Liu Jian-gang
College of Foreign Languages, Zhejiang
University of Technology, 310014, Hangzho, China
Abstract: In this paper, the author makes a
diagnostic study of online education, popularly known as distance education, in
terms of its teaching materials, tutorials, student enthusiasm, learning and assignment
tasks and so on. It is desired that the paper would provide some positive
suggestions to the enterprise of online education.
Key words: coursebooks; learner-friendly; stereotyped; student
enthusiasm maintenance
The advent of the Internet has brought about a
revolutionary storm in the field of education. If we take a look at the short
history of its development, we may have a better picture of how online
education evolved into a completely new mode of education.
1.1
Distance and online education in foreign countries
Generally speaking, its development has undergone the
following four stages(Liu).
Prior to the 1950's, distance learning, which was based on the printer, radio
receiver and TV set, featured a one-way transmission from teachers to students,
enabling very limited communication between teachers and students but failing
to implement inter-student communication. It was a time-dependent technology, as
the students could only listen to the radio or teleview the programs at
pre-scheduled times without any means of sending their feedbacks to the
teacher.
Then came the second generation of distance learning
in the 1960's, when, with the emergence of the video recorder and cable TV
networks, recorded teaching materials were available for the students to review
at their will. However, compared with the first generation distance learning technology,
the essential feature remained the same: inter-student and student-teacher
communication was still lacking.
Since the 1980's, PCs began to poke a finger in the
field of distance learning, which featured higher throughput, enabling
inter-student and teacher-student communication via the email, BBS and
electronic bulletin board. Computer aided teaching, computer simulation and electronic
resources accessible via such media as the disk, CD-ROM and the Internet
further exhibited the features of third generation technology.
The fourth generation of distance learning technology,
which is mainly computer-based, enhances inter-student and teacher-student
communication, significantly increases the quantity, diversifies the types of
information communicable and, the most significant of all, shortens the
communication cycle, alleviating time/space-dependence in distance learning and
making it possible to set up virtual universities through the Internet.
1.2
Distance and online education In China
In China, however, the picture is a little different,
as there have been actually three, instead of four, generations of distance
education: (1) Correspondence-based education, which may be generally counted
as the first generation of distance education; (2) Radio/TV-based education
since the 1980's, which has benefited a lot of people who had been denied the
chances of going to college or university for various personal and social
reasons; and (3) the now Internet-based online education taking off since the 1990's.
Roughly speaking, there are presently three forms of
education running abreast: classroom education or campus education, distance
education and online education (Gu). When discussing the advantages and
disadvantages of online education, as compared to those of the traditional
classroom education, Professor Gu argues that distance education in China has
long been regarded as being peripheral in status and second-class in quality,
but particularly appealing and appropriate to those who are denied the
opportunity to enter and stay in the university classroom to materialize their
dreams, given the fact that China is geographically immense, demographically
large and economically polarized. But it is an undeniable fact that the
Internet-based online educational technology is gradually replacing the already-existing
distance education, say radio and TV universities, significantly reinforcing
the teach-yourself educational programme and bringing about dramatic changes to
the traditional educational systems. As “in a society where the need for
education is constantly increasing, the problem arises of access to knowledge
for those who cannot be reached in the traditional way. Here the potential of
new Internet–related technologies come into play in offering such groups of
people new opportunities for learning and achieving their aspirations.”
(Martino, 1999:6) Shortly after China launched its first batch of online
educational institutions in 1994, a lot more universities have set up their
online educational centres, the result of which is that online educational
programmes are mushrooming up across the country, as is the case elsewhere in
the world.
1.3 The
Beiwaionline
Indeed, Internet-based online educational programmes
sent people excited, encouraged and committed. Many off-campus people see such
programmes as opportunities to acquire a long-dreamed-of college or university
degree or, in most cases, to have themselves recharged in fields of knowledge
related to their jobs. The Beiwaionline, for example, grasped this opportunity
and emerged as one of the first few universities that run their online language
educational programmes across the country. The number of student intake was, we
believe, out of the expectation of the authority people of Beiwaionline
headquarters. As a lot of people tentatively called or visited the website,
hopefully came and consulted, then made up their minds, started filling in the
forms, took the entrance tests and became Beiwaionline learners.
On the part of the Beiwaionline, to better carry out
its teaching policies, it recruited and trained teachers from different areas
where such learning centres were operating or were to operate. Those teachers
became the pioneers of this online language teaching enterprise, so to speak.
