"We should have an extraordinary school where boys and girls can receive further education after they grow up. By then, every village would be a university..."
A century ago, Henry David Thoreau designed a grand educational blueprint in his work Walden. This educational blueprint is becoming a reality in China, where we are ushering in an era of education where "anyone can learn any time, any place".
On 10th November 2017, the Online Credit Bank, a next generation open learning platform oriented towards "lifelong learning, u-learning, and future learning”, was officially launched. Jointly built by the OUC, the New Education Research Institute, and Chaoxing Group, the platform is based on the online learning and learning outcomes accreditation platform developed with the credit bank concept. The launch of the Online Credit Bank marked the credit bank’s entry into a brand new development phase with MOOCs as their core application model.
We are familiar with the word "bank", but what is a "credit bank"? What is the Online Credit Bank platform like? What does it offer learners? ... With these questions in mind, let's look at the story behind the Online Credit Bank.
Credit bank achieves fruitful results after five years of hard work
The credit bank was first conceptualised in Korea. It simulates and borrows the mechanisms, function, and features of a bank, taking credits rather than money as its unit of measurement. It is a learning system and education management system that is designed to realise the storage, accreditation, accumulation, and transfer of learning outcomes of various kinds at various levels. To put it simply, the credit bank is like an education service agency that has the similar function as the ordinary bank like deposit and current exchanges. The difference is that the objects that deposit or exchange in this "bank" are not money but the credits accumulated through daily study or work. When a user’s credits reach a certain level, they can transfer them into a corresponding diploma or qualification certificate.
The credit bank is synonymous with a lifelong learning “bridge." In 2010, the National Outline for Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development (2010-2020) (hereinafter referred to as the Outline) clearly proposed the “establishment of a lifelong learning 'bridge'". This is designed to promote connection and communication between various types and levels of education, offering more choice and meeting diverse, personalised demands for learning and development. The Outline states that we should improve the system of being "slack in admission but strict in graduation", successfully operate open universities, reform and improve the self-taught system of higher education. It is necessary to establish a system for the accumulation and transfer of continuing education credits, and realise mutual accreditation and connection between different types of learning outcomes. In 2014, the State Council issued Opinions on the Implementation of Deepening the Exam and Enrolment System Reform. "Bridge" was mentioned twice in the Implementation Opinions: Firstly, the construction of a lifelong learning "bridge" that connects education of various levels and types, as well as the mutual accreditation of various learning outcomes and secondly, the construction of a "bridge" for talent growth. This is of great significance in guiding the development of lifelong education in China.
The OUC is a new type of university that focuses on promoting the construction of a lifelong learning “bridge." One of its strategic goals is to become an important pillar for promoting the construction of a learning society and promoting lifelong learning in China. Since 2012, the OUC has undertaken several of the MOE’s key subjects and practice projects on the credit bank; designed a credit bank system architecture with Chinese characteristics; developed a learning outcomes framework for setting up a marker of credibility for different types of learning outcomes; and developed a series of tools and methods with independent intellectual property rights. Meanwhile, through the pilot programmes, the OUC has cooperated with over 70 agencies to develop standard formulations and applications, constructed the learning outcomes mutual accreditation alliance, carried out resource sharing and mutual accreditation of credits, and built an informatisation platform. To date, the OUC has set up 70 learning outcomes accreditation sub-centres engaged in 20 industries and covering 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions. It has opened credit bank accounts for nearly 4.8 million learners.
“It has been five years since the project was launched in 2012 and it has now achieved fruitful results,” director of the Department of Vocational and Adult Education of the MOE Wang Jiping said at the launch ceremony for the Online Credit Bank. After five years of exploration, the design of the credit bank system has undergone effective testing. Its application model has been gradually enriched and the construction of a lifelong learning "bridge" has achieved increasingly prominent results.
Innovate to shorten the "last mile" of lifelong learning
Building a learning society in order to promote the comprehensive development of mankind is an inevitable trend at China’s current stage of economic and social development, and current stage of education reform. The 19th National Congress of the CPC put forward a new goal for socialism with Chinese characteristics in the new era. It also clearly stated that we should “successfully operate continuing education, accelerate the construction of a learning society, and greatly improve the quality of the nation.” Therefore, the OUC is facing important challenges such as how to implement the new requirements put forward at the 19th National Congress of CPC and fulfil the task of building a learning society.
Furthermore, since 2012, the MOOCs have sprung up like mushrooms, which has provoked a storm of education reform. As of October 2016, the user scale of MOOCs in China has reached more than 10 million. MOOCs have effectively expanded the range of available learning channels, becoming a new engine for promoting lifelong learning. However, MOOCs, though diversified, therefore differ in course quality. They lack unified course standards, a sound learning outcome accreditation system, and effective lifelong learning mechanism. Such problems have, to some extent, restricted the sustainable development of MOOCs, which cannot fully meet the demands and hopes of lifelong learning in China.
To this end, the OUC has accelerated the in-depth development of the credit bank based on the past five years of development, taking the goal of "boundless learning, accumulative credits, transferable learning outcomes, and reliable quality" to construct an Online Credit Bank platform that realises U-Learning.
