It’s all too natural to come up against difficulties in our lives. Xiao Wang, who works as a doctor at a Triple A-grade Hospital, is no different.
He often faces legal disputes caused by the doctor-patient relationship, so he wants to study law. Aunt Li works as a midwife for a housekeeping service company. She wants to learn nursing to increase her skill level but she doesn’t have enough time. Xiao Liu works as an animator at a media company. Although he is good at his job, he missed out on a promotion opportunity because he doesn’t have a diploma. These are the sorts of problems people face during the lifelong learning process.
The Open University of China (OUC) was formally founded in July 2012, building on the basis of the China Central Radio and TV University.The OUC is a new kind of higher education institution that offers open and distance education supported by information technology and with a focus on both degree and non-degree continuing education. The OUC has made it its duty to provide lifelong learning services for everyone; it provides a diverse range of flexible education opportunities and has undertaken the social responsibility of promoting equal access to education.
The OUC is always searching for new technologies and is more motivated to transform them into learning technologies than regular institutions of higher education. Speaking about the OUC’s digital learning environment, OUC President Yang Zhijian pointed out: “With its six major types of online content (core online courses, an online learning space, an online teaching team, online support, online assessment and an online management system) the university brings together the most advanced learning resources in the education field. It supports the integration of multiple platforms in the cloud, including tablet computers, OPAD, smartphones, TVs, desktop computers and even the classroom itself. It offers a fresh learning model that combines web-based autonomous learning, distance learner support and face-to-face tutorials, and enables the management of learning portfolios, credit transfer and certification”.
Core online courses: A host of resources across multiple platforms
By making full use of quality education resources from the field of higher education and society as a whole, the OUC focuses on the creation of web-based courses for self-directed learning. The courses combine learning resources, learning activities, links to related information, formative assessments, and learner support. The OUC also promotes the construction of a practical, up-to-date, knowledge-based course resource bank. It has developed a range of non-degree education courses by integrating a range of social and digital learning resources to rapidly improve quality and quantity. To meet learners’ needs for freely available learning resources, the university is setting out to develop over 3000 mini-lectures, each lasting 5 minutes. The mini-lectures can be combined into a major in a certain field. For example, there are 50 mini-lectures on tea culture, introducing topics including black tea, green tea and rock tea.
Higher education institutions in China and abroad have introduced large-scale open online courses. The OUC recently launched courses on iTunes U, making it one of the few Chinese higher education institutions with access to the service. The first 30 subjects are mostly resources for Chinese culture and teaching Chinese as a second language. They provide Chinese language and culture teachers in China and abroad with information about phonetics, Chinese characters and other aspects of language across a range of levels, as well as cultural appreciation courses. Each course is downloaded nearly 1000 times a day; the most popular courses are Intermediate Chinese, The Art of Happiness, Easy Chinese and Three Vocal Elements for the Study of Vocal Music. International visits account for nearly 30% of downloads. Capacity for Happiness and Three Vocal Elements ranked 12th and 23rd respectively on the iTunes U chart on their first day online. These resources are available for free download.
Online teaching team: Large number of teachers promoting online interaction
The online teaching team is engaged in creating core online courses and conducting online teaching and research. The team is organized according to different programmes, in order to guide, assist and encourage online learning activities. The team is made up of renowned professors, experts and cutting-edge technology specialists. Fulltime teachers from the open university system serve as chief lecturers, backbone teachers and tutors. This creates a three-tier collaborative work mechanism. There is also an online staff room to facilitate the management of online teaching affairs, and promote exchange and cooperation.
Associate Professor Hu Jicheng of the OUC Law School’s Department of Chinese Language and Culture is a master of new technologies. He believes that online learning can instill a sense of alienation and estrangement and that it is necessary for teachers to recreate a real-world teaching experience. His method involves stimulating online interaction using new technology and making online learning more interesting.
Hu Jicheng is always enthusiastic and tries to create the best possible class atmosphere. Students have the chance to ask even the simplest questions and always receive a patient explanation. Hu says: “You have to make the students feel like they are getting the utmost care and attention from their teacher. You can’t be cold like a machine, you have to be full of passion.” In Hu’s view, teachers in distance education should not only offer learning support, but also emotional support.
Online learning space: People-focused
The online learning space is built on a foundation of web-based learning in order to meet the needs of students for autonomous learning. The online learning space covers the entire learning process. It provides students with a range of functions, including a “course supermarket”, news updates, test exercises, virtual experiments, tutorials, learning progress monitoring, dissertations, results, payment, and examination booking. It also provides personalized services such as online campus news, social networking, community exchange, and consultation assistance.
The online learning space provides students with a diverse range of learning resources and platforms for interaction. Students are supported throughout the entire online learning process to help them learn both independently and collaboratively. This encourages autonomy, self-management and knowledge sharing and helps to create a seamless transition between different platforms such as desktops and smartphones. Its connectivity with other systems, including social learning resources and the credit bank, has allowed it to become a bridge linking degree education and non-degree education. The online learning space allows students to track their learning progress and save a learning portfolio. It encourages students to contribute and share knowledge and guides them in managing their learning process independently. Finally, it is a source of information about campus life, promotes teacher-student interaction, and encourages students to join in campus activities.
