Editor's Note: General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasised at the National Conference on Education that the national education digitalisation initiative should be fully implemented, with efforts to expand the coverage of high-quality education resources and improve public services for lifelong learning.
The Open University of China (OUC) has thoroughly implemented the educational digitalisation strategy, actively promoted the deep integration of digital technology and education, and been committed to building a ubiquitous and accessible lifelong education system. It has carried out numerous beneficial explorations in digital empowerment for lifelong learning, achieving tangible results.
In recent years, the Open University of China (OUC) has been vigorously exploring the integration of next-generation artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the education sector. It has continuously promoted the use of AI to assist in teaching, support learning, aid evaluation, and facilitate research. This has led to the development of applications such as smart learning companions, intelligent customer service, and intelligent test-question generation, providing more efficient and convenient services for teachers and students.
The "Baize" project, an interactive smart learning companion for lifelong education, was collaboratively developed by multiple departments of the OUC. It is built on the university's self-developed large-scale AI foundational model and leverages the rich learning resources accumulated on the lifelong education platform. This project forms a continuously iterative and optimised professional knowledge base and constructs an interactive intelligent Q&A system based on generative AI. It aims to empower lifelong learning scenarios, offering learners with AI-assisted learning functions such as video content summaries, knowledge point summaries, intelligent Q&A, and course recommendations. The project provides personalised, convenient, and efficient intelligent learning support for a ubiquitous and accessible lifelong education system, greatly promoting educational equity and enhancing users' autonomous learning capabilities, thus, to a certain extent, fostering the vision of "everyone can learn whenever and wherever they want to".
Recently, the globally authoritative IT market research and consulting company, IDC (International Data Corporation) announced the list of winners of the "2024 IDC China Future Enterprise Awards". The smart learning companion “Baize” project won the Excellence Award and Distinguished Award in the "Smart City Special Award - Leader in Livelihood and Well-being". This recognition affirms the OUC's effectiveness in promoting the construction of a learning society empowered by AI technology.
In the future, the OUC will continue to explore the deep integration of intelligent technology with education and teaching. Relying on its self-developed AI education foundation, it will develop and promote a series of exemplary results that are leading, innovative, and replicable. The OUC will thoroughly implement large-scale personalised teaching services, contributing to the further improvement of public services for lifelong learning.
By Department of Digitalisation