In April 2021, the OUC “One College Student Per Village” Programme was awarded the 2020 UNESCO King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa Prize for the Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Education, the UN’s highest award for IT application in education.
Beyond Distance Education: Cutting-Edge Perspectives on the Future of Global Open Universities, a book launched by the OUC and jointly written by leaders of 16 open universities and global open distance education institutions, was published in May 2021. It is clear that in recent years, the OUC has become more and more instrumental in the development of global educational informatisation. During the interview with E-Learning, Jing Degang talked about how the OUC can further contribute to China’s Rural Revitalisation Strategy, as well as the university’s future development.
Jing Degang, secretary of the Party Committee and president of the OUC
Take advantage of the UNESCO award, continue to work hard and fulfil our mission
E-learning: The OUC was awarded the UNESCO Prize for Use of ICT in Education on 6 April 2021. How would you, as secretary of the Party Committee and president of the OUC, comment on this?
Jing Degang: I’m very excited that the OUC has been given this honour. The award is a recognition of the OUC “One College Student Per Village” Programme. It also reveals that China’s recent achievements in the deep integration of modern information technology with education have been recognised globally.
The “One College Student Per Village” Programme, launched by the Ministry of Education (MOE) in 2004, was organised and implemented by the OUC and its organisational system. Based on the idea that “poverty alleviation starts by supporting knowledge, which ultimately depends on education,” the programme is committed to cultivating local talents who “are willing to remain in rural areas, use what they have learned and do a good job on their positions.” It helps to reduce and eliminate poverty by using high-quality resources gathered through modern distance education and information means and a hybrid teaching model combining network-based self-directed learning and face-to-face tutoring. In 2017, the OUC explored the integration of AI technology with teaching, educational administration, and other parts of education, using AI technology to formulate exclusive learning plans for students, accurately pass on high-quality educational resources to target groups, strengthen learning support services, and automatically conduct learning evaluations. To date, the “One College Student Per Village” Programme has enrolled 829,000 students in 31 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government), of which 530,000 have graduated. This has made positive contributions to poverty alleviation through education and rural revitalisation in China, offering an example of an education programme for poverty alleviation and reduction that is replicable globally.
E-Learning: The No. 1 document issued by the CPC Central Committee in 2021 proposed promoting overall rural revitalisation. What position will the OUC take in committing to this great mission?
Jing Degang: Winning the UNESCO award does not mark the end of our work. Instead, we should take this opportunity to summarise our experiences, give full play to our advantages, and continue our mission with new efforts. Next, we will take action in four aspects. First, we will establish a Rural Revitalisation College, which will provide effective coordination between poverty alleviation and rural revitalisation through education and implement all rural revitalisation related work in accordance with the requirements of the MOE Party Group. Second, it is important for us to give full play to the advantages of “Internet plus education” and create a new model for rural revitalisation through education. Third, we must focus on local needs, open new disciplines and major related to rural revitalisation, and seek the new development of open education through educational services. Fourth, it’s essential to mobilise the enthusiasm of members of the OUC system, achieve the in-depth integration of industry with education and university-enterprise cooperation, and make contributions to rural revitalisation.
The four challenges facing the OUC
E-learning: The award demonstrates the energy and vitality the OUC derives from being a university supported by modern information technology. What internal and external challenges do you think the OUC still faces in its transformation and development?
Jing Degang: 2021 has been a particularly important year for both China and the world. Covid-19 has created difficulties for mankind, but it has also catalysed our common destiny. At the beginning of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan, China’s economic and social development will enter a new track and embark on a new journey. Higher education will enter a period of adjustment, reform, and development. In particular, education in China has ushered in a new stage that values quality as a whole. High-quality education will become the main goal and standard of measurement of universities. These will inevitably require education sectors to develop beyond their previous development concepts and model and the conditions and foundation supporting educational development to be further improved and upgraded.
