Li Lin: I'm Willing to Do my Best to Do my Job as a Teacher

On January 30, 2020 during the outbreak of COVID-19, Li Lin, Director of the Undergraduate Education Office at the College of Management and Economics went back to Tianjin in advance to prepare for the beginning of the term. She said: "Every Chinese is driving to overcome the epidemic. I want to do my bit for our country. I'm not a doctor or a nurse, I can't offer direct help to the patients, but I'm willing to do my best to do my job as a teacher.”

In early February, the Ministry of Education issued a notice on the postponement of school opening, and the school began to arrange the work schedule for online teaching. Tianjin University (TJU) established a liaison group for undergraduate teaching during the epidemic. When TJU recruited liaison officers from various colleges, Li took the initiative to sign up as a liaison officer of the College of Management and Economics (CoME).

Most teachers were new to online teaching and live broadcasts. The conversations of the WeChat group showed that the teachers were anxious. Under the guidance of Deputy Dean of CoME Yang Baochen, who is responsible for undergraduate education, CoME selected teachers who were familiar with online teaching in various undergraduate disciplines in time and formed the online technical support team to solve the teachers' various technical problems. That week, like many undergraduate teaching management teachers at TJU, she worked for a long time every day, because many problems must be resolved before the start of the course.

On February 17, the undergraduate compulsory courses and some elective courses of TJU officially started online teaching. Suddenly, a large number of courses made the online learning platform stuttered. The teachers had to change the teaching platform. And students had some problems such as the frequent switch of learning platforms, no textbooks, etc. In the first week, Li insisted on collecting the data of the student questionnaires sent back by the Academic Affairs Office every day and reported the overall situation to the head of CoME. For the questions about specific courses and teachers mentioned in the questionnaire, CoME communicated with teachers through WeChat and phone, and reminded teachers to pay attention to the students' questions.

In the second week after the school opening, Li finished the weekly report of the first two weeks of the undergraduate online teaching and organized the teaching management teachers of her branch to conduct an online experience sharing session to share the experience of teaching management. CoME gave full play to the wisdom of teachers and provided advice for the running of online teaching.

Despite hardships, Li Lin felt worthy and a sense of achievements at every "Thank you!" in WeChat and affirmation and praise of her work from leaders and other teachers. She thought that even though she was not a doctor or a nurse, even not a lecturer who has opportunities to stand on the podium or face the camera to answer questions and help students build confidence to come over the epidemic, while she could do her job well. She is pleased with her work, and glad that she can do her best for the online teaching of the faculty and other services. Li said she will continue to prepare for the online teaching operation and improve the quality of the undergraduate education!

Li Lin is currently the Director of the Undergraduate Education Office of CoME. Since July 2003, she has been engaged in administrative management in CoME and has been responsible for international cooperation and exchanges, graduate education, postdoctoral management, and undergraduate education.

By: College of Management and Economics

Editor: Sun Xiaofang