But after the very beginning days and months of excitement, both students and
teachers find that there is something worth addressing in this entirely new
mode of education. I myself have been tutoring the spring class of 2002 of the
Zhejiang University of Technology learning centre for three terms and have come
to some firsthand feelings about this programme. In the following parts, I am
going to touch on some of the issues that I have come across and thought a lot
about in the course of my tutoring.
2.
Present-day
situation
2.1
Online educational programmes
First, let us look at what the Internet-based online
educational programmes can offer us. As Martino (1999:3) argues, one of the
main features of the Internet is its openness, its lack of structure or
control. This characteristic is by itself a guarantee of respect for individual
difference. Through the Internet, it is possible to extend learning and
teaching activities beyond the traditional venue of education: the classroom.
Another dimension that Internet technologies can provide is the
one-teacher-to-many-students interaction. Network computers are also becoming a
significant environment for the acquisition of knowledge in its dynamic aspect,
as transferable skills. With regard to language learning, virtual reality has
the potential to transport groups of learners to the country of the language
they are learning and give them the sense of “wandering through the streets” of
a foreign city and “talking to the people” they meet in the target language.
Although the Internet cannot replace first-hand experience, it may sometimes be
much more convenient and accessible in terms of time and money, as it is a bank
of resources available for all people at all times at just a keystroke or a
mouseclick: The students can access their learning website through the Internet
and get whatever they need by just a click at the mouse.
Another chief channel of online educational facilities
is the email, which is rapid, permitting responses within the same day, a few
hours or even just within a few seconds. At the same time, it allows time for
thought and deep reflection. While keeping many of the positive aspects of
face-to-face communication, “there were not the immediate interruptions or
interjections to our thinking processes and we could take time to respond
effectively”. Moreover, “the email allows for an accurate and permanent record,
one that can be reflected upon again and again.” (Russell & Cohen,
1997:143, cited from Martino, 1999:6) Thanks to the email, the tutor can have
convenient and prompt communications with the students, offering them necessary
help and counsel whenever needed and available.
2.2
Online educational coursebooks
The Beiwaionline has compiled and published the first
series of books of its kind in the field of online language teaching and
learning in China. The books were hailed as being novel in concept, integrated
in language skills, up-to-date in knowledge system. The most important
breakthrough of these coursebooks is that they have implemented new concepts of
coursebook compilation as advocated by Derek Rowntree in his “A New Way with Words
in Distance Education”, which, although assumingly dealing with the word, also
discusses how coursebooks for the two entirely different types of learners,
classroom learners and online learners, should be compiled. He compares
traditional textbooks and distance learning workbooks, as follows:
Traditional textbooks |
Distance learning workbooks |
|
Written to satisfy author (and peers) |
Written to satisfy learners |
|
Reflect only the author's ideas of what is needed |
Piloted on typical learners and altered in light of
their reactions |
|
Focuses on author's experience |
Draws in learner's experience |
|
Aims to supplement a teacher |
Aims to teach |
|
Assumes a teacher will make content relevant for
learners |
Makes content relevant for learner, e.g. through
work-related activities |
|
Prime use: revision/reference |
Prime use: initial learning |
|
Seeks widest possible user audience |
Written for learners on a particular course |
|
Emphasises subject-matter content |
Emphasises learning objectives |
|
Focuses on knowledge and recall |
Focuses on understanding and application |
|
Structured according to logic of subject-matter |
Structured according to psychological needs of
learners |
|
Assumes learner motivation |
Works to motivate learner |
|
Ignores likely learner errors |
Confronts/explores likely learner errors |
|
Takes study skills for granted |
Advises on ways of using the text |
|
If it asks questions, gives little or no feedback |
Gives full feedback (comments as well as answers) |
|
Gives learner no practice |
Gives ample, progressive practice |
|
Encourages passive reading |
Encourages active reading |
|
No opportunity for reader to judge own progress |
Frequent self-checking through questions, exercises
and "activities" |
|
Overall effect: unwelcoming |
Overall effect: user-friendly |
As can be seen from this table, the design concepts of
a coursebook for traditional learners and that for distance learners are
greatly different. Whereas the former is knowledge concentrated, laying stress
on the importance of knowledge imparting, and emphasizes the author and teacher’s
roles, the latter is learning methods oriented, and gives priority to the
learner, taking his or her interest and needs into prior consideration. Judging
by this criterion, the coursebooks of the Beiwaionline are indeed a great
success. So far as the six books I’ve used in the first three terms are
concerned, they are mostly learner-friendly. As one of the most obvious
differences from traditional language teaching textbooks, Beiwaionline
coursebooks all have the training of language skills integrated into one
package. The students can combine their different language learning tasks into
one effort, or in other words, they can divide their entire learning process
into different parts: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and possibly,
translating, all done in one book. The students thus do not have to shuttle
between books in order to alternate between different tasks in their learning
process. All they have to do is open just one book and do all the different
tasks as required or instructed. This is a good demonstration of
learner-friendliness.