We must be aware that challenges cannot be ignored and opportunities cannot be missed. We should try our best to use crises to cultivate new opportunities and open up new situations amid changing circumstances. In the face of a new pattern focusing on high-quality development, the OUC still needs to address many deficiencies and inadequacies. There are some challenges which can’t be avoided and prevented during our transformation and development:
First, traditional universities are scrambling for a share of the online education market. During the Covid-19 pandemic, universities around the world launched online education, making it no longer an exclusive trump card of open universities. Taking China as an example, as of 8 May 2020, 1,454 universities across the country were providing online education. Prior to that, 68 well-known Chinese universities set up online education colleges to provide online education for more than 4 million registered students. It is apparent that along with the increasing efforts put into reform of education and teaching by general colleges and universities, it has become an indisputable fact that open universities need to offer large scale online education and continuing education by taking advantage of their brands while remaining committed to their essential business of delivering offline education.
Second, some major business has dipped a toe into the waters of the online education market. Since 2020, with the outbreak of Covid-19, a quiet online education revolution has broken out. In response to the MOE’s call for “disrupted classes, undisrupted teaching; disrupted classes, undisrupted learning,” universities and primary and secondary schools quickly prepared and opened internet-based classes and online tutoring in a timely manner. Some famous companies whose main business is in offline education, training, and tutoring immediately followed up and moved courses online. A number of educational technology service companies used their advantages in providing online education solutions to help schools and training institutions get courses online. Internet technology giants, relying on their own technological and talent-based advantages, made quick plans to start education businesses. Some financial institutions also began to provide free courses for children or for leisure, entertainment, and workplace ability improvement purposes. Some training institutions were also drawn into this whirlpool. For a time, various players and different service providers contended with each other in the online education market. As a result, online education in open universities is stranded in a dangerous situation with rivals on both sides.
Third, quality education has become the primary choice for learners. As China has started a new journey toward fully building a modern socialist country, people have greater demands for a better life, including for high-quality education. “Being able to go to school” in the general sense can no longer meet people’s expectations for a better life. Going to a good university or famous university, or being admitted to new and fashionable majors, has become a pursuit of value for most people. Especially at a time when China is ushering in the in-depth development of a new round of reform and opening up to the outside world to a larger degree, studying abroad has become a common phenomenon. Therefore, the competition faced by open universities not only comes from high-level Chinese universities, but also from foreign universities who are looking for a share of China’s education market. As a result, it is necessary for open universities to comprehensively enhance their influence and competitiveness, seek alternative development opportunities in terms of educational orientation and level, form their own characteristics, and improve their quality.
Fourth, open education still lacks social recognition. In 2021, there were 9.09 million college graduates in China, all of whom had to confront a severe and complex employment situation. On the one hand, there is a prominent conflict between supply and demand, with many problems on the supply side. On the other hand, employers, with so many choices at hand, have started to set higher requirements when recruiting employees, which had led to the high consumption of talented professionals. Employers prefer to use graduates of universities from “Project 985” universities first, followed by “Project 211” universities. This has become a social phenomenon and has resulted in occasional cases of discrimination. Although the phenomenon has been criticised by the public, the economic downturn and increasing number of graduates have made seeking employment more and more demanding, and this has added new challenges for open-university graduates, who are already uncompetitive in the job market.
E-Learning: What kind of opportunities does the OUC need to accurately seize despite the severe challenges it faces?
Jing Degang: While identifying challenges, we should also see that the profound and complex changes in China and abroad have also created rare historical opportunities for the development of the OUC:
E-Learning: You mentioned that “the new era of educational reconstruction has arrived ahead of schedule.” As editor-in-chief, you called on and organised influential distance and open education institutions around the world to publish Beyond Distance Education: Cutting-Edge Perspectives on the Future of Global Open Universities. Is this a concrete way in which the OUC is embracing the new era?
Jing Degang: Online teaching is not an exclusive trump card of open universities. Facing a more complex world in the post-pandemic era, open universities must consider how to transform and play a more important role in economic development and social governance. We launched an initiative to further explore the future trends of global open universities and received positive responses from the presidents of open universities around the world. Beyond Distance Education: Cutting-Edge Perspectives on the Future of Global Open Universities gathers together a collection of articles written by leaders from 16 open universities around the world, including 15 countries and regions in Asia, Europe, North America, Africa, and Australia. It will guide open universities around the world to jointly think about the future development trends of distance education and formulate a new strategic plan so that they can play a leading role in the new era of educational reconstruction and maintain their leading and unique advantages in the field of online education.
