On 20 May 2025, the Open University of China (OUC) celebrated the third anniversary of its Lifelong Education Platform, reaffirming its commitment to serving lifelong learning for all and building a learning society where education is accessible for everyone, anytime and anywhere.
Centred on “Empowering Lifelong Education through Digitalisation”, the platform has continuously advanced its mission through ten major actions. These initiatives aim to achieve universal lifelong learning by constructing a ubiquitous and accessible lifelong education system.
I. AI Empowering Personalised, Targeted and Flexible Learning
Action 1: Smart Learning Companion "Bai Ze"
Built upon OUC’s AI infrastructure and newly integrated with the DeepSeek Deep Thinking Model, the smart learning companion “Bai Ze” on the Lifelong Education Platform can engage in interactive conversations with learners. It can assist them in quickly grasping the core content of courses, resolving specific doubts, and recommending appropriate courses based on individual learning progress and interests, thereby improving their learning efficiency and quality.
Currently, the smart learning companion “Bai Ze” has been launched on the Smart Education of China ∙ Lifelong Education Platform and covers all courses on the platform. It offers AI-assisted learning functions that are well-suited to lifelong learning scenarios, such as course summaries, key point summaries, knowledge Q&A, and course knowledge recommendations. Moving forward, it will also introduce intelligent customer service to answer questions and will be deployed across an even wider range of courses.
Action 2: Bai Ze Intelligent Service Cluster
The platform, centred around the Bai Ze Smart Learning Companion, has integrated multiple functions such as intelligent search, AI video navigation, and automated video summarisation to build a comprehensive intelligent education service system. Officially launched on the Smart Education of China ∙ Lifelong Education Platform on 27 December 2024, this cluster has since provided services to over 60 million learners. It stands as the largest intelligent education system in terms of learner coverage and continues to lead the innovation of intelligent services in the education industry.
II. Massive High-Quality Resources Supporting All-Round Development
Action 3: Serving Rural Revitalisation Strategy
To implement the rural revitalisation strategy and accelerate the modernization of the agricultural sector and rural areas, the Lifelong Education Platform has launched the Rural Revitalisation Channel. This initiative aims to upgrade agriculture industry, and advance the development of rural areas and rural people in every aspect. The channel features four major sections: Current Affairs Tracking, Learning and Growth, Practice Base, and Achievement Showcase. We have specially organised a series of activities, including the exhibition of outstanding student cases from the “One College Student Per Village” Programme and expert lectures. Twelve experts and nine outstanding students have been invited to share their personal experiences and success stories on the hot and difficult issues related to rural development. Over the past year, it has uploaded 1,038 high-quality resources, hosted 5 online lectures, and organised one themed event. This initiative supports the revitalization of rural talent and contributes the OUC's strength to the training of high-quality local talent for rural revitalisation.
Action 4: Supporting Innovation and Entrepreneurship
To further expand the social influence of the OUC’s innovation and entrepreneurship education and fulfil its social responsibility, the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Channel has been launched on the Lifelong Education Platform. This initiative aims to cultivate more talent with innovative spirit and practical capabilities for society.
The Innovation and Entrepreneurship Channel is divided into four main sections: education, competition, showcase, and digital library for innovation and entrepreneurship. The education section offers 1,238 specialised courses and 98 books, forming a foundational resource for learning professional entrepreneurial knowledge and skills. The competition section focuses on specialised training for "Internet+" competitions and other innovation and entrepreneurship competitions in emerging business fields. It includes pre-competition live broadcast guidance, competition-related announcements, and introductions to winning projects and teams, providing users with comprehensive pre-competition support. The showcase section highlights innovative projects and practical achievements, serving as a platform for exchange and sharing. Finally, the digital library section provides 100 e-books on industry information, helping users stay informed about the latest developments, market trends, and future directions of various industries.
Action 5: Empowering Female Growth
To better meet the lifelong learning needs of women and enhance their access to continuing education, the platform has partnered with the OUC and the All-China Women's Federation to launch "Brilliant Life, A Lifelong Learning Plan for Women", a women's channel and a "Learning Enjoyment Bar for Females", which empower women's growth through digitalisation. The "Women's Channel" has launched 600 specialised course resources covering topics such as Smart Women, Happy Families, Healthy Living, Emotional & Intelligence Cultivation, and Makeup & Art Classes. These courses feature unique characteristics designed to meet the varied learning needs of women in different fields.
Education experts, psychologists, and distinguished teachers are invited to participate in live broadcasts on the platform. These sessions aim to share concepts, techniques, and methods of family education, helping women to better understand parenting knowledge, enhance their educational skills, and more effectively guide their children's development, thereby contributing to family growth.
Action 6: Enhancing Aesthetic Education for All
The platform has launched the “Art Master Courses,” meticulously crafted by the OUC School of Art. Renowned artists as lead lecturers are invited to deliver their content through live broadcasts and recorded sessions. They aim to impart artistic knowledge, share artistic experiences, and showcase artistic achievements with a broad audience. The curriculum encompasses a diverse array of topics, such as Chinese freehand brush painting, seal script, freehand flower-and-bird painting, clerical script, cultural aesthetics, regular script techniques, landscape painting creation, running script study, and in-depth cursive script instruction.
