On the morning of 24 June 2020, the Open University of China (OUC) held a video conference on 2020 spring semester final examinations. Lin Yu, vice president of the OUC, and related persons responsible for the department of educational affairs, attended the meeting. A total of 5,107 examiners and persons engaged in examination work from the OUC’s branches, schools, and test centres attended the meeting via video.
Lin Yu pointed out that COVID-19, while affecting the OUC’s normal teaching work to some extent, also poses a challenge for the OUC’s operational effectiveness. During the epidemic, the entire organisation system of the OUC pulled together in order to ensure the smooth and orderly progress of teaching work.
Lin Yu introduced the current situation and concepts of OUC reform and development. The OUC has clearly defined its development direction since the first Party congress. The university will build "one road, one network, and one platform" to provide information support for its education services. In addition, it has printed and handed out "Several Opinions on Improving the Teaching Quality of the OUC,” which represents top-level design of the overall education and teaching reform. At present, the university is carrying out a great deal of work, including standardising the establishment and management of majors, building an online teaching team, constructing teaching standards for majors, revising the management criteria for teaching processes, formulating teaching resource allocation norms, implementing special teaching reform projects, and designing an evaluation system for school operation, so as to help the whole OUC operation system concentrate on talent training and improve the quality of education and teaching.
Lin Yu said that, in the second half of last year, the OUC put forward the strategy of "creating excellence and improving quality in degree education,” of which examination management is an important part. Examination management mainly covers three aspects of work. The first is optimising examination design. The OUC headquarters is optimising examination work based on strict management requirements, which involves the optimisation of formative assessments, final examinations, and examination score management. The second is further developing reform examinations. The headquarters has adopted information technology to promote examination reform, implemented pilot examinations via mobile phone, as well as online paper marking, and is building a new online examination system with a planned supporting question bank. The third is implementing stricter examination discipline and creating a fair examination environment. In the 2019 autumn semester, the headquarters organised and carried out unprecedented actions to investigate and deal with violations, and printed and issued guidelines entitled Examination Discipline and Measures for Student Violations. A blacklist system has been established for warning violations, investigation and accountability has been strengthened, and a number of serious violations have been reported to the local provincial education administrative department.
Lin Yu stressed that because final examinations are influenced by epidemic prevention and control this year, the OUC must shoulder greater responsibilities. More significance should be attached to the examination, for which he put forward three requirements: First, ensure that epidemic prevention and control is carried out in a practical way and that epidemic prevention and control requirements are strictly implemented before the examination. Second, strengthen the management of examination disciplines and strictly investigate any rule-breaking behaviours. Third, all branches (schools) should work out examination emergency plans and take effective measures to deal with emergencies in a timely manner.
A report on the overall circumstances of final examinations in autumn 2019 was given at the meeting, which also introduced the examination work arrangement for this semester and ideas for how examinations should take place in the future.
At the meeting, it was requested that both the prevention and control of the epidemic and the organisation of examinations and stricter examination disciplines should be given equal weighting. Each examination site should make full use of video monitoring systems to monitor the examination process and ensure a good examination environment. In the future, the headquarters will work with the branches to strengthen the standardised management of study centres, engage in course selection for test centres, and enhance registration procedures.
According to the “Notice on Taking Practical Measures to Make Emergency Plans for COVID-19 Prevention and Control” issued by the Ministry of Education, the OUC adjusted the time and method of its examinations in order to support the diverse examination needs of its students during the 2020 spring semester.
Written by Men Hailong, photo by Guo Qing