Soil mechanics is the core and main course of civil engineering. It has the characteristics of strong specialty, numerous and trivial knowledge points, and high flexibility in application. It has many hypothetical conditions and idealization theory, which are incomprehensible and difficult to use for students. Taking the online course of soil mechanics of Hohai University as an example, this paper expounds the significance and difficulties of the "Golden Course" construction of open online course under the construction standard of higher order, innovation and challenge. This paper lists the specific measures to promote the construction of "Golden Course", for example, reforming the curriculum system, adopting case teaching methods, integrating ideological and political education concepts, and integrating the form of flipped classroom, to improve the teaching content, improve the vitality of the course, raise students' ability to solve problems and cultivate students' comprehensive quality. The effectiveness of these measures is confirmed by the statistical results of learning effects.