Since the official launch of undergraduate education in September 2020, Houston International Institute has been constantly exploring forward. In the construction of study style, the institute adheres to the "student-oriented" purpose, gives full play to its "pilot zone" role, integrates high-quality resources, gradually builds a "university-institute-teacher-peer" linkage and combines online resources and offline sharing.
Non-Interrupted Academic Guidance
On September 23, 2020, the university organized the "Education and Teaching Promotion Meeting of Houston International Institute", which further clarified the institute's teaching position and objectives. In order to better implement the proposals of the conference, the institute has held teaching seminars in different courses to explore teaching methods which combines Chinese and Western characteristics; for imported courses delivered by foreign side, the institute specially designed "Chinese teaching assistants" and "bilingual student assistants" system to help students get over the barrier of professional knowledge in English; hire full-time teachers of professional courses as the head teacher for each class, pay close attention to students’ academic work and guide students in future career; arrange after-school bilingual tutoring and “Online Q&A” session for students to facilitate the grasp of knowledge, especially key and difficult points; in terms of faculties at the UH are unable to attend classes due to the COVID pandemic, the institute promptly launched the plan to establish an English teaching group, which is composed of qualified teachers of the School of Foreign Languages and foreign language teachers of DMU to reinforce students' English academic ability and fully guarantee the effect of bilingual learning.
Non-Stoppable English Learning
In order to help students get used to the English teaching model as soon as possible, reach the language standard, and cultivate students' confidence to communicate in English. The institute has meticulously selected 17 teachers to form an "English Tutor Team". Each tutor is in charge of 10-11 students and guide students to learn the English. For each student, English tutors makes a customized activities ("Morning Reading Plan", "Word of the Day" and "Check-in Master") to encourage students to stick to their English learning on a daily basis. In the meantime, with the help of the instructor, the students organized activities such as "Shata Class" and " Pair-share", so that outstanding students can share their learning and test experience to achieve a peer-driven effect.
Non-Closed Supermarket Supply
Combining the acceptable forms up to date and the trend of normalization of the COVID pandemic, the Institute launched "HII Learning Supermarket". "HII Learning Supermarket" is an online platform based on the institute's WeChat official account. It features to integrate and display current efficient and interesting learning resources. The "items" on the shelves of supermarkets are wholly learning resources. Teachers and students, as "customers", are able to choose the resources that suit them for free in the supermarket with Items including MOOC, books, websites, Wechat accounts, Apps and BiliBili subscribers, etc. The content covers professional learning, English learning, general education, and science knowledge. Each item is equipped with a "commodity description" and a reason for recommendation. According to the learning method, it is classified as five columns (i.e. learning by watching, learning by listening, learning by reading, learning by playing, and learning by speaking) to facilitate customers to select. The HII Learning Supermarket makes it possible to extract learning resources in “one-stop” manner. It is a beneficial attempt for the institute's WeChat account to innovate the publicity and expand the platform's functions. Once the supermarket gets up and running, it attracts teachers and students’ attention. Everyone reckons this method is well-designed, interesting and informative, and the sharing of recommended materials is instrumental in preparing lessons and teaching.
Non-Duplicate Capacity Development
While focusing on students' professional courses and English learning, the institute also pays attention to the cultivation of students' learning ability and interest through multiple platforms. For institute’s English newsletter (HII Newsletter) Students are involved throughout the entire process (writing, proofreading, typesetting and publishing). In this case, students are able to enjoy the charm of the English environment. Also, the institute organizes the "DMU&UH Talk Show" to inspire students’ interest in English. It holds the "Pick up words into poems and send wishes to the New Year" English collage poem contest, which does not only enrich the students’ campus life, but also encourage them to persist in learning English. Besides, teacher Bingbing Li from DMU’s Houston office launches the “Meeting UH'' online daily video sharing activity and it makes full use of half an hour before class to share daily life at the University of Houston.
With non-interrupted academic guidance, non-stoppable English learning, non-closed supermarket supply, and non-duplicate capacity development, the institute aims to get all the students involved in the construction of the style of study and make it through every step of student learning. After a semester of exploration and practice, the establishment of the style of study has achieved remarkable results in terms of the students' academic performance, the number of students passed the language test and the learning habits. The institute would like to take this as a starting point, continue to explore new ideas for the construction of style of study, and build a high-level talent training system.