Song Laiwei, an undergraduate student majoring in business administration at the OUC’s Experimental School, encountered a number of problems when he tried to open his business in 2009. He decided to face these problems by signing up for an open education programme. At first, Song found the learning model difficult. Now, he has become increasingly fond of the mix of online learning and face-to-face tutorial. He has benefited a great deal from both, particularly the face-to-face tutorial. He said: “In autumn 2009, our teacher changed his teaching method. In the marketing class, he asked us to discuss a case based on a particular theory and to study the position and mental state of the parties involved.”
Song says he is not only studying to get a diploma, but also to increase his general knowledge. Since the students come from different walks of life, Song has expanded his connections and learned about the dynamics of other industries during his time as class monitor and chairman of the Students’ Union. He commented: “As I was starting my own business, the teacher deliberately set aside two classes for me to tell my classmates about the registration procedure and the problems I faced in the management of my company.”
In spring 2012, Song applied to continue his undergraduate study of business administration after successfully completing the previous stage of study. He was one of the OUC’s first students after it changed its name from the China Central Radio and TV University. He believes that the university is providing more and better resources everyday: “After I graduated from the junior college programme, I logged on to the university home page and discovered a number of interesting course videos that I had never seen before.”
Online support: Complete coverage whenever, wherever
Online support covers registration to graduation in order to help learners complete their study smoothly and make sure their needs are always at the center. It includes academic support, which is focused on the course teaching process, and non-academic support, which is focused on consultation, technical support and student work. Academic support is provided by an online team of teachers and realized in the form of classes. Management and business support is provided in the form of learning-centered administrative management classes. Consultation services and technical support are provided at the remote reception center. Finally, student support is provided in the form of projects and activities. Open and distance education is gradually formulating a service and support system backed by online technology.
The university is building an integrated, web-based “Cloud Call” nationwide remote reception center covering all local colleges (industry branches) and learning centers. It provides comprehensive, personalized remote reception services 24 hours a day, seven days a week, including inquiries, guidance for course selection, consultation services, complaint management, tutorials, process tracking, and technical support. It aims to solve any doubts or problems that arise for teachers and students, offering support to lifelong learning for the whole society. The online student support also covers career guidance, psychological counseling, student activities, scholarships, performance evaluation, and student associations.
Online assessment: A variety of assessments that meet diverse demands
By leveraging the advantages of computers and other web-based technologies, and promoting the development of an online learning assessment system that supports a range of assessment methods, the university is able to establish a distance education assessment system that matches the educational characteristics of adult learners. The system combines formative and summative assessment; IQ and EQ assessment; self and group assessment; and online and offline assessment. It is comprehensive, diverse and easily personalized.
Having studied the learning characteristics of working adults, the university has changed the traditional assessment mode of “one examination for everyone” and has set out to establish a more flexible method of assessment characterized. This kind of system increases the proportion of formative assessment and decreases the proportion of summative assessment, while also increasing assessment of knowledge application. The university has promoted the construction of a digital test bank to support continuous learning and examination and also make examination appointments. This innovative method of assessment, which combines learning-based assessment with course-based examinations, and open-book examinations with closed-book examinations, meets the diverse needs of a range of students.
Online teaching management: Complete coverage and efficient management
The OUC aims to create a comprehensive management system that supports the OUC’s headquarters, branches, local colleges (industry branches), study centers and allied institutions throughout the web-based teaching and evaluation process. Its goals are two-fold. The first is to establish core functions including: online admission management, special (certificate) course system and graduation regulation management, teaching arrangement management, school record management, achievement accreditation, teaching resource management, student management, examination affairs management, and teaching assessment management. The second is to achieve simple, digitized, intelligent teaching management, in order to help managers to make scientific decisions and increase management efficiency.
The online management system should be seamlessly linked to the payment, learning resource, digital library and scientific research management systems. It should be able to support a credit bank and accreditation procedures of regular higher education institutions and other social education institutions.
Online teaching and teaching administration will promote the OUC’s innovative model and play an even greater role in society.
The OUC’s project to use modern information technology to build six different types of online content on one hand helps to improve the university’s own teaching level, and on the other helps to boost the process of national education modernization and informationization.
With the support of the digital learning devices mentioned above, learners can change their television into a computer with the aid of a special set top box. Learners can access the OUC homepage via the remote control. Once there, they can find all the degree and non-degree courses they could wish for. For busy professionals, portable devices like tablet computers provide easy access to learning; After registering and logging in to the OUC’s cloud OPAD, learners have access to teaching affairs management information, examination information, books and course resources. Lifelong learning is at your service whenever, wherever.
Under the guidance of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the OUC aims to “benefit the people’s livelihood, promote social equality and enhance national strength”. It will strive to meet the diverse education needs of the Chinese people and contribute to promoting equal access to education and building a learning society.
Excerpted from China Profiles, written by YU Minsheng and WEN Shuyu