On the Weigongcun campus of the Open University of China (OUC), ID cards have been replaced by QR codes; teachers use mobile apps or computers for their teaching or office work; VR (virtual reality) headsets are available in the VR lab; and holographic technology allows a teacher to “project” remotely into a classroom.
These changes are powered by 5G technologies and a multimodal open-campus space offering advanced technology, and make up the OUC’s “Internet Plus” smart-education demonstration centre.
The new campus experience of the future: a multimodal “smart space”!
Striking giant nano “blackboards”, 5G 4K remote interactions, flipped classrooms, holographic remote interactions on a single screen, virtual studios.… These are not scenes from a movie, but from the OUC’s actual Weigongcun campus. 5G smart classrooms and networks, AI and big-data technologies, advanced smart-classroom systems, and supporting high-tech facilities enable students to enjoy the university’s high-quality teaching resources from home. A teacher and student may be thousands of miles apart, yet feel as if they are face-to-face. This is enabled by 5G network-communications equipment, holographic projection, and lossless transmission, allowing virtual studios to synthesise in real time virtual 3D backgrounds with video feeds of the subjects.
Another new campus experience of the future: highly efficient OMO education!
At the OUC’s Weigongcun campus, a smart campus that completely integrates physical and network spaces has been established based on a new generation of information technologies, including cloud computing, internet of things, and big data, creating efficient OMO (Online Merge Offline). Data-driven smart administration and service are realised via commands based on analytical results derived from real-time collection of campus-operations data. Students have access to the campus, sign in, and book spaces simply using digital QR codes, and visitors can make appointments online on the WeChat official account, allowing the campus to be kept safe during the epidemic.
Through its use of digital technology, the OUC is developing into a lifelong-education platform that promotes teaching exchanges as well as interactions with the environment, and will continue to do so into the future.
By Information Technology Department, OUC