My most memorable online learning experience was last summer with Miss. Xu during my co-op term. It was amazing and I learned more than I expected. Also, the educational method of Miss. Xu gave me a lot of reflections on how to treat students properly, how to organize the quizzes and schedule to maximize the performance. Here is the story:
It was during my co-op term last summer in China. I worked in an international trading company, and our company was trying to extend the market in an online trading platform like Amazon, eBay, and Taobao. As the employee who was in charge of managing online stores, I must be trained by a professional. The course was detailed and great organized, and my instructor Miss. Xu was an experienced expert in this industry. Although the course was taught online, and I have never met her in real life. I still feel the connection between her and myself.
The course started from a very basic level, maybe she was aware that I am only an undergrad student. She didn’t quite treat me like a young employee like most people do, instead, more like a high school teacher. Miss. Xu is extremely patient, polite, and the most important thing is, she really knows how to catch my attention and slowly cultivate my interest. By listening to her class, I feel way more encouraged and I made progress fast than I expected.
Every morning, the instruction video made by Miss. Xu will be sent to my email. A very interesting point is, she never started the class from the beginning, instead of that, she does a small talk about her job, life after work or news. And during the video, she also tried to make a connection with me by making examples of a student shopping online. It really helps me focus because it felt like listening to a friend talking, but not taking a class. Also, it encourages me to think from the customers’ point of view and clarify my decisions. I have a whole day to accomplish her assignments and analyze the knowledge. Before the end of the day, we will video chat by a professional office software “Dingding”. Miss. Xu will Airplay her screen to me and clarify all the problems with me, step by step and very detailed.
There are only 7 classes in a term, and I was meant to finish my own online store at the end of the term. However, this term doesn’t end after classes. Miss. Xu gave me a huge surprise by pretending to be my customers in the few following weeks. She checked my website and ask me lots of tricky questions that other customers may ask. I guess this is her pop quizzes, but thanks for her advice, I could handle it smoothly.
Personally, I think Miss. Xu has some brilliant character and ability to help her succeed in education. First, Miss. Xu shows empathy to an intern who was having a hard time at work, built a connection to encourage me and help me perform better in this subject. “Develop a strong sense of empathy with learners is beneficial because: It helps them to build a sense of security and stronger relationships with other learners and educators, positioning them well for learning.”(Goodstart, 2018) She always tried to think of me by caring about my work, caring about if I have enough time to complete her assignments and other jobs. She also gave me advice on how to succeed in my career. In general speaking, Miss. Xu is more than a superior, but also a leader, a senior in my career. That makes me really focus on learning because I don’t want to let her down, and I really like to spend time with her. I think it is the key reason why this experience is so memorable. It can be related to the humanization of learning. She values it a lot more than other instructors. Considering I am still a student and not quite experienced in online trading, she adjusted her teaching method to be more tender. It makes the student feel less stressful and calm, which also make them more productive. The small talks and greetings in instruction videos are also reflections of humanization. Below I prepared a video to show you guys how to teach with empathy:
Second, Miss. Xu knows how to improve her performance with technology. The software she chose, “Dingding” is very efficient for online teaching. It a combination of multimedia education video. It allows Miss. Xu to video chat and do screen sharing performance at the same time, so she could explain and clarify my problems at the same time. In my opinion, video chat helps me grow interests in this subject since it feels like talking to her face to face, and I can share my opinions and questions as soon as possible. Since I was working on a platform, listening, and reading is not efficient and causes many misunderstandings. Screen sharing is a great decision, I could follow every step quickly and accurately. I strongly recommend this software to all learners and educators, you can check further information and download from  https://www.dingtalk.com/en
Reference
https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/6/21168211/ebay-coronavirus-sales-ban-face-masks-hand-sanitizer-price-gouging
https://www.worldatwork.org/workspan/articles/how-to-approach-benefits-education-with-empathy
Goodstart Early Learning Why teaching empathy is more important than ever? Retrieved from https://www.goodstart.org.au/news-and-advice/february-2018/why-teaching-children-empathy-is-important
Jonathan, J. How do you teach empathy? Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMpEzpSwy0k
Dingding official website Retrieved from https://www.dingtalk.com/en
https://www.nyjuhui.com/kj/633.html