The Driving Strategy of Online Ideological and Political Class in Universities Based on SWOT Analysis ()
1. Introduction
The SWOT analysis method, also known as the situational analysis method, was first proposed in the early 1980s by Werrick, a professor of management at the University of San Francisco. The four letters of SWOT refer to four situations, S (strengths), W (weaknesses), O (opportunities), and T (threats). Among these, S and W refer to the internal situation, while O and T refer to the external situation. Based on a comprehensive analysis of internal and external situations, we can find the targeted coping strategies. As a scientific management theory, SWOT has a wide range of applications. A search was conducted on China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) with the theme of SWOT, and a total of 4163 academic papers were found from PKU, CSSCI, AMI, and EI, covering various application fields such as healthcare, agriculture, urban construction, and elderly care. Many scholars have also applied this method to the study of ideological and political education in universities, such as “optimization strategy of ideological and political education on university WeChat public account” [1] , “application of bilibili in ideological and political education in universities” [2] , “the path of ideological and political education in universities in the era of online live broadcasting” [3] , “embedding AI into ideological and political education” [4] .
As the main teaching form during the epidemic, the online class has made important contributions to completing teaching tasks, but some problems have also been identified. It is urgent to solve the problems and improve the effectiveness of online classes. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the internal strengths (S) and weaknesses (W) as well as the external opportunities (O) and threats (T) of online ideological and political class with SWOT theory, and then find out the corresponding strategies to improve the teaching effectiveness. We have reason to believe that widely-used SWOT analysis can help to find a driving strategy for improving the online ideological and political class.
2. SWOT Analysis of Online Ideological and Political Class in Universities
2.1. S (Strengths)
The online class relies on the Internet, which enables it to flexibly absorb the expertise of the Internet to form a joint advantage, and then empower ideological and political courses. First, it is not limited by time and space, class can still be carried out whenever necessary under remote conditions. It is precisely this advantage that has helped universities successfully complete the teaching of ideological and political courses during the epidemic period. With fragmented learning becoming an important feature of information exchange in the new era, online classes will be an important way of additional learning and lifelong learning [5] [6] . Second, it can provide comprehensive teaching monitoring data, and effectively compensate for the lack of offline teaching tracking. From preview before class to in-class attendance and interaction, and then to post-course homework and quizzes, all activities conducted on the Internet are recorded in the form of big data for long. Teachers are able to view at any time and adjust their teaching strategies according to students’ learning conditions. Besides, it can also provide a new way for universities to monitor teachers’ work. Third, the diverse and innovative forms of interaction based on the network platform provide the conditions to meet personalized interaction needs and promote autonomous participation. For example, some students have a low desire to express themselves on-site but are willing to share their opinions through online platforms. The survey showed that 88.91% of the respondents expressed their willingness to cooperate with teachers’ online interaction, indicating that online interaction can effectively enhance students’ willingness to participate in interaction [7] . Finally, the high availability of a large number of high-quality teaching resources provides excellent conditions for students to expand the breadth and depth of their learning.
2.2. W (Weaknesses)
Especially after concentrated practice during the epidemic, the drawbacks of online classes have gradually emerged. First, the difficulty of classroom control has increased, 81.7% of teachers believe it difficult to supervise online classes [8] . The disruptive change from face-to-face to screen-to-screen weakens the discipline of the teacher, the mutual monitoring among class members and the positive driving role of the classroom activist, which is very likely to induce individual laxity. Although most teachers set up check-in or occasional interactive questions as a constraint, no matter what teaching platform is used, it is impossible to capture the real-time status of every student, and students desert from the classroom, making classroom management more difficult. Second, the test from online teaching triggers psychological stress. Online teaching means quickly adapting to an open teaching environment and the uncertainties it may bring. The transition from offline to online teaching is a new experiment for both teachers and students, and not every teacher has experience in online teaching especially older teachers who are less familiar with online teaching, and are more likely to suffer from psychological anxiety. Teachers in universities have also gone through the process from unfamiliar to familiar, from anxiety to habit with online teaching. Finally, it was easily limited by network conditions. For example, poor network can cause stuck or offline, this is particularly common when many students are in online classes at the same time.
2.3. O (Opportunities)
On the one hand, a very favorable environment for development has been formed. At present, the modernization of ideological and political education is accelerating under high attention and has achieved significant development. As an important gripper to promote information-based teaching, as well as modernization of ideological and political education, online ideological and political class naturally gained opportunities to make a difference and is supposed to make full use of resource support and network advantages to overcome drawbacks, so as to enhance the effectiveness of moral education.
On the other hand, the epidemic has provided an opportunity for the online ideological and political class to expose and resolve problems in practice, which established a good beginning. The extensive practice affirmed the important position of online ideological and political class in implementing the policy of “no suspension of learning”, while also screening out many drawbacks. This is equivalent to helping online classes accurately locate their weaknesses, and providing direction for future improvement.
