Brief Introduction:
Michigan State University (MSU) is a public university located in East Lansing, Michigan State, USA. Founded in 1862, it was the first university established according to the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act. MSU is not only famous for education, agriculture and communication theory, but also for its vanguard role in the research of packaging and musical therapy.
MSU owns the hotel management school with the second longest history in America. MSU’s students come from 50 US states and 130 countries around the world, making it one of America’s most international universities. MSU currently has 47,131 enrolled students and more than 10,000 faculty and staff. MSU boasts the largest scale overseas training course among America’s single campus universities, offering over 200 courses for 60 countries.
Cooperation with the OUC:
In May 2006, under the instruction of the Confucius Institute Headquarters (Hanban), the Open University of China (OUC) established the MSU Online Confucius Institute in cooperation with MSU, headquartered in the MSU’s school of education. It is the world’s first Confucius Institute to be specially engaged in online Chinese education. The OUC set up the Confucius Institute China Research Centre, whose teaching resources were jointly researched and developed by the OUC Chinese Language Centre and National Modern Distance Education Resources Centre. The OUC Chinese Language Centre is responsible for the day-to-day work of MSU Online Confucius institute in China.
In terms of development of teaching materials, the OUC has developed some parts of the “Chinese Your Way” course for senior high school. In addition, it has finished developing 25 packages of teaching materials on “Chinese Culture Appreciation”, including videos and PowerPoint presentations. It has also designed and developed course-assisted search tools including a voice system and search tools for Chinese characters.
The current focus of the Confucius Institute’s development lies in enhancing the construction of basic capabilities, including the construction of teaching personnel and online learning resources. The China Research Centre of the OUC Confucius Institute has developed into a professional team with Chinese language teachers, education technology, media design, software research and overseas business channels. In terms of resources construction, it has completed 60 units and 360 hours of online adult learning courses, and combined 108 experience courses about Chinese language, culture and communications by way of transplanting, creating and reconstruction. The next task is to find a suitable business model to spread and apply existing online resources.
On 9 December 2013, the 2013 Council of the Confucius Institute at Michigan State University (CI-MSU) was held simultaneously at the Open University of China (the OUC). The Chinese and American members of the Council and the working staff of CI-MSU exchanged and discussed ideas through both oral and written reports via a live two-way video-conferencing between the two sites. It was affirmed that in 2014 the CI-MSU would continue focusing on distance Chinese teaching as the primary means to drive growth, expanding the enrollment scale, developing teaching resources related to Chinese and Chinese culture in American K-12 schools, undertaking research on Chinese teaching methodology, the curriculum design of Chinese courses, distance training of Chinese teacher occupational development, organising the “Chinese Bridge” Summer Camp in China, and other Chinese culture related activities.
On 13 October2014, the 2014 Council Meeting of the Confucius Institute at Michigan State University was held at Henry Conference Center of Michigan State University. Via the video conferencing system, council members from China and America took part in the summit together to summarize the work completed in 2013 and 2014 and discuss their working plan for 2015.
The council was very satisfied with the general situation as told by the working reports and indicated that the focus in the future should turn from the vast construction of online teaching resources to the study and application of distance education, which will be able to carry out more teaching innovations with the support of education technology and information technology. In regards to the aspect of innovation, the deans of both sides proposed higher expectations towards the working team of the Confucius Institute in that it not only molds the Confucius Institute into a platform for distance Chinese teaching, but is also able to become a teaching tool for both institutes, a window of communication and understanding between teachers and students.
OUC Holds Work Conference for Confucius Institute at MSU
On the 5 December 2018, a work conference for the Confucius Institute at Michigan State University (CI-MSU) was held in Chengdu. As the Chinese institution of CI-MSU, the Open University of China (OUC) hosted the meeting and summarised 2018 work, as well as discussing future innovative cooperation steps.
The conference was attended by personnel from both the Chinese institution and the US institution of the CI-MSU, namely, Liu Xianghong, vice secretary of the OUC Party Committee and Liu Zhanrong, deputy director of the OUC Faculty of International Languages and Cultures; Doctor Lynn Paine and Doctor Li Jiahang, director and deputy director of the US institution of CI-MSU.
Liu Xianghong indicated that the concept of “Innovation, Reformation, and Pragmatism” proposed at the Confucius Institute Conference 2018 could also be adopted as a guiding principle for the cooperation between the OUC and CI-MSU. In addition to sending Chinese instructors to teach in the US, both sides should explore a management mechanism, look for flexible cooperative patterns, expand potential cooperation projects, and put special emphasis on how to apply information technology and give full play to the IT advantages of both universities.
