Introduction
The Department of Digitalisation serves as the key unit responsible for the development, management, and service provision of information technology at the Open University of China (OUC). It centrally oversees the creation and upkeep of all information systems (platforms) throughout the university. This department is wholly committed to planning OUC's IT infrastructure, managing network information security, conducting data analysis and push services, and promoting the integration and application of technology. We are dedicated to the "Six-Network Integration" model, actively advancing the melding of information technology with education to drive the reform and development of the university through technological means. The department consists of five divisions: the Research and Development Centre, the Operations and Maintenance Service Centre, the Network and Security Centre, the Big Data Centre, and the General Office.
Contact
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Construction
Learning Platform
1. Introduction to the Learning Platform
The Learning Platform of the Open University of China (OUC), commonly referred to as the "Learning Platform," is a customized online learning platform developed from the internationally renowned open-source platform Moodle. It is tailored to meet the specific teaching needs of the OUC.
In collaboration with Alibaba Cloud Computing Co., Ltd. (commonly known as "Alibaba Cloud"), the Learning Platform integrates cloud computing technology to centrally deploy applications like the Learning Platform, Student Space, and Teacher Space of the OUC Learning Network on Alibaba Cloud. All data is hosted on Alibaba Cloud, enabling OUC teachers and students to access the platform through various devices such as computers and mobile devices. This setup embodies the "Cloud-Network-Device" technical architecture of our university.
Diagram: Cloud Architecture of the Learning Platform
2. Operation Status of the Learning Platform
The Learning Platform offers comprehensive teaching services for instructors and a one-stop learning solution for OUC students. Since its initial trial in the fall semester of 2013, the use of the OUC Learning Network has significantly expanded. This expansion is evident in the growing number of users, courses, requests, and overall traffic on the Learning Platform.
The number of users on the Learning Platform has grown from 490,000 at its initial launch in the fall of 2013 to 3.42 million by December 2017. Of these, 3,379,909 are student users who have accessed the platform for their studies, 39,779 are teacher users who have used the platform for instructional activities, and 5,671 are administrator users involved in teaching organisation and management.
The number of courses on the Learning Platform has grown from 4 at its initial launch in the fall of 2013 to 2,996 by December 2017, with a continuous enrichment of course resources and accumulation of teaching achievements.
The Learning Platform has received strong support from various branches during its operation. We also extend our gratitude to the teachers who have offered valuable suggestions. We will continue to enhance the Learning Platform to better serve our teachers and students.
Cloud Classroom: Exploration and Practice on the Technology of Internet + Classroom
Project Overview
In early 2013, the Open University of China (OUC) launched the Cloud Classroom Construction Project, aiming to bridge the digital divide between the western and eastern regions of China. The project focuses on enhancing the level of informatization in border areas, particularly the OUC branches in Xinjiang and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, as well as Tibet College. This initiative supports the development of education in Xinjiang and Tibet. Additionally, it extends assistance to underdeveloped, border, and ethnic minority areas in the western and central regions to facilitate the sharing of high-quality educational resources through distance education, promoting balanced educational development. Since 2014, the Cloud Classroom Construction Project has been featured as a "Key Task of Educational Informatization Work" by the Ministry of Education (MOE) for three consecutive years. In 2016, the MOE issued the Opinions of the Ministry of Education on Developing Open Universities, emphasising the need to explore an open university education model that reflects Chinese characteristics and contemporary features, adapting to the new demands of economic and social development and the latest achievements in modern information technology. The construction of "cloud classrooms" was explicitly highlighted.
Over the past three years, the OUC has established a total of 314 cloud classrooms and 21 control centres across 22 branches, through support from OUC headquarters and contributions from both the headquarters and the branches.
Functionality Design
Interaction and sharing are at the heart of OUC's cloud classrooms. Leveraging digital devices and the internet, and supported by educational cloud platforms, these classrooms distribute high-quality educational resources with timely, dynamic feedback. They feature capabilities for live broadcasting, recording, and access from multiple devices, supporting a large-scale distributed network for real-time interaction and resource sharing. Cloud classrooms utilize advanced technology to overcome the limitations of physical learning spaces, providing students with greater autonomy and promoting personalized learning and collaborative group work. These tools enable real-time interaction, communication, and collaboration. With access to a wealth of high-quality learning resources, guidance from an outstanding team of instructors, spaces for knowledge sharing, seamless multi-device access, and personalized support services, cloud classrooms facilitate ubiquitous learning and communication, blending physical and virtual learning environments.
System Architecture
The OUC has developed cloud classrooms as a new type of learning space, integral to the OUC's strategic development of a cloud-network-device system. These cloud classrooms are tailored to the OUC's unique structure, which includes teaching points distributed across the country and its systematic operations. They establish an interconnected classroom system that supports a blended teaching and learning model, combining online and offline methods.
Based on the OUC’s operational mechanism of "four-tiered education, two-tiered management, and a multi-dimensional education network covering urban and rural areas nationwide," the architecture design of the cloud classroom system adopts a structure known as "unified platform, two-tiered management, and four-layered application." This design enables centralized management, unified maintenance, and nationwide interconnection of cloud classrooms through the headquarters control centre. Additionally, the cloud classrooms in each province are centrally managed through their respective branch control centres.
