses. Later this month, with students starting going back to school in batches, Fudan will experience an unusual period of combination of online and offline teaching, which has never been experimented before. When the pandemic ends, the university will resume offline teaching, as face-to-face teaching still has irreplaceable advantages. Xu Lei believed that explorations of online education and the results achieved would not be discarded after the pandemic; instead they would exert a long-term, profound influence on future educational practices.
In the Q&A session of the live streaming events, Xu answered questions as to whether online education would lower academic standards, how to take care of overseas students in different time zones, how to prevent cheating in online exams, and how to keep students focused. During the events, a teacher from City University of New York shared experience in mitigating students’ pressure and using online conference software to supervise group discussions. Xu Lei stressed that experience and practices of schools across the globe were all valuable and should be shared with each another. He believed that across the world, remote education and other practices carried out by educational institutions during the fight against the pandemic would change traditional learning methods and have a profound impact on future education.
On April 4, Gao Jun, associate professor from the Psychology Department of School of Social Development and Public Policy of Fudan University, shared thoughts on the impact of the pandemic on the mental health of the general public and college students in China, and Fudan’s experience in providing psychological counselling for these students. Gao Jun also explained in detail Fudan’s day-to-day operations that helped students reduce their mental distress and the specific measures taken during the pandemic, in particular the service network connecting the student, their family, their department, and the university’s student mental health consultation center. At the end of the event, Gao Jun provided advice for students, parents and mental health professionals respectively. She told students, firstly, any response of theirs during the pandemic is normal, and they need to accept their emotions under extreme stress; secondly, it is necessary to have basic knowledge of public health and take appropriate protective measures; thirdly, take good care of themselves in daily life, establish daily routines, and set a time limit for reading pandemic-related news; fourthly, maintain close contact with their social networks to help and support one another; and finally, seek the help of professionals if necessary. Gao Jun suggested that parents should lower their expectations of their children’s overall performance, and practice social distancing even at home. For professional counsellors, she suggested they train for crisis intervention and over-the-phone counselling, and respond flexibly to the different needs of people in distress while providing help actively. They should understand the importance of their work, keeping in close contact with colleagues and avoiding burnout. Gao said in conclusion, nobody could stay away from the pandemic, yet neither should one overly worry. Tackling mental health issues arising from the pandemic requires the joint efforts of all of us, which is the only way to turn the universal crisis into an opportunity to promote the welfare of individuals and communities all around the world.
On April 7, at a conference themed “Schools are closed, but the mission to educate continues”, the High School Affiliated to Fudan University (FDFZ) discussed with American educators how high schools could effectively implement online teaching and ensure teaching quality. Wu Jian, Principal of FDFZ, and Lou Jiani, Deputy Director of the school’s international section, shared on the challenges, implementation methods and successful cases of online teaching of FDFZ. According to Wu Jian, FDFZ aimed to carry out fair, feasible and customized online teaching, and emphasized the importance of providing students with confidence, companionship and care during the pandemic. Wu Jian also expressed his appreciation for the efforts and dedication of all FDFZ teachersin the face of pressure. On behalf of the school, and also as a teacher of mathematics, Lou Jiani shared the practices of FDFZ and of the school’s international section in particular. To ensure implementation of online teaching for all subjects, the teachers of FDFZ developed meticulous learning outcomes and assigned homework ahead of each class, followed a standardized procedure during in-class Q&A, and paid more attention to after-class assignments for performance assessment. Student representatives of the Class of 2021 International Class Li Shucheng and Wu Xinran also shared their thoughts on online learning and how they raised supplies to support Wuhan. In the Q&A session, FDFZ teachers took questions from American educators like “How do students and teachers handle homework and work pressure”, “How do students collaborate in their online learning”, “How do you effectively evaluate curriculum”, and “How do you apply the advantages of online teaching to on-campus teaching?” The conference ended in a warm atmosphere.
Editor: Deng Jianguo, Li Yijie
