







































 

 

 

 

 

Online Teaching During the “School is Out, 

but Class is On” Period: Based on 33,240 

Online Questionnaire Surveys Across China

Dongdong Wang,
1,2

 Huaibo Wang,
3
 Wei Zhang,

1
 

Hairong Wang,
1
 Xiaoping Shen

1
 

 
1. Beijing National Center for Open & Distance Education Co., Ltd., Beijing 

100081, China 

2. Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, Jilin, China 

3. Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China 

Abstract. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Education of 
China issued a call for “School is Out, but Class is On”. Various re-

gions responded to and issued relevant policies to use Internet educa-

tional resources to carry out teaching activities. In this context, we con-
ducted a network questionnaire survey on district and county education 

administrators, school administrators, teachers, students, and parents 
nationwide. It aimed to understand the online teaching situation and the 

attitudes of different subjects towards online teaching during the 

“School is Out, but Class is On” period. Based on this, we summarized 
the problems existing in online teaching during the “School is Out, but 

Class is On” period and put forward countermeasures to better serve 

online teaching, to ensure the healthy development of online teaching 
after the pandemic, and to provide a reference for coordinating national 

forces to carry out online teaching in response to unforeseen public cri-
ses in the future. 

Best Evid Chin Edu 2020; 6(1):753-767. 

Doi: 10.15354/bece.20.ar061. 

How to Cite: Wang, D., Wang, H., Zhang, W., Wang, H., & Shen, X. (2020). Online 

teaching during the “School is Out, but Class is On” period: Based on 33,240 online 

questionnaire surveys across China. Best Evidence in Chinese Education, 6(1):753-

767. 

Keywords: COVID-19; “School is Out, but Class is On”; Online Teaching

 



Wang, et al. Online Teaching During the “School is Out, but Class is On” Period in China. 

Vol.6, No.1, 2020 754 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

About the Authors: Dongdong Wang, Senior Engineer, Beijing National Center for Open & Distance Education 

Co., Ltd., Beijing 100081, China; and Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Education, Northeast Normal University, 
Liaoning, China. Email: wangdd@mail.open.com.cn. 
Huaibo Wang, National Engineering Laboratory of Intelligent Technology and Application of Internet Education, 
Distance Education Research Center, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. Email: 

huaibo_wang@163.com 

Wei Zhang, Beijing National Center for Open & Distance Education Co., Ltd., Beijing 100081, China. Email: 

zhangwa@mail.open.com.cn 

Hairong Wang, Beijing National Center for Open & Distance Education Co., Ltd., Beijing 100081, China. Email: 

wanghr@mail.open.com.cn 

Correspondence to: Xiaoping Shen, Beijing National Center for Open & Distance Education Co., Ltd., Beijing 

100081, China. Email: shenxp@mail.open.com.cn. 

Conflict of Interests: None. 
 

© 2020 Insights Publisher. All rights reserved. 

Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Crea-

tive Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-

nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided 

the original work is attributed by the Insights Publisher. 



Wang, et al. Online Teaching During the “School is Out, but Class is On” Period in China. 

Vol.6, No. 1, 2020 755 

Introduction 

UE to the continued COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministry of Education of China 

issued the “Notice on the Delay of the Start of the Spring Semester 2020” on 

January 27, 2020, requesting that the start of the spring semester be appropri-

ately postponed, and encouraging all regions to use the Internet and information-based 

education resources to provide students Learning support to ensure “School is Out, but 

Class is On” (The Ministry of Education of China, 2020b). To this end, schools at all 

levels have been developing plans and conducted online teaching. Many experts and 

scholars also voiced the first time, such as Zhu et al. (2020) proposed an all-media 

learning ecological solution; Jiao et al. (2020) analyzed the typical cases of online 

teaching of “School is Out, but Class is On”, to put forward relevant suggestions for 

online teaching for different practice subjects. To understand the implementation status 

of “School is Out, but Class is On”, the “School is Out, but Class is On” charity alliance 

led by Beijing National Center for Open & Distance Education Co., Ltd., united with 

the National Engineering Laboratory for Intelligent Technology and Application of In-

ternet Education, and jointly developed a survey questionnaire and conducted a nation-

wide survey based on the “Teacher Training” cloud platform to understand the status 

quo and find problems to better serve the specific implementation of online teaching. 

