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.
As the integration of intelligent technologies in education deepens, the application of artificial intelligence (AI) in the educational sector is becoming increasingly widespread.
This is particularly evident in the areas of teaching evaluation and personalised learning, where AI shows immense potential. A quiet revolution is underway, reshaping the teaching evaluation system through intelligent technologies. The rise of AIGC (Artificial Intelligence Generated Content) technology has brought unprecedented innovative opportunities to the field of intelligent question generation. This not only drives the transformation of teaching evaluation methods but also offers new solutions for personalised education, embarking on a new journey of exploring innovative applications in intelligent question generation.
The Open University of China (OUC), leveraging the semantic understanding and text generation capabilities of large language models, is exploring and developing an intelligent question generation application. This application utilises electronic textbooks and other course materials as auxiliary knowledge bases to achieve functions such as one-click question generation, single-question refinement, intelligent question recognition, and knowledge structure tree management. To ensure the accuracy and reliability of AI-generated questions, a human review mechanism has been introduced. Teachers can review and modify questions in the editing area, thus exploring a new path of human-machine collaboration in which AI generates questions and teachers review them.
One-click Question Generation: Automatically generates questions that meet specified requirements based on key information such as question types, knowledge points, difficulty levels, assessment capabilities, and quantity. It also provides corresponding answers and detailed explanations.
Single-question Refinement: Offers AI refinement functions for generated questions in the question editing area, including refining the question stem, options, and explanations.
Intelligent Question Recognition: Automatically recognises questions based on a certain format and fills them into the question editing area upon recognition.
Knowledge Structure Tree Management: Supports adding, editing, and importing functions, facilitating teachers in managing the course knowledge structure.
Currently, the intelligent question generation application has been trialed in disciplines such as law and computer science. According to teachers’ feedback, the usability rate of AI-generated questions has reached 80%. It not only aids in the innovation of question content but also reduces the workload of teachers in question generation.
Moving forward, the OUC will continue to upgrade the intelligent question generation application, enrich the types of questions to meet the teaching needs of different disciplines. The integration of the intelligent question generation application with teaching and examination platforms will be continuously strengthened. This will achieve seamless connection and efficient utilisation of test question resources and further drive the deep and practical implementation of AI-powered educational evaluation reform in the new era.
By Department of Digitalisation