Since the OUC first set up the Elderly Service and Management major (junior college education), positive efforts have been made to develop resource construction. To date, a set of paper textbooks, video teaching materials, and online courses and micro-lectures have been produced.
The production of textbooks has been supported by industry experts and scholars, including professors from renowned universities such as the Peking University School of Nursing, researchers from scientific research institutions such as the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Psychology, and professionals from Beijing Hospital and the Social Welfare Centre of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The textbooks explain complicated theories in accessible language, offering abundant learning resources for practitioners in the pensions field. In particular, a large number of coloured pictures are used to present real world working scenarios for courses with high operational practice. The textbooks are divided into four categories according to their content: basic nursing care, including the basic skills of caring for the elderly, the psychological basis of human anatomy, and caring for the elderly from a TCM perspective; daily care, including looking after the elderly, nutrition and food, and basic pharmaceutical training; mental care, including social mental adaptation and mental health issues among the elderly; and management, including policy and regulation, security guidance for elderly living environments, lifestyle counselling, and health information management. The textbooks include real-life case studies, bringing them closer to the real working environment of practitioners in the industry. The textbooks also take into consideration the characteristics of open education learners and are designed with powerful learning guidance and assistance functions, including regular learning objectives and exercises as well as supplementary items such as special columns and extended reading. The textbooks have received praise from learners who comment that they are highly practical and suitable for practitioners in nursing institutions for the elderly or community management and service personnel.
Video teaching materials have also been produced in line with the textbooks. The video teaching materials help illustrate the key teaching content and function as a process to check the problems and complement the shortage regarding knowledge points, and provide a perspective for the cutting-edge content. Through the video teaching materials, learners can accurately grasp the knowledge points and understand the extended content. Based on the course content, the video teaching materials adopt various approachable and accessible presentation methods, including subject lectures and group discussions.
The online courses are under construction and the core course of Social Psychological Adaption has been completed and operated online. The content is designed with rich materials and vivid formats, integrating learning, examination and evaluation and providing a good learning platform to the learners. Meanwhile, other online courses are also being under construction, including the Psychological Fundamentals of Human Anatomy, Common Diseases Tending for the Aged, Nutrition and Food for the Aged, Mental Health for the Aged etc.
In order to integrate better with non-degree education, a set of micro-lectures covering common disease among the elderly and the rational use of drugs have been completed by industrial experts. In consideration of the fact that most learners are ordinary people with weak medical knowledge and poor memory skills, teaching has adopted the principles of scientific, practical, and popularity. On the basis of theoretical knowledge instruction, rational drug guidance and assistance are offered for the elderly in combination with real cases.
The Elderly Service and Management major (junior college education) is a featured major developed by the OUC in response to social demand. It started enrolling students in 2014.
By Yin Shangjing, OUC