Build a world-class open university via a “three-step” strategy
E-learning: Facing the aforementioned challenges and opportunities, what is the strategic direction and priority of the reform and development of the OUC?
Jing Degang: To comply with the overall goal of the “three-step” strategy and promote the modernisation of the national governance system and governance capacity established by the Communist Party of China and the central government, the OUC will also commit to developing into a world-class open university over the next 30 years. To achieve this goal, it is necessary to stay on top in some major indicators, and, more importantly, play a supporting and leading role in talent training, knowledge contribution, technology integration, and serving the people. Therefore, the OUC will insist on the teaching of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, aim to construct an educational system serving lifelong learning for all, and follow the education direction of serving the national strategy, industrial development, and lifelong learning. We must remain committed to delivering education within the territory of China and implement the basic task of fostering virtue through education. We must take efforts to implement the “1233 Project,” in which 1 is the construction of an teaching team that is based on modern, internet-based thinking, is loyal to the Party’s education mission, stresses political awareness and morality, and is willing to dedicate themselves to education in China; 2 means the enhancement of two abilities, i.e., the ability to identify and apply global teaching resources and the ability to manage and govern Internet plus education and teaching; and 3 means that we should establish three systems — cyber security guarantee, quality evaluation and monitoring, and innovation driven development. “Implement Three Strategies” refers to the three strategies of creating excellence and improving quality in degree education, developing and expanding external education and training, and strengthening and improving the Open University for Older Adults.
After 5 to 10 years of hard work, we will realise “four transformations,” i.e., from seeking quantity to strengthening quality, from a focus on qualifications to one on knowledge, from providing degrees to enhancing skills, and from prioritising online teaching to the integrated development of online and offline teaching. Through these four transformations, we will strive to make the OUC into a main platform for lifelong and online education in China and a platform for flexible education and external cooperation. This will enable it to become an important force serving lifelong learning for all and a strong support for a skilled society.
E-learning: Would you please expand on how you will build the “Four Platforms” by realising the “Four Transformations?”
Jing Degang:
The transformation from seeking quantity to strengthening quality mainly intends to solve the problem of “being large in scale but lacking competitiveness.”
First, we should concentrate our efforts on and always give top priority to the reform of education and teaching and pay close attention to the quality of education and teaching. Both leaders and teachers should focus on education and teaching, and promote the overall improvement of the university’s work with high-quality teaching. We should strengthen top-level design and design education and teaching according to the characteristics of students who come from a wide span of age groups and have different education levels. We should reform the teaching system from the upper level of the OUC headquarters to its branches, combine teaching content reform in the headquarters with all branches, and effectively change the practice of copying the education and teaching methods of general colleges and universities. Second, we must improve the quality and capacity of learning resources. We must follow the principle of providing practical and easy to learn resources and producing the most suitable learning resources for learners so that we can meet the diversified learning needs of lifelong learners. We should always direct our education to meet learners’ needs and focus on courses and comprehensively improve the quality of the construction of learning resources. Third, we must make continuous efforts to improve teaching and learning. We must seek breakthroughs by producing “Golden Courses,” clarify the direction of the construction of majors, and promote the reform of teachers, textbooks, and teaching methods. Professors should be encouraged to take the lead in giving and evaluating lectures and provide learning instructions for students. Young teachers should be motivated to shoulder heavy burdens in teaching and research in order to build a first-class online teaching team. We must set strict requirements for students, vigorously improve students’ interest in learning, increase the frequency and difficulty of homework, and enable students to truly learn and achieve something. Fourth, we must strengthen innovative development driven by scientific research, improve evaluation methods, guide teachers to strengthen scientific research based on teaching, ensure that teaching is not backward, and realise the mutual development of teaching and scientific research. An academic atmosphere should be created through the organisation of activities such as “Doctor Forum” and “Inviting 100 Famous Teachers to Give Lectures in the OUC” in order to constantly enhance the influence of academics on education and teaching and improve their appeal to both teachers and students. Innovation in management should be encouraged so that new work processes can be created, university governance can be standardised into a modern university system, and innovation can become a source of reform and development. Fifth, we must coordinate the efforts of all members of the OUC system in order to improve our level of internationalisation and strengthen exchanges and cooperation with foreign universities, enterprises and associations in accordance with the principle of “reference, mutual benefit, and common development.” We should aim for the internationalisation of open education and mobilise 44 provincial open universities to expand educational cooperation areas along the route of the Belt and Road Initiative, so that open universities will become models in foreign cooperation.