2.4. T (Threats)
First, network instability seriously affects the quality of online classes. Given the large number of students participating in online classes simultaneously, if the network was not stable enough, stuck or offline would lead to a very poor experience. A survey on network stability found that 78.2% of university students and 62.7% of university teachers stated that online teaching is prone to network congestion [9] . Second, the functions of online teaching platforms are not comprehensive, reducing the selective space and effectiveness of teacher-student interaction. The survey showed that more than half of university teachers believe that the inadequate function of teaching platforms has a large or very large impact on teaching [9] . Third, diversified values that realized rapid spread through the hotbed of the Internet seriously impact ideological and political education and triggered a crisis of value identity.
3. The Driving Strategy of Online Ideological and Political Class Based on SWOT Analysis
3.1. Improve Network Facilities and Functions of Teaching Platforms to Assist Smart Classes
China is a major country in education. According to relevant data from the Ministry of Education, the total number of students in higher education reached 46.55 million in 2022. To fully implement such large-scale online teaching, it is necessary to have complete network conditions and teaching platforms as support.
In terms of network construction: First, universities are supposed to create a good software and hardware environment for online ideological and political classes. The improvement of software includes accelerating the informatization of teaching management and exploring the quality monitoring system suitable for ideological and political education. As for the hardware, universities are supposed to refine the network equipment to improve the stability of network signal transmission and give priority to ensuring the teaching network under special circumstances. Second, we should especially pay more attention to university students taking online classes in remote areas. Because they are more likely to suffer from signal instability, forming a “rural weakness” in online teaching. It is recommended that relevant national departments strengthen resource coordination and vigorously promote the construction of rural internet. Third, the universities’ organizational department can temporarily set up an online teaching supervision team to actively receive feedback and provide assistance, as well as conduct regular surveys to adjust and improve our online teaching activities [10] . Of course, with the development of 5G technology, we believe that the problem of network instability will be effectively alleviated.
In terms of improving teaching platforms: First, expanding the learning portal through mobile propagation and social media, so as to solve the problems of multiple users and cumbersome account passwords. The survey found that nearly half of university students use more than four teaching platforms during online classes, which brings many inconveniences to students. Second, further improve the functions of online teaching platforms, especially the auxiliary functions of class management. For example, it is possible to consider embedding a learning incentive module with an integral mechanism to enhance students’ participation and minimize students’ desertion as much as possible. Third, build a collaborative resource recommendation system to support the open sharing of courses. For example, set up friendly links for courses on red culture or excellent Chinese traditional culture, providing students with more high-quality and convenient learning resources.
3.2. Build a Team of Ideological and Political Course Teachers Proficient in Information-Based Teaching
Teachers are the dominant players in class, and creating a team of teachers proficient in information-based teaching is the key to well carrying out online ideological and political classes. First, strengthen training, especially for experienced teachers who have been immersed in traditional teaching methods for a long time. Learn the usage of the teaching platform, to ensure that teachers are proficient in routine operations such as roll call, posting discussions and so on [11] [12] . Second, adopt the form of “pairing and mutual assistance”, and set fixed problem-solving staff to provide real-time answers for teachers, so as to help them move from basic to advanced operations. Third, add corresponding assessment indicators to keep emphasizing the importance of information-based teaching. With the end of the epidemic, online classes do gradually fade out of people’s sight, but offline class also requires high a level of information literacy. This is what the information age demands of all teachers. Therefore, universities are supposed to remind teachers of improving information literacy sustainably.
3.3. Consolidate Joint Efforts to Resist the Impact of Diverse Values Spread through Network
The internet is a double-edged sword, bringing convenience, but also a breeding ground for the rapid spread of negative values. Universities are supposed to consolidate joint efforts to resist the impact of diverse values spread through networks. First, when conducting discussions or assigning after-class reading, references or websites should be provided to ensure the quality of students’ reading. Given that specifying references may limit students’ knowledge, the scope of references can be appropriately expanded. Second, attach great importance to the role of ideological and political theories teaching in all courses [13] [14] . Ideological and political course is a key course in moral education, but is relatively limited in strength. Universities are supposed to closely integrate ideological and political courses with all other courses to create a synergy of moral education, and achieve a resonance between the above two courses, so that to fight together against the impact of negative values online. Third, take advantage of rapid dissemination of the internet, to vigorously promote correct values [15] . Given the internet is a double-edged sword, if properly used, it will be a powerful tool for universities to consolidate the effectiveness of their ideological and political education. It is worth trying to set up columns on benchmarking and excellent Chinese traditional culture on the university WeChat official account, so that to increase the publicity and influence of correct values.
4. Conclusion
As information technology continues to increase, online classes will become an important way of lifelong and fragmented learning. Presently, there are still many problems with online ideological and political classes, causing lower effectiveness than offline classes. Continuously improving the effectiveness of online ideological and political classes is a recognized difficult but urgent goal in universities. The SWOT analysis clarifies the internal strengths and weaknesses as well as the external opportunities and threats of the online ideological and political class, laying the foundation for finding targeted driving strategies. Universities should seize the moment of Chinese modernization and make full use of SWOT theory, continuously test the feasibility of the driving strategy in practice, strengthen the depth of analysis, and tap into multiple countermeasures to help the broad development of the online ideological and political class.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions that greatly improved the quality of this paper.