Deng Ying and He Liang

Sichuan Normal University

Abstract: The study delves into the online teaching practice that uses “Rain Classroom” for the school-based curriculum of college English and explored whether such a teaching mode can arouse students’ interests in learning, and enhance their learning effect and satisfaction by means of a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews to collect feedback from students of art or physical education majors on the effectiveness of Rain Classroom-based teaching for quantitative and qualitative analysis. The collected data indicates that this teaching mode was greatly accepted by these students, who showed strong interests in learning, but as they were not disciplined much in their studies, their learning effect was not significant. Therefore, this paper concluded therefore that we should integrate such smart teaching modes as Rain Classroom with traditional classroom teaching styles to tap the benefits of blended learning which features the combination of information technology (IT) with foreign language teaching.

Keywords: Rain Classroom, art or physical education majors, college English teaching, blended teaching

Introduction

In recent years, great importance has been attributed to the position and role of college English teaching (CET) in national development strategies, talent training plans, and educational reform programs. At the same time, CET reform has faced continuing challenges regarding the design, contents, and curricula in an effort to adapt courses to social, economic, and cultural development to realize the national strategic goal of cultivating a substantial number of international-oriented talents that not only have an international vision and understand international rules, but also have the competence to participate in international competitions.

In our teaching practice over the years, we have found that art or physical education (APE) majors generally have problems in learning English, such as poor English proficiency and poor capability to acquire the second language, as well as lack of correct methods, clear objectives, good habits, adequate time, and a strong interest in language learning, and insufficient confidence. For most APE majors, there is a huge gap between their listening, speaking, reading, writing, and translating abilities and the levels required in “Fundamental Objectives” as specified in theCollege English Teaching Guidelines(2020) (theGuidelines) (National College Foreign Language Teaching Advisory Board, Ministry of Education, 2020). Therefore, we should integrate general teaching methods and strategies with specific teaching targets to map out a talent training program suitable for APE majors.

In the Internet plus era, the education sector has leaped to a new level, ushering in a new direction for the development of curriculum reform. The era is exerting its influence across the world and restructuring the educational ecology to make educational forms more diversified and systematic. The mode of Internet plus education is by no means a simple superimposition of the two factors, but constant and in-depth integration of IT and education, so that both sectors will be improved. We should promote education informatization to evolve from blended applications to a higher level—innovative development and deep integration of IT and smart technology into the whole process of education (Education Informatization 2.0 Action Plan). The whole process of integrating IT and education has greatly accelerated teaching and curriculum reforms, and provided fertile soil for the generation of a variety of teaching modes based on smart technologies. These new teaching modes have infused new vigor into traditional approaches, and created a broader space for teaching and learning.

Among numerous smart toolboxes for teaching, Rain Classroom is highly favored by teachers and students for its powerful and handy functions, as well as accurate and adequate backstage records of behavioral data. It is a new type of smart solution for teaching, jointly developed by Tsinghua University and XuetangX in 2016, and is one of the latest research achievements of the Research Center for Online Education of the Ministry of Education (Chen, 2017). The name of “Rain Classroom” implies “transforming clouds into raindrops to nourish everything in silence.” Various kinds of online teaching resources are pooled together and applied respectively for classroom teaching, just like the accumulation of water droplets into clouds and the conversion of cloud droplets to precipitation. Classroom data is collected and stored in the cloud for behavioral analysis of the entire process, so that a complete closed-loop can be formed between teaching and learning.

As a smart teaching application targeting to higher education (Wang, 2017), Rain Classroom serves as a bridge for information exchanges between teachers and students by means of PowerPoint and WeChat documents. Teachers can give lecture slides, exercises, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC), video/audio files, and other resources to students through a Rain Classroom menu imbedded in PowerPoint documents while students can receive the materials in WeChat and interact with teachers through real-time comments, contributions, and ballots in or out of class. Rain Classroom is committed to providing data-based, smart, instant, and free information support for all teaching processes. In the February of 2016, open beta tests for Rain Classroom were held in 15 classes spreading across eight universities in China. On April 1, 2016, the application was released to the public for free use. By the end of February 2018, it had three million users from 170,000 classes in 114 countries across globally (PR Newswire, 2018). The application of Rain Classroom expands the depth and broadness of learning and provides a better technology platform for the realization of an interactive classroom. In the meantime, substantial behavioral data recorded in the backstage of Rain Classroom can provide a scientific rationale for personalized and adaptive learning based on diagnosis, decision-making, targeted messages, and multi-level evaluations (Jiang, Yang & Fan, 2017). Teachers can get an objective and true understanding of how students have learned by reviewing such data analyses so that they can adjust their teaching strategies in a timely way. Students can also adjust their learning methods and enhance their awareness of effective learning strategies according to the feedback from their teachers.

