摘 要

长期以来，中国政府一直致力于推进高等教育改革，实现高等教育现代化。其中一个推行的措施是结合了互联网、信息技术和大学课程的SPOC嵌入式混合学习模式。通过在部分课程中加入课堂内外的在线学习活动，混合式学习正在取代传统的面对面式教学。本文旨在探讨英语专业学生对英语精读课中SPOC嵌入式混合学习模式的态度。提出了两个研究问题: 1)学生对SPOC嵌入式混合学习模式的态度; 2)各年级学生对此学习模式态度的异同点。本文对武汉理工大学在读本科生采用该模型的调查问卷结果进行分析，调查问卷的对象为190名至少完成一个学期的英语精读课程学习的英语专业学生。结果表明，与传统课堂教学相比，大多数受访学生更喜欢SPOC嵌入式混合学习方法，超过60%的受访学生对自己在该模型中的状态感到满意并认为学习目标完成良好。本文提出了一些可行的建议和教学启示，希望能更好地理解混合式学习和以学生为中心的高等教育学习环境。

关键词：SPOC；混合式学习；学生反馈；英语精读课程

Abstract

Chinese government has been working to promote the higher education reforms in order to modernize the college education over the long time. One of the released measures is the SPOC embedded blended learning which combined the computer-assisted technology and college face-to-face sessions. Blended learning is replacing the traditional face-to-face teaching and learning with engaging in-class and pre- and post-class work online in some courses. This thesis aimed to investigate English major’s attitudes towards the SPOC embedded blended learning model for the English Intensive Reading course. Two research questions were addressed: 1) what are the students’ attitudes towards the SPOC embedded blended learning model; and 2) what are the similarities and differences of students’ attitudes towards the proposed model across different grades. The study conducted an analysis of the questionnaire results of Chinese students who got engaged with the new approach in the Wuhan University of Technology. The questionnaire was completed by 190 English majors who had finished at least one semester’s learning of the English Intensive Reading course. The results revealed that the majority of respondents preferred the SPOC embedded blended learning method over the traditional classroom teaching, and more than 60% of the surveyed students felt that they had achieved their goals and they were satisfied with their learning outcomes through this model. This thesis provided three feasible suggestions and also addressed pedagogical implications. It hoped to reach a better understanding of blended learning and student-centered learning environment of higher education.

Key Words: SPOC; blended learning; students’ feedback; English Intensive Reading course

Contents

1 Introduction 1

2 Literature Review 5

2.1 Blended learning and SPOCs 5

2.2 Students’ attitudes towards the SPOC model 7

3 Research Methodology 10

3.1 Research questions 10

3.2 Participants 10

3.3 The course structure 10

3.4 Instrument and procedures 12

4 Results 15

4.1 Students’ attitudes towards the SPOC embedded blended learning model 15

4.2 Students’ satisfaction of the SPOC embedded blended learning model 17

4.3 Students’ perceived progress 18

4.4 Time spent on online learning 19

5 Discussion 21

6 Conclusion 24

References 26

Appendix 28

Acknowledgements 33

An Empirical Study of a SPOC Embedded Blended Learning Model for Intensive English Reading:

The college English Majors’ attitudes

1 Introduction

Since 1999, China’s Ministry of Education has implemented an educational reform policy to increase the number of students enrolled in colleges and universities. Higher education begins to transform from an elite educational system to a stage of massification in China, so that a large number of students have access to receive it. However, larger class sizes and student numbers pose great challenges to the allocation of teaching resources and teaching time. With the globalization today, both higher education itself and enterprises demand a higher request on students' comprehensive learning ability, which requires universities to provide students with more teaching materials and learning methods keeping up. However, traditional classroom teaching is increasingly difficult to meet these requirements, which increases the teaching burden of college teachers. Therefore, the reform of higher education in China needs constant innovation in teaching methods urgently.