Another feature is that the contents of each unit have
shifted from the traditional knowledge orientation to the now more practical
ability orientation. So instead of giving the students a lot of knowledge as do
most textbooks, these books divide each unit into several activities which are
then subdivided into a number of tasks, thus enabling the students to acquire
language abilities through doing rather than reciting or memorizing alone. This
breakthrough in the concept of coursebook compilation makes it easier for
online students to make up for what is lacking in their efforts of learning as
against those of classroom learners, who have teachers and peers around for
language ability drilling, which is a must for language learners.
Let us take Unit 3, Food, in English
at Work for example. At the very beginning of the unit proper, as in
every other unit in every other coursebook, is given the objectives that the learners
are supposed to achieve after studying this unit. They should be able to
describe/ask about food and food values; express attitudes to/taste of food;
give dietary advice; read/talk about changes in eating habits; follow/write
recipes and follow/describe a process. As is described in Rountree’s table,
this objectives part is to “emphasize learning objectives” and to “focus on
understanding and application”. With these objectives in mind, they will, in
the process of learning, bear a clear picture of what they should focus on and
must learn to do. The unit then begins its process of imparting knowledge and
training ability through its stereotyped structure in 6 activities each
containing 3 to 8 tasks.
For example, Activity 1, Food and Food Values,
is divided into five tasks to help the learner familiarize himself with some
basic knowledge and vocabulary concerning different kinds of food: finding out
about nutrients, sources and functions/values of nutrients, useful expressions
to describe nutrients, foods as countable and uncountable nouns, talking about
unfamiliar foods. The learners do not only silently learn the knowledge and
vocabulary, but they are also supposed to internalize this knowledge and
vocabulary through doing and consulting Professor Guide in the feedbacks.
Equipped with this knowledge, they then go on to Activity 2, Advice about
Eating Habits, where they can do some listening, answer choosing,
reading and writing through tasks like what’s the topic, Paul’s favorites and
Ms. Foss’s advice, describing your own attitude to food, expressing likes,
dislikes and lack of familiarity, describing a friend’s taste in food, working
with unfamiliar vocabulary, preparing dishes to appeal to children, giving and
responding to advice, and recommending dishes and describing them.
Activity 3, Reading about Eating Habits,
deepens the students’ knowledge and strengthens their vocabulary building
through completing these tasks: changes in our eating habits and diet,
interpreting the title, locating paragraphs, locating information in
paragraphs, reading to identify changes described, and working with unfamiliar
vocabulary. Activity 4, Cooking and Recipes, is another part that
deals with knowledge related to food. Through various tasks, it enables the
learners to be better equipped with the necessary vocabulary and knowledge for
cooking. Activity 5, Describing Processes, is kind of process
inclusive. It tells the learner how to describe the cooking process. This can
be seen as a practice-related activity, where the learners can learn not only
knowledge, but also grammar: how subjects and verbs are used in describing a
cooking process. Activity 6, Writing Process Description, can be
seen as an extension of Activity 5 and a summary of this unit. The merit of
structuring an average unit is this way is that the learners can acquire
knowledge and develop their language skills through “ample, progressive
practice” by “drawing upon his own experience” and “frequently checking the
feedbacks” (Rountree).