In the spring semester of 2020, students across China could not return to their campuses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In response to the call of the Ministry of Education, Sichuan Normal University launched online teaching based on Rain Classroom for all the students. On the one hand, this brand-new teaching mode has presented with huge challenges; on the other hand, it has provided new ideas and research resources for CET reforms.

Research Questions, Subjects, and Methods

Research Questions

CET for APE majors has long been a complex issue for curriculum reform. How to improve the interactions between the teachers and students has been an urgent issue. After this complete online teaching attempt, we collected student feedbacks on Rain Classroom-based CET immediately. We hoped to gain some insights on teaching modes more suitable for APE majors by comparing the data collected by them to that of students with general majors. The study focused on the following two questions:

Question 2: Can such a real-time, online teaching mode largely improve students’ learning?

Research Subjects

We selected two classes of general majors and two classes of APE majors and taughtCollege Englishusing the Rain Classroom platform throughout the semester. For the two classes of general majors, the number of students was 46 and 48, respectively, and the average age was 19.8. For the two classes of APE majors, the numbers were 54 and 55, respectively, and the average age was 19.6.

Research Methods

Both quantitative and qualitative research methods were applied in the study. AQuestionnaire on Online Learning of College Englishwas prepared and distributed to the students. Two hundred and three copies were handed out, and 201 were returned with valid responses. Among them, 94 copies were completed by undergraduates of general majors, and 109 copies were filled out by undergraduates of APE majors, including two invalid questionnaires. For single choice questions, we used a five-point Likert-like scale with categories of “Strongly agree,” “Agree,” “Neither agree nor disagree,” “Disagree,” “Strongly disagree,” with corresponding values ranging from five points to one point, respectively. In view of the number and features of the samples, we used an independent samplesttest to analyze if there was a significant difference between the two groups of students in their attitudes toward the same questions. For multiple answer questions, a multiple response analysis was conducted to evaluate the data. All data analyses were completed with the SPSS22.0 software. Semi-structured interviews were carried out after the online course was over, and students had returned to the campus. For each class, 10 students were chosen to answer the following two questions: Do you like this teaching mode of using the Rain Classroom platform? Do you think such a combination of online and offline teaching is useful to your study? Conversations throughout the interviews were fully recorded and converted to texts for data analysis.

Data Analysis

Can the Rain Classroom-Based Teaching Mode Arouse Students’ Interests in Learning?

The questionnaire showed that 77.17 percent of APE majors expressed strong interests in this novel teaching mode, and 64.22 percent of those of the general majors also stated such interests. So in this aspect, the proportion of APE majors was nearly 13 percentage points higher than that of the general majors (as shown in Table 1).

Item General Majors APE Majors Between Group Variance Ratio of Acceptance Mean Value Standard Deviation Ratio of Acceptance Mean Value Standard Deviation I’m satisfied with the Rain Classroom-based teaching mode 64.22% 3.73 0.939 77.17% 3.95 0.894 Not significant F=2.649, p (=0.104) ≥0.05

Table 1: Students’ Acceptance of Rain Classroom-Based Teaching Mode

The data for significant difference analysis revealed that both groups expressed satisfaction about the teaching mode, and there was no statistically significant difference [p (=0.210)≥0.05] (as shown in Table 2).

Table 2: Students’ Satisfaction about the Way of Teaching

Concerning the question of “active interactions in the online class,” 69.57 percent of students from the general majors thought that they could participate more actively in an online class than in an inperson classroom. For APE majors, the ratio was 65.14 percent, 4.43 percentage points lower than that of the general majors (as shown in Table 3).

Table 3: Students’ Acceptance of Active Interactions in Online Class

During the semi-structured interviews, the teachers proceeded to have in-depth conversations with the selected students on the above descriptive data part. According to the data and the interviews, we found that the two groups of students mainly differed in the following two aspects:

(1) Students of general majors expressed that they could complete preview and review tasks more effectively before the deadlines assigned by the teacher using Rain Classroom.

We were in the middle of a rousing rendition of Old McDonald when the door opened and a mysterious woman entered the room. She stood next to the door quietly observing the children and me. My voice and smile never faltered2, but quite frankly3 I was very nervous. Who is this woman? Why is she here? What exactly is she observing? When I looked up again she was gone.