"It is difficult for us to give it a strict and accurate definition of the Online Credit Bank. However, we can express it with a formula: Online Credit Bank = MOOCs + Credit Bank + Education Online Store (applying the operation model of online shopping to the education field)+ Integrated Learning Environment,” President of the OUC Yang Zhijian said. The platform features several innovations. First, it provides a driving mechanism for MOOCs. It empowers MOOCs by introducing high quality courses from other educational institutions through the credit bank and recognising their credits to realise the transfer of academic degrees. Second, it has built a public service platform that meets the demand of various education institutions and learners. As a third-party platform, the Online Credit Bank integrates high-quality courses with various kinds of certification through an "education online store" concept to ensure quality education and avoid diploma overflow. Third, it provides a learning experience for students through big data on all terminals, available for students to learn at different stages. This integrated learning environment offers an experience that caters to each student’s learning needs, effectively controls quality, and, in future, will realise professional capability evaluation across multiple dimensions.
To summarise, the Online Credit Bank is a smart platform that boosts progress towards lifelong learning in China. Through the platform, learners can not only access vast quantities of quality online courses, they can also archive their lifelong learning outcomes. Through platform accreditation, and the transfer and storage of credits, they can "deposit in instalments and withdraw in a lump sum,” and obtain the corresponding academic or degree certificates, greatly improving the efficiency and effectiveness of learning, stimulating their learning motivation, and realising lifelong learning.
Empowering education with Internet+ to realise personalised learning
Personalised education has been frequently mentioned as one of the fruitful results achieved based on the new technology and education. Emerging technology represented by Internet and artificial intelligence empowers education, making large scale personalised education a possibility, helping to address the scarcity and imbalance of education resources.
The Online Credit Bank built by the OUC has undergone constant upgrades in terms of content, teaching quality, and technology platform. It is designed to offer more flexible, better quality, and more convenient personalised learning services, in order to meet each learner’s expectations for better education. How powerful is this platform?
"This platform has four main features. First, it is a powerful course platform. Second, it has extensive broadcast channels. Third, it offers an integrated learning environment. Fourth, it has a strict quality control system,” the Chairman of Chaoxing Group, Shi Chao, said.
There are several technical advantages of the Online Credit Bank. First, it integrates online learning platform, learning outcome accreditation, and management system. The Online Credit Bank not only offers a vast range of learning resources, it also offers an archive for lifelong learning outcomes. Through the accreditation, accumulation, and transfer of learning outcomes, the Online Credit Bank can truly serve personal professional career and life development. Second, the Online Credit Bank has established a learning outcomes framework and system of standards. Based on the unified learning outcomes framework and standard, the Online Credit Bank realises the accreditation, accumulation, and transfer of various learning outcomes at various levels, improving the transparency of personal learning outcomes and ensuring the quality of education. Third, the Online Credit Bank offers a clear learning path and clear learning effects design. By setting up a lifelong learning outcomes archive for learners, the Online Credit Bank provides comprehensive evaluation and monitoring for each user, creating a closed loop personalised learning system. Fourth, the Online Credit Bank is a third-party platform open to the society. It has set up alliances with nearly 200 universities and colleges involved in over 20 industries and realised resource sharing and the mutual recognition of credits. Fifth, the Online Credit Bank has an “online + offline" full-process teaching quality guarantee system. It monitors the whole process in terms of online auditing for agencies and learning outcomes, course accreditation, teaching process, team operation, course evaluation, credit accreditation, and quality monitoring and evaluation.
Bridging the gap and leading new trends in future education
During the 19th National Congress, General Secretary Xi Jinping stated that we must make the people’s aspirations to live a better life our joint goal. Education is the most important basis for a better life. Therefore, we should make the development of education a priority. At present, thanks to the informatisation and internationalisation of education in China, as well as increasingly diverse lifelong learning channels and methods, the options for learners have expanded and society is imposing greater and greater requirements on education. However, there are still a number of problems, such as imbalanced education resources, rigid teaching models, a closed teaching system, and monotonous learning methods.
In face of these problems, what is the road to education reform? “Setting up a credit bank with Chinese characteristics is a key measure. The design of the credit bank will drive the reform of the whole education system and stimulate the whole education industry,” said vice chairman of the Central Committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy and vice chairman of the Chinese Society of Education, Zhu Yongxin. The credit bank can effectively bridge the following five gaps in education today. First, gaps between various stages of education. Pre-school, compulsory education, senior high school education, college education, and lifelong education are all closed. The credit bank can fully break down the barriers between education at various levels and of various types. Second, the gap between degree and non-degree education. In the future, the credit bank can break the barrier of a diploma. More attention will be focused on capability and cultivation of professional skills rather than the diploma alone. Third, the gap between public and private education. In the future, the credit bank will eliminate policy obstacles and realise true communication between public and private education and profit and non-profit organisations. Fourth, the gap between domestic and overseas education. In the future, the Online Credit Bank will introduce the course resources of international universities, realise the mutual recognition of credits, and promote educational globalisation. Fifth, the gap between learning and skills cultivation. At present, the distance education system and open education system are dominated by the knowledge system but the Online Credit Bank, as an open learning platform, can open up the knowledge system and skills system to improve the quality of talent cultivation.
The Online Credit Bank is the study centre of the future. In the era of the knowledge economy, we will all be constantly learning throughout our lives. Anyone can learn in any situation according to the method that suits them. The Online Credit Bank will boost lifelong learning and make learning a thing of belief.
"There are many kinds of models in one field. The Online Credit Bank is not the only model. We can only say that it is one of our attempts, one of our explorations. It is only one of our models. It may not be perfect and but that does not matter. We are on the road to perfection,” Yang Zhijian, President of the OUC, said. We hope that people from all walks of life show more understanding and tolerance to the OUC. The OUC encourages people to offer suggestions to help this new type of platform grow stronger and develop faster.
By Li Xiaoqiang, OUC