The Open University of China (OUC) has offered high-quality learning resources to the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education (hereinafter referred to as IITE) website in order to help learners around the world with “home-based online learning.”
Recently, the OUC actively responded to the UNESCO home-based online learning initiative, providing online learning resources to learners around the world and recommending experts to share online learning experiences, in an effort to reduce the impact of the pandemic on learning and education.
According to data released today by UNESCO, as of 10 March, 2020, more than 180 countries have been affected by the pandemic. Of these, 15 countries have ordered nationwide school closures and 14 have implemented localised school closures, spanning countries in Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. The crisis is now impacting close to 363 million learners worldwide, including 57.8 million students in higher education.
In response to the above situation, UNESCO held a video conference for global higher education officials on 10 March 2020 to explore ways to strengthen the emergency response and share strategies to minimise the impact of the pandemic on learning. Ministers and vice ministers of education and high-level officials from 72 countries, including China, the United Kingdom, France, and Italy, attended the conference. Since then, IITE kicked off the initiative "Combating COVID-19:Together We Are On The Move!”, with the aim of building an exchange platform for educational technology experts, government officials, schools, teachers, and students in countries affected by the outbreak and share practical experience.
As recommended by the National Commission of China for UNESCO, the OUC has become one of the initiative’s major cooperative universities, providing high-quality online learning resources covering scientific epidemic prevention, education at higher, vocational, primary and secondary levels, social training, and language learning to learners around the world. The OUC has also put forward Professor Li Song from the Faculty of Education and Associate Professor Wang Ran from the Learning Resources Department to serve as educational information technology experts on the IITE expert group, sharing their experiences of "suspending classes without stopping teaching and learning" in the field of higher education from the perspective of online education, including online teaching organisation, design, and implementation, as well as social services regarding learning resources during the pandemic. In the future, the OUC will continue to provide IITE with more online education resources, in particular, curriculum resources in English or other languages, and carry out further research, exchange and cooperation activities according to the current situation.
To find out more information about how IITE is contributing to the international fight against the pandemic, please visit the IITE website:
https://iite.unesco.org/combating-covid-19-together-we-are-on-the-move/
By OUC International Cooperation and Exchange Department, Learning Resources Department