(2) Students from APE majors stated that they liked the Rain Classroom teaching because they could get access to more network resources through the Rain Classroom platform, so that language learning could be achieved through diversified means rather than merely through texts.

During the interviews, both groups of students expressed that, in terms of contents, the teachers designed several modules, including warm-up activities for listening and oral practice, cultural backgrounds, text explanations, language fundamentals, and daily English, to break curricular and extracurricular knowledge into different sections, in addition to tasks for previews and reviews. Therefore, compared with traditional classroom teaching, there was more content, and the pace was faster in the online class. APE majors showed great interest in the new sections, such as warm-up activities for listening and oral practice, as well as daily English, which dramatically enhanced their acceptance of the Rain Classroom-based teaching mode. Students of general majors paid relatively equal attention to each section and assignment. The difference was highly related to the interests and personalities of APE majors, who generally have an active character and strong creativity, and are more inclined to accept new things. However, for their downsides in contents, such as text structures and fundamentals, they showed an obvious lack of interest and a subconscious avoidance response.

In terms of participation in classes, with the use of Rain Classroom, the teachers tended to ask questions more frequently, which may have created additional pressure on students, and thus increased their participation. Although the descriptive data indicated that APE majors’ participation in classes was slightly lower than the students in the general majors, 65.14 percent of the former students stated that they were more active in online classes than in traditional classroom settings. The virtual space created by the Rain Classroom made students feel more relaxed and confident. Even though their language ability was not good, they were able to express their ideas boldly.

Can an Online Teaching Mode for College English Effectively Enhance the Learning Effect?

The descriptive data also indicated that the ratio of acceptance for the online teaching effect was 42.39 percent for general majors, and 46.79 percent for APE majors, neither of which was high enough, and the between-group variance was not significantly different (as shown in Table 4).

Table 4: Students’ Acceptance of Online Classes

For satisfaction about mindfulness in learning, most of the students in the two groups did not speak highly of themselves in this regard. For general majors, 53.26 percent were satisfied with their mindfulness, while for APE majors, the ratio (66.97 percent) was higher. There is a significant difference in their satisfaction with their mindfulness in learning (as shown in Table 5).

Table 5 Students’ Satisfaction about Their Motivation in Learning

For the way to learn English in in-person classes, both groups favored blended learning. It is worth noting that in addition to blended learning, most of the students preferred to be lectured. The data also showed that compared with general majors, more APE majors chose “l(fā)ectured in the classroom,” with the ratio being 17.3 percent higher (as shown in Table 6).

Table 6:

It can be seen from the descriptive data and the interviews that:

(1) In terms of the acceptance of online classes, the percentages of the two groups were not high. That is because most of the students participated in the course via their mobile phones, so that they could be easily distracted by other apps on their phones and their surroundings, which thus influenced their learning outcomes. Although the Rain Classroom enables the teacher to call the roll for interactions, students’ answers may not be heard clearly due to poor network connections, which partially affected the actual efficiency of the class and interactions between the teachers and students. Especially for APE majors, they need time to absorb and understand what they have learned. Therefore, a solely online mode cannot achieve inspirational and enlightening teaching, and APE majors must comprehend what they have learned by themselves. This would cause students with poor English abilities difficulties in following the pace of teaching, so that they may pay less attention to, and have less interest in learning.

(2) In terms of satisfaction about motivation in learning, 66.97 percent of students from APE majors were satisfied in online learning. The ratio highly matches the behavioral data that we collected through the Rain Classroom platform about their previews, homework, and assignments. This indicates that with effective monitoring through big data, for most of the APE majors, their motivation in learning was aroused. They were also quite motivated by the real-time data about finished assignments released by the teachers before each class. As for the significant difference between the two groups on this issue, we can see from the data analysis on the completion of assignments through Rain Classroom that 96.23 percent of the general majors completed their assignments, with the ratio nearly 20 percentage points higher than that of the APE majors. This shows that it had an insignificant impact on general majors’ motivation in learning, whether the class was taken online or in a classroom.

(3) In terms of the students’ favorite way of learning, 53.2 percent of APE majors were inclined to be lectured, with the ratio 17.3 percentage points higher than that of the general majors. It can be seen from this data that although APE majors expressed strong interests in learning the new sections taught through the Rain Classroom, the discrepancy between their learning interests and the effect began to appear after a certain period of online learning. One issue that emerged was that students with poor English abilities were unable to communicate online with the teacher in a timely way to have their questions answered, and some failing to complete the previews and homework before the deadlines due to poor self-control in learning. Therefore, they preferred to be lectured in a traditional classroom setting.

