“Database Principles and Applications” is a compulsory basic course for undergraduates majoring in information science and computer science. This course is rich in teaching content, strong in theory, and closely related to actual operation. Therefore, this course has always been regarded as “difficult for teachers to teach and difficult for students Learning”. The author tried to use the mixed teaching mode of combining classroom and “ M assive C ourse” to construct a teaching measurement evaluation scale and measure the results of teaching reform. After analysis and research, it reveals that the “massive course” mixed teaching model has a significant positive impact on the teaching course of “Database Principles and Applications”, which help solve the problems of less class hours and more content in the course. This article adopts an empirical research paradigm, conducts teaching reform experiments in the three grades of two schools, and analyses the results from both qualitative and quantitative aspects. Finally, it concludes that the mixed teaching model of “massive course” is beneficial to improve teaching effective. The full article firstly introduces the characteristics of the “Database Principles and Applications” course and the characteristics of the “massive course”, and then introduces the basic situation and result analysis of the course reform, and finally draws a conclusion.
“Database Principles and Applications” is a compulsory basic course for undergraduates majoring in information science and computer science. Through this course, students can understand the basic concepts of relational data models, the basic operations of databases, and the architecture and development steps of database systems. It plays an important role on subsequently learning big data and building an information system knowledge framework. The theory of the course is strong with rich learning content, and it is also closely connected with practice. So, it has always been regarded as a “teacher is difficult to teach and students are difficult to learn” course. Especially in recent years, with the continuous popularization of new database technology applications, the course content has increased the basic knowledge of big data storage and processing. Correspondingly, when schools are constantly compressing professional course hours, the contradiction between less classroom hours and more teaching content is becoming more and more prominent.
“Massive course” also known as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS) which is an online course opening mode. There are about 7615 related documents searched for the keyword “massive course” on literature platforms such as China National Knowledge Infrastructure. More detailed analysis and summary of nearly 200 articles of “massive course” are carried out by Shen et al. (2014). From the analysis of the literature, it is found that “Massive Course” has become one of the most important teaching forms after classroom teaching. “Massive Course” provides students with a shared platform for independent learning and a good lifelong learning environment for the public. It can be said that “Massive Course” is changing the lives of everyone. At present, there are tens of thousands of “Massive Course” platforms with over 100,000 registered people worldwide and the number of online courses on the “Education Online” platform has exceeded 100,000. The computer scientists Sebastain Thrun and David Evans opened an “artificial intelligence” course which registered online learning exceeded hundreds of thousands of people. Some people vividly called “Massive Course” as wave ( Li, 2013).
From the analysis of some relevant literatures, most of authors support the “Massive Course”. However, when the author realizes the convenience in the “Massive Course” teaching practice, it also finds that there are problems which could not be ignored. For example, it is hard to constraint in student management, the teaching content is fragmentation, it is difficult for the students to build a relatively complete knowledge system, the course pass rate is not high and the quality of teaching varies.
In order to test whether the online and offline mixed teaching mode can improve teaching effects of the “Database Principles and Applications” course, it can adopt empirical research paradigm, which conducts the teaching experiment in three groups of two schools. It can prove that the online and offline mixed teaching mode in the form of “Massive Course” is good for improving teaching effects of the “Database Principles and Applications” course.
The author carried out teaching reform experiments on 297 undergraduate and college students from 6 natural classes in the 2015, 2016, and 2017 computer major of Nanchang Normal University and Ningbo Polytechnic. Through the way of questionnaires and interviews, it compares and analyses the result of teaching reform.
One of the two selected schools is an undergraduate school and the other is a junior college. Both schools have opened the “Database Principles and Applications” course for the students in the computer major, which enables us to measure the data of teaching experiment and result continuously in three years.
In order to fully understand the application of the new model, this study could combinate quantitative and qualitative research methods. In addition, questionnaire data, Excel and SPSS19.0 are main statistical tools for statistical analysis.