On 28 December 2024, the Art Master Courses Zone was inaugurated on the Smart Education Platform for Lifelong Learning in China. Subsequently, on 28 March 2025, the international version of the Art Master Courses was launched on the same platform. These high-quality art education resources are designed to serve the aesthetic education needs of the entire population, enhance national art literacy and aesthetic capabilities, and elevate the international influence of Chinese traditional culture.
Action 7: Promoting Lifelong Learning in Communities
Leveraging its expertise in lifelong education research, OUC actively facilitates the transformation of research outcomes into practical applications. The university has launched a dedicated channel on its Lifelong Education Platform aimed at enhancing community lifelong learning capabilities. This channel is open to all community members, creating an inclusive lifelong learning environment that serves people of all ages and from all areas.
OUC has also launched the “County Community Learning Centre Brand Course Sharing Initiative”, to improve the supply of high-quality learning resources in communities. It continuously shares a series of micro-courses with strong regional characteristics and close relevance to people’s lives from community learning centres across the country (including three levels: counties, towns, and villages). These courses cover ten major themes, for example, vocational skills training, science and technology, art appreciation, and environmental protection. By widely promoting the dissemination of high-quality digital learning resources to primary-level community, rural and remote areas, this initiative further ensures the inclusive sharing and equitable accessibility of lifelong learning public services.
The “OUC Domestic Service” Online Learning Initiative has been successfully launched. Leveraging the OUC Lifelong Education Platform, this initiative offers eight independently developed online training courses focused on basic skills for key positions, including infant and toddler care, elderly care, and more. These courses are available online for free to students, domestic service professionals, and the general public. This effort significantly promotes the continuous enhancement of relevant vocational skills and professional qualities.
OUC has introduced the “10,000 Courses Open Learning Activity” to enhance community lifelong learning capabilities. This initiative is specifically designed for community residents and offers over 90,000 high-quality micro-courses in life and interest-related themes. These courses are accessible through a combination of self-built and collaborative contents. The covered themes include the Chinese Spirit and the Chinese Dream, Aging with Care and Joy, Health Begins with Daily Habits, and Life Lies in Motion. These courses are tailored to continuously meet the growing and increasingly personalised lifelong learning needs of various groups.
III. Innovative Interconnection Establishes a New Pattern of Lifelong Learning
Action 8: Sustaining Interconnection
The Lifelong Education Platform has actively engaged in deep collaboration with provincial-level lifelong education platforms, aiming to facilitate data docking and exchange of courses and related information between the OUC Lifelong Education Platform and other platforms. So far, in-depth integration and interconnection has been achieved with 13 provinces and municipalities, including Beijing, Tianjin, Jilin, Hebei, Qingdao, Shandong, Zhejiang, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Gansu, Hubei, Chengdu, and Chongqing. Efforts are also being made to actively support the construction of the Inner Mongolia Lifelong Education Platform. Moving forward, further interconnection will be pursued with additional provinces and municipalities to achieve user interconnection, data linkage, mutual recognition of achievements, and resource sharing.
Hubei Jingchu Learning Zone
Jilin City Lifelong Learning Platform
Action 9: Establishing lifelong Learning Archives
The platform has established connectivity with the National Credit Bank for Vocational Education, providing users with lifelong learning archives. These documents retain all learning achievements of users on the Lifelong Education Platform. The platform has launched graduation certificates, which thoroughly accredit users' learning outcomes, enhancing their sense of self-identity and accomplishment, and stimulating their learning motivation.
Moving forward, plans are in place to establish a comprehensive link between lifelong learning archives and the credit bank. This integration will provide users with lifelong learning records that encompass both degree-based and non-degree education throughout their lives.
Action 10: Developing Exquisite Courses
The platform has further strengthened its attributes in lifelong learning and internet connectivity. It has comprehensively upgraded its course selection, teaching design, visual style, content presentation, and learning support, resulting in a series of high-quality courses. OUC has successfully launched the “OUC Pioneering Courses” series and completed the construction of personal homepages for teachers LAI Yuxuan and ZHANG Huirui. The content on the platform is rich and diverse, covering course videos, promotional videos, digital avatars, personal posters, teacher personal homepages, and column pages. So far, the courses have garnered over 7 million views. Moving forward, the platform will continue to update and expand its high-quality course offerings, gradually rolling out series such as “Strolling in Italy: Language and Culture” and “Observing Plants and Flowers in Full Bloom.”
Looking ahead, the OUC Lifelong Education Platform will continue to expand and integrate a diverse array of high-quality learning resources across various types and fields. By utilising artificial intelligence, the platform will drive large-scale, personalised, and precise lifelong learning experiences. It will also foster the collaborative development and sharing of high-quality digital resources, ensuring seamless interconnectivity. The platform aims to comprehensively elevate its digital management capabilities, and to leverage digital technology to make lifelong education universally accessible. This will culminate in online classrooms without boundaries, offering a lifelong education that is broad in scope, deep in content, and rich in human touch.
By OUC