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Ping-Cheng Yeh is an assistant professor of electronics engineering at Taiwan University and one of a few to provide Chinese-language e-learning that is attracting large numbers of mainland students.
Unlike most of his engineering colleagues however, he dresses casually, has a ponytail, and wears a plaid shirt, baggy shorts, rubber sandals, platinum wedding ring and a stainless steel university ring on the middle finger of his right hand.
The 40-year-old became a hit on the mainland after he posted the syllabus for his Coursera MOOC (massive open online course) on probability through his Sina Weibo account, a popular social network, a month before the 10-week course started on Aug. 31.
Yeh uses humor and color in his lectures as for many people probability can be boring. "Set Theory: this group loves sweet bean curd, that group likes salty bean curd," "Correlation & Convariance: what the hell is the relationship between you two?" or "Conditional Probability: where Conan appears does there stand a greater probability of death?"
Conan is a fictional figure in "Detective Conan," a popular Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Gosho Aoyama.
"His classes sound inspiring and interesting. Students get excited and sign up for the course when they read the curriculum outline," says Mike Wang, a college student in Beijing who takes Yeh's e-learning class.
Wang notes that Yeh has applied buzzwords, Hollywood elements and Japanese pop culture in his syllabus. "That's why Yeh's probability course is so popular with many Chinese mainland students."
According to Yeh, some 10,000 students have signed up to the MOOC, with more than a half of them from the Chinese mainland.
"It's a great honor for a teacher when so many students come to you.However, there's a lot pressure at the same time because so many students are watching you teach in real time and you cannot afford to make any mistakes," Yeh says.
Along with a class on China's first emperor, "Qin Shihuang: An ancient Chinese Historical Figure" given by history professor Shih-Hao Lu, Yeh's course on probability is the world's first Chinese-language MOOCs Taiwan University launched in conjunction with Coursera.
Coursera is an educational technology company that offers MOOCs and works with universities to make science and humanities courses available online for free.
Founded by computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller from Stanford University in 2012, Coursera MOOCs provide syllabuses, handouts, and a certificate. The courses themselves come near to the experience of a real classroom.
Teaching online requires more art of lecture as students can withdraw from the class at anytime. "To keep your students interested," Yeh says, "the way you talk and the language you use must be close to their daily life."
Yeh introduces probability as a way of handling the unknown and minimizing risk instead of saying that it is a tool for understanding statistics, science and randomness.
"What we know about this world is limited, and we are unable to entirely control the movement of the world. We can use the concept of probability to weigh and consider, and then make a decision," he says.
Some critical netizens say that Yeh is just playing cute in the way he teaches.
Yeh responds by saying that a lot of hard work is involved in becoming a teacher. His intention by acting the way he does "is to let students follow me willingly."
"When it comes to course content, I'm 100 percent strict. I don't allow students to take the class lightly just because I play cute with them. My being friendly and approachable are not conflicted with being strict and earnest."
He must be doing something right.
Yeh was a winner of the outstanding teaching award of 2010, a prestigious annual prize at Taiwan University.
His on-campus students say his teaching methods and the lively atmosphere in the classroom are among the best they have seen.
"It's important to get along well with your students after class. It's a way to understand whether or not they like your teaching, and understand what you say in class," Yeh adds.