This provides a reference for coordinating the nation’s efforts to conduct online teach-

ing under the unforeseen public crisis in the future. 

The Status Quo of “School is Out, but Class is On” 

Under Pandemic Prevention and Control 

Policy Guarantee and Guidance 

Since the announcement of the delayed start of the spring semester, the corresponding 

“School is Out, but Class is On” work implementation plan has been successively is-

sued from the central to the local to the school. On January 29, 2020, the Education De-

partment of Hubei Province, the pandemic disaster-stricken area, issued the Guiding 

Opinions of the Provincial Education Department on the implementation of network 

teaching during the pandemic prevention and control of the province’s primary and sec-

ondary schools. In terms of teaching resources and other aspects, it provides compre-

hensive guidance for online teaching (Hubei Provincial Department of Education, 2020). 

On January 30, the Wuhan Municipal Education Bureau issued the “Notice of the City 

Education Bureau on Delaying the Start of Spring 2020 School Work” (Wuhan Munici-

pal Education Bureau, 2020a), and the supporting release of “Wuhan City Elementary 

and Middle Schools During the Fight Against COVID-19 Pandemic “Online teaching 

implementation plan” (Wuhan Municipal Education Bureau, 2020b), made more de-

tailed planning on online teaching related content. On February 12, the “Notice on 

Work Arrangements for “School is Out, but Class is On” in the Office of the Ministry 

of Education and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the Ministry 

D 



Wang, et al. Online Teaching During the “School is Out, but Class is On” Period in China. 

Vol.6, No. 1, 2020 756 

of Education on the extension of the school start period of elementary and middle 

schools” (The Ministry of Education of China, 2020a) was published, further regulating 

the content of student learning, organization and coordination, connection between in-

side and outside class. As of early February, all parts of China have completed the for-

mulation of supporting documents for online teaching, which provides guarantee and 

convenience for teachers and students participating in online teaching, and provides a 

policy basis for home-school communication and collaborative teaching. 

Platform Selections and Teaching Mode 

Judging from the policy documents of the education departments in various regions, the 

main sources of online platforms are (i) National public service platforms for educa-

tional resources, provincial and local public service platforms for resources. (ii) Educa-

tion authorities at all levels organize the openly available network resource platforms in 

a targeted manner and guide schools to choose according to their needs. (iii) Resources 

and platform donations spontaneously carried out by educational institutions. 

There are four commonly used online teaching and service modes: (i) “TV 

teaching video” mode. It is organized by the provincial and local education authorities 

or audio-visual halls and broadcast live through TV stations or dedicated digital TV 

channels. (ii) “Live Class” mode. Teachers are encouraged to design their courses based 

on actual conditions and conduct live broadcasts through the online platform. (iii) 

“Classes communicate with each other” mode. Provincial and local education authori-

ties coordinate the organization of courses organized by local excellent teachers accord-

ing to the subject catalog, which is regularly based on local education platforms, and 

carry out online tutoring and online Q & A. (iv) “Optional resources + online question 

answering” mode. The school uniformly selects teaching resources, compiles guides, 

and pushes them to students for independent study through websites, class exchange 

groups, etc. Teachers answer questions through common tools such as QQ and WeChat. 

Systemic Service Support 

Online teaching is not a simple “classroom shift”. It requires teachers and instructional 

designers to build front-end curriculum resources, as well as strong back-end service 

teams to provide technical and service support. Specifically, education authorities and 

schools should actively strengthen guidance and supervision, and adjust implementation 

paths on time based on online teaching practices. Relevant domestic Internet service 

agencies, cloud service providers, and other enterprises in China actively responded to 

provide service support for the stable operation of online teaching cloud platforms, en-

suring smooth network and stability of online use by large-scale users. All educational 

institutions should do a good job of allocating various resources such as software and 

hardware facilities, basic networks, teacher resources, professional counseling, etc., 

optimize personnel deployment, and fully guarantee the smooth implementation of 

“School is Out, but Class is On”. More importantly, under pandemic prevention and 

control, the implementation of large-scale group online teaching nationwide requires the 



Wang, et al. Online Teaching During the “School is Out, but Class is On” Period in China. 

