2. Design of learning path
Figure 3 A Student’s Works Upon Completion of Course
The core of online teaching lies not in content, but the design and application of course instruction (lv Jingjing, 2015). Standard design of an online landscape painting course ensures a clear and smooth structure, which enables students to make progress even in the context of independent learning. The course is divided into nine units, with the system automatically pushing the current learning unit to students according to the fixed weekly teaching schedule. The course’s content provides a clear path to learning segmented by exercises for daily study accompanied by text descriptions. Videos are watched from Monday to Thursday, the tasks of each unit are finished on Friday and Saturday, and a live broadcast occurs on Sunday. Each week’s study follows the same pattern to help students quickly resume their studies, beginning to learn effectively in the shortest possible time after entering the learning space.
Figure 4 Learning Process of the Landscaping Painting Course Units
Let’s take the first week of the course as an example. The teaching objectives of this week are to master basic observation methods, drawing tools, and the methods of draft sketches and outlining in copying landscape paintings. The learning guide describes the teaching content and study requirements. Next, four micro-videos separately introduce how to copy and draw drafts, what draft specifications are, and “outlining” techniques. At the end of each video, daily exercises are assigned to students. After four days of video instruction, students must finish painting a draft on Friday. The tutor finishes going over painting drafts before Saturday, and the teacher in charge of the subject broadcasts live to all the students on Sunday. Moreover, a BBS is also set up to ensure teaching and learning exchange is possible at all times. The arrangement of the learning process takes into consideration both standardisation and flexibility. Besides finishing the assignment within a given timeframe, every other element is simply an instructional suggestion, and students can choose the appropriate time to integrate their study into their daily routine.
3. Connective design of teaching process
The organisation and management of online learning is relatively looser than that of face-to-face class instruction, which leads to a low completion rate of online learning. MOOC has been hot in the field of education in recent years, but students’ high dropout rates remain an avoidable problem. Coursera research shows that the overall completion rate of all courses is less than 10%, and trending downward. To maintain students’ enthusiasm for learning, a connective design is applied to landscape painting online instruction. The first step is to organise virtual classes with a fixed class roster. Maintaining stable teacher and student relationships creates a learning environment which helps students overcome loneliness in individual study, improving their overall experience. Second comes presenting teaching resources in the form of micro-video. In “the landscape painting project,” 97.22% of students participate via mobile device. Against a mobile and fragmented learning background, micro-video becomes an ideal way to present online learning resources. The teaching videos of the landscape painting online course are short clips (about five minutes in length) around particular knowledge points, presented along with the content which needs to be mastered each day. The concise medium of micro-videos facilitates students retaining control of their autonomous learning progress by making use of their fragmented time, and may also prevent the course’s overall schedule from exceeding students’ cognitive load capacity. Another feature of connective design is to automatically evaluate each student’s learning performance. The system sets certain points for students to log in, watch videos, post, complete homework, and so on. Credits are then distributed for students logging in, watching videos, posting, finishing assignments, and other activities within the system, and are then ranked by group. Such timely feedback prompts and consistently encourages students throughout the entire learning process. The fourth tactic is to intersperse objective tests throughout videos: when watching the videos, students must complete multiple choice or judgment questions in periodic pop-up quizzes before they can resume watching. These objective testing exercises can help the students consolidate what they have learned, deepen their understanding, and focus their attention on course content. The fifth strategy reinforces a drive to complete the course task by task. With the weekly standardised painting assignments, students have positive reinforcement to finish each assignment. The sixth suggestion is organising rich teaching activities. Diversified activities are held to break the boredom of study, including a course-wide painting competition or assessing each class’ accumulated credits. The winners of these contests are then given certificates of merit.
(III) Learner support
There is now strong consensus that teachers supporting students is at the core of online teaching. Core tutoring strategies which promote learning include encouragement, listening, asking questions, and feedback (Feng Xiaoying, 2012). Teachers' emotional support can minimise the risk of student burnout; teachers should provide students with emotional support (Zhao Chengling, et al. 2018). When it comes to studying in “the landscape painting project,” there are two main difficulties. The first is to understand and grasp the learning content; though the videos only last five minutes, it’s very difficult for students to grasp each technique. The second is to improve ability through extensive practice. It takes about 8 hours to finish each week’s assignment, which is a challenge to students who can only study in their spare time. To address these issues, tutors support students through five methods:
1. Guidance
Three-in-one online course includes BBS, mobile application, and a WeChat group, providing a seamless and comprehensive support system. Teachers conduct tutoring in three forms: questions and answers at any time, online interaction on a fixed schedule, and regular instruction which addresses centralised feedback. Tutors help students especially with their study methods. Students can ask tutors whenever they have questions, with an especially responsive period arranged from 8-10 pm to improve communication efficiency. At regular intervals, tutors also summarise the course instruction up to that point. A general discipline inspector assesses course activity, then submits a representative sample of student issues along with teaching topic suggestions to the chief responsible teacher of the discipline. The chief responsible teacher then provides a teaching summary over live broadcast, explaining difficult points, answering frequently asked questions, and commenting on examples.
2. Breaking down tasks
The weekly painting assignment is a comprehensive assessment for students, who are required to use brush and ink techniques flexibly, stressing the changes of brush power and ink colour to achieve a balanced composition. Beginners are often at a loss for how to begin such tasks. Tutors help students with their difficulty sorting out the correct order of painting steps, to break down a complex task into relatively easy portions. When the students complete each portion, they can combine them into a natural and complete work.
3. Demonstration
In the teaching of painting, it is often not easy to use the written language to adequately describe the essentials of motion and the flavourful features of brush and ink. To address difficult teaching points, tutors record demonstration micro-videos and put them in the WeChat group to help students understand the gist of brush use. Many of students’ problems can be solved through video demonstrations in the WeChat group.
4. Companion
The sense of loneliness in online learning is the main reason for a decrease in positive learning experiences, and it ultimately leads to learning failure. The process to complete a landscape painting assignment becomes even more demanding for students. Having a teacher as an online companion can help students remain on track with their learning progress.
5. Encouragement
Students begin with no or little foundation, and have little time to learn. Teachers’ positive encouragement plays a clear role in students' persistence with study. This can take the form of teachers positively evaluating students’ efforts, praising and guiding them, and complimenting even little amounts of progress. Teachers can actively respond to students’ study habits and encourage their enthusiasm for learning.