The 2015 Quality Courses Selection at the Open University of China(OUC) recently ended, with a total of 29 courses from 12 Branches and five Schools at the Headquarters selected as quality courses.
To further promote the OUC course construction, improve the quality of courses and teaching resources, explore mechanisms for the co-construction of teaching resources and sharing of high quality teaching resources, the OUC officially launched the 2015 OUC’s Quality Courses Selection in May with the Notice on the Application for 2015 Quality Courses of the OUC (No.6, OUC Resources,2015). The award encourages the participation of courses focused on the design and development of new media and technologies, such as resources that can be operated on pads, mobile phones, and other mobile terminals.
In the selection, a total of 57 courses from the OUC’s 19 Branches and five Schools were submitted. Among them, 14 courses came from the specialties of arts and law, 18 from economics and management,12 from engineering, 10 from education, one from foreign languages, and 2 from agroforestry and medicine. The submitted courses demonstrated mobile learning resource construction, micro course construction, teaching activities design, and the application of new technology, which reflected new trends in course construction utilizing the network.
At the OUC’s quality course assessment held on November 13, 2015, Director of the Assessment Committee and the OUC’s President, Yang Zhijian, pointed out that, in recent years, the OUC has completed the construction of more than 80 network-based core courses, and its development rate has increased greatly. He hoped that the assessment would select truly excellent courses with exemplary functions based on their specialties and core content. He also wished a series of truly Internet-based courses would reflect the nature of and realize the features of online education and MOOCs, and show a different guiding principle could be created so as to lead the whole school system forward,promoting the realization of the transformation from a radio and television university to an open university.
Four experts from outside the OUC, eight from the Branches, and eight from headquarters were invited to serve as judges at the assessment. After group and centralized reviews, 29 courses from 12 Branches and five Schools of the headquarters were awarded as the 2015 OUC’s Quality Courses. Details provided in the following table.
Education technology and teaching design experts from outside the university proposed the following suggestions for the evaluation. First, course construction within the whole OUC network is currently in a conjunctive and transitional stage. Attention to teaching process, learning activities, and student evaluation will actively promote the construction of a network of courses. However, more prudent consideration should be given to course construction concepts, resource richness, students’ adaptability, resource levels and classification, compatibility, and the seamless convergence of multi-terminal learning. Secondly, in the existing network of courses, teaching activities are almost personal behaviors. More attention should be paid to collaboration within the production team. Thirdly, attention should be paid to the effectiveness of the use of awarding courses, and feedback from continuing users of excellent courses should be collected.
Experts from the Branches believed that, under these guidelines, the OUC courses would be fine products,integrated with the wisdom and power of the OUC. We should utilize this opportunity of the transitional period from a RTVU to an open university, build a new brand, and upgrade the OUC’s teaching quality and social evaluation. In addition, a new form of selection should be established to differentiate quality courses and general courses, so as to create aspace for the growth of young people.
By Gao Minghui and Yan Jun,OUC