II. Enhancing digital literacy to advance the high-quality development of distance education
Teachers are a pivotal factor in the successful integration of digital technology in education. Distance education represents a paradigm shift from traditional higher education. In conventional university settings, many key and challenging aspects of knowledge must be elucidated by teachers in class in the classroom. For the effective implementation of distance education, teachers must first achieve proficiency in utilizing distance education platforms. Secondly, they should be able to design corresponding teaching courseware based on the characteristics of the instructional contents, presenting both theoretical explanations of knowledge points and practical demonstrations through the distance education platform.
Teachers should analyze the interactive records left online in order to ascertain their strengths and weaknesses in the teaching process, as well as to gauge students' comprehension and areas for improvement based on educational principles. This analysis will help enhance instructional designs, enrich teaching methodologies, and foster the ability to seamlessly switch between online and offline blended teaching methods. To effectively navigate this role transformation, it is imperative for teachers to bolster their digital literacy skills.
Teacher's digital literacy encompasses five key dimensions: digital awareness, digital technology knowledge and skills, digital application, digital social responsibility, and professional development. Teachers who possess robust digital literacy skills can transform resources from various platforms into instructional materials, effectively connecting contemporary topics of interest to students with teaching contents. This approach helps to foster highly interactive and meaningful relationship with students, ultimately contributing to the improvement of teaching quality.
III. Optimising instructional design to advance the high-quality development of online education
In the post-pandemic era, what teachers of distance education can do and what they need to do is to utilise sophisticated instructional designs to effectively activate the students' learning motivation and enthusiasm. Numerous studies have demonstrated that student-centered instructional design can ignite their learning motivation, amplify their participation in teaching, foster their critical thinking abilities, and consequently enrich their understanding of the learning materials. Therefore, the most crucial skill for teachers of distance education is the ability to design distance education and teaching, followed by their proficiency in delivering knowledge through distance education. In adopting a student-centered instructional design, the focus must be on the students themselves, taking into account several pivotal questions: What will the students learn? What methods will be employed to facilitate this learning? How will the learning be assessed?
1. Enhancing instructional contents design. In the post-pandemic era, teachers involved in distance education should cultivate a user-centric and platform-oriented mindset. They should also re-engineer instructional content of courses by following the laws of "digital technology + education". The design of learning materials should be crafted to prioritize convenience for students, facilitating their rapid acquisition of valuable knowledge within the shortest possible time. The principles guiding the design of learning content should adhere to the "less, focused, practical" principle. The "less" calls for the elimination of unnecessary or redundant knowledge from the curriculum system; the "focused" entails meticulous construction and refinement of learning contents based on the fundamental structures and principles. This involves a departure from the conventional subject-based norms and systems, with an emphasis on key points, the elucidation of challenging points, and the provision of diverse forms of instructional designs at multiple levels for the key and challenging aspects of knowledge; the "practical" indicates a strong alignment between the content chosen and the students' vocational objectives, job positions, and career plans.
Designing instructional contents for distance education should effectively leverage digital learning tools and methods, restructure the course teaching system, and fully utilise multiple forms of media to present teaching contents. The use of animation, simulation, video, audio, and other multimedia forms can be employed to integrate learning contents with real-world issues and scenarios. Both online and offline instructional content is scientifically designed with a focus on building online teaching resources. Teaching tasks are broken down into card-sized units and distributed in various learning modules, which enables students to engage in fragmented learning at any time and place. This pedagogical strategy promotes a deep integration of digital technology with classroom teaching, enhancing the appeal of learning contents.
2. Employing gamified learning scenarios. Scenario-based designs can ignite and captivate students' active learning, helping them to understand the learning contents. Gamified scenarios are particularly effective at fostering innovation, creativity, and learning engagement. In the distance education, schools and teachers rely less on "supervision" and "push" for student learning. Instead, they employ strategies of "attraction" and "inducement." Teachers should leverage the advantages of digital technology to create gamified learning scenarios and introduce real-world problems that require solutions. The allure and "entertainment" of instruction emerge as significant attributes of distance education. "Entertainment" will pervade the entire process of class teaching in distance education, manifesting in the diversity of content, the level of interactivity during the instruction, the novelty of teaching equipment, and the ease of educational landscape, the integration of teaching and "entertainment" has become an undeniable reality. In this era, teachers should not regard "entertainment" and "fun" as detrimental rivals of education; rather, they should consciously amalgamate productivity and "entertainment," forging a novel educational teaching system and model.
3. Strengthening learning activity design. Learning activities constitute the core of distance education teaching, and the organization of distance education learning activities serves as a central facet of instructional design. Teachers need to tailor activities based on varying teaching objectives of the subjects, characteristics of the content, and traits of the students. In line with the learning activity theories, teachers should design and optimise online and offline learning activities, establish learning communities, and facilitate diverse forms of learning engagement. When designing learning activities, teachers should prioritize student engagement, emphasizing collective participation within the virtual learning community, with the teachers themselves being actively involved throughout the process. Considering limitations such as time, energy, knowledge, and technological proficiency among the students, the design should focus on the interactive relationships during the learning process in instructional design. Attention should be paid to achieving real learning through web-based facilitation, with a comprehensive approach informed by a blended teaching model. This can involve pre-class preparation, online and offline teaching, and post-class review, forming a three-step process for an organised activity. More specifically, pre-class online preparation for the class could be followed by recorded or live online instruction during class, allowing students to engage in autonomous fragmented learning. Offline instruction might involve intensive lectures, practice sessions, Q&A, and discussions. Post-class forums can encourage interaction, ensuring seamless integration and coordination of pre-class, in-class, and post-class activities. This holistic approach bridges online and offline aspects, ensuring the achievement of teaching objectives. In designing learning activities, teachers should skillfully employ digital technology to conduct intelligent and precise analysis and to adjust the design of online and offline learning activities based on students' cognitive, emotional, and social behaviours.
4. Enhancing interaction design. At the heart of education lies the soulful exchange between individuals and a spiritual connection between minds. Frequent and high-quality interactions among students and between students and teachers are the cornerstone of effective learning outcomes in distance education. They are also crucial for initiating and sustaining learning activities. In the post-pandemic era, teachers should prioritize establishing consistent interactions among students, between students and learning contents, and between students and teachers. they should encourage the students to engage in group and collaborative learning. Interactions should come in various forms, including synchronous and asynchronous methods, such as online discussions (comprising both teacher-student and student-student interactions), group learning, collaborative learning, and interactions of hypertext links. To adapt to the shifting demographic landscape, characterized by a younger student population, educators should also consider the application of social interaction tools, such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and more, to ensure effective instructional outcomes.
5. Optimising learning assessment design. Assessment functions as the "conductor's baton" guiding students' learning. In distance education, teachers need to reshape the design of learning assessments to effectively wield this "baton". When crafting assessments, teachers should emphasize evaluating students' abilities and explore diverse assessment methods. This entails reducing the reliance on traditional examinations, modifying exam forms, and enhancing process-oriented assessments. Taking into account the learning characteristics of distance education, assessments should incorporate aspects such as students' engagement, completion rates, initiative, and self-regulation. It's imperative to enable the students to know well their learning objectives and assessment criteria. While designing learning assessments, they following should be taken into account: