Research on the online open course of ancient literature in the “Internet + ” era

Abstract

This paper firstly introduced the traditional classroom teaching mode, proposed the massive open online courses (MOOC) online teaching platform, and combined it with the traditional teaching mode for the teaching of ancient literature course. In case study, 200 students from Ningbo University of Finance and Economics were divided into a control class and an experimental class. The control class was taught by the traditional mode, while the experimental class was taught by the new mode combining traditional with MOOC. The final results showed that there was little difference in the grade distributions of the control and experimental classes before the respective instruction (the $P$ value greater than 0.05); after the instruction the students’ ancient literature grades in the experimental class improved significantly (the $P$ value less than 0.05), while the control class almost had no change (the $P$ value greater than 0.05). The gap in the ancient literature grade between the control and experimental class students was significant (the $P$ value less than 0.05).

Keywords

Ancient literature teaching mode massive open online courses Internet

1. Introduction

Education is an essential undertaking for the development of the country and nation, bearing the responsibility of passing on knowledge and cultivating outstanding talents. The excellence of education will greatly affect the development potential of a country. In the education business, there are various directions for talent cultivation. This paper mainly focuses on ancient Chinese literature education [1]. Ancient Chinese literature is the excellent traditional cultural content of China, and it is also the main curriculum item for the language and literature major in universities. An excellent ancient literature course can enable students to grasp the relevant knowledge better so as to achieve the inheritance and development of excellent traditional culture, and one of the characteristics of an excellent course is that it is attractive to attract students and make them focus on the knowledge taught in the course [2]. The unchanging teaching mode of the course will gradually lose its attractiveness to students, so the teaching mode needs to be reformed and innovated in order to ensure the attractiveness and effectiveness of the course to students [3]. The emergence of the Internet has made the exchange of information more and more convenient and provided a way for the innovation of the course teaching mode - the online open course of ancient literature. Taking advantage of the convenience of the Internet, teachers make the lecture content of the ancient literature course in the form of videos, PPTs, documents, etc. and upload them to the relevant teaching websites so that students can study the course content according to their interests and review the important knowledge points in the process of study. The Internet-based teaching mode is free from time and space constraints and enhances students’ interest in learning. Mohamad et al. [4] studied the factors that can motivate teachers to use online teaching tools and found that the factors that influence teachers’ motivation to use online teaching tools included knowledge, cognition, and skills. Pan et al. [5] evaluated the performance of online teaching with quantile regression analysis and neural networks and found that the two methods were effective. Mercado-Varela et al. [6] explored the role of tutors in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) with questionnaires and found that collaborative construction of knowledge between tutors and students in MOOCs was the most widespread strategy to promote learning connections. This paper briefly introduced the traditional teaching model of the ancient literature course and the new teaching mode combined with the Internet MOOC and carried out an analysis with 200 students at Ningbo University of Finance and Economics. The novelty of this paper lies in the use of an online teaching platform to improve the traditional teaching mode, thus making up for the shortcomings of the traditional teaching mode for students’ after-class learning and further enhancing students’ independent learning ability. The contribution of this paper is to use MOOC as an online teaching platform to supplement and improve the traditional classroom teaching mode and provide an effective reference for improving students’ performance in the ancient literature course.

2. The open course of ancient literature in the context of the Internet

2.1 Traditional teaching mode

The traditional teaching mode of the ancient literature course is similar to the basic teaching process of other courses, which is generally divided into three stages: preview before class, classroom teaching, and after-school review [7]. In the stage of preview before class, teachers define the scope of the content on textbooks that will be taught in the next class according to the teaching plan, and students do preliminary pre-review according to the scope; in the classroom teaching stage, teachers teach students about ancient literature in the classroom according to the teaching plan [8], and students passively receive knowledge. In the stage of after-school review, teachers assign homework to students to consolidate their knowledge according to their progress in the classroom and explain the assignments in the next round of classroom teaching [9].

The traditional teaching mode is teacher-oriented, and its one-way and one-to-many teaching approaches are efficient in disseminating conventional basic knowledge. In the period when education is just starting and the average knowledge level of the nation is low, the teacher-oriented one-to-many traditional teaching mode is more efficient in the dissemination of basic knowledge [10]. However, because of the teacher-based teaching process in the traditional teaching mode, students usually do not have the opportunity to express their demands for knowledge focus to the teacher and are more likely to receive cramming education. The defects of the traditional teaching mode are as follows. The first defect is limited teaching objectives, i.e., focusing only on the transfer of knowledge and ignoring the cultivation of students’ independent learning ability [11]. The second defect is limited teaching resources, i.e., updating teaching resources is not rapid in the modern information society. The last one is the single and old teaching methods. Although multimedia is also applied, the original document courseware is simply transformed into multimedia courseware, i.e., only the carrier has changed.

2.2 Teaching mode based on the Internet

The traditional teaching mode has been briefly introduced above, and the defects in the traditional teaching mode have also been pointed out: too much emphasis on the main position of teachers, too much emphasis on the one-way transmission of knowledge, and curbing the independent learning ability of students [12]. With the development of society, the country needs more talents who can innovate independently and think independently, so the traditional teaching model can no longer adapt to the current educational needs. The emergence of the Internet and its development have provided new ways for the teaching mode of the ancient literature course. The open Internet makes the information flow huge and quickly updates various teaching resources, and the Internet, as a modern tool, is also quite attractive to students and can guide them to retrieve information resources independently [13].

Figure 1.

An ancient literature course on the MOOC platform.

MOOC is an open teaching course platform based on the Internet. The scope of MOOC courses is almost the same as traditional courses, covering various disciplines and having a complete and progressive course chain. The ancient literature course is also included, as shown in Fig. 1 (from https://www.icourse163.org/course/WHU-500004). MOOC courses can break through the limitations of time and space. Compared with the traditional teaching mode, the MOOC platform is not limited by time and location. Students can repeatedly watch teaching videos and courseware to solve their difficult points, and the rich teaching resources on the platform can also assist students in solving the difficult points independently [14].

Although teaching ancient literature with the MOOC platform can be independent of time and space and guide students to think independently, it also has disadvantages. On the one hand, videos on the MOOC platform were recorded in the past, leading to no interaction between teachers and students. Even if the videos are live, teachers can not fully confirm the students’ learning state, which is not as good as the traditional teaching mode. On the other hand, the MOOC platform cannot constrain students to learn, so students may not stay focused on the teaching resources for a long time when using the platform.

Therefore, the MOOC platform reforms the teaching mode without completely abandoning the traditional teaching mode. The overall framework of the MOOC platform-improved teaching mode is similar to the traditional teaching mode, i.e., it also includes preview before class, classroom teaching, and after-school review, but the difference lies in the inclusion of MOOC teaching in all three stages. First, in the preview before class, teachers will tell students the preview scope according to the teaching plan, provide students with relevant course links on the MOOC platform, and encourage students to search for the data of relevant knowledge points independently. Then, there are online teaching and offline teaching in the classroom teaching stage. Offline teaching is almost the same as the traditional teaching mode. Online teaching uses the live space on the MOOC platform as the online classroom. In online teaching, students are selected to answer questions by calling their names, and the students who are called will be displayed on the live screen simultaneously. In addition, all students can discuss freely on the same screen. In the after-school review, teachers will assign relevant exercises on the MOOC platform, and students can also use the communication software to ask teachers questions; for students who still have energy left, they can expand their learning projects through the recommendation function of the MOOC platform [15].

3. Example analysis

3.1 Subject of analysis

Two hundred students at Ningbo University of Finance and Economics, including 100 male students and 100 female students, were divided into two groups, control classes and experimental classes according to their academic performance. The distribution of scores of the two groups was kept as similar as possible (as verified in the subsequent experimental comparison results). The number of males and females was the same in the two classes. The control class adopted the traditional teaching mode, while the experimental class adopted the traditional $+$ MOOC teaching mode. The teachers involved in teaching ancient literature were ten teachers with more than ten years of experience who were proficient in the traditional teaching mode and familiar with the use of the MOOC platform. Every teacher was responsible for one class.

The students who participated in the experiment were tested before receiving instruction in ancient literature, and the test results showed that every student’s performance in ancient literature was comparable.

3.2 Teaching plan

Traditional teaching mode: ordinary classroom teaching, i.e., the teachers explained the difficult points and knowledge points in the textbook according to their understanding and organized classroom tests; ⟁ the teachers assigned matching homework after class and explained it in the next class.

The traditional $+$ MOOC teaching mode is shown in Fig. 2. The teachers recorded videos of the ancient literature course according to the teaching plan, then uploaded the videos to the MOOC platform, and notified the students to watch the videos on the MOOC platform for pre-review through Tencent QQ, WeChat, and other communication software. The students logged in to the MOOC platform to watch the course videos according to accounts issued by the teachers and then discussed the questions raised by the teachers in the corresponding discussion groups, and the teachers guided the discussion. In the class, the teachers explained the difficult points discussed on the MOOC platform. Students with good grades led students with low grades to form a discussion group to discuss the issues raised by the teachers. The teachers evaluated the results and gave guidance. In the after-school review stage, the teachers assigned relevant homework according to the course knowledge points and encouraged the students to watch relevant videos again on the MOOC platform to consolidate their knowledge; the students expanded their knowledge through the videos recommended by the MOOC platform based on their browsing records. In order to ensure that students can concentrate when using the MOOC platform for independent learning, teachers left corresponding test questions after the corresponding teaching videos on the MOOC platform, and students submitted their answers before the specified time, otherwise they were considered absent from class.

3.3 Teaching effectiveness test

Midterm and final tests were the most intuitive to evaluate students’ learning effectiveness under two teaching modes, but it is difficult to measure students’ learning effectiveness by the two tests alone. Therefore, in addition to the two tests, daily assessments were conducted during the teaching period. The daily assessment included daily homework, classroom interaction, attendance, and classroom tests, and the specific grading methods and weights are shown in Table 1, which also includes the midterm and final tests. The weight of every examination item was jointly formulated by ten experienced teachers.

Table 1
Teaching effectiveness test content

Assessment items	Weight	Scoring method
Daily homework	10%	Grades are given based on the submission and accuracy rates of daily homework. The full score is 100 points.
Classroom interaction	5%	Grades are given based on how actively students interact in the classroom. The full score is 100 points.
Attendance	5%	Grades are given according to students’ attendance rate. The full score is 100 points, one tardy is 80, two tardies are 60, and three tardies are 0.
Classroom test	20%	Grades are determined according to paper scores obtained in the test. The full score is 100 points.
Midterm test	30%
Final test	30%

Figure 2.

The standard teaching method of the new teaching mode combined with MOOC.

3.4 Test results

The performance of students in the ancient literature course before teaching, in the middle of the term, and at the end of the term was measured by paper tests, and the distribution of students in different score bands is shown in Table 2. It was seen from Table 2 that the distribution of students in different score bands in the control class was nearly unchanged, while in the experimental class, the percentage of students in the high score bands gradually increased as the teaching mode progressed, i.e., students in the experimental class performed better in the ancient literature course.

Table 2
Distribution of students in different score bands in the control and experimental classes before and after teaching

Score band	Control class			Experimental classes			$P$ value in the difference between the control and experimental classes
	Before teaching	Mid-term	End of term	Before teaching	Mid-term	End of term	Before teaching	Mid-term	End of term
0–20	1%	1%	0%	1%	0%	0%	0.521	0.063	0.011
21–40	1%	0%	1%	2%	1%	0%	0.535	0.042	0.012
41–60	39%	40%	38%	40%	25%	13%	0.527	0.041	0.012
61–80	40%	39%	41%	39%	39%	42%	0.357	0.054	0.011
81–100	19%	20%	20%	18%	35%	45%	0.547	0.041	0.011

It would be one-sided if the midterm and final test scores before and after teaching were compared only. The purpose of improving the traditional teaching mode with MOOC was to cultivate students’ independent learning ability, and the improvement of ancient literature course performance was only one of the manifestations. So when testing the effect of the new teaching mode in improving students’ independent learning ability, daily performance was also taken into account. In addition to the midterm and final tests, the evaluation results of daily homework, classroom interaction, attendance rate, and classroom tests were also used to measure the improvement of students’ learning ability in the teaching process, and they were given corresponding weights.

Table 3

Comprehensive evaluation results of the control and experimental classes in one semester before and after teaching

Group	Control class			Experimental class			$P$ value in the difference between the control and experimental classes
Time period	One semester before teaching	The teaching semester	$P$ value	One semester before teaching	The teaching semester	$P$ value	One semester before teaching	One semester during teaching
Daily homework	75	76	0.326	74	96	0.011	0.258	0.014
Classroom interaction	73	72	0.256	73	94	0.012	0.347	0.011
Attendance	65	64	0.317	66	95	0.014	0.269	0.013
Classroom test	74	75	0.269	74	94	0.013	0.347	0.011
Midterm test	79	78	0.378	79	96	0.011	0.158	0.011
Final test	81	82	0.287	80	97	0.011	0.316	0.012
Total	77.2	77.4	0.356	76.85	95.75	0.011	0.278	0.011

Table 3 shows the comprehensive evaluation results of the control and experimental classes in the semester before and during teaching with the new mode. Table 3 shows that the overall evaluation of students in the control class was 77.2 in the semester before adopting the new teaching mode and 76.8 in the semester while adopting the new teaching mode; the overall evaluation of students in the control class was 76.85 in the semester before adopting the new teaching mode and 95.75 in the semester while adopting the new teaching mode.

The overall evaluation of the control class was not significantly different from the experimental class in the semester before adopting the new teaching mode, including the daily evaluation and the midterm and final evaluations. However, in the semester while adopting the new teaching mode, the experimental class showed a significantly improved performance in the daily test and the midterm and final tests, but the control class that was taught by the traditional teaching mode showed no significant change in the daily test and the midterm and final tests and a slight reduction in the overall evaluation.

