Ms. Zhang Ling is a member of the Communist Party of China (CPC). She began teaching advertising at the Open University of China (OUC) after graduating from the School of Journalism and Communication of Wuhan University in July 2005. She began to serve as the person in charge of the advertising major in 2007 and has worked as vice dean of the School of Communication since 2014. Zhang Ling has been dedicated and diligent since the start. She is warm and friendly to her colleagues and performs well in all aspects of her work.

Pursuing correct political direction with the big picture in mind. Zhang Ling is able to adhere to the correct political direction and the current educational policy. She is of firm ideals and beliefs, and loves her motherland. As a member of the CPC, Zhang Ling is always extremely strict with herself. She takes an active role in political and theoretical studies, and all kinds of activities organised by the Party Committee and Party branches of the university to keep on improving her Party spirit. She loves and respects her job and she always puts collective interests first. By always keeping the big picture in mind, she is able to overlook her gains and losses, bear hardships, and make contributions. She is always motivated in all kinds of tasks. Due to her excellent performance, she was selected as a “Civilised Pacesetter” of the offices directly under the Ministry of Education in 2016. In 2007 and 2009, she was named an “Outstanding League Member” by the Youth League Committee of China Central Radio and TV University. She was voted an “Advanced Individual” in the annual work assessment of the Faculty of Humanities in 2006, 2008, and 2013. In addition, she was appraised as an excellent Party member through democratic discussions in the Faculty of Humanities.

Doing practical work and seeking actual effects through a solid work style and outstanding achievements. Since she started work, Zhang Ling has been undertaking the tasks of major construction, teaching reform, and teacher training as a key member of the School of Communication. She has made significant contributions to discipline and major construction. She has presided over or participated in the integrated transformation of the junior college and undergraduate Advertising programmes. Faced with shrinking junior college enrolment, she participated in the transformation of the advertising major and worked on the “Feasibility study report for junior college and undergraduate programme integration”, as well as training plans and other materials. While the original junior college programme was being transformed, the undergraduate advertising programme was successfully offered for the first time in 2006. With regards to teaching management and the reform of advertising, she organised and participated in writing the teaching reform proposal to promote implementation. The adjustment and revision of the training plan for the junior college and undergraduate programmes were completed in autumn 2017. She coordinated and participated in all the work for the “application for the authorisation to confer a bachelor's degree in advertising.” She was involved in the preparation of the core contents of materials including the application report and profile, and the final compilation. She was also acted as the representative of the experts from the advertising major, which was given the right to grant bachelor's degrees in 2016. She has been engaged in the evaluation of bachelor’s degree dissertations in Advertising (undergraduate) since autumn 2016 as deputy secretary-general of the literature sub-committee of the Academic Degree Evaluation Committee. She also helps to organise the literature sub-committee's degree dissertation evaluation twice a year and ensured the stable transformation and implementation of granting bachelor’s degrees in Advertising. She participated in the preparation for and creation of the animation major in cooperation with the relevant requirements of the university. She organised two trainings for key teachers in 2013 and 2016 as the responsible person for the advertising major. A total of 85 teachers from the lower level branches received training. Two trainings were organised for dissertation debate hosts in 2008 and 2014. A total of 36 teachers got qualification certificates as dissertation debate hosts and 15 teachers got qualification certificates through the trainings.

Actively participating in and promoting teaching reform innovation. Zhang Ling has been an active explorer and practitioner of various kinds of teaching reform projects. With the help of the deep integration of information technology with distance education, explorations have consistently been made on the future development trends and teaching models of applied minor majors in a hope of contributing to the balanced development of majors in the university and improving teaching quality. She has successively participated in or taken charge of a raft of reform and exploration projects. One such project was “web-based individualised teaching guidance and support in advertising.” The 322 new students entering the university in the 2008 autumn semester (duration at school 2008-2010) were used as a pilot to find out how to teach under conditions with a “small number of students scattered in different places with unbalanced teaching staff” by way of organising trans-regional online classes, sharing teachers across regions, and implementing trans-regional flat online teaching. As the main contact in charge of advertising, she was thoroughly involved in the entire process of the project from planning to implementation. The pilot model was widely recognised across all the branches and was applied in the three northeastern provinces of Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang, as well as in the provinces of Henan, Zhejiang, and Gansu. Another project was “Design Competition of Advertisements among Students of the National Radio and TV Universities” in 2010. Zhang Ling was the person in charge of the specific implementation and advancement of the project, including drawing up notices and implementation details, the planning and construction of the competition website, the mobilisation of contributions, the collection and arrangement of works, the organisation of evaluation, and the overall planning and coordination. More than 650 pieces works from around 1,200 students recommended by 37 branches were collected. This project investigated the credit transfer system and the practical teaching of applied majors, as well as the implementation of practical teaching, which effectively promoted the reform of teaching practice in the major and improved the students’ understanding of the knowledge of the major. Her third project was the online teaching project of the OUC Experimental School. In 2014, she first proposed using the advertising major as the pilot for implementing online teaching, in order to explore the “real-time lecturing with socialised software + autonomous learning of the students” teaching mode in response to the reality of the small number of students in advertising at the OUC Experimental School. She also led the joint consultation of the work flow and the detailed implementation methods with relevant teachers from the Experimental School and the Communication School. Advertising became one of the first majors in the Experimental School to use online teaching. Furthermore, she promoted the practical experience within the school through technical shows and won a collective “first prize”. The model and method has now been popularised and applied in a number of majors in the Experimental School. In order to, explore the development trend of applied small majors, comprehensive formative assessment reform has been achieved and popularised in advertising. In 2008, the advertising major (undergraduate programme) was included in the first round of web-based assessment reform as the forerunner of online reform at the OUC. In 2016, the major reached 100 percent of its pilot formative assessment reform and Zhang Ling coordinated all the preparation and implementation. The project of comprehensive formative assessment reform not only explores the possibility of pushing forward teaching reform by focusing on examination reform but also lays a solid foundation for teaching reform and flat online teaching for future majors.