The transformation from focus on qualifications to one on knowledge mainly intends to address the problem of student-oriented education.
First, our educational concept should be truly student-centric; this should not simply be treated as a slogan. We should listen to the opinions of students in the formulation of major policies and measures. The use of human resources, funds, and properties should all focus on educational reform and students. All departments, faculties, and colleges of the OUC should provide effective services for students in line with their own strengths. Second, in terms of teaching, we must focus on the effectiveness and usefulness of knowledge and resolutely abandon outdated, invalid, and useless courses and textbooks. We must accelerate the increase and improvement of knowledge points urgently needed by students or conducive to students’ career development, vigorously improve the scientific integration of modern information technology with education and teaching, and enhance the appeal and attractiveness of textbooks, classrooms, counselling, and face-to-face teaching. Third, in terms of measures, we should broaden channels of non-degree education, actively respond to the national strategy in response to population ageing, and establish a concept of “providing care and services for older adults through learning.” We must establish and open up channels for older adults to learn, and develop education for older adults into a new business area for open universities through a development service model integrating online learning and public services, online and offline education, and “health care and preservation, learning and travel.” We should attach great importance to social training, adhere to the philosophy of openness and cooperation, diversify investment, and seek development by looking to exterior resources. We must make great efforts to build a training brand and make external training a new growth point for the development of open universities.
The transformation from providing degrees to enhancing skills is mainly aimed at solving the problem of the lack of skills among students.
First, our work must focus on the establishment of majors that help students to transform their core skills. We must, according to social demand and the needs of students, clarify the core literacy and key skills expected of students of each major, increase courses urgently needed in the workplace in a timely manner, and eliminate outdated and useless courses. Education and teaching must focus on training students’ key skills, which will then become an important basis for curriculum adjustment and major setting. Second, in order to train students’ core skills, we must transform the literacy of teachers and further strengthen the construction of teaching teams. We must take efforts to cultivate famous teachers and produce quality lectures given by those teachers in line with workplace requirements. We must launch projects of quality lectures by famous teachers and take the initiative to cultivate, introduce, and maintain a number of excellent teachers. We must attach importance to supporting young and middle-aged backbone teachers, so that they can truly become the core of open universities at present and in the future. We should boldly explore ways for experts, professors, and craftsmen with practical experience to give lectures and edit textbooks, making up for the shortage of academic teachers. Third, we need to concentrate our efforts on the transformation of practical teaching in order to train students’ core skills. We should make up for deficiencies in education and teaching based on the needs of students, create conditions to cooperate with industries, enterprises, and vocational colleges, and strengthen practice and training in majors. We should explore ways to develop pilot programmes for modern apprenticeship and tutorial systems and try our best to enable students to make achievements and improve their skills in open universities.
The transformation from prioritising online teaching to the integrated development of online and offline teaching mainly aims to solve the problem of deficiencies in online teaching.
First, it is important to increase the number of face-to-face courses. Face-to-face teaching should be treated as the most important part of teaching both in the OUC headquarters and its branches and study centres, with the length of face-to-face teaching of each major reaching or exceeding more than 30% of the total class hours. Second, it is essential to strengthen cooperation with traditional universities. A variety of cooperation models must be explored. We can arrange for students to learn all or part of equivalent courses in traditional universities or invite teachers from traditional universities to give face-to-face lectures at open universities. Teachers and students from open universities can voluntarily pair up with their counterparts in traditional universities and form interest learning and scientific research groups so that they can learn from each other and improve together. Third, it is important to strengthen cooperation with vocational colleges. We should make full use of the long-term and stable cooperative relationship with vocational colleges and appropriately expand the content of training in open education and form efficient and collaborative practice and training centres on the basis of existing training workshops and vocational colleges and by combining with the characteristics of open education students. Fourth, we should accelerate cooperation with industries and enterprises. Contemporary enterprises are both users and creators of knowledge. Therefore, universities should learn from enterprises and conduct in-depth cooperation with enterprises in talent training, scientific research, and social services. Cooperation with enterprises is of greater significance for open universities. Both sides should identify areas of cooperation that are mutually beneficial and win-win oriented. On the basis of cooperation, the deep integration of industry and education, as well as university-enterprise cooperation, will be promoted.
