Jilin university kicks off with online classes

Jilin International Studies University in Changchun, capital of Northeast China's Jilin province, made its debut with online classes on March 2, in direct response to the delay to the start of the semester due to the novel coronavirus epidemic, university officials said.

A total of 270 teachers offered 246 classes on the day, with 15,398 students attending class via various online learning platforms.

Sun Lin, a teacher of English-Spanish, led students in their review of homework assignments, summarizing the problems that the students had posed and gave a live Q & A session.

One of the students, Wu Bingda, said the class had been wonderful and Wu hoped that epidemic would be over soon and teachers and students could meet again at the campus in April.

Li Haotian, who is studying Arabic, said that compared with traditional classes, online classes were more relaxing and students were enthusiastic about the new autonomy in learning.

Officials said all the students spoke highly of the online program, but added that they hoped to meet soon at the university once the virus has been defeated.