Yang Shaokang and his four roommates as majors in clinic medicine in Jilin University were watching the MOOC live show in their dormitory. He put forward a question through WeChat, “Tu Youyou was inspired by traditional Chinese medicine and extracted Artemisinin. How will the traditional Chinese medicine develop in the future? This was part of the scene of the MOOC class that an academician has recently given to more than 10,000 students on “Humanity and Medicine” at the Flipped Class Development base of the College of Medicine of Fudan University. There were only more than 20 offline students in the classroom where the academician stood while all the other online students scattered in more than 30 universities and colleges around the country. Students who have registered can study in their own classrooms online as the class is filmed and broadcast online. The students can actually have the class wherever there is the Internet, like the library or the dormitory. The students can even use their mobile phones to have the class.
There are two cameras in the classroom where the teacher stands, one in the front and one in the back of the classroom. The video can be transmitted through data line from the camera to the computer in the back of the classroom and upload online for live show. Students who scatter around the country can have the class at the same time. There is also a TV set by the side of the camera, alternately displaying the classroom of Handan Campus of Fudan and the classroom of Dongbei University of Finance and Economics in Dalian. There is working staff collecting questions from wechat and the Internet. There is also an anchor who asks the professor questions on behalf of the students who put forward the questions.
The bell rung at 9:30 am to indicate class beginning. Wen Yumei, an academician from China Academy of Engineering, is in her 80s. She came to the point at the very beginning, saying humanity and medicine are just like duo, each being independent and complimentary to the other with harmony. “In today’s world when medicine technology keeps evolving, medicine students have to gain reflection and wisdom from history and philosophy,” she said.
As highly interactive flipped class, the professors talked for only half an hour while the other half hour was like a “press conference”. As shown from the TV screen, a student from Dongbei University of Finance and Economics was the first to raise her hand. Wen extended her hand to the camera, “please let the girl student dressed in dark ask her question.” The student stood up, “Will the doctors be replaced by robots in the future?” Having heard the question, Wen signaled her to sit down and answered with determination, “No.” She said doctors are not cold robots. Doctors have emotions, experience and technology that cannot be replaced by machines.
This was the first MOOC class jointly developed by Fudan University and Peking University on “Humanity and Medicine”. Wen is the leader of the course. There also about ten professors who will teach. The course is mixed with offline and online teacher, offering 24 class hours of online video teaching and four times and eight class hours of face-to-face teaching. More than 10,000 students have registered for the course in this autumn & winter semester.