Joint Construction of Virtual Teaching and Research Section Across Universities: Creating a New Model for Collaborative Teaching and Research

Abstract

The creation and application of massive open online courses, online and offline blended courses, and AI-empowered courses drive the reform in higher education. In this context, the establishment of grassroots teaching organisations should be increasingly promoted. By leading more schools and teachers to more efficiently develop courses and effectively implement teaching reforms through cross-regional and cross-university grassroots teaching organisations, virtual teaching and research section (VTRS) has emerged as a new means to explore the creation of such organisations in the “Internet +” era. This paper introduces the background of the VTRS proposal, analyses the connotations of three types of VTRS, and explains seven characteristics of VTRS. Next, it proposes a VTRS construction framework that involves team building, platform construction, mechanism construction, and content construction. Finally, using computational thinking virtual teaching and research section as an example, this paper introduces the construction cases and methods for VTRS. As a new model of collaborative teaching and research, VTRS will improve teaching skills and research engagements of university teachers and will enhance teaching management and professional development in universities.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

virtual teaching and research section (VTRS) / collaborative teaching and research (CTR) / massive open online courses (MOOCs) / blended courses / online teaching

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Acknowledgments

This paper presents the phased research results of the research projects commissioned by the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of China (Grant No. 6240071137) and the Higher Education Department of the MOE (Exploration and Application Promotion of MOOC-Based Teaching Models in Higher Education conducted by the CMOOC Alliance in 2018), the 2020 Guidelines for the Construction and Application of MOOCs in Higher Education and the 2020 Key Commissioned Project for Higher Education Teaching Reform in Heilongjiang Province (Grant No. SJGZ20200053).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest related to the content of this paper.

Data Availability Statements

The data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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