Vol.6, No. 1, 2020 757 

establishment of one or more professional teams that provide common support services 

to allow teachers to focus on teaching and improve organizational efficiency and teach-

ing effectiveness. 

Survey of Online Teaching during the “School is Out, 

but Class is On” Period 

To gain a deeper understanding of the current status of online teaching during the 

“School is Out, but Class is On” period, this study surveyed the “Questionnaire Star”. 

The items in the questionnaire include basic information, existing preparations for deal-

ing with “School is Out, but Class is On” online teaching, and knowledge and attitude 

towards online teaching. The questionnaire was distributed from February 5th to 11th, 

2020. A total of 33,240 valid questionnaires were recovered, including 907 district and 

county education manager questionnaires, 777 school education manager questionnaires, 

teacher questionnaires 2,401, student questionnaires 17,025, and parent questionnaires 

12,130. 

Sample Overview of District and County Education Adminis-

trators 

The statistical results of the 907 district and county education managers questionnaires 

show that the district and county education managers participating in the survey come 

from 28 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions in the country, and most of 

them are staff members and below (88.31%). The specific job distribution is shown in 

Figure 1. 

Overview of the Sample of School Administrators 

The statistical results of 777 school education administrator questionnaires show that 

72.33% of the school education administrators participating in the survey came from 

primary schools, and 15.06% came from junior high schools. In terms of geography, the 

school education managers participating in the survey are mainly in the western region 

and the northeast region, of which 317 people in the western region (Sichuan, Chong-

qing, Guizhou, Yunnan, Shaanxi, etc.), about 40.8%; the northeast region (Heilongjiang, 

Jilin, Liaoning, etc.) with 291 people, about 37.45%; eastern region (Beijing, Tianjin, 

Hebei, Shanghai, Jiangsu, etc.) 102 people, about 13.13%; central region (Shanxi, An-

hui, Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei, etc.) 66 People, about 8.49%; another 1 person (about 

0.13%) is from Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. In terms of school size, most of the 

school administrators participating in the survey came from medium-sized schools, of 

which 37.58% came from schools of more than 1,000 people, and only 10.55% came 

from schools of less than 100 people (Figure 2). As far as administrative duties are 

concerned, 75.55% of the school administrators participating in the survey are grass-

roots managers, 9.14% are principals or executive vice principals, 5.66% are deputy 

principals in charge of teaching, and 9.65% are deans of academic affairs. 



Wang, et al. Online Teaching During the “School is Out, but Class is On” Period in China. 

Vol.6, No. 1, 2020 758 

 

Figure 1. Distribution of the District and County Education Ad-
ministrative Officials. 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2. School Size and Proportion 

 

 



Wang, et al. Online Teaching During the “School is Out, but Class is On” Period in China. 

Vol.6, No. 1, 2020 759 

Teacher Sample Overview 

The statistical results of a total of 2,401 teacher questionnaires show that the teachers 

participating in the survey come from 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous 

regions in China and the majority are female teachers. The ratio of men to women is 

about 1:2. There were 1,294 (53.89%) young teachers (under 34 years old), 840 

(34.99%) middle-aged teachers (35-48 years old), and 267 (11.12%) old-age teachers 

(over 49 years old). 58.34% are urban school teachers, 39.62% are rural school teachers, 

and about 2% are teaching site teachers. 83.42% are elementary and middle school 

teachers (Elementary teacher 52.98%, Middle teacher 30.44%), 8.37% are kindergarten 

teachers, 6.54% are high school teachers, and 1.67% are vocational teachers (Figure 3). 

Therefore, more than half of the teachers participating in the survey were Chinese and 

mathematics teachers (52.2%), followed by English and phonetic beauty teachers, and 

relatively few teachers in other disciplines. 

