One month into the new semester, international newcomers at Tsinghua are expressing concerns over online learning.
Last year, Tsinghua welcomed students from over 130 countries, marking itself as one of the most diverse universities in China. However, this year, many of the schools’ courses have been held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in unusual melded classrooms. Although international first-year students had prepared for that, some are expressing their distress about technological glitches, time differences and other challenges.
A hybrid class at Tsinghua University with Professor Lee Miller. Credit: Jamille Tran
The first set of challenges is technical problems that repeatedly occurred during online classes. Not all students understand the etiquette of using video conferencing platforms such as Zoom or Tencent’s VooV.
“They often forget to mute themselves, which becomes frustrating at times,” said David Bartle, a first-year U.S. graduate student at Tsinghua.
Other problems reported by students include local internet instability and distorted sounds that are disruptive to online lectures.
The different time zones also make it hard for learners to follow class schedules. If a student is in the U.S., with a 13-hour time difference to China, he has to skip classes that occur during nighttime in China and watch replays.
“There’s a looming feeling that I’m missing out on something important,” Bartle said.
Fortunately, educational interactions are still taking place in various new forms. Bartle pointed out his new experience in using instant messaging apps like WeChat to communicate with professors and classmates in China, a practice which is not well-known in U.S. classes.
In fact, there were more interactions during online courses, which “resulted in better student work and higher overall grades,” said Professor Rick Dunham from Tsinghua University’s School of Journalism and Communication.
He explained that the faculty had been trying to offer one-on-one conversations with students via remote teleconference or WeChat since the spring semester earlier this year. Professors also had to adapt to distance learning by encouraging discussions in class and becoming more aggressive in calling on students from different countries during classes.
“There is more responsibility on the professor to make things happen,” Dunham acknowledged.
The professor said students face additional challenges this semester.
“Students have not spent any time on campus and had no time to adjust to our program before beginning their courses online,” he said.
Quiene Yeehao, a Malaysian student attending online classes at Tsinghua University, said she could not balance online learning and her offline work-life routine. She is considering taking a gap year until things return to normal.
Although Dunham cautioned that there might be steeper learning curves for some students, the exact impact of online learning on new students remains unclear as the semester progresses. People are still anticipating a better scenario when everyone goes to campus after China reopens its borders.
“Before the COVID-19 pandemic, I took in-person learning for granted, but now I have come to appreciate it so much more,” said Bartle.