In autumn of 1999, the CCRTVU, predecessor of the OUC, started a junior-college Education Management programme, offering degree continuing education to kindergarten, primary and middle-school teachers. In 2017, the programme was expanded from school to the community in line with the development of this area; changes were made to it, and it was renamed “Public Affairs Management (School and Community Education Guidance)”.
I. Target Groups
Those involved in cultural and educational programmes and related education management in kindergartens, primary and middle schools, vocational schools, communities, venues and other social-educational institutions, including child and adolescent education, women’s education, family-education guidance, and education for seniors.
II. Training Objectives
The programme aims to cultivate practice-oriented professionals able to engage in teaching and management in educational-administration authorities, kindergartens, primary, secondary and vocational schools , and other community-based educational institutions. The programme covers education, management, psychology and sociology at a basic level, and makes students capable of autonomous learning, consultation, and social service.
III. Course System
The programme consists of six modules: public foundation courses, specialised foundation courses, specialised courses, specialised development courses, general-study courses, and comprehensive-practice courses.
Public foundation courses: The OUC Learning Guide, Introduction to the Theory of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, and English.
Specialised foundation courses: Education, Introduction to Management, Brief History of Chinese Education, and History of Education Overseas.
Specialised courses: School-management Psychology， Introduction to Educational Administration, Community Psychology, Education for the Elderly, Modern Home Economics, Basic Education Reform and Development in China and Overseas, and Educational Policies and Regulations.
Specialised foundation and optional courses: Modern Educational Thinking, Practical Psychology, Research Methods in Education, Psychology of Family Education, School and Society, Introduction to Education Economics, School Health, and School Mental-health Education.
Specialised development courses: Psychological Counseling and Diagnostic Skills, Fundamentals of the Natural Sciences, School Diagnosis and Consultation, Marriage and Family Relations, 900 Sentences in Sign Language, Psychology of Learning, Fundamentals of Braille, and others.
Comprehensive-practice courses include Social Investigation and Professional Practice.
IV. Teaching Teams and Course Resources
A number of experts in education, psychology, and educational management from Beijing Normal University, Northeast Normal University, the National Academy of Education Administration, the Beijing Institute of Education, and Capital Normal University have been invited to be consultants, examiners, editors-in-chief, co-editors and lecturers.
The programme at OUC headquarters currently employs twelve full-time tutors, including one professor, eight associate professors, one with the title of “Famous Teacher of Beijing Higher Education”, six of whom have doctoral degrees. These tutors have extensive experience with distance education. They have won a national-level online resource-sharing course award, a national-level higher-education teaching-achievement award, a Beijing educational-achievement award, a Beijing “higher-education exquisite teaching material” award, and nine OUC teaching-achievement awards; three project approvals at and above the ministry level, and an award for a project involving collaboration among universities; and have earned sixteen OUC scientific-achievement awards.
The degree-course resources for the programme include printed teaching materials, audio-visual materials, online courses and IP courseware, while learning is supported in an all-round way. Several high-quality course resources have been produced. A Brief History of Chinese Education was named a national-level “exquisite online course" for 2007, while General Introduction to Management Science was named a Beijing higher-education “quality textbook”