4. Discussion

Ancient literature is an excellent traditional cultural content of China, and it is also the main curriculum item of language and literature majors in universities. An excellent ancient literature course can enable students to better grasp the relevant knowledge so as to achieve the inheritance and development of excellent traditional culture, and an excellent course needs to have enough attraction to students. The traditional teaching mode focuses on the classroom and is teacher-led, and students can only passively receive knowledge in the classroom more often than not. Although this teaching mode is convenient for teachers’ management, it is tedious for students, and it is difficult to mobilize learning enthusiasm effectively and cultivate students’ independent learning ability. With the popularity of the Internet, online teaching platforms have emerged. Compared with the traditional teaching mode, the online teaching mode has the advantage of not being bound by teaching time and location. At the same time, in the online teaching mode, the teacher is no longer the dominant one in teaching but encourages students to find teaching resources in the platform according to the topics proposed by the teacher, which can cultivate students’ independent learning ability. However, compared with the online teaching mode, the traditional teaching mode is not without advantages. The single online teaching mode overemphasizes students’ independent learning ability, but students with good self-discipline in the actual learning process are usually the minority. The online teaching model eliminates the constraints of time and place, but it also eliminates the supervision of students’ learning. In the traditional teaching mode, classroom instruction and after-school assignments can be used to monitor students.

As mentioned above, the traditional teaching mode and online teaching mode each has its own advantages and shortcomings. The traditional teaching mode can play a supervisory role for students but suppresses students’ independent learning ability greatly, while the online teaching mode can cultivate students’ independent learning ability but lacks effective supervision for students. Therefore, this paper combined the traditional teaching mode and the online teaching mode to make up for the shortcomings of each. The MOOC online teaching platform was used to assist students in addition to traditional classroom teaching. In order to verify the effectiveness of the new teaching mode on the ancient literature course for college students, a case analysis of the teaching mode was conducted, and the results are shown above.

In the case study, 200 students in Ningbo University of Finance & Economics were divided into a control class and an experimental class. The control class was taught by the traditional teaching mode, while the experimental class was taught by the new teaching mode. The $P$ value in the difference between the control class and the experimental class was greater than 0.05 before the teaching, i.e., the difference between the ancient literature scores of the two classes was not significant, which was due to the fact that the students in both classes were divided from the 200 students who had not yet received ancient literature education.

After the teaching of ancient literature, the $P$ value in the difference of score distribution in the control class before and after teaching was still greater than 0.05, which meant that there was no significant change in the students’ performance in ancient literature in the control class after the teaching of the traditional teaching mode. The $P$ value in the difference of score distribution in the experimental class before and after teaching was less than 0.05, indicating that the performance of students in the experimental class improved significantly after the teaching of the new teaching mode. The $P$ value in the difference of the score distribution between the experimental and control classes was less than 0.05, i.e., the difference between the two classes was significant. The differences in the ancient literature score between the control class and the experimental class before and after the teaching verified the effectiveness of the new teaching mode for teaching the ancient literature course.

5. Conclusion

This paper briefly introduced the traditional teaching mode of the ancient literature course and the new teaching mode combined with Internet MOOC and then analyzed 200 students at Ningbo University of Finance and Economics. They were equally divided into ten classes. Five classes were control classes, which were taught by the traditional teaching mode, and the other five classes were experimental classes, which were taught by the new teaching mode. The daily performance and the midterm and final test performance were tested in the semester before and during adopting the new teaching mode. (1) Before the teaching mode test, the control class and the experimental class had nearly the same distribution of grades in the ancient literature course; after teaching with different teaching modes, the distribution of grades in the midterm and final tests in the control class remained nearly unchanged, while the students with lower scored in the experimental class tended to have higher scores, indicating an improvement of the performance. (2) In the comprehensive evaluation that included daily, midterm, and final tests, the control class did not change much before and after the teaching mode test but had a slight decrease, while the experimental class had a significant increase after the teaching mode test.

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Research on the online open course of ancient literature in the “Internet + ” era

Abstract

Keywords

1. Introduction

2. The open course of ancient literature in the context of the Internet

2.1 Traditional teaching mode

2.2 Teaching mode based on the Internet

3.1 Subject of analysis

3.2 Teaching plan

3.3 Teaching effectiveness test

Table 1 Teaching effectiveness test content

Table 2 Distribution of students in different score bands in the control and experimental classes before and after teaching

5. Conclusion

References

Table 1
Teaching effectiveness test content

Table 2
Distribution of students in different score bands in the control and experimental classes before and after teaching