Teaching Geography in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic in a Chinese University: A Case Study of Beijing Normal University

ABSTRACT

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been making higher education confront great challenges globally, while COVID-19 has been speeding up the necessity to overcome them. Traditionally, geographical teaching in China involves indoor experiments, fieldtrips and other practical activities in addition to lectures in class. We asked what impacts or changes the COVID-19 epidemic would have on geographical education in universities of China. Based on the case of Beijing Normal University, this chapter aims to examine new learning patterns as a response to the outbreak and the real impacts in China. Questionnaire surveys and typical cases are used to examine the teaching arrangements and effects in three periods, viz., the early stage of the outbreak when it was necessary to prepare contingent teaching plans, the middle and late stage of the spring semester to examine the adaptations and feedback of online learning, and later when traditional teaching resumed in the autumn semester of 2020 to evaluate online learning. This research aims to seek some innovative measurements for reforming geographical education in Chinese universities in post COVID-19 pandemic times. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.