After the prolonged Spring Festival holidays overshadowed by the novel coronavirus epidemic, the spring semester of Peking University HSBC Business School (PHBS) began this week. To ensure the safety of all students and faculty, PHBS decided to offer online courses according to prepared curriculum plans, and take a series of measures to mitigate possible side effects caused by the outbreak.

Classroom online

Setting up their mobile phones or computers, PHBS students from all over the world were well prepared for their courses of the new semester. For the first module in this spring semester, PHBS plans to offer 50 master courses and one MBA course online, including game theory,  financial economics, strategic management and among others. 
 

Students across the globe set up their computers before online courses
 

Faculty members offer both live streamed and pre-recorded lectures with presentation slides and other teaching materials. In addition, group discussions and online Q&A sessions will be held on a regular basis to facilitate student-teacher interactions and ensure the teaching quality, and all lectures are recorded and kept for students' future reference.

Following are comments from faculty and students:
 

Professor Park draws binomial tree online
 

" The biggest problem is communication and interaction from students. Although it was not intended to be the case this time, the fact that online teaching can be delivered and received anywhere is a clear benefit, especially under current situation," remarked Professor Young Joon Park, who taught two courses yesterday using Dingtalk platform. In face of some challenges like limited options for writing or drawing graphs, he offset the inconveniency by "making lecture slides more comprehensive than before."

 

Professor Zhu's online class
 

" Faculty members should get well prepared in advance and take time to learn related softwares and tools. Pre-class online platform testing and students' cooperation are vital to the teaching quality. If group discussions are needed, it's better to let student join online groups before class starts, " said Professor Zhu Hong, who also expressed thanks to IT office's great support in online teaching.
 

 MA student Yuan Lisha takes notes during the online course 
 

Online courses offer students the opportunity to make good use of their time off campus while reducing their risk of exposing to the virus. MA student Yuan Lisha mentioned, " Although there are some limitations in group discussions, the remote teaching led to more student participation since some of them may be less shy typing online than speaking in the classroom." 
 

MA student Kirti Krishna sets up the online platform
 

"I feel so proud of our institution that in spite of such conditions, we are still able to communicate and learn together. The kind of support and communication happening is amazing," International student Kirti Krishna then added, "talking to professors by just on a click of a button and having their lectures in our comfort is the best we can get in this virus outbreak."  He spoke highly of the available playback for online courses, and hoped that the situation could get better soon. " I am missing my mirror lake and PHBS badly!"
 

United to fight against virus

Outside the online classroom, the school leadership and staff are working around the clock to ensure the smooth daily operation and a virus-free campus amid the novel coronavirus outbreak. Dean Hai Wen visited the student dormitory, and expressed the school’s concern to 12 on-campus students (including five internationals) by providing them some food as well as fruits. 
 

PHBS staff members take turns to work on campus for student service 

Disinfection for a virus-free campus