From 18 to 19 April 2019, a seminar on teaching in the civil engineering and water conservancy major was held in Xiamen, Fujian Province. More than 70 people, including personnel in charge of the major and teachers engaged in pilot online teaching work from the Open University of China (OUC) system participated in the meeting.

The theme of the meeting was comprehensively implementing the fundamental task of establishing high moral values in student education, deepening the reform of education and teaching in the civil engineering and water conservancy majors, enhancing the cohesion and effectiveness of teachers in the OUC system, improving the level of teachers' morality and professional teaching ability, consolidating the foundation of system construction, and continuously improving the quality of personnel training.

At the meeting, personnel in charge of the School of Civil Engineering of the OUC Faculty of Science and Engineering gave a detailed introduction to the adjustments made in the civil engineering and water conservancy major and its courses, the curriculum setting of the newly-opened engineering management (undergraduate level) programme, problems discovered in the evaluation of dissertations, the application for online core courses, and the operation of online teaching teams. Five teachers from the Zhejiang, Hubei, Chongqing, and Tianjin branches delivered speeches with the titles "Thoughts on Field Practices in the Civil Engineering Major,” “The Practice and Exploration of Quality Course Construction,” "Thoughts and Concepts Related to Teaching Team Construction,” “A Discussion of the Teaching Model of the Major’s Distance Learning Service Centre,” and "Strengthening Teaching Team Construction and Improving Comprehensive Teaching Ability.” During the meeting, the teachers also held discussions on the reform and development of course teaching in their respective schools and put forward for the development and the construction of the courses, curriculum, resources, and teaching team of the civil engineering and water conservancy major.

During the meeting, the problems existing in the operation and teaching of the civil engineering and water conservancy major were analysed and experiences and methods to solve the problems were exchanged. The meeting emphasised the new mission and tasks of civil engineering and water conservancy teachers in the new era. It is hoped that teachers within the system would build on the existing foundation of their disciplines and specialties and use the educational undertakings of an open university as a tie, make joint efforts, and work hard with a pioneering and innovative spirit in order to build and develop civil engineering and water conservancy major make it a key OUC major with a great brand, reputation, and characteristics.

By Li Shu,OUC