Student Sample Profile 

The statistical results of 17,025 student questionnaires show that the students participat-

ing in the survey come from 32 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions 

across the country, with 8,139 males (47.81%) and 8,886 females (52.19%). More than 

half (75.14%) students come from urban schools, 22.1% of students from rural schools, 

and only 2.76% of students from teaching points. Most of them are elementary school 

students (56.16%), middle school students (28.09%), and high school students (15.21%), 

followed by secondary vocational school students (0.54%). 

Overview of Parent Samples 

The statistical results of 12,130 parent questionnaires show that the majority of parents 

participating in the survey are women, and the ratio of men to women is about 1:2. El-

ementary school students had the most parents (69.1%), followed by middle school stu-

dents (18%). In terms of age distribution (Figure 4), most parents are 30 to 39 years old. 

In terms of the area where the children attend school, 43.1% of parents in the eastern 

region, 26.7% in the northeast region, 19% in the western region, 11.1% in the central 

region, and 0.1% in other regions. About 77.6% of parents were from urban schools and 

22.4% were from rural schools. 

Attitudes of Different Subjects towards Online Teach-

ing during the “School is Out, but Class is On” Period 

District and County Education Managers: Encourage and 

Support 

The statistical results of 907 district and county education managers’ questionnaires 

showed that 54.8% of district and county education managers encouraged the develop- 



Wang, et al. Online Teaching During the “School is Out, but Class is On” Period in China. 

Vol.6, No. 1, 2020 760 

 

Figure 3. Proportion of the Courses. 

 

 

 

 

Figure 4. Parents’ Age. 

 

 

 



Wang, et al. Online Teaching During the “School is Out, but Class is On” Period in China. 

Vol.6, No. 1, 2020 761 

ment of online teaching related to teachers; 42.56% did not restrict the specific forms of 

online teaching; 49.17% chose to introduce high-quality online teaching resources; 43.2% 

developed a management system for online teaching. It is worth mentioning that the 

district and county education administrators also realized that online teaching is suitable 

for personalized learning for students (61.41%), improve teaching efficiency (54.8%), 

make up for the shortage of resources (41.9%), and solve the shortage of teachers 

(27.34%) 68.22% of managers even expressed their expectation that online teaching 

will be a part of the normalization of regional education services in the future. So, dis-

trict and county education managers have a positive attitude towards encouraging and 

supporting online teaching during “School is Out, but Class is On”. 

School Administrators: Relatively Active 

School administrators are relatively passive in carrying out online teaching, and their 

attitudes towards online teaching are also slightly different: some actively formulated 

specific measures for schools to carry out online teaching based on various educational 

policies issued by the State and the Education Bureau, such as opening air classrooms 

based on the teaching week, establish an online curriculum that conforms to the teach-

ing schedule and online teaching characteristics, but some had the phenomenon of 

copying traditional classrooms directly. The results of 777 school education administra-

tor questionnaires showed that: 68.92% of school administrators believed that the im-

plementation of online teaching can ensure the quality of teaching during the pandemic 

period; 68.72% believed that online teaching can meet the basic needs of students, but 

they worried about insufficient teacher preparation; 31.5% of school administrators 

were skeptical of teachers’ basic skills in online teaching. How to effectively organize 

and implement online teaching, how to ensure that online teaching achieves the same 

effect as traditional teaching, how to effectively carry out online teaching activities, and 

how to manage the teaching and learning process have become the focus of school ad-

ministrators. 

Teachers: Positive Attitude but Anxious 

Overall, middle and elementary school teachers have a positive attitude towards online 

teaching. The results of 2,401 teacher questionnaires showed that more than 50% of 

teachers believed that online teaching can meet the learning needs of students, and 31.9% 

of teachers were willing to continue online teaching after the pandemic is over. But at 

the same time, teachers also had a lot of anxiety about online teaching. The main points 

of anxiety are interaction with students (62.6%), equipment operation (58.6%), and 

teaching organization (52.1%). In terms of age, middle-aged and older teachers were 

significantly less anxious about online teaching organization and class manners than 

young teachers; 72.6% of teachers hoped to receive targeted training, and especially 

older teachers had more demand for technical application training. From a geographical 

perspective, urban teachers were more anxious about class manners, software quality, 

and equipment operation of service providers, while rural teachers were more anxious 



Wang, et al. Online Teaching During the “School is Out, but Class is On” Period in China. 

