Math professor Shen Weixiao writes on blackboards to demonstrate reasoning process.

A pencil and paper may be a mathematician’s lab. Elbert Einstein was well-known for standing in front of a blackboard crawled with inscrutable calculations. Here at Fudan, a professor has earned his name by combing chalk and blackboard formulae with online teaching amid an epidemic.

Wearing a plain grey jumper and dark blue jeans, a lecturer in the video stands in front of a blackboard, writing maths formulas with white chalk. From time to time, he steps aside to show the audience what has been written on the board. The four blackboards, are covered in formulas and illustrative drawings, before being erased and filled with new writing again.

This is what Shen Weixiao, a professor from the School of Mathematical Sciences, Fudan University, does every class for his online course “Functions of Complex Variables”.

At present, all courses at Fudan have officially moved online. Prof. Shen uploads course videos before Fridays every week, and requires his students to finish watching them prior to class. Each class is actually held in a group chat where he takes questions from students and shares his notes. After class, he assigns homework on Fudan’s eLearning platform. Though this is a new pedagogical method for him, he makes sure that the content and intensity of his course are not compromised.

For Shen, it is more important to show students the logic behind than to simply impart formulas and results in a math class. Therefore, he insists on writing the entire reasoning process on a blackboard even in online classes. At first, Shen used PPT slides like many other lecturers, but he quickly reverted to blackboard writing as he finds the latter more flexible in demonstrating each steps of a math problem. “Itis difficult to display the whole process in slide shows, but it is easy to do that on a blackboard,” said Shen.

Shen’s blackboardwriting has received positive responses from his students. Zou Siyuan, an undergraduate student from the School of Mathematical Science, said, “It is fantastic to see blackboard writing in online courses. PPT recording will inevitably slow down the teaching, for the professor will have to write with the mouse. But writing on a blackboard will help keep the online class as efficient and engaging as a normal class.” His classmate Hu Guangquan felt the same way. “Prof. Shen’s blackboard writing gives math a sense of beauty. The duration of each online class is shorter than that of a normal class, but the quality and content haven’t been compromised. I’m able to make better use of time. Some of my questions can be solved just by watching the videos again. This learning method applies well to science subjects.”

Shen’s content outline for a course unit

Shen constantly makes small adjustments as he continues with online teaching. The videos for his first class last about fifty minutes, but they took Shen an hour and a half to record. Without audience, it was difficult for him to tell if he was teaching too fast or slow. Therefore, he had to review the recorded clips after each section, and think about what doubts the students might have. Shen believes that accuracy is significant in mathematics. “Otherwise it may lead to serious ‘side effects”, he said. He said he would rather take the time to type complete formulas during Q&A sessions in the group chat than simply send a voice message. As some students felt shy to pose questions in front of others, he would compile notes of the key points for each unit and share them in the group chat.

Prof. Shen Weixiao

Shen is one of the many Fudan’s faculty and staff who have been working hard to move the teaching online in the epidemic. With commitment like Shen’s, the university can operate like normal.