2.3
Things overdone and things lacking
2.3.1
Repetition of content
But as the saying goes, every bean has its black, there are also demerits about the Beiwaionline coursebooks, one of which is that the format of the units is too stereotyped, and there are too many repeated activities which the students may soon grow fed up with, although Confucius advocated the importance of reviewing one’s lessons in a repeated way. And that is where the shoe pinches. Of those 48 units spread into six books, namely English in Daily Life, English at Leisure, English at Work, English in Current Affairs, English for Studying, and Cross-Cultural Communication, some activities and language functions
are unnecessarily repeated. For example, in Unit 2, The
Home, in English in Daily Life, we have two functions, “giving
instructions” and “describing things” (presumably things in the home). Again in
Unit 4, Home Improvement, in English as Leisure, we
have similar functions of “giving/following instructions” and “describing
furniture”.
Another example, in Unit 3, Eating and Drinking,
in English at Leisure, we have “describing foods” and “instructing/giving
advice”. But in Unit 3, Food (which is pretty close to Eating
and Drinking, I suppose), in English at Work, we also have “describing
foods/dishes” and “giving advice”.
In Unit 6, Health, in English in
Daily Life, the students learn the skills of “describing symptoms”.
Again, they also learn similar skills of “describing symptoms” in Unit 5, Healthcare,
in English at Work. We have reason to believe that those language
functions are, partly, poorly arranged in those six books. As when they have to
learn very similar skills in two different books, under similar topics, the
students find it pretty hard not to complain. We hope that improvements will be
made when the coursebooks are revised.
2.3.2
Lack of listed vocabulary and sample texts
Contrary to over-done repetitions, there are things
lacking. One is that there is no systematic ordering of vocabulary in each
unit. This may sound a little bit unreasonable, but it may also be equally
convincing. In most traditional language textbooks, there is a list of words or
expressions for language learners, especially those who teach themselves most
of the time. As the students are all learning most of the time by themselves,
they need to learn some necessary words in each unit so that they may feel that
they can learn something concrete. Words are words. My understanding is that
vocabulary is the amount of money that one has in his pocket at his disposal.
The more the better. But the Beiwaionline coursebooks are not very ideal in
this respect, although it may be said that that is a concept that they are
advocating: to dissolve the words into the texts and contexts so the students
may learn them as they observe how they are used. True, but the students still
need to have something solid. That is what most of my students keep saying to
me.
Another thing. The students also hope to have, in each
unit, at least one or two sample texts in which they can learn some language
points or examples of how what they learn can be used or simply learn from such
excellent texts, in addition to so many ability-oriented activities. They are
doing a lot of activities, but they are also crying out for some good texts to
study, if not to recite. Language is something that we need to copy from unless
we are immersed in a natural language environment, which is, unfortunately, not
the case for most of the online students. What we do have in most of the units
are short passages at best, some of which may sound pretty up-to-date, but far
from being classic. That proves to be very unconvincing when the students ask
why there are not good sample texts as a language textbook normally does and as
a language learner expects.
2.3.3 Too
much haste
Rate of progress is another issue that keeps bothering
both the students and the tutors, if not the Beiwaionline headquarters people.
We have found, during our tutorials, that most students cannot manage to finish
those two units in two weeks as expected. I checked my students’ coursebooks
each time they attended my tutorial and found only less than 20% of them had
finished the required learning tasks. About 50% of them could only finish half.
The rest came to tutorials blank-paged, by which I mean their books were not
marked at all. They admitted not having read the units or having done the
tasks. The explanation they gave me was that they were too busy to complete all
the tasks, caught between work, family and life matters. Although I tried my
best to convince them of the possibility, importance and necessity to finish
their required learning tasks in time, they just couldn’t manage it. Then what
is the outcome of this speediness? On the surface it seems that they have
finished a certain number of courses, and passed the exams, in a certain period
of time. But how did they finish those courses? And what have they learned from
them? Have they really learned what they should as expected by the coursebook
designers? In the long run, can they really be as qualified as they are
supposed to be at the end of their BA programme? I doubt it. It may turn out a
little bit ironic, as the Beiwaionline architects have repeatedly emphasized
the importance of process rather than that of outcome alone. Those questions
are not an airy-fairy fuss; they represent a worrying fact. Hopefully, they
will not turn into a reality of “Too much haste makes less speed” years later.