Based on the literature from Hao (2017), the author created a table for student evaluation, a table for teacher evaluation, and an index for expert evaluation. Each scale has two levels of evaluation indexes, as shown in
| Group Education | 2015 control group | 2016 control group | 2017 control group |
|---|---|---|---|
| Undergraduate | 39 | 45 | 49 |
| Junior college | 65 | 50 | 49 |
| Total samples | 104 | 95 | 98 |
| First-level evaluation index | Secondary evaluation index |
|---|---|
| Teaching attitude | 1) Full preparation of lessons and proficient teaching; 2) Full of emotion; 3) Strict classroom management and strong sense of responsibility. |
| Teaching content | 1) The viewpoint is correct and the concept is clear; 2) The key points are prominent; 3) The knowledge is wide and the information is large; 4) The content of the textbook is reasonably enriched; 5) The theory is connected with the reality and the practical ability is strengthened. |
| Teaching process | 1) Explain refining, standard language, and clear expression; 2) Flexible and diverse teaching methods; 3) Pay attention to the cultivation of students’ independent thinking and innovative ability; 4) Use blackboard writing and modern teaching techniques in a timely manner and with good results. |
| Teaching effect | 1) Students gain something and can master the knowledge they have learned; 2) Stimulate learning interest and desire for knowledge; 3) Learning methods have improved and learning ability has improved. |
| Project | Evaluation index |
|---|---|
| Teaching attitude | 1) Teachers are well-behaved and energetic; 2) Prepare lessons carefully and fully, give lectures without manuscripts, and be proficient in them. |
| Teaching content | 1) Teaching objectives are in line with the syllabus and students’ actual level; 2) Pay attention to the introduction of problems and the teaching of basic concepts, basic knowledge and basic skills; 3) Rich teaching content and large amount of information; 4) Clear and logical, with prominent points. |
| Teaching process | 1) Teaching methods are conducive to enlightening students’ thinking; 2) Proper application of teaching means and reasonable design; 3) Attach importance to cultivating students’ ability to analyze and solve problems; 4) Good at adjusting the classroom atmosphere and arousing students’ enthusiasm. |
| Teaching effect | 1) High utilization rate of classroom time; 2) Promote students’ positive thinking and guide students’ innovative thinking; 3) students learn, can better master the knowledge; 4) Homework is helpful for students to understand and master the content explained in class. |
| Project | Evaluation index |
|---|---|
| Teaching attitude | 1) Be able to control the classroom well, adjust the teaching rhythm according to the specific situation, and have strong strain capacity; 2) Be able to timely and appropriately use various teaching techniques and be proficient in operation; 3) Standardized teaching language and reasonable blackboard writing design. |
| Teaching content | 1) Teaching objectives are specific and clear, which can reflect the characteristics of the subject; 2) Can stimulate students’ autonomy, initiative and creativity; 3) Pay attention to the communication with students, so that students at different levels can gain something. |
| Teaching process | 1) Be able to reasonably expand the content of the textbook, with the focus and difficulty clearly defined; 2) Reasonable arrangement of teaching content, rich cases, close to reality; 3) Combine theory with practice to strengthen practical ability. |
| Teaching effect | 1) Strong interaction between teachers and students, good at using heuristic teaching; 2) Diversified forms of teaching organization and combination of collective teaching and group cooperative learning; 3) Attach importance to cultivating students’ ability to analyze and solve problems; 4) Homework is helpful for students to understand and master the content explained in class. |
developed by the evaluation criteria of “teaching goals, teaching behaviours, and teaching methods”. The corresponding questionnaires are compiled based on these indicators.
Based on the evaluation scale, the author designed different questionnaires for different respondents. The author has designed 1 to 5 questions for each second-level evaluation index. Each question is the multiple-choice question. Each option is measured using the Likert scale of five-point. The measurement scale ranged as follows: 1) dissatisfied, 2) not very satisfied, 3) neutral, 4) relatively satisfied, and 5) satisfied. The score of each secondary evaluation indictor is equal to the arithmetic average of the corresponding 1 to 5 questions.
