Beijing, 9 September 2025 – The Open University of China (OUC) convened the second mid-term exhibition and exchange activity for its model course and resource incubation projects. The initiative is designed to fully implement the "Implementation Opinions on the Comprehensive Reform of Education and Teaching in Open Universities through Digital Intelligence Empowerment and Integrated Coordination", aiming to further build consensus, deepen innovation and steadily advance the "101 Project" of open education.
LI Song, Vice President of OUC, graced the event with his presence and delivered a speech. Over 200 representatives from the university's headquarters, including its schools and colleges, teaching management departments and university-owned enterprises participated in the event. The event was presided over by LI Wei, Director of the OUC Learning Resources Department.
The primary objective of this event was to summarise the experience of the first batch of projects and showcase the phased achievements of the incubation projects for model courses and resources. Twelve project leaders from seven schools of the university shared their progress on four key themes: "Reconstructing the Course Content System", "Introducing Diversified Learning Methods", "Creating New-Form Learning Resources" and "Exploring AI-Empowered Education and Teaching".
Vice President LI underscored that courses are the fundamental units of talent cultivation and integrate all key elements of education and teaching reform. He noted that a targeted, small-scale course reform can unlock far-reaching improvements in talent cultivation. As a major measure to explore course reform, the incubation projects for model courses and resources should focus on five aspects: First, firmly uphold the fundamental task of open education in fostering virtue through education; Second, highlight adult characteristics and teach according to needs; Third, empower course construction and education reform with digital intelligence; Fourth, secure nationwide alignment and joint action in course reform across the entire Open University system; Fifth, explore comprehensive, three-dimensional and personalised course evaluation.
Vice President LI put forward four requirements for the next stage of project work: First, to elevate standards and strive for excellence, to create courses and resource benchmarks that are "well-received by students and recognised by society". Second, to prioritise content and design, study the laws of adult learning and online learning, and comprehensively optimise the two major issues of "what to learn" and "how to learn". Third, to simplify learning and make optimal use of technology, find the superior cost-performance ratio and the best way to optimise learning outcomes. Fourth, to take the initiative and work collaboratively. Teachers, schools, teaching management departments and production units should join forces to advance project construction, conduct pilot use and iterative evaluation.
Since the inception of the projects, OUC has orderly propelled the high-quality construction of 70 incubation projects through multi-level seminars, cross-department collaboration and regularised promotion. Looking ahead, the university will continue to bolster its overall coordination, complete outcome acceptance and consolidation, and create open education courses and resources that are exemplary, high-quality and of benchmark standard, to serve the high-quality development of open education.
Written by LIU Jing, ZHOU Xiang
Photo by Learning Resources Department