The opening ceremony of a series of activities marking the third anniversary of the establishment of the Open University of China (OUC) was held on June 30, 2015.
From June 21 to July 31, the OUC will sum up the achievements of the OUC over the past three years through a series of activities to gather consensus, strengthen confidence, promote comprehensive reform, and push forward the realization of the development goal specified in the Construction Plan of the OUC. The leaders, faculty, and staff of the OUC participated in the opening ceremony.
President of the OUC, Yang Zhijian, spoke about the OUC’s construction progress report. He noted that since its establishment, the OUC has further confirmed its school management orientation, clarifiedits construction ideas, focused on key tasks, and comprehensively carried out the "1314 project". Yang Zhijian discussed the achievements of comprehensive university construction from five aspects: the reconstruction of the school operating system and innovation of the system mechanism; the promotion of digitization and the integration of high-quality resources; the deepening of teaching reform and the improvement of teaching quality; the exploration of the credit bank system and the construction of lifelong learning overpasses; the development of non-degree education to meet diverse learning needs. Yang Zhijian pointed out that for the past five years, especially in the three years since the establishment of the OUC, the faculty and staff have maintained the regular operation and stability of the teaching system, while also vigorously promoting new construction and reform. On the whole, the OUC has made important phased progress in university construction, including many breakthroughs and highlights. These achievements have been affirmed by leaders, experts, the system, and society as a whole, which has laid a solid foundation for the realization of the development goal specified in the Construction Plan of the OUC.
Yang Zhijian also spoke about the next stage of work. Firstly, the OUC should focus on the "1314 project" to further enhance awareness, gather forces, focus on key issues, and make comprehensive advancement. Secondly, the OUC should promote comprehensive reform and innovation with a clear development plan to counter bottlenecks and problems. Thirdly, the OUC will promulgate the 13th Five-Year Development Plan of the OUC, which will serve as a guide for the work of the OUC over the next five years. Yang Zhijian stressed that the OUC should rely on the hard work of all the faculty and staff to ensure that development is made on the "1314 project" and that reform and construction is completed in 2017. It is expected that a fully operational web-based OUC will be completed by 2020.
Vice President of the OUC Zhang Shaogang announced the names of the staff whose R&D credits have ranked in the top 10 in the past three years. They were commended for their hard work.
An exhibition of the achievements of the third anniversary of the OUC was unveiled at the ceremony. The "Integration of Six Networks" information technology application show was also launched.
The exhibition showed the OUC’s achievements through 40 exhibition boards, mainly centering on the OUC’s "1314 project" and covering seven aspects: the “Integration of Six Networks” models; education digitization; the university’s organization system; credit bank construction; and non-degree continuing education, comprehensively reflecting the main reform achievements of the OUC over the past three years. The exhibition featured comprehensive content, up-to-date data, texts with illustrations, and strong visual effects.
A total of 65 projects from 22 departments of the OUC participated in the "Integration of Six Networks" information technology application show. The show aims to promote the deep integration of modern information technology and open and distance education, and build the "Integration of Six Networks" model, with online courses, online learning spaces, online teaching teams, online learning services, online learning tests, and online teaching managements as its focus, to promote the overall enhancement of teaching, management, and services.
The series of activities for the third anniversary of the OUC includes: press release on the progress report of the OUC’s construction; the “1314 project” achievement exhibition; a series of academic salons; the information technology application show; essay sharing; theme reading; the publication of a survey report on community education satisfaction; and the publication of the Quality Standard of the OUC (1.0 Beta) and Annual Reportof the Teaching Quality of the OUC.
By Jin Hongyu, OUC