The Open University of China (OUC) held a mid-term exchange meeting for the third round of pilot programmes of multimodal teaching reform in public English in Xi'an, Shaanxi province, from 17 to 18 September 2020.

Teacher representatives from the teaching reform pilot units in 11 OUC branches and schools, together with Zhao Liling, deputy secretary of the Party committee and president of the OUC’s Xi'an Branch, and Zheng Jipeng, deputy director of the OUC Faculty of Foreign Languages, attended the meeting.

Teacher representatives from the teaching reform pilot units in 11 OUC branches and schools, including the Experimental School and branches in Xi'an, Inner Mongolia, Zhejiang, Hubei, Guangdong, Guangzhou, Heilongjiang, Beijing, Hebei, and Sichuan, summarised teaching reform in the spring semester 2020, reviewed the complete online, mobile, and mixed teaching models, and explored multimodal teaching methods based on existing platforms and AI technology.

Zhao Liling, deputy secretary of the Party committee and president of the Xi'an Branch, commented on some teachers' teaching reform reports, pointing out that work should be done to deal with the relationship between teachers’ tasks and interests, create diversified and concise teaching models, and make achievements in teaching reform.

Zheng Jipeng noted that the multimodal teaching reform of public English has entered its third year, with more and more branches involved in the teaching reform pilot programmes. The participating units have remained committed to the original intention of teaching reform and made full use of the existing platform. They have effectively gathered the strength of the system and effectively improved the teaching quality.

The meeting also set out the teaching work for public English in the second half of the year. First, detailed introduction for two events, “Selection of Excellent Theses from the Multimodal Teaching Reform of Public English" and "Online Learning Contest for Students in the Pilot Programmes of the Multimodal Teaching Reform of Public English,” was given, with the aim of combining competition with practices and then promoting the mutual development of learning and competition around both teaching team construction and the improvement students’ abilities. Second, a comprehensive introduction to the "Thematic Website for the Multimodal Teaching Reform of Public English” was given. The aim of the website is to integrate resources, display achievements, and publicise typical examples, so as to gather knowledge and experience for the comprehensive deepening and promotion of teaching reform in public English.

After visiting the Xi’an Branch’s Smart Learning Experiential Centre and experiencing VR teaching and the smart classroom on site, all the participating teachers said that they will take advantage of the strength of the times while carrying out public English teaching work and stand at the forefront of the new generation of technology. At the same time, they will give full play to the advantages of teaching and continue to explore multimodal teaching reform.

By Liu Ning,OUC