From 4 to 5 December 2024, the Open University of China (OUC) held a seminar on exam content reform in Jingdezhen City, Jiangxi Province.
The event aimed to summarise the experiences of pilot programmes in exam content reform, further advance the in-depth development of such reforms, fully leverage the positive guiding role of examinations as a "baton", promote comprehensive education and teaching reform, and improve the quality of talent cultivation. Li Song, a member of the Party Committee and vice president of the OUC; and Huang Pinghuai, secretary of the Party Committee and president of Jiangxi Open University (OU), attended the event. Around 40 participants, including school leaders, heads of exam departments, and teachers responsible for the pilot courses from six branches such as Harbin OU, as well as relevant personnel from the headquarters, joined the seminar. The event was presided over by Gu Xiaohua, director of the Academic Affairs Department of the OUC.
In his speech, Li Song highlighted that this year is not only the “inaugural year” for executing the Blueprint for Building a Leading Country in Education but also the 45th anniversary of the OUC’s establishment and the start of a new era of comprehensive reform of education and teaching. He emphasised that reforming exam content is a fundamental and profound change that plays a pivotal role in guiding and advancing the overall reform of education and teaching.
Li Song stressed that since the spring semester of 2024, the university has vigorously pursued pilot projects for exam content reform. It is crucial during these pilots to promptly summarise experiences, consolidate and build on achievements, and enhance the radiating effect, thereby improving the quality of exam content across open education courses.
For the forthcoming steps in deepening exam content reform, he outlined three key requirements: first, to focus on the goal of nurturing application-oriented talent by strengthening the assessment of students' vocational capabilities and comprehensive qualities, shifting exams from “testing theory and knowledge” to “testing skills and application”; second, to adhere to the cognitive patterns of adult learners by enhancing the relevance of exam questions to students' real-world work scenarios, stimulating students' enthusiasm and initiative through a focus on learning application, and fostering their holistic development; third, to reinforce the integrated design of teaching and exams, leading reforms in teaching content and methods with new exam content that assesses competencies, and prioritising the development of students' integrated application abilities and position competencies to continuously improve the quality of application-oriented talent cultivation.
During the event, representatives from the branches of Jiangxi, Ningbo, and Harbin, as well as the School of Education and the School of Agroforestry and Medicine of the headquarters, shared their reform outcomes, experiences, challenges, and future plans in the context of their respective exam content reforms. Participants engaged in in-depth discussions on the main difficulties and challenges in implementing examination content reform, strategies for improvement, and enhancing the quality of exam design, offering constructive suggestions.
This seminar solidified consensus and clarified the direction for future efforts. Participants expressed their commitment to working collaboratively, aligning their efforts, and moving in the same direction to further deepen examination content reform, promote comprehensive education and teaching reform, and contribute to the high-quality development of open education.
Written by Miao Linbo
Photo by Jingdezhen Open University