In order to comprehensively understand the survey respondents’ attitude towards the new teaching model, the students in the experimental group designed common questions that are in favour of adopting the adopting the combination of “Massive Course” and traditional classroom to form a new teaching model of “flip classroom” and why after the questionnaire. The questionnaire sent a total of 312 student questionnaires and 297 were collected. The questionnaire recovery rate was 95.19%. The distribution of 297 questionnaire classes is as follows:
The main survey method of qualitative analysis is interviewees. The interviewees are divided into three types of research objects, one is a sample of students, which 5 students are randomly selected in each class tested; the other is a sample of teachers, with computer majors in two schools that 5 people were randomly selected from the first-line teachers; three categories were 5 school administrators and education scholars from two schools. The main purpose of qualitative research is to verify the conclusions of quantitative analysis.
This teaching experiment has lasted 4 years, the specific steps are as follows:
The first step is to pre-experiment and prepare for the topic, as well as determine the main research goals and assumptions of the topic. The main research assumption of this topic is that the “Massive Course” mixed teaching mode benefits to improving the quality of teaching and solves the shortage of classroom hours and the loose management of teaching problems.
The second step is to construct a teaching quality scale and conduct a survey of the control group. The author can conduct a sample survey on the students of the control group in the middle and final stages.
The third step is the course construction. The online opening course “Principle and Application of Database” built on the Superstar platform to form teaching materials such as syllabus and course standards to teach the samples.
The fourth step is to investigate the results of the experimental group and the expert survey. After measuring the teaching quality of the students in the experimental group according to the evaluation table, the measurement results are compared with the control group.
The author introduces “Massive Course” as an auxiliary teaching method to help students prepare before class, review after class, speed up the course rhythm in class and cultivate students’ independent learning ability. The specific practices are as follows:
Preparation for the course. According to the teaching content, the whole course is divided into six parts: database overview, relational model overview, SQL language, database system development, database management system and database new technology. Each part is further refined into several knowledge points and record a video and prepare two or more exercises and as much information as possible. The course outline, the course implementation plan and knowledge point videos and exercises could be uploaded to the “Massive Course” platform.
The teaching process of each course. Firstly, it requires to conduct pre-class goal guidance, upload the course materials to the platform and arrange students to study in advance; then it needs to learn difficulties and key points in classes, and check and fill in deficiencies; finally, the timely feedback after class is important. The specific method is that the teacher uploads the lesson plan, course video, PPT and expanded materials to the MOOCS platform one week in advance for students to learn by themselves. The important thing is that the teacher will also prepare some exercise uploads at the same time, so that students can learn by themselves. In the classroom, the teacher first checks the pre-lesson preparation situation, and the student answers the exercises arranged before the lesson, and then gives targeted explanations and supplements. After the class, the teacher will interact with the students to complete the question answering and testing after class, and feedback the classroom effect.
Set the teaching content of the first class of “Massive Course”. The first lesson is an introduction to the entire course. Students have preconceived characteristics in their psychology, so the first lesson is particularly important and needs special attention. The content that needs to be explained in the first lesson includes: “What knowledge is needed to learn this course” (Foundation), “Relationship between this course and other computer professional courses” (Relation), “What does this course include?” (Content), “How to learn this course” (Requirement). That is summarised by as the FRCR method (Zhang, 2018).
According to SPSS19.0 analysis, Cronbach’s Alpha in the reliability and validity test of the student questionnaire is equal to 0.858, based on the Cronbach’s Alpha of standardized item = 0.871, both values exceed 0.7; the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin metric with sufficient sampling is equal to 0.824, which passes Bartlett’s sphericity test Sig is equal to 0.000.
What is more, Cronbach’s Alpha of the reliability and validity test of the expert questionnaire is equal to 0.871, and the Cronbach’s Alpha based on the standardized items = 0.890, both of which exceed 0.7; the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin metric with sufficient sampling is equal to 0.532, and the Bartlett’s sphericity test Sig is equal to 0.000.
Teacher self-check questionnaire reliability and validity test Cronbach’s Alpha is equal to 0.881, based on standardized items Cronbach’s Alpha = 0.905, both values exceed 0.7; the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin metric of sufficient sampling is equal to 0.662, and passes Bartlett’s sphericity test Sig Equal to 0.000.
For example, “↑2→1↓0” means that there are three indicators, of which there are 2 rising items, 1 equal item, and 0 decreasing items.
In