Making News the Core

Do you want to attend Tsinghua University, Peking University or Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)? In the past, these institutions were out of the reach of ordinary people. Today however, only an Internet connection is needed to “sit” in these prestigious classrooms and listen to their lectures. In this fashion, learners can earn credits from these top universities and obtain academic qualifications.

The world’s first Chinese-language MOOC (massive open online course) platform, “classroom online” (www.xuetangx.com) developed by Tsinghua University, was officially launched on October 10. Recently, five Tsinghua University courses such as A History of Chinese Architecture and Principles of Circuits, MIT’s Principles of Circuits, and Peking University’s Principles and Practice of Computer-Aided Translation, have become the first online courses. Vice President of Tsinghua University Yuan Si indicated that “classroom online” (www.xuetangx.com) will be active in introducing high quality online courses from such prestigious universities as Harvard, MIT, and UC Berkeley in the future.

MOOCs have become a hot topic in the education world. This year, four of Mainland China’s most important institutions of higher education, Tsinghua University, Peking University, Fudan University and Shanghai Jiaotong University, all joined MOOCs. Not long ago, the global shared courses launched by Peking University on the edX platform (an online learning platform launched by Harvard and MIT) drew a lot of attention. Will the trend towards MOOCs trigger the transformation of traditional institutions of higher education in China? Can the teacher-centric traditional classroom really become student-centric? Will the credits and certificates obtained promote credit transfer among universities and colleges?

---- Reporter experience ----

A simple registration process allows you to attend a top university, free of charge.

Upon opening the “classroom online” webpage, one simply has to fill in one’s email address and open an account to become a registered student.

The reporter randomly selected the course A History of Chinese Architecture. The course, which officially opened on October 18, is taught by a five-person team, including doctorial supervisors Wang Guixiang and Lü Zhou. The content of the first trial lecture have already been published online. The course isn’t taught in a traditional manner. The students follow the tutors to the Dule Temple in Tianjin, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, and other places in Beijing, much like a documentary. For example, when speaking of pure wooden structure, Mr. Wang Guixiang appeared with his students in the Guangyin Pavilion of Dule Temple, a building dating back more 1,000 years ago, walking and talking.

Professor Sun Maosong from Tsinghua University, who is in charge of the “classroom online” platform, told the reporter that a student is free to choose and view any chapter so that he can ensure his studies are on track. After watching the video, the system will automatically assign exercises. After the exercises are submitted, the system also automatically distributes the answer key. The platform also allows for community discussion. 

Through the platform, the learners can also see the progress of their own studies.

In May this year, Tsinghua University joined the edX MOOC platform launched by Harvard and MIT. In June, a team from Tsinghua University started to work on the edX-based open source Chinese platform. It has taken four months for the official launch of the “classroom online” platform.

Sun Maosong noted that “classroom online” includes special functions to meet the needs of Chinese learners. A special HTML 5 video player has been developed for the platform, since Chinese users do not have access to Youtube. Learners can choose from Chinese or English subtitles. The user can also search for any subtitle and the video we reposition accurately.

---- Interview ----

What is the difference between MOOCs and other online open classes?

Vice President of Tsinghua University, Yuan Si, told the reporter “Earlier courses simply moved printed books and teaching materials on to the Internet, with no interactivity. In contrast, MOOCs represent the movement of entire courses on to the Internet. It means that a series of class teaching activities are realized online.” Yuan Si said that the emergence of MOOCs has given flesh to the “flipped classroom”. Students listen to the lectures first outside the classroom, while class teaching puts emphasis on sharing, discussion and problem solving. At present, two Tsinghua University courses, “C++ Programming” and “Cloud Computing and Software Engineering”, have already used the platform for blended teaching.

Director-General Zhang Daliang from the Ministry of Education (MOE)’s Department of Higher Education believes that MOOCs have four features compared to traditional online teaching. The first is it causes traditional teaching activities to become “blended”. The second is large scale, in that MOOCs allow thousands of people to attend at the same time. The third is individualization, which allows it to adapt to the needs of each learner. The fourth is community discussion with a large number of participants. Zhang Daliang noted that expert analysis shows that one-way lectures allow learners to retain only 5% of the knowledge they receive, while two-way interaction allows learners to retain 50% of the knowledge they receive.

Can MOOC credits be transferred among institutions of higher education?

Zhang Daliang believes that this issue is related to policy study and management system design. Management is currently lagging behind, so the MOE will organize experts to conduct further study on credit transfer. Furthermore, system design and advanced policy study shall be made with regard to equal credit transfer, since this involves issuing certificates and conferring degrees. He said that interschool credit transfer is still under discussion at present. “Classroom online” offers an excellent opportunity for the exchange of top quality courses between institutions of higher education. The MOE hopes that all institutions of higher education will use the platform actively and conduct real-time policy study and system design to meet the need for online study record, certificates, credits and degrees.

Yuan Si is optimistic in the face of this issue. Most high-level universities in China share an understanding of student exchange and credit transfer. The limitations for implementation lie in the physical environment. For example, Tsinghua University’s student dormitories are not large enough to accommodate exchange students from other universities. Thanks to MOOCs, students don’t necessarily need to physically attend Tsinghua University; they can study via the Internet. In this case, it will be easier for the credit transfer process to become a reality.

What is the value of obtaining a learning certificate?

Professor Anant Agarwal, President of edX, told the reporter that edX has forged partnerships with a number of universities worldwide, who offer online courses on the edX platform. Those that pass their examinations will be issued certificates by the universities. The certificates issued by Tsinghua University are Tsinghua edX certificates, which are separate from the existing Tsinghua certificates. Professor Agarwal believes that these certificates are of great value. A student can add the learning experience of online courses on the edX platform in his resume for job application or admission application to some universities and colleges related to higher education.

The educator, who taught the first edX course - MIT Circuits and Electronics – to 155,000 students from 162 countries, used two examples to demonstrate the value of the certificates. “A man named Michael Sun from Shenzhen chose an edX course on artificial intelligence. He leveraged his certificate to successfully apply for MIT. Another student from Bangladesh was also admitted to MIT after he finished studying our course.”

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About MOOCs

“M” stands for massive. Compared with traditional courses with only several hundred students, MOOCs can easily recruit tens of thousands of students, even as many as 160000 students; The first “O” stands for open. Anyone who wants to learn can sign up, regardless of factors such as age and nationality. The second “O” stands for online. Learning is conducted online with no need to travel, and no restrictions on time and space.“C”stands for course. The fever surrounding MOOCs began fall of 2011; it has since been called s “the biggest revolution in education since the invention of the printing press”. The New York Times called 2012 “The Year of MOOCs”.

Together with Coursera and Udacity, EdX is called “MOOC troika”, and the first two are both recent comers to China.

EdX is a not-for-profit massive open online course platform founded by Harvard and MIT, with each institution sponsoring $30 million. At present, it has more than 900,000 registrants. The first edX courses were taught in fall 2012, offering free courses from Harvard, MIT and UC Berkeley. Wellesley College, Georgetown University, and the University of Texas System (which includes nine universities and six medical education institutions) joined in 2013. Higher educational institutions in Europe, Australia and Canada are also planning to join. Tsinghua University and Peking University joined edX in May 2013.

Coursera, founded by two professors from Stanford University, went online in April 2012. Initial partner universities included Stanford University, the University of Michigan, Princeton University, and the University of Pennsylvania. At present, over 80 universities or institutions from around the world have joined the alliance, sharing 386 courses and registering more than four million students.Fudan University and Shanghai Jiaotong University became members in July 2013.

By Science and Technology Daily