After two years of course construction, one of the “E-learning Educator Training” serial courses, Online Education Management, held its first session of training class from April 27 to June 14, 2015.
The content of Online Education Management is oriented towards practical issues, which helps online education managers to conduct in-depth thinking, transform their thinking models, and improve their management styles so as to promote the sustainable development of online education. The course development learns from and absorbs successful domestic and international online education management experience, using it to help the learners broaden their ideas and enabling the course content to better meet the practical needs of online education managers. In addition, with the introduction of enterprise online learning concepts and methods, combined with the guiding principle of “to know about the development rules of online education market, to help the managers to transform their way of thinking, to promote the healthy growth of online education and to realize the sustainable development of online education organization”, the course has exposed online education managers to brand new management knowledge and ideals in the development framework based on ADDIE and SAM models, combining the studies of management, education, psychology, sociology, etc. Six modules are included in the course:
Module 1: Online Education Managers
Module 2: Team Building
Module 3: Student Management
Module 4: Resource Management
Module 5: Quality Management
Module 6: Operation Management
Sun Lvyi, former vice president of China Central Radio and TV University, has taken on the position of counsellor for the Online Education Management teaching team, with team members Yu Jing， Zhao Tingting， Sun Hongfei， Huang Chuanhui, and Fan Ziyi, who are from various fields and are recognized as teachers who are either superior in their knowledge systematization and structure or are great practitioners with strong operational experience. With such a team structure, people of different backgrounds are able to cross boundaries and jump out of certain professional or experiential limitations, free to express their own opinions, combining concepts in new ways, and searching for new points or methods, etc.
During the course construction and teaching processes, the Online Education Management team adheres to the learner-centred principle and gives priority to the needs of the learner as well as placing great emphasis on the learners’ experience. During the initial stage of course construction, the course team completed substantial surveys on learners' needs during the OUC key teachers training classes by frequently asking the trainees to discuss the modules already established by the team during the construction process. This would lead to course modification and improvement according to the feedback received during these discussions. In its first class, the team avoided the traditional teaching model of giving theoretical instruction. Instead, it started from practical cases, creating a cohesive thread that permeated the whole process and all of the modules. Quantitative data was presented in diagrams and charts to enable the learners to study directly and pleasantly, create new perspectives and enlighten the learners to introduce the quantitative ideas and technical methods into their thoughts on teaching ideals and models, emphasizing analysis and discussions on case studies, and by the learners’ sympathy into the case situations, set up a “zero distance” communication platform for solving the practical problems. The learners were asked to choose their own team leader, and different learners would be arranged to host the modules, deliver summations, and conduct discussions in order to improve their enthusiasm for the course. The hope was that this would lead the learners to effectively combine what they learn with their work cases, to enlarge their discussions from online to offline, and to provide a platform for the learners to join into extended cooperation. The learners were encouraged to offer advice and suggestions for the course based on their learning experience so as to enrich the modules in the course.
Online Education Management course team denoted that it will improve the course content according to the teaching and feedback from the first training class, and regular admission for the public will be launched in Fall 2015.
By Mu Xingyan, OUC