Liu Zhanrong said that, in the future, the cooperation will not be limited to developing Chinese instructors, but also include short-term or long-term training for OUC faculty and students by exerting the advantages of MSU College of Education.
During the meeting, both sides gave 2018 CI work reports. The US side will continue with its traditional premium project by cooperating with Michigan Virtual School to provide 10-level Chinese courses for 372 registered students from the levels of 1A to AP. To date, the project has provided Chinese training for more than 4,000 students. Meanwhile, it has offered online and offline training for Chinese instructors for more than 200 persons/times. In addition to regular cultural activities, the US institution has also held the CI Open Day, Chinese immersion programmes, workshops, and CI celebration activities. The OUC has provided course and software support for the CI, facilitated the construction of TCSOL degree programmes, and upgraded and optimised the MyEChinese platform. It has also continued to support the routine operating work of the CI, which includes providing training for domestic Chinese instructors, selecting and sending four instructors to teach in the US, organising HSK tests for nearly 300 persons/times, preparing for the CI council meeting, and jointly carrying out online cultural activities and course development. Both sides also paid special attention to the cooperation plan for 2019 and discussed related matters including the re-selection of the CI council.
Ms. Lynn Paine said that using the IT strengths of both universities is the perfect cooperative pattern to manage CI and that the two sides should explore new methods of cooperation based on their consolidated strength. The MSU College of Education is willing to carry out cooperation with the OUC in the areas of providing teacher training in both systematical and short-term ways.
Fighting Together: OUC Sends Epidemic Prevention Materials to Confucius Institute at Michigan State University
While the prevention and control of the COVID-19 outbreak in China has been positively extended as of March 2020, the pandemic has been spreading rapidly overseas.
Knowing that teachers at the Confucius Institute at Michigan State University (CI-MSU) are facing a serious shortage of materials for epidemic prevention, Jing Degang, secretary of the Party Committee and president of the Open University of China (OUC) wrote them a letter of support and made arrangements to send a batch of face masks in order to protect the health and safety of the overseas teachers who have been selected by the OUC and dispatched by Hanban (the headquarters of the Confucius Institute) to teach at CI-MSU. As of the date of this article, the materials have reached the teachers.
Letter of support from OUC president Jing Degang
Letter of thanks from CI-MSU
In his letter, Jing Degang expressed sincere thanks to and support for overseas teachers on behalf of the OUC as they continue their work on the front line of Chinese instruction for foreign speakers. He hopes that they will continue to support the normal operation of the teaching process while at the same time making sure to protect themselves well from the epidemic and reminded them to abide by the advice of the local schools and the Confucius institute. Upon receipt of the letter, the teachers felt deeply encouraged and moved by the OUC and wrote back in a thank you letter that they feel like the epidemic prevention packages from the OUC are full of care and affection and has strengthened their will to battle the virus. All of the faculty and staff of CI-MSU will pay close attention to the development of the epidemic and carry out epidemic prevention and control in a scientific and efficient way so as to ensure that CI-MSU can operate normally.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the OUC Faculty of International Languages and Cultures has maintained close contact with the teachers dispatched from China to work at CI-MSU. During the outbreak of epidemic in China a few months ago, the OUC has received a video from the CI-MSU, which cheered up staff and students at the OUC.
Teachers from CI-MSU cheered up OUC staff and students during the epidemic in China
CI-MSU is the first online Confucius Institute in the world, established by the OUC and MSU fourteen years ago under a cooperation agreement signed in 2006. As of today, CI-MSU has enrolled over 5,000 students, mainly junior and senior high school students from different US states aged 10-18 years. Some of the students are from Thailand and United Arab Emirates. CI-MSU has a total of nine Chinese teachers dispatched by Hanban, of which five were selected from the OUC headquarters and the OUC branches. CI-MSU has built a platform for communication between teachers in the US and China. A number of the OUC teachers have been able to expand their horizons and enhance their international literacy and standard through CI-MSU programme.
2020 is the final year of the OUC Construction Plan, the OUC Comprehensive Reform Plan, and the OUC 13th Five-Year Plan for Reform and Construction. The OUC will “optimise and improve international cooperation” and continue to conduct in-depth explorations of a new path for international cooperation for open universities and stimulate the implementation of international Chinese language education.