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not only assist the learning and teaching processes but also foster communication and
interaction among teachers and students (i.e., online and offline), even though they are
situated in different learning spaces. The goal is to provide authentic and innovative
learning experiences. Hilliard et al. [
38
] state that traditional methods of online instruction
are now changing, with the design of more collaborative learning environments and
instructions that foster discussions and collaboration between students [39].
Petraglia [
25
] highlights the importance of merging together online and offline learning
environments in order to make online learning more authentic. This means that, when the
design of an online learning environment is ultimately separated from students’ real-life
environments, it is inevitably challenging to make online learning an authentic experience.
Xiao, Sun-Lin, and Cheng [
40
] point out that the OMO learning mode is not only about a
technology-rich or technology-enabled environment where knowledge and resources are
passively accessed; rather, it provides an environment that is combined with technology,
where the interaction between teachers and both offline and online students can be realized
in a real-time basis. In other words, the OMO learning mode can provide open and flexible
teaching and learning practices that allow students and teachers to interact in a more
diverse way.
To provide an effective OMO learning experience that can cater to the new needs
of students in the post-COVID-19 era, several Chinese universities developed and used
the smart learning tool ClassIn X as a pilot experiment. As Figure 1 shows, the typical
OMO classroom design should have: (1) internet availability and access to connect the
online and offline learning spaces, where the online students log in using their ClassIn X
accounts to virtually join the physical classroom and interact with the in-person students;
(2) interactive boards where ClassIn X is running, so that the teacher can use it to teach
online and offline students at the same time; (3) sound equipment, including microphones
to capture and transmit the sound of students and teachers within the classroom; (4)
cameras to transmit the classroom interactions for the online students; and, (5) optional
tablet computers that students can also use for different learning activities. It should be
noted that full descriptions and depictions of the OMO classroom design are beyond the
scope of this manuscript, as this study mainly focuses on the pilot experiment of using
OMO learning.
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Figure 1. Typical OMO classroom design.
Figure 2 depicts a teacher using ClassIn X to teach English. There is an interactive
board with a smartpen for designing a learning activity in which students from the phys-
ical classroom and students from the online classroom simultaneously work together to
complete various English sentences (i.e., a fill-in-the-blank type of learning activity) under
the guidance of the teacher. This functionality can foster learning interactions between the
online and offline students at the same time, regardless of the learning space. Addition-
ally, both online and offline students can see the learning interaction and receive oral feed-
back from their teacher as well as from their online and offline peers. ClassIn X provides
a repository of open educational resources that the teacher can easily access and use as
teaching materials. The teacher can also save the updated version of the teaching material
(e.g., the teacher’s notes) under an open license to the cloud, which can be reused by the
students or by other teachers later on.
Figure 1. Typical OMO classroom design.
Figure 2 depicts a teacher using ClassIn X to teach English. There is an interactive
board with a smartpen for designing a learning activity in which students from the phys-