On 27 January 2021, the Open University of China (OUC) held a meeting for the start of the construction of its "Smart Learning Platform" informatisation project. The meeting was attended by Lin Yu, OUC vice president, as well as responsible personnel from relevant departments and representatives of contractors. The members of the project work teams watched the meeting live online.
The "Smart Learning Platform" project consists of two parts, the OUC learning network and the comprehensive management and service platform. The OUC currently faces the problems of insufficient informational support, scattered platforms, and poor links for data sharing. The learning network project aims to solve these problems by constructing a unified teaching and learning platform with access channels for multiple terminals. It also strives to integrate the OUC’s three major business types — degree education, non-degree education, and the University for Older Adults — through a combination of online and offline teaching models in order to enhance its teaching and governance levels and build an online education platform that serves lifelong learning for all. The comprehensive management and service platform aims to realise the management of the entire learning process life cycle, ranging from enrolment, teaching management, and examinations to learning outcome accreditation through the construction of a business service and data service platform that is advanced, intensive, and integrated. All of the above is designed to serve the OUC’s development strategy, visions, business plan, and management.
Personnel in charge of the OUC Information Department gave a report on the state, schedule, and plan, working mechanism, and current progress of the project. Contractors briefed the meeting on specific scheduling and issues that need to be coordinated by the university. An in-depth discussion was held by all the attendees on the construction content, pilot plan, and work deployment.
Lin Yu gave a summary speech in which he noted that the construction of the "Smart Learning Platform" project is one of the OUC’s top priorities in 2021 and is of great significance and profound influence. All departments should spare no efforts when it comes to project implementation. During the research process, the OUC’s system governance and process optimisation should also be integrated into the demand analysis, which should be accurately established by the end of March 2021. It is expected that the new platform should be able to meet requirements such as a unified platform, accurate data, controllable administrative authority, cutting-edge technology, open and extensible, safety, and balance. Lin Yu hopes that the work teams for the "Smart Learning Platform" project will work hard to solve difficulties and achieve new breakthroughs in the construction process.
By Tian Xiyu and Xiong Wei, OUC