In order to further advance the experimental work of community education in the open university system, actively exploring the teaching model and ways of cooperating and sharing, and vigorously promoting the empirical study of community education in our country, on November 19-20, 2014, a work seminar of the Open University of China (OUC) Community Education Experiment Centre (Base) was held in Chengdu, Sichuan Province.

Zhang Shaogang, Vice President of the OUC and Director of the Research and Training Centre for Community Education under the Ministry of Education (MOE), Zhao Gang, Secretary of the CPC of Chengdu Radio and TV University (RTVU) (Chengdu Community University), Zhou Jiping, President of Chengdu RTVU, Diao Yuanyuan, Vice President of Chengdu RTVU, Wei Jing, Deputy Director of the Department of Vocational and Adult Education of Chengdu Education Bureau, Tang Zhenlin, Vice President of Hebei RTVU, Shen Guanghui, Vice President of Fujian RTVU, and over 100 other representatives from almost 20 provinces, municipalities directly under the central government and autonomous regions from all over the country attended the seminar. Wei Jing, on behalf of Chengdu Education Bureau, delivered a speech during the seminar. Zhou Yanjun, Executive Deputy Director of the Research and Training Centre for Community Education under the MOE, hosted the seminar.

In his speech, Zhang Shaogang pointed out that community education is a sunrise undertaking, and the seminar should explore ways of innovative and cooperative sharing in the future through analyzing the current status of work in each experimental centre (base). Community education, as is being developed in the current phase, is in need of great wisdom, and the “Think Tank” study of community education, which is about to be carried out, aims to bring intellectually able personnel to prominence and bold personnel to stand out, to carry out empirical studies more efficiently, to provide policy consultation for our country to develop community education, and to push the development of the cause of community education.

Zhang Shaogang delivered a special report entitled with “I-Lab Teaching Activity Design”. Taking the Rooftop Classroom of “i-Ecological Vegetable Garden” carried out by Chengdu Community University, Shenyang Manorial Economy, and Guangzhou Micro Vegetable Garden as examples, this interprets the culture of rural education in which students study part-time and do farm work part-time, and from this introduces the notion that the essence of “i-Lab” project design is to teach and learn centring around living and to make everybody love life through community education. He pointed out that the online and offline teaching activity design of “i-Lab” includes platform design, course design, and activity design, where the course and platform are prepared for the activities, and that to design activities loved and liked by everybody is of great importance to the development of community education. “I-Lab” possesses an O2O united model for online and offline, which is “six loves and four promotions”. “Six loves” are reflected online, including the Internet, innovation, individuality, interaction, interest, and inspiration. “Four promotions” emphasize the offline, and means it should reflect the idea and connotation of being people oriented, the experience model, a scientific spirit, and intellectual progress. By “six loves and four promotions” advancing the intellectual action, the ability of thought and practice, unification, and cooperation should devote attention to the level of teaching activities to reflect the intellectual learning action integrated with learning and life; a teaching environment on a basis of multi-network intercommunication should be established on the level of teaching organizations to emphasize the maximum utilization of all existing kinds of learning resources; the unification of sensibility and rationality and the combination of online and offline should be brought to bear on the level of teaching approach. He also recommended “I shoot the plant”, a teaching activity design, the design philosophy of which is ecological civilization, a beautiful homeland, and a happy life, and the innovative level of which is to realize discovery, appreciation, enlightenment, inspiration and encouragement, the object of which is to enable the learners to distinguish the plants, learn the functions, and look for the cultures. He hoped that each unit would develop good experience through the aspect of community education design, pay attention to the cultivation of practice and the ability to innovate, and make a feasible contribution to the development of community education.

Zhao Gang delivered a special speech entitled with “Community Education and ‘i-Lab’ of the Construction of the Open University”, making a wonderful interpretation on the five aspects: open university and community education, social governance and community education, community education and “i-Lab”, “i-Lab” and the construction of the centre (base), and primary exploration of the construction of the “i-Lab”. Taking the “four transformations of education”, outlined by Liu Yandong, Vice Premier of the State Council, at the Plaque-Awarding Ceremony of the OUC, as the entry point, he represented the necessity of community education being the central style of operation in open university and community education, highlighting and manifesting the existence of open university, and that community education is a kind of education hosted by the government, maintained by the (system of) open university and focused on public benefit, from three perspectives: the basic features, values and style of operation of the open university. In terms of social governance and community education, he showed that community education is a significant part of national social governance, and the open university should play a major role in social governance. In terms of community education and “i-Lab”, he pointed out that “i-Lab” is a highlight of community education, an important support of the featured construction of the centres (bases), and he also shared the exploration and experimental model of the “i-Lab” projects by Chengdu Community University.

Doctor Fang Xing from the OUC delivered a speech on the research of the project “Think Tank” Study of Community Education in the OUC. He illustrated the necessity of the “Think Tank” Study from three aspects, which are the research value and significance, the methods of research and the expectations. As for the methods of research, a system of committee of experts and research institutes should be developed to gather people with wisdom and courage. As for the expectations, a think tank and a network should be built. The standards to be in the think tank should be established, and a research results report should be given when the OUC Research Institute of Community Education” is established.

Professor Liu Bokui, Director of the Community Education Research Institute of Jiading District, Shanghai, illustrated his research results of the “Think Tank” study of community education from four aspects, including the content of the “Think Tank” study of community education, mistakes and difficulties in the development of the “Think Tank” study of community education, historical position and mission of the “Think Tank” study of community education, and personnel training of the “Think Tank” study of community education. Xu Ruisen from the MOE Research and Training Centre for Community Education reported on the development situation of the “project of construction and demonstration of a lifelong learning service system”, which is maintained by the MOE and the Ministry of Finance, and the “satisfaction survey of community education”, which is entrusted by the MOE and relates to experimental districts and demonstration districts of community education all over the country. Xu also made reference to arrangements of the related work. 

During the seminar, representatives visited the experiential learning centre of Chengdu Community University, the “i-ecological garden” experiential base, the call centre for seniors in Jinjiang district, Wuhou Community Education College, and the Kuan Alley and Zhai Alley in Qingyang district demonstration garden of the community ecological garden. They were impressed by and spoke highly of the way Chengdu Community University integrates social forces to develop learning and experiential projects for people, in which the project forms the starting point.

This community education experiment centre (base) working seminar, in which project review and seminar discussion were combined, the keynote reports and the speeches on specific topics were combined, and project research and the exploration model were combined, attained its expectations. It is generally accepted now that signing the OUC community education experiment centre (base) project assignment to make the experiment tasks clear is good, and that dynamic management can play an important role in encouragement. All districts should actively engage in community education activities to enlarge the influence and to strengthen efforts in advertising. They should also solve the hot issues and difficulties in the process of community education experimentation effectively bringing systematic advantages, broaden minds and ways of development of social marketing, promote the experiment centres (base) to be driven by content, develop with innovation, accelerate transformation and promotion and application of experimental project results, and enhance the development level of national community education.

Representatives also carried on deep discussions and made suggestions on many aspects, including how to build a community education network platform to realize co-construction and sharing of community education resources, carrying out research to establish a normative community education system, and strengthening the design and guidance of the OUC. 

By Meng Jia, Community Education Research Centre of the OUC