Conclusions

It can be seen from data comparisons of the above groups that the use of smart teaching platforms, such as the Rain Classroom, has infused new vigor into CET activities for APE majors. For future classes and teaching reforms, we will focus on the following issues:

(1) Curriculum nature and settings as well as teaching objectives and evaluations: Effective language teaching should not depart from the natural way of learning, but must be adapted to it, and should not impede learning but facilitate it. It should not require students to adapt themselves to the teaching and relevant materials but the other way aroud (Liu, 2009). According to the descriptions in theGuidelinesabout the nature and the setting of college English curricula and teaching objectives,College Englishfor APE majors is an English course for the general purpose which features practical use and humanistic qualities. Students of this course should at least meet the requirements for the basic level as specified in theGuidelines. Students from APE majors differ to a certain extent from those of the general majors in their learning interests, behaviors, gains, self-evaluations, and individual self-efficacy. Therefore, we should design a training program more targeted to APE majors based on their personalities, features of their specialty, and their demands for learning. We should identify their goals of learning and achievable objectives by different levels and define ways to evaluate success during the process. College English teachers of APE majors can refer toChina’s Standards of English Language Ability(2018) (CSE) issued by the State Language Commission for the classification of three stages with nine levels. CSE also defines clearly and in detail the features of language ability at each level (Chai, 2018). They can thus develop local training plans for APE majors based on individual student levels and their stage of learning. The nature of the curriculum should be further clarified, and its setting should be optimized to reach the teaching objectives. The evaluation methods should also be improved.

(2) Teaching methods, approaches, and resources: The development and application of multimedia and Internet technologies have exerted significant influence on teaching methods, approaches, and resources. TheGuidelinescall on “l(fā)everaging information technology and creating a diversified teaching and learning environment…developing or using open online courses and implementing blended teaching that integrates online and offline class.” Blended teaching is by no means a simple combination. Instead, it embodies effective integration of different learning theories, resources, spaces, and methods. It is a process that makes theories understandable, resources plentiful, environments unrestricted, and methods diversified. In other words, it is a type of learning that enables students to select a variety of suitable ways (face-to-face instruction or online learning), make use of different learning resources (online or offline) to acquire knowledge to achieve the best learning effects in various environments (in or after class) (Huang, 2006). Most of the traditional college English classes for APE majors feature face-to-face instruction, because such students generally have poor English proficiency and weak self-directed learning initiatives and abilities. With the advent of the Internet plus era, such a single way and monotonous teaching mode have been transcended to encourage teachers to change their role from an instructor to a facilitator. Teachers can break the teaching contents into different modules and help students master the fundamentals for language acquisition through offline instruction. Through such face-to-face interactions, teachers can know precisely how students have learned and supervise their learning effect, and can thus help them solve any problems and difficulties encountered in the learning process in a timely way. In addition, students can use the Rain Classroom to complete previews, homework, unit quizzes, and learning of cultural background information. They can also have extended classes, like practical training for language learning, to form a perfectly closed loop of online and offline, in-class, and extracurricular activities. In the meantime, the teachers can use the Rain Classroom functions, such as real-time comments, random checks of attendance, ballots, and contributions, to assess students’ learning and to achieve the blending of diversified learning methods and effects during face-to-face instruction.

(3) Teachers’ development: This is the prerequisite of education advancement. The new era not only sets a high requirement on talent training, but also an even higher requirement on the development of teachers in institutions of higher learning. College English teachers should not only enhance their abilities in training talents, disciplinary methods, research, and teaching, but also their capabilities of using IT technologies. Such teachers for APE majors should also closely follow the development of new technologies, so that they can quickly adapt to, and apply modern information technologies to their teaching and learning. They should leverage abundant information resources and data from smart teaching platforms, such as the Rain Classroom, and become familiar with online teaching approaches, on which they can make their innovations in teaching to implement an onlineoffline blended teaching mode to arouse APE majors’ interests in learning English. In the meantime, they should take the initiative to integrate CET for APE majors into ideological and political curricula of their universities to increase students’ knowledge in the social sciences, cultures, and scientific fields to broaden their international vision, enhance their cultural literacy, and help them establish correct values and outlooks on life and the world (National College Foreign Language Teaching Advisory Board, 2020).

We should strive to achieve the integration of practical use and humanistic qualities in the process of training APE majors to meet their demands for growth and success, as well as the national requirements for strategic development (He, 2020), and make due contributions to promoting the development and improvement of higher education in China.