Completing course resource construction and teaching team construction with quality and quantity guaranteed. Since she first started this job, Zhang Ling has effectively completed the construction of several courses. She has presided over the writing of four new textbooks and six revised textbooks; led the construction of 44 lectures (2,200 minutes); participated in the construction of 32 video lectures (1,600 minutes); led the construction of 20 lectures for IP courses (1,000 minutes); presided over the completion of 30 lectures for micro courses (lasting 326 minutes); presided over or participated in the construction of four online courses; and completed the construction of one CAI courseware and the digital teaching materials for one course. The four online courses that she was involved in have all been selected as OUC quality courses. The online course History of Advertising at Home and Abroad, constructed under her leadership, was selected as a “national exquisite resource” and won first prize in the 16th National Championship of Multimedia Education Software. The CAI courseware of Advertising Psychology built and completed under her leadership won first prize in the Radio and TV Universities Multimedia Courseware Competition, as well as the best graph design award. In addition, she has actively participated in the integrated construction project for the integrated test bank of test, evaluation, and practice organised by the examination office and completed test bank construction for History of Advertising at Home and Abroad. She has proposed a course team construction model suitable for minor majors that integrates “two-level coordination” and “flat teaching” positioned against the characteristics of the courses in the advertising major. This methodology was also explored and implemented in the Advertising Psychology course with her guidance.

Effectively guiding the construction and teaching of the m with fruitful achievements in education and teaching. Zhang Ling has published 26 theses, four of which are core theses with one included in the CSSCI publication. She has published two books, one of which she edited and one of which was edited with her participation. She has presided over or participated in two topics, with one winning second prize for the teaching achievements from the Open University of China and the other winning a second prize for Social Education Research. She has been honoured with five prizes for reading and writing activities, including one second prize, two third prizes, and two outstanding awards. She always pays attention to the close integration of teaching and scientific research so as to improve her business capacity through research, laying the foundations for her to grasp the development orientation and course construction of the major. Her research are has two orientations. One is discipline research for journalism and communication and the other is teaching research of the advertising major. The scientific research is mainly for industrial observation and consideration based on industrial practice, especially against the background of the rapid development of internet technology. The research of theory and practice is to boost the construction of the major and course and promote teaching reform. Her research is focused on the field of new media and new media advertising, and she has published three theses and two monographs or textbooks on this, and led one research topic. She has also published 15 theses in the field of advertising practice research.

As far as teaching research for the major is concerned, advertising is “a minor major” with distinctive application characteristics. Zhang Ling pays attention to finding methodologies and theoretical evidence to solve the problems arising in the process of development through her research, which mainly includes two aspects. One is research on the “minor major” teaching model modern distance education. She has published three theses, presented one thesis at an international conference, and participated in one research topic. The other aspect is research on the development and teaching reform of advertising in the era of digital communication, on which she has published five theses.

Taking an active part in grass-roots teaching and identifying problems in frontline work to promote reform. Zhang Ling has given face-to-face tutorials at the Dongcheng School and Xuanwu School of the Beijing Branch in her spare time. In 2008-2010, she served as a trans-regional tutor for two courses as part of the “Web-based Individualised Teaching Guidance and Service” project of the advertising major. She has been the instructor of the two courses History of Advertising at Home and Abroad and Advertising Psychology at the OUC Experimental School since 2015. This front-line teaching work enables her to understand the needs of her students while also experiencing the rationality and applicability of the relevant majors and their course content so as to accumulate experience for teaching reform and resource construction.

By OUC Voice WeChat Official Account