To develop a distance education learning environment with distinctive characteristics and clear identification of the OUC, the headquarters has adopted a unified design approach for cloud classrooms. This approach covers various aspects, including system architecture, functionality design, classroom space, equipment provisioning, and environmental culture. The goal is to create a digital learning environment that delivers an excellent user experience, comprehensive functionality, replicability, and standardization.
The cloud classroom is a hybrid system that merges virtual and real elements through a cloud classroom management platform and a recording and broadcasting resource management platform, enhancing its service offerings. This system supports activities conducted in physically existing cloud classrooms located in various places, as well as activities facilitated through various mobile devices and web platforms. Additionally, it allows for seamless integration of cloud classroom teaching activities with learning platforms, creating a comprehensive digital learning environment of "cloud platform + cloud classroom" for the OUC.
Construction Outcomes
System integration innovation involves establishing seamless connections between the cloud classroom system, learning spaces, learning platforms, and teaching affairs systems through unified login systems to facilitate information exchange. Videos of teachers' lectures in the cloud classrooms can be broadcast in real-time to students' learning spaces and platforms. Students can watch live lectures and interact with the instructors using their smartphones, tablets, or computers. After the live broadcast concludes, the system automatically generates video resources and associates them with corresponding courses on the learning platform, thus integrating the generation and application of course resources.
A multi-terminal access environment allows access to the cloud classroom through various devices, including tablets, smartphones, and PCs. This setup supports both two-way interaction and one-way resource sharing. To meet the needs of learners in the mobile internet era, the cloud classroom provides interaction capabilities between mobile terminals and the classroom itself. Mobile devices can use an app to log in and participate in two-way audio and video interactions with the cloud classroom over Wi-Fi or 4G networks, as illustrated in Figure 2. This feature is particularly beneficial for students who need to balance work and learning, enabling them to attend classes in designated cloud classrooms and engage in real-time interactive learning from their workplaces or homes.
Standardization of classroom space includes specific requirements for floor area, ceiling height, the number of desks and chairs, and the per capita area in cloud classrooms. Venues for installing cloud classrooms must be selected and renovated according to headquarters' requirements. To improve student comfort and engagement, two desk layout configurations have been designed: horizontal and vertical. The horizontal layout decreases the distance between students and teachers, improves visibility for students in the back rows, and enhances the students' sense of presence, both mentally and physically, in the classroom.
Application and Exploration
The Cloud Classroom Construction Project has introduced advanced educational technology and pedagogical concepts to border areas, remote areas, ethnic minority areas, and poverty-stricken regions. This initiative has significantly improved information technology teaching conditions in western regions such as Xinjiang, Qinghai, Tibet, and Inner Mongolia. A leapfrog development in the level of informatization teaching has been achieved at assisted universities, especially at county-level teaching points. Currently, the cloud classroom system is widely applied in teaching, research, and management fields. The construction of cloud classrooms addresses the shortage of high-quality teaching staff and the inadequate sharing of teaching resources in the western regions of the OUC system, delivering excellent teaching resources to ethnic minority and remote areas. This effort has enhanced educational equity and the sharing of high-quality resources to some extent. The establishment of cloud classrooms has improved the face-to-face tutorial environment at the grassroots level of open universities, driving reforms in remote teaching methods at this level.
OUC Mobile Office System
I．Introduction
The mobile office system of the Open University of China (OUC) is an enhanced version of the original on-campus OA system, expanding functionalities such as document workflow (including various applications and approvals), conference room bookings, and internal communication and exchange. Utilizing mobile client software, the system establishes data interconnectivity between mobile devices and computers, achieving multi-screen unification of office automation. This allows for on-the-go management and communication without time or location constraints, and integrates SMS reminders at each business juncture, significantly boosting operational efficiency.
The project officially replaced the original office system in March 2014. Since then, it has been responsible for disseminating school information, processing approvals, and handling other business operations, all while maintaining stable performance.
II. Functions
1. Document Management
The system manages the entire lifecycle of official documents, from drafting and approval to issuance, ensuring secure and accurate distribution within the organisation. Recipients in the document workflow can check, register, and process these documents. Document management encompasses the full spectrum of receiving, sending, signing, transferring, and exchanging documents. It mirrors the manual document processing procedures, digitising traditional practices for a paperless approach, ensuring document security, accuracy, and swift delivery. Users can quickly initiate processes, automatically generate document forms, and apply handwritten signatures and seals.
2. Process Review and Approval
This function standardizes management of various institutional events through form-based operations, setting fixed approval templates and processes (e.g., financial reimbursement and HR approval templates) to facilitate internal system execution. It solidifies management processes and enables easy form-based querying and statistical analysis.
3.Schedule Arrangement
Incorporating planning, organisation, coordination, and control, this feature leverages classical organisational management theory, modern time management concepts, and information technology to provide a comprehensive schedule and plan management system, collectively known as schedule arrangement.
4.Conference Management
The system organises and coordinates conference participants, timing, venues, and content, consolidating all departmental meeting information. It integrates with collaborative office notifications and reminders for efficient management and resource optimization.
5.Reminder
By organising schedules, meetings, and collaborative office tasks, the system sends reminders of pending tasks to individuals and relevant personnel via online messages or SMS.
6.Contact List
The system establishes a public contact list based on OUC's existing OA organisational structure, with users managed through the existing OA and synchronized automatically. Each user also has a private contact list that they can manage independently.