From 17 to 18 April 2020, remote graduation thesis defences for the first batch of students in the qualification promotion programme for students (officers and soldiers) posted to the Taiyuan Destroyer was successfully completed at Taiyuan Experimental School of the Open University of China (OUC). This signifies that the programme has completed the whole process of OUC learner development and sent out its first batch of graduates.
The sudden outbreak of COVID-19 has impacted the teaching process at many schools. In order to ensure the smooth development of all work and minimise the adverse impact of the epidemic, the OUC Experimental School, by complying with the overall work allocation of the Ministry of Education, which called for "Suspending Classes but Not Teaching or Learning,” and the specific requirements of the OUC Party Committee, has actively explored many aspects of enrolment, teaching, teaching management, and learner support services. During the epidemic, Taiyuan Experimental School, as a branch of the OUC Experimental School carrying out "experimental" explorations in less-developed western areas of China, has also made active put in place a remote video graduation thesis defence mechanism. Adopting the Tencent Conference Video System, the main venue for the remote video thesis defence was the headquarters of Taiyuan Experimental School. A defence team was put together including a host and some defence teachers, while thesis defence secretaries, other staff, and technicians engaged in thesis defence provided support services. The students participating in the thesis defence used the online video to defend their papers. Thirty-nine students from the Taiyuan Destroyer programme took part. President Shi Naimin of Taiyuan Experimental School made specific arrangements and requirements for the defence work.
According to the OUC’s thesis defence requirements and procedures, students reported their research work online and answered the questions raised by the defence teachers. The defence teachers commented on each student's defence and gave serious remarks on the quality of the paper and the process of defence. In the end, 39 students successfully passed the thesis defence. Audio and visual recordings were taken in order to ensure that the first remote video defence was held in an open, strictly controlled, and transparent manner.
The qualification promotion programme tailored to officers and soldiers posted on the Taiyuan Destroyer Taiyuan, which was launched by Taiyuan Education Bureau with the aim of strengthening the integration of the army with local civilian organisations and submitted to the OUC for approval by Taiyuan Experimental School, provides degree upgrading services for officers and soldiers on the Taiyuan Destroyer. The programme was officially launched in the spring of 2018. In order to effectively meet the actual learning needs of students, teaching and learning models, support conditions, and examination organisation have all been actively explored. According to the teaching schedule, the first batch of students engaging in the programme will write and defence their graduation thesis this semester. The remote video defence gave full play to the advantages of modern long-distance education, reflected the OUC Experimental School’s effective exploration of practical teaching management during the COVID-19 epidemic, and provided a guarantee for students in the programme to successfully complete their studies.
By Zhang Yifan, OUC Experimental School