Recently, Ms. Sun Zhijuan, a teacher at the School of Engineering of the Open University of China (OUC) was honored as a Vanguard Party Member by the Ministry of Education (MOE).Sun loves her career in the OUC. By taking "unite colleagues, study hard, and do a solid job" as her guidelines, she has constantly improved her ideological level, work ability, and research capacity.
Sun Zhijuan sets strict ideological demands for herself. She has fully grasped the spirit of the Party's “18th CPC National Congress”and the National Outline for Medium and Long-term Education Reform and Development. She has actively participated in Party Committee, Discipline Inspection Committee, and grass-roots party organization activities, and based her work on the construction and reform of education and teaching in the OUC. As a commissary in charge of the organization of the Party Branch and a member of the Commission for Discipline Inspection of the School of Engineering of the OUC, she has actively accepted the responsibility to assist the Party Branch Secretary with organization work. She has received a number of awards, including "MOE Excellent Party Member", "2008-2012 China Central Radio and TV University (CCRTVU) Outstanding Party Member" and "MOE Vanguard Party Member".
As the person in charge of the OUC’s undergraduate programme in Mechanical Design, Manufacture and Automation, Sun Zhijuan was responsible for the routine management of the programme, authority over bachelor’s degree applications, as well as the discussion and composition of the OUC Teaching Reform Plan for the Mechanical and Electrical Programme. In order to meet the need for learner development in different regions and industries, over the course of teaching and education research, Sun Zhijuan put forward a number of education reform proposals and measures, including the construction of a mechanical and electrical courses platform, the formation and evaluation of a distance virtual teaching team, the diversified design of teaching practices, digital teaching, and the construction of a virtual simulation laboratory.
As a teacher for the electro mechanics major, Sun Zhijuan has taken charge of the teaching work for three undergraduate courses and four associate degree courses. She was the chief editor of a textbook entitled The Application of Programmable Controllers, a "12th Five Year Plan" high quality teaching material for the national machinery industry. She is also the co-editor of five textbooks. In addition, she was in charge of the "Teaching Courseware for Hydraulic and Pneumatic Technology based on Working Processes," and "Gear pump Assembly and Disassembly Experiment" courseware, as well as the construction of three online courses. Sun’s work reflects the key features of distance learning: proactivity, independence, supervision, interaction, technology, and openness. She won the first prize in the National RTVU Multimedia Courseware Contest, second prize in the “Asian Dragon Cup” best practice teaching award of national mechanical vocational education, third prize of quality courses in the higher education division of the 16th National Multimedia Software Grand Competition, and many other quality course awards from the RTVU.
As the head of the subject and sub-projects, she actively took part in the R&D of the mechanical engineering discipline and teaching research related to distance education. She presided over the research project of the China Mechanical Industrial Education Association and participated in two national research projects, three provincial teaching research projects, and one university level teaching research project. The aforementioned projects include the national 863 major project "Deepwater Pipeline Laying Technology"; the National Natural Science Fund project "Research on the Control of Humanoid Robot Arm Anthropomorphic-motion Based on Bio-physics "; the 2012 vocational education subject of the China Education Association of Machinery Industry ,"Research on the Construction of a Curriculum Teaching Team for Engineering Distance Education”; and the "Construction of Mechanical Engineering and Automation Majors" by the MOE and the Ministry of Finance. She has written more than twenty articles, including fourteen papers as lead author (four of which were included in the Engineering Index and six of which were posted in core periodicals), and co-edited two monographs.
As a young teacher, Sun Zhijuan focused on improving her knowledge through continuous learning. She began a doctorate in engineering at Beijing University of Technology and graduated in the year 2014 with a PhD. She also participated in the OUC’s advanced training classes for backbone teachers, and the e-learning educators training co-hosted by the CCRTVU and the Open University, UK, so that she could increase awareness of the development trends of vocational education and promote universal distance teaching skills.
Starting September 2014, Sun Zhijuan acted as Deputy Director of the pilot office of the Assistance Plan for the Cultivation and Development of New Industrial Workers. At work, she tried her best to promote the pilot project. Through extensive research, she grasped the requirements of school operation and teaching of the pilot units (branches and industry colleges) of the Assistance Plan. Relying on the OUC’s headquarters, branches, industry (enterprise) colleges, local colleges, and study centres, she carried out wide cooperation with industries, enterprises and workers’unions, effectively using modern information technology, integrating quality social education teaching resources to offer degree and non-degree continuing education for on-the-job workers in the production and service line. She also encouraged study of the feasibility of the education and teaching reform pilot work, with the hope of driving the construction of the OUC, and the transformation and upgrading of the RTVU with the Assistance Plan as the engine.
By School of Engineering, OUC