"Study abroad" should also learn to achieve good results Our reporter Zhao Xiaoxia "People's Daily Overseas Edition&quo...

 

"Study abroad" should also learn to achieve good results

Our reporter Zhao Xiaoxia"People's Daily Overseas Edition" (09th edition on March 18, 2021)

Shi Yucheng took an illness online class.

In mid-March, Shi Yucheng went to Beijing Normal University, a partner institution of the College of William and Mary in the United States, to start offline classes, and returned to the long-lost campus life. The picture shows the dormitory where he lives.

Wang Dejia is taking an online class.

Zhou Yuyan is taking an online class.

　　On March 15, Shi Yucheng traveled from Zhoushan, Zhejiang to Beijing. He walked on the campus of Beijing Normal University, and only felt that "campus life is very cordial, and I finally have books to study."

　　Since graduating from a high school in the United States last year and returning to China in mid-April of the same year, Shi Yucheng has not entered the campus for nearly a year. If there were no epidemics, he should have entered the College of William and Mary in the United States to study environmental science in September last year. But under the epidemic situation, everything has become uncertain, and "have books to read" has also become an extremely difficult thing.

　　"Study in the cloud" under the epidemic

　　Taking into account factors such as the epidemic situation and immigration policy, Shi Yucheng finally chose to take online lessons at home in China. From the official start of classes on August 19, 2020 to the end of the last class on October 24, during the freshman fall semester more than two months, he chose 4 courses and took 14 credits in total.

　　The school requires freshmen to take a seminar, but most seminars are scheduled at two or three o'clock in the morning Beijing time. Only the history and art classes are relatively suitable-9:30 pm to 11 pm. Taking into account the jet lag, he chose this course. What gave him the most headache was the course of Intermediate Psychology. Not only was the class late-from two to four in the morning, but also it could only be broadcast live. "It's really hard work. I'm afraid I won't be able to hold it in another semester, but it is indeed a class I like." Shi Yucheng said.

　　In every psychology class, sleepiness in the middle of the night, rapid progress of the course, and a large amount of knowledge involved make it difficult for Shi Yucheng to keep up with the teacher’s rhythm. His compromise is to listen to the teacher’s explanation while completing the psychology in the class. For the experiments required by the class, digest and review the contents of the get out of class after class.

　　Looking back at the end of the fall semester, Shi Yucheng felt "very hard." “Although the school also takes into account the time difference of international students, there are four types of courses, face-to-face, mixed lecture, live broadcast, and recorded broadcast. However, there are fewer types of recorded and broadcast courses. Most of the compulsory small-class seminars are arranged in the middle of the night in Beijing time, so they are not allowed. Stay up all night for class without reversing the jet lag. From Monday to Friday, you have to stay up until 4 midnight almost every day." Shi Yucheng said.

　　Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, like Shi Yucheng, online classes at home have become the choice of many Chinese students.

　　Wang Dejia, who studied at the School of Media, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand, is also one of them. As soon as the epidemic broke out, Auckland University of Technology promptly opened many professional online courses, including media courses, but Wang Dejia, who learned the news, was a little worried. In his opinion, the establishment of online courses for media majors requires huge supporting software. If the supporting software cannot keep up, the course effect will be compromised. In the end, a letter from the school dispelled his worries. The faculty of the School of Communication not only systematically divided the students into groups of 3 to 5 people, but also carefully prepared all the software packages needed in the study, and they were all available. Free to use. "This made me join the online learning army without hesitation." Wang Dejia said, "Although this is my first online learning experience, through online learning, I not only reduced the time cost of learning, but also learned I plan my own study time."

　　Zhou Yuyan, a sophomore student majoring in international hotel management at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, UK, also chose to take online courses in China. Due to the time difference, her online classes are mainly concentrated from 17:00 to 24:00 from Monday to Friday. There will be 3 to 5 compulsory courses in each elementary school semester. "On the whole, the course schedule and progress are acceptable." Zhou Yuyan said.

　　Combining online and offline

　　In addition to online classes at home, there are also Chinese students who choose to take classes at the domestic partner colleges of the colleges they attend. According to the Blue Book of the "Report on the Development of Overseas Studies in China (2020~2021)" jointly compiled by the Globalization Think Tank and the Development Research Institute of Southwestern University of Finance and Economics recently released, the entities of Chinese-foreign cooperation in running schools and the Chinese parties of Chinese-foreign cooperative education projects with good cooperative relations Colleges and universities are becoming important carriers for online and offline learning for Chinese students who are supposed to study in overseas cooperative colleges. "Study abroad" has become a new alternative to studying abroad during the new crown pneumonia epidemic, such as the 3000 of New York University. Chinese students can study at NYU Shanghai.

