M.U.S.T. Officially Inaugurates Class Delivery through Cloud Classroom
Over 6300 Students Engage in Online Learning

On February 17, 2020 Macau University of Science and Technology officially inaugurated the University’s “Cloud Classroom” platform, which would accommodate the classes for over ten thousand students at this special time. On the first day of online classes, the “Cloud Classroom” ran 237 class sessions, where 171 students and over 6300 students experienced cloud learning at first hand.

Before the commencement of class delivery through “Cloud Classroom”, President Liu Liang of M.U.S.T. sent a special message to teachers and students to empower students to strive hard to pursue studies and waste no time and energy. The President deems “Cloud Classroom” an alternative way of learning and hopes that the students take on a proactive attitude, cherish and take advantage of the learning opportunity at such a special time.

“The peace and health we now get to enjoy are built on the awe-striking selfless devotion and commitment of countless people fighting the NCP on the frontlines, despite the risk of being infected by the virus. Many of them are physicians and nurses, and some are ordinary citizens. Nevertheless, they have all earned our great admiration and respect. I’d like to call all of us to pay our highest regards to these heroes! Stay Strong Macao, Stay Strong Wuhan, and Stay Strong China”, said President Liu Liang. He further revealed that the University designed the “Cloud Classroom” in accordance with the relevant guidelines by the Macao Higher Education Bureau in order to protect the faculty members and students from being exposed to the threat of the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (NCP) and in the meantime ensure students’ study progress and teaching/learning quality. Subsequently, the University assembled a special team quickly, invested resources, put in place required hardware and facilities and set up an online teaching platform, and formulated online teaching guidelines and quality assurance measures. Furthermore, to ensure the smooth utilization of the platform, a series of online teaching training sessions were provided for our teachers, and several rounds of testing of the platform were also performed. In the meantime, our teachers acted swiftly and devoted time and energy to developing online teaching plans and preparing teaching materials to be used specially for online delivery.

Before the official launch of “Cloud Classroom”, M.U.S.T. resorted to various ways, including emails, students’ intranet platform Wemust, and the University’s website and Wechat account, to reach students so as to inform them of the ways of operation on the “Cloud Classroom” platform, lecture schedules, form and contents of class delivery, etc. This enabled students to have plenty of time to make thorough preparations beforehand. The University has also made available enquiry services integrating multiple channels, such as telephone, email, and online enquiry via new media, where speedy trouble-shooting assistance is provided to help students tackle various obstacles and problems, preparing students to switch to the brand new way of learning smoothly.

With the joint hard work of M.U.S.T. teachers and students, the first day of “Cloud Classroom” went well. Statistics retrieved by the IT Office of M.U.S.T. indicate that on the first day, the “Cloud Classroom” ran 237 class sessions, where 171 teachers and over 6300 students took the lead to experience the cloud classes at first hand, while the number of subjects involved in these “Cloud Classroom” sessions is 178.

The M.U.S.T. IT Office explained that the M.U.S.T. “Cloud Classroom” relies on the University’s WeMust unified authentication system, basic data services system, and teaching management system, and is empowered by a mature stable video conference system, which jointly constitute an integrated online teaching platform. The “Cloud Classroom” schedules align perfectly with the pre-made face-to-face class schedules and remain the same for teacher’s schedules and students’ schedules. Both teachers and students simply use their own university email accounts to access the platform, and once logged in, all it takes is “One click” to get class started. Thus, it enables teachers and students to be able to give/take classes globally.

WeMust “Cloud Classroom” offers a great diversity of class interactions, for example, asking questions, raising hands, group discussion, student presentation, sharing materials, and simultaneous recording of classes. Teachers therefore are equipped with a flexible pool of choices to find particular delivery/interaction forms that suit particular needs. WeMust “Cloud Classroom” is also perfectly capable of performing various teaching management roles. The University’s teaching management departments could fulfill various teaching management tasks over teachers’ teaching and students’ learning via “Cloud Classroom”, for example, checking attendance, patrolling classes, or even sitting-in a class.