The OUC recently held a video deployment meeting for the 2020 teaching inspection work. Lin Yu, vice president of the OUC, Han Yi, director of the Quality Supervision Department, Ye Zhihong, director of the Academic Affairs Department, and Qi Wenxin, deputy director of the Academic Affairs Department attended the meeting.
Leaders and relevant personnel at the school and department level from 45 branches and 19 directly affiliated specialised schools in charge of quality and teaching work attended the meeting. 1,814 people participated in the online live meeting on the day. 822 people watched the recorded video, which received 1,764 likes.
Lin Yu pointed out that teaching inspection work in 2020 faces two new situations. First, with the release of the comprehensive reform plan, the OUC has officially entered a period of transformation and development. Thirty-nine branch RTVUs are about to undergo a great change. This change is only a beginning, and what matters is the transformation. It is necessary to focus on “quality.” Secondly, teaching inspection should exercise its due role. It is not a bad thing to have a problem, but it is bad to hide a problem. As an important part of quality assurance work, during the follow-up work, teaching inspection should focus more on discovering and highlighting problems in order to promote problem solving. Quality need to be demonstrated and cannot just be generated through an inspection. He hopes that everyone will realise the new situation and new requirements, create a clean environment, maintain the right atmosphere, and prioritise quality. Only when we work hard at a new starting point can we polish the OUC brand together.
The meeting discussed the state of online teaching inspections in 2019 and introduced the work arrangements for 2020. In 2019, the basic data for learning online teaching across China continued to improve and the online teaching of ideological and political was explored in more detail. The construction of online teaching teams was comprehensively promoted and online teaching monitoring and supervision were further strengthened. Although it achieve these results, the OUC also had some deficiencies. For example, some branches still do not pay enough attention to online teaching and online teaching team building and have failed to formulate and submit relevant documents to the teaching team system in accordance with the requirements of the OUC headquarters. In some branches, the number of teaching implementation teams and self-built teams does not match the scale of the school. Learning network teaching data has improved but there is still a certain gap compared with the current number of students and the teaching requirements. In 2020, online teaching inspections will highlight teaching team construction, including but not limited to the number of teaching teams, system guarantees, and the effects of teaching team operation. Starting from the fall semester of 2020, the OUC headquarters will impose the construction of the online teaching team as an important indicator of branch (college) faculty allocation and teaching support capabilities, making it an important reference for examination and the approval of branch (college) subject construction, subject setup, and the establishment of learning centres.
The meeting described the situation of comprehensive teaching inspections in 2019 and focused on the deployment of inspections in 2020. In 2019, the OUC has made a lot of progress in its quality supervision, including ideological and political education and ideological work, the construction of network teaching teams, teaching management and assessment work, and the management of resource allocation and usage. Many excellent cases have emerged. However, there are still some problems in the construction of teaching teams, effective participation in the learning network, the optimisation of digital learning resources, and the overall management of the study centre. The meeting also criticised the improper implementation of the work pointed out in the 2019 teaching inspection and the work of "suspending classes but not learning” in 2020 in some branches (schools). In 2020, quality work will adhere to the principles of seeking truth from facts, speaking with data, enacting random inspections, and downward shift of focus. The OUC must introspectively address any problems and focus on the self-inspection and self-correction capabilities of the school running organisation. It is necessary to maintain regular self-inspection and be self-disciplined. It is hoped that the inspection will cover everything, highlighting specific points of focus each year, and motivating both internal and external forces to improve quality. The major changes in this year's inspection work are problem-oriented, closely focusing on addressing the “three disorders” and achieving the goal of “creating excellence and improving quality" through interactions between businesses, departments, and internal/external work.
As the main method of quality monitoring and the main form of annual comprehensive evaluation of the quality work of the branches, teaching inspection plays an increasingly important role in the OUC system. The meeting highlighted the OUC’s attitude and determination in continuously putting focus on quality, pointing out the direction, and laying the foundation for further promoting quality work in the follow-up work.
By Feng Lihong and Zhao Zhengwei, OUC