　　Inspired by some American colleges and universities that allow students to choose to take classes at their Chinese partner colleges, Shi Yucheng and his classmates wrote to the school to secure the opportunity to start and end classes at Beijing Normal University, a partner college of the College of William and Mary in the spring semester of 2021. "Of the courses I have chosen now, 3 courses are online courses of the College of William and Mary, including research courses related to environmental sciences, psychology courses, etc.; 4 courses are offline courses of Beijing Normal University, including film appreciation , Western political thought history, etc." Regarding the phenomenon that the course span is large, Shi Yucheng believes that in China, it is necessary to learn "courses that cannot be learned abroad."

　　Gan Yiyi, who studied at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, enrolled in early March this year and chose to take online courses at Southwest University, a partner institution of the University of Auckland. "The reason why I chose the offline environment at the time was to have a good learning atmosphere. Facts have proved that my choice is correct." Gan Yiyi believes that compared to studying in New Zealand, remote online courses test students' self-consciousness. Sex. What she saw was that the students around her worked hard, and they put study first. In her view, the knowledge learned has not changed, but the method of acquisition is different. "Under the background of the epidemic, what we can do is to change our mindset and learn more independently."

　　What makes Gan Yiyi feel gratified is that Southwest University provides students with a 24-hour self-study classroom, which is "suitable for students who hand in homework in a hurry". If any student has special learning needs, he can also make an appointment in advance to use the self-study classroom alone. . "It's worth mentioning that the offline environment allows students to stay lonely even when they study online. Not only can they enjoy the days of studying with their classmates, they can even make like-minded friends." Gan Yiyi said.

　　"Study abroad" as an alternative

　　Under the epidemic situation, "study abroad in the cloud" has become an effective way for Chinese students to continue studying abroad, but some disadvantages of online courses also exist objectively. Several international students interviewed by reporters are looking forward to "returning to campus as soon as possible." In their view, studying abroad is not only about acquiring knowledge, but also including cross-cultural experience and broadening horizons, which is difficult to achieve in online teaching.

　　In Zhou Yuyan’s view, online classes have the advantages of being able to watch the recording and broadcasting, but the interaction between teachers and students is not convenient, and communication is not smooth during group discussions, especially group work. Due to time difference and personal time arrangement, sometimes members may be absent or absent. Questions such as the inability to unify the time point of the collective discussion. "Phenomena such as this increase unnecessary time consumption and reduce learning efficiency." Zhou Yuyan said.

　　There was one class, Zhou Yuyan was very impressed. This class aims to cultivate students' ability to plan and prepare on-site activities. According to the original teaching goals, the group will show a complete offline activity process. Due to the epidemic, it can only become an online activity. "The course is very interesting, but limited by the way of online presentation, it is relatively difficult to be creative." Zhou Yuyan said.

　　Under the pressure of the epidemic, many foreign colleges and universities have introduced measures to ensure that the learning of Chinese students who are unable to study at their colleges due to the epidemic can continue. These measures have also affected the long-term plans for international students in various countries in the future.

　　On December 17, 2020, the launching ceremony of the "New Zealand Global Education Bridging Course" sponsored by the New Zealand Education International Promotion Agency and co-organized by the Northern University Federation in the United Kingdom was held in Beijing. According to the reporter’s understanding, this cooperation is provided by the Northern University Federation in China’s more than 30 learning centers. Specifically, one of the learning centers successfully passed a one-year undergraduate preparatory course, international freshman course or master’s degree. Students in the preparatory course, except for special subjects, can obtain admission to New Zealand universities and can go to New Zealand at a suitable time to continue their undergraduate freshman, sophomore or graduate first year study abroad career.

　　New Zealand Minister of Education Chris Shipkins said: "This flexible and innovative initiative has given students around the world more choices in how and when to obtain a New Zealand education."

　　It's not just New Zealand that is making changes. Many foreign colleges and universities in China have begun to set up learning centers in China to provide Chinese students with learning space, school services, and other support.

　　What kind of long-term impact these new policies will have on the field of studying abroad and whether it will change the way of studying abroad is still unknown, but it is a fact that the short-term effects are beginning to show