Of course, we should also actively use modern information technology to form an online and offline integrated teaching and learning environment by building an online learning community of independent and collaborative learning and establishing an offline learning experience and service centre. We will also continue to explore a flexible enrolment system, facilitate the registration, learning, and issuance of certificate of completion for single courses, and establish a flexible enrolment and admission system and a dynamic learning system. We must accelerate the construction of the National Credit Bank (National Qualification Framework), implement a system for the recognition, accumulation, and conversion of learning achievements in non-formal and informal learning, so as to realise a scientific connection between degree and non-degree education. Through these “Four Transformations,” in the future, the OUC will become a major platform for lifelong and online education and a platform for flexible education and external cooperation in China.
A new journey calls for a culture that advances bravely
E-Learning: What requirements have the OUC set for its leadership in order to achieve its work goals in 2021 as scheduled?
Jing Degang: First, practical work must be done in the fields of reform and development. To do so, changing our work style is of primary importance. A sound working style is conducive to cohesion and effectiveness and helps to stimulate potential and establish a good brand image. We should spend time on investigation and research at the grass-roots level and the teaching front-line in order to identify any problems that have emerged. We must grasp key links and work hard to promote the high-quality development of open universities. Secondly, we should study various policies relating to lifelong education, the credit bank, education for older adults, community education, and social training, and investigate social needs and market opportunities by taking proactive measures, finding better methods, and doing a solid job. Third, we should apply a reward and punishment mechanism. While we commend and praise model workers and good performance in the process of reform and development, we should also firmly punish those who have violated laws and regulations.
Second, we need to focus on the details of key work. Great undertakings are tackled from details, which in turn determine whether they will succeed or fail. The progress of key businesses must be completed in an in-depth, meticulous, persistent, and unremitting manner. We should focus on details, zoom in on problems and grasp truth and laws from facts. Our work must stand up to the test of “three questions,” and we should resolutely abandon behaviours prioritising deployment over implementation and important requirements over inspection. Lastly, we must adopt a consistent manner and constantly strive for perfection in any work we do.
Third, we should pay attention to small details while providing services. As part of this, first, we must resolutely overcome formalism and bureaucracy, establish a philosophy of serving the grass-roots level and teachers and students, and maintain an emotional connection with staff and faculty members. Secondly, we should gather popularity from and offer warm services for teachers, and win their trust and support by providing them with better career opportunities, emotional care, and even better welfare. Finally, we should aim to achieve practical results, attach importance to details, and try our utmost to achieve what we are able to. It is also important that our achievements stand up to tests and are able to win recognition.
Fourth, in order to build a culture of advancing ahead bravely, we must pay close attention to strengthening our mental toughness. The ability to forge ahead with courage is built on a culture emphasising firm beliefs, substantial implementation, responsibility, overcoming difficulties, sincerity, unity, and strict self-discipline. General Secretary Xi Jinping noted that we must be determined to inherit the glorious traditions and fine conduct of the Party. Therefore, we must also be determined to serve as successors of the OUC who will work hard and forge ahead bravely, seek excellence, and make brilliant achievements in the new journey of building a top quality open university in the new era.
Whether it is for the purpose of establishing a renowned brand of open education, developing a respectable university, or building a top quality open university, we must have the resilience and perseverance to insist on fulfilling our mission year after year. In the year of ox, we should vigorously carry forward the serving, pioneering and willing spirit of an ox, and continue to work hard to build a world-class open university with strength and determination, being able to bear and not be afraid of any hardships and moving ahead voluntarily.
Reprinted from E-learning Journal, August 2021 Edition