Vol.6, No. 1, 2020 762 

about interacting with students and teaching organizations. From the perspective of 

willingness to use, there were obvious differences between teachers who had different 

views on the effect of online teaching: those who recognized the effect of online teach-

ing had a stronger willingness to use; teachers under the age of 34 and teachers between 

the ages of 45-55 had the willingness of future use; at the same time, with the increase 

of age, the number of people who wanted to continue online teaching has shown a 

downward trend. 

Students: Urban-Rural and Learning Stages Differ Signifi-

cantly 

In general, students have positive attitude toward online learning and strong adaptability. 

The results of 17,025 student questionnaires showed that although 16.95% of students 

expressed some concerns, 83.05% still held a positive attitude (“surprise” 36.92% and 

“happy” 46.13%). This is mainly because students had a positive understanding of 

online learning. For example, they believed that online learning could be self-paced and 

had complete and visible learning records. About 61.46% of students thought that they 

could quickly adapt to the online learning method, and were willing to continue to use 

this method to carry out learning activities, especially middle school students. Com-

pared with rural schools, urban school students had a more positive and adaptable atti-

tude towards online learning. The major reason may be from urban students had equip-

ment that can meet their daily online learning and they were more familiar with elec-

tronic equipment. Besides, there are significant differences in the attitudes of students at 

different stages of learning on the Internet: high school students had less disappoint-

ment, but relatively higher in the worrisome that may be related to the higher pressure 

they were facing. 

Parents: High Expectations and High Concerns 

The results of 12,130 parent questionnaires showed that on the one hand, parents had 

high expectations for the remedy measures adopted by schools for online teaching. 

About 49.2% of parents hoped to have different online teaching methods such as live 

classroom, video recording, homework correction and feedback, and parents of urban 

school students and elementary school students were looking forward to the diversifica-

tion of online teaching methods. On the other hand, the parents’ concerns were also 

obvious. About 64.1% of parents said they were not clear what type of courses to 

choose for their children, 52.4% were unfamiliar with online learning operations, and 

14.7% said that the network and equipment were in short supply. In addition, parents 

also had concerns about impaired vision (59.9%), inattention (57.3%), online tempta-

tion (49.2%), unanswered questions (43.9%), and poor learning effectiveness (40.9%). 

Problems and Countermeasures in Online Teaching 

during the “School is Out, but Class is On” Period 



Wang, et al. Online Teaching During the “School is Out, but Class is On” Period in China. 

Vol.6, No. 1, 2020 763 

Existing Problems 

Differences in Policy Understanding and Implementation 

Education authorities and schools had different understandings of “School is Out, but 

Class is On” and lacked systematic and long-term planning. Although most provinces 

and cities had built public service platforms for educational resources, only a few prov-

inces and cities had launched a unified platform. The policies of most provinces and 

cities were mainly guided by recommendations and standardized requirements. Schools 

organized and arranged themselves in a specific implementation, so there was generally 

a “One-Size-Fits-All” implementation of the policy. Schools blindly implemented and 

organized, mainly live broadcast classroom teaching mode, almost made an identical 

copy of the traditional classroom teaching. The competent education department did not 

follow up on the access standards, content review, and supervision of online teaching 

platforms and resources in time, and also lacked guidance on teacher selection plat-

forms. Also, hidden dangers existed in the intellectual property rights of online teaching 

courses during the pandemic. 

Insufficient Preparation for Basic Education Informatization 

The implementation of “School is Out, but Class is On” at the stage of basic education 

has exposed the serious problem of insufficient preparation: (i) from the competent de-

partment to the school to the teacher, short-term emergency and blind response have 

occurred; (ii) basic education will be fully networked in a short period is a real frustra-

tion and obvious “unsuitable”. This “unsuitability” is mainly reflected in the basic stage 

of education informatization, which has always focused on schools and classrooms. 

