A novel teaching model for web-based university physics courses

Hongyan Wang
Southwest Jiaotong University
Chengdu, China

Yuexia Lin
Emei Campus, Southwest Jiaotong University
Emei, China

The rapid development of information technology and abundant online resources for education have created new dynamics for innovating models of teaching university physics courses. By diversifying curricula, scenarios and structures of classroom instructions, Internet technology plays an important role in helping students to enrich knowledge of the discipline and strengthen their capabilities for making independent enquiries, thus creating more effective cognitive learning methods. Through analysing the three stages in the ‘light interference’ teaching process — from class preparation and classroom instruction to after-class training — this paper introduces a novel student-focused’ model for teaching college-level physics that integrates multimedia technology, in particular Internet technology, into the curricula. The model is built on an IT-based curriculum that integrates online teaching, a virtual experiment platform, online assignments, and online Q&A and testing; and it can successfully solve problems such as inadequate resources and difficulty in explaining and illustrating theory that cannot be dealt with effectively by traditional teaching methods.