Online to offline teaching model in optics education: resource sharing course and flipped class

Abstract

Since the platform "Coursera" is created by the professors of Stanford University Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, more and more universities have joined in it. From the very beginning, online education is not only about education itself, but also connected with social equality. This is especially significant for the economic transformation in China. In this paper the research and practice on informatization of optical education are described. Online to offline (O2O) education activities, such as online learning and offline meeting, online homework and online to offline discussion, online tests and online to offline evaluation, are combined into our teaching model in the course of Applied Optics. These various O2O strategies were implemented respectively in the autumn-winter small class and the spring-summer middle class according to the constructivism and the idea of open education. We have developed optical education resources such as videos of lectures, light transmission or ray trace animations, online tests, etc. We also divide the learning procedure into 4 steps: First, instead of being given a course offline, students will learn the course online; Second, once a week or two weeks, students will have a discussion in their study groups; Third, students will submit their homework and study reports; Fourth, they will do online and offline tests. The online optical education resources have been shared in some universities in China, together with new challenges to teachers and students when facing the revolution in the e-learning future. © 2016 SPIE.