However, online training outside the school plays an essential supplementary role in the 

development of basic education informatization and fails to form a systematic and 

standardized support service system for elementary schools in China. 

The Scientific Characteristics and Applicability of the Teaching Plan 

are Insufficient 

According to the survey data, many regions and schools lack the thinking and design 

according to local conditions and lack the scientific characteristics and pertinence. The 

specific performance is as follows: (i) The practice model is relatively simple. The 

teaching progress is synchronized with the offline teaching, or the schedule is the same 

as the school learning time. There is no comprehensive consideration, evaluation, and 

design of the teaching content of different levels and different disciplines. The results of 

the questionnaire survey showed that 56.6% of teachers tended to use existing or ready-

made resources for students to learn independently, supplemented by homework guid-

ance. This approach makes the teaching and learning that are originally separated in 

both time and space less interactive, and the existing curriculum resources are also dif-

ficult to meet the dynamic personalized learning needs of students. (ii) Most of the 

online teaching currently used is a free and open platform; it is difficult to realize real-



Wang, et al. Online Teaching During the “School is Out, but Class is On” Period in China. 

Vol.6, No. 1, 2020 764 

time supervision and comprehensive evaluation of students’ learning situations. Besides, 

the online teaching experience during the pandemic and the teaching after pandemic 

lack a connection, which may become isolated historical data, and cannot be a guiding 

reference for the teaching after the pandemic. 

Insufficient Informatization Capabilities of Various Subjects 

The lack of information literacy is another practical problem in facing “School is Out, 

but Class is On”. At present, the informatization capabilities of various subjects are in-

sufficient. This includes: (i) The ability of the school’s information planning and the 

rapid organization was insufficient. (ii) Teachers’ online teaching ability was uneven. 

The results of the questionnaire survey showed that 42% of teachers felt anxious, main-

ly because they did not know how to interact with students online, how to organize 

teaching activities, and how to deal with equipment operation difficulties. Teachers also 

generally lacked online teaching experience and could not quickly adapt and take ad-

vantage of network technology. (iii) Students had insufficient online self-learning abil-

ity and it was difficult to guarantee learning participation. The results of the question-

naire survey showed that 38.54% of the students had insufficient confidence in adapting 

to online learning quickly; 37.1% believed that they were less active in online learning; 

45.79% said that teachers and parents were required to supervise to complete online 

learning tasks. (iv) Parents had insufficient ability to assist their children in online 

learning. The results of the survey showed that 52.4% of parents reported that they were 

not familiar with the operation of online learning, and there was no active and effective 

solution to the problems that might occur in online learning. 

Weak Infrastructure Affects the Implementation Effect 

Weak infrastructure is a fundamental problem that hinders the large-scale populariza-

tion of online teaching. This is mainly manifested as (i) Insufficient infrastructure prep-

aration, such as large-scale access that greatly exceeds the conventional service capabil-

ities of the platform, and problems such as stalls and frequent disconnections seriously 

affected the learning experience. (ii) Individual users have limited basic equipment. The 

results of the survey showed that 75.5% of teachers tended to use mobile phones for 

online teaching, but many teaching platforms and software only support computers, and 

some institutions’ online teaching programs require more than two computers, which 

brought inconvenience to online teaching for teachers. Also unstable network signals in 

rural areas have made online teaching a big burden. 

Response Measures 

During the pandemic prevention and control period, online teaching demonstrated many 

advantages. The online teaching experience and practice accumulated during the 

“School is Out, but Class is On” period are very valuable, and it is worth conscientious-

ly summarizing and refining to provide a reference for the subsequent online teaching 

development. 



Wang, et al. Online Teaching During the “School is Out, but Class is On” Period in China. 

