Passive Adaptation or Active Learning: A Survey on the Subjective Feelings of University Teachers in Mainland China in the Online Education Environment during the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT

This paper proposes that we should focus on the subjective feelings of university teachers in the online education environment during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using the questionnaire survey method and choosing university teachers in mainland China as the objects of investigation, it obtained a total of 256 survey samples and puts forward two assumptions. One is that changes brought by the online education environment during the pandemic have a significant influence on university teachers' subjective feelings. The other is that university teachers with different backgrounds have different subjective feelings in the online education environment. The survey results showed university teachers' subjective feelings overall were at the upper middle level, but their attitudes towards and adaption to online classes were diverse. Among the five dimensions of teachers' subjectivity, the score of self-consciousness was the highest, and the score of autonomy was the lowest. During the pandemic, the online teaching environment has a significant impact on the subjective feelings of university teachers in mainland China. Differences in the subjective feelings of university teachers with different backgrounds mainly exist in gender variables, while there is no significant difference in age, years of teaching, and teaching subjects.