2.3.4
Stereotyped assignments
One of the most prominent learning tasks, and indeed
an indispensable part of the learning process, is the written assignments that
the students have to turn in for their tutors to grade. Grades are given and
recorded, which constitute part of the students’ terminal marks and are related
to the students’ academic records. That sounds very scientific and logic. But
after grading students’ assignments for three terms, I have the feeling that
such assignments are too stereotyped, similar in demand and prone to
plagiarism. During the past one and half years, I have come across exercises that
looked very similar with only a few differences. I felt pretty sure they were
plagiarisms, but I also found it pretty hard to produce hard-proof against such
suspicions. Suspicions are suspicions. Some students complained about such
assignments, saying they could hand in exercises even without reading the
relevant units. That may cast some light on what we should do: think of varied
ways of monitoring and training the students on what they learn from their
learning tasks. Make it more relevant to the coursebook content and entail
their efforts to finish the required units from beginning to end. In this way, I
believe, the students will find it hard to churn out a piece of exercise
without reading the units at all.
2.3.5
Student enthusiasm maintenance
Last but certainly not the
least-important thing: tutorial attendance and student enthusiasm, the
so-called sustained student initiative, maintenance. It is true that most of
the online learning effort is home based, similar to that of teach-yourself
programmes. The Beiwaionline has been running very good tutoring and supporting
programmes, with the aim of helping the students make the best of the online
educational resources, human, electronic and environmental. But the students
are turning a cold shoulder to all these efforts. They were very enthusiastic
in the beginning, started cutting classes in the middle, and frequently played truant
in the end, if not dropped out altogether. That seems to be a tri-step
development for most learners. They may be too busy, or they may be too distant
from the tutorial centre. But that does not seem to be convincing enough. Some students
may not come even though they are pretty close to the tutorial centre. And what
may be a bit discouraging is the fact that those who attend tutorials are not
as active in class as they were in the beginning. I asked why they did not
participate as much in tutorial activities as expected. They told me that they
were now more familiar with each other and so had little to talk about. Some
said that they found they could finish the tasks and pass the exams without
attending tutorials, so they preferred the easy way of staying at home, without
bothering about tutorials. That poses a question for us tutors, at least for
me: how to maintain the students’ enthusiasm. I hope to learn from other
colleague about their skills of keeping the students on track, which is one of
the reasons of my coming here and talking with you all.
Not only tutorials. We have to
admit that students are pretty slack in attending other activities as well.
About two months ago, the Beiwaionline headquarters launched the online
tutorial programmes. The purpose was to draw the students to the Internet, and
indeed to the book, actually, to help them review their lessons covered last
term. But what is the present situation. If we click on http://bbs2.beiwaionline.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi,
we may find that actually very few students visit this website, even fewer post
their opinions here. For example, from July 7 up to August 4, 149 replies were
made to the posts of the webmasters of the English in Daily Life/English at
Leisure learning group; 101 replies (with less than ten learners responding) in
the English at Work/English in Current Affairs learning group and 25 replies in
the Cross-Cultural Communication learning group. Those statistics, together
with the previous issue of tutorial absence, set me thinking: how to help the
students grow and maintain sustained enthusiasm for their learning tasks till
they are really qualified for the degree they are to get. It is really
something we need to think about. Are we not doing enough or are the students
not doing as much as they are supposed to?
3.
Conclusion
To sum up, online education is
a new mode of education, and it is particularly advantageous when people are
plunged in an emergency situation like the SARS outbreak last spring and summer
in China. It has its advantages, but it also has its disadvantages. What we
have to do is to make the best of the former and try to avoid the latter. Only
in this way can we make a success and turn out qualified students.
References:
Gu, Yueguo. English in Daily Life, English at Leisure, English at
Work, English in Current Affairs, English for Studying, and Cross-Cultural
Communication. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press, 1999.
Gu, Yueguo. From Classroom to Distance to Internet, available at http://www.beiwaionline.com/newsletter2/zhuanjialuntan.htm.
Gu, Yueguo. Towards a teacher’s Multiple Roles in College English
Teaching.
Liu, Ji'an. Advanced Distance Learning, China Education
Daily, available at http://www.edu.cn/20010830/200786.shtml.
Liu, Jian-gang. Online Education: Change of Teaching Concept and
Teacher’s Role, and Other Issues, Beiwaionline Newsletter, Issue 4, 2002.
Martino, Emilia Di. The Contribution of New Technologies to Language Learning
and Teaching. TESOL in Context Volume 9 No. 2 December, 1999.
Rowntree, Derek. “A new way with words in distance education”, available at http://www.hebiat.edu.cn/jjzx/met/journal/articledigest4/foreignarticles/a_new_way_with_words_in_distance_education.htm.