Vol.6, No. 1, 2020 765 

Macro Control, Strengthen Public Support Services 

The informatization foundation and capabilities vary from place to place. To cope with 

various emergencies, local governments and education authorities need to improve the 

corresponding management systems and build supporting public service systems. The 

details include: (i) Strengthen investment to ensure that the school’s information infra-

structure is in place and promote practical application. (ii) Have a long-term and sys-

tematic planning, to guide schools to develop specific methods and implementation 

plans for online teaching in light of local conditions. (iii) Strengthen content construc-

tion and supervision to improve the digital education-related public service system, in-

crease the effective supply of high-quality educational resources, and expand the cover-

age of online teaching resources of famous schools and famous teachers. (iv) Improve 

the online teaching-associated support system, provide targeted support services for 

different users, and ensure the effectiveness of the processing. (v) Establish a supervi-

sion and guidance mechanism, strengthen coordinated supervision by all regions and 

departments, broaden social supervision, and improve supervision efficiency. 

Improve the Informatization Capabilities of Various Subjects 

To ensure that online teaching can effectively meet the needs of education and achieve 

a teaching effect not less than that of face-to-face classrooms, all kinds of educational 

subjects should pay attention to the improvement of informatization capabilities and 

form a normalized mechanism. (i) Improve the school’s comprehensive informatization 

capabilities, focusing on strengthening management and technical personnel training, 

and effectively improving the school’s informatization management level and capabili-

ties. (ii) Establish and improve a training system that combines long-term basic and 

short-term targeted training of teachers ‘information technology application capabilities, 

so that targeted training and guidance can be quickly initiated in emergencies. (iii) 

Deepen the application of information-based teaching practice, cultivate the habit of 

teachers and students, improve students’ self-learning ability on the Internet, deepen 

parents’ understanding of online teaching, and improve the application of information 

technology for teachers, students and parents. 

Build and Improve the Technical Environment and Digital 

Resource Service System 

As the basis of online teaching, the technical environment and resources should be giv-

en full attention by competent authorities at all levels. (i) At the macro-level, we must 

provide targeted assistance to areas with limited teaching equipment and network condi-

tions to meet the basic conditions for students to learn online. In the process of allocat-

ing teaching resources, the education department should give full consideration to many 

factors such as school teachers, software and hardware conditions, network implemen-

tation, and academic status of the school, so as to promote the full use of digital teach-

ing resources. (ii) At the micro-level, we should focus on strengthening the 



Wang, et al. Online Teaching During the “School is Out, but Class is On” Period in China. 

Vol.6, No. 1, 2020 766 

informatization capabilities of education managers and teachers, and provide services 

such as consulting and technical support to break through technical limitations. It ena-

bles education administrators to concentrate on organizing online teacher training, and 

teachers can concentrate on optimizing online teaching content design. In the future, the 

government, enterprises, and schools can be laid out following the principle of “infra-

structure depends on policies, and individual resources depend on the market.” Local 

governments and education departments should strengthen macro-control and effective-

ly integrate and rationally allocate educational resources. Enterprises should be guided 

by the individualized needs of schools, leading the development and construction of 

education and teaching resources, and finally the three parties will work together to cre-

ate a good “Internet+” education ecology. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Zhu, Z., Peng, H. (2020). All-media learning 

ecology: A practical solution to the 

schooling problem of the pandemic period. 

China Audiovision Education, 2020(3):1-

6. [Chinese] 

 



Wang, et al. Online Teaching During the “School is Out, but Class is On” Period in China. 

Vol.6, No. 1, 2020 767 

Received: 21 April 2020 

Revised: 02 June 2020 

Accepted: 12 June 2020 

 

 

The Chinese version of this article has been published in Modern Educational Technology, 2020; 

30(3):12-18. The English version has been authorized for being publication in BECE by the author(s) 

and the Chinese journal. 

王冬冬, 王怀波, 张伟, 王海荣, 沈晓萍. (2020).“停课不停学”时期的在线教学研究: 基于全国范围
内的 33,240份网络问卷调研. 现代教育技术, 30(3):12-18. 

 


	Article-DongdongWang-BECE_title_15Sep2020
	Article-DongdongWang-BECE_Maintext15Sep2020

