In order to supervise teaching at the Open University of China (OUC) in the context of the new normal of Covid-19 control measures, and implement its strategy of Creating Excellence and Improving Quality, on 29 April 2022 it held online training for a special programme of remote teaching-supervision and guidance.

The training covered three aspects - background, disciplines and principles, and it stated that ongoing enhancement of teaching quality should be promoted by such teaching supervision through implementing teaching process within every university in the OUC system. Two branch leaders spoke on behalf of the trainees on the importance of remote lecture observation and evaluation to the OUC system, and of its timely completion and high quality. Han Yi, director of the OUC Department of Quality Monitoring and Control, said that overall supervision, standardisation, and quality supervision all belong to their responsibilities, with good communication and implementation required, and confidentiality, fairness and impartiality observed.

The training was timed to precede the launch of remote observation and evaluation in the spring semester, with the Department of Quality Monitoring and Control offering training to teachers and teaching administrators at the OUC headquarters, and evaluators from the Ministry of Education, at the beginning of May, in the expectation that the evaluation of teaching and the teaching itself at the OUC will be improved.

The Department of Quality Monitoring and Control has made teaching supervision and management its focus, covering implementation of internal controls, external management, and third-party evaluations as part of quality management. It has also worked to standardise teaching processes and enhance training.

24 people, including the OUC headquarters quality-monitoring team, OUC branch leaders belonging to the system's online-teaching-supervision team, deans of schools, professors, and quality-management experts, participated in the session.

By Jiang Yifan, OUC