Editor's Notes: The Open University of China (OUC) has initiated a programme to nurture candidates for the inaugural session of "Outstanding Young Teachers," resulting in 104 teachers being bestowed with the esteemed title of "OUC Outstanding Young Teachers."

By sharing the stories of some of these young teachers and highlighting their experiences of learning and personal growth, our aim is to showcase the dedication and enthusiasm of all OUC teachers who are devoted to contributing to the establishment of a lifelong learning society for all.

Tang Ting, a senior lecturer, is a teacher at the Rongcheng College of Shandong Open University. She has won awards in several competitions, including Quality Course Competitions, Charming Classroom Competitions, Teaching Design Competitions, and Micro-course Competitions. She has been honored as an advanced individual in computer application ability assessment work in Shandong Province, an outstanding teacher at Weihai Marine Vocational College, and an advanced individual in teaching management work at Shandong Radio and Television University (RTVU).

I. Teaching and Educating, Pursuing Dreams

As a teacher, I always remember my original aspiration of educating people and firmly bear in mind the mission of moral education. I was fortunate to be recommended by the school to participate in the selection of OUC Outstanding Young Teachers, and was successfully selected as a candidate for the first batch of OUC Outstanding Young Teachers for a three-year training programme. During the training period, the profound knowledge of the master teachers, the extensive teaching methods, the rich and colorful teaching content, and the humorous and interesting explanations have updated my concepts, broadened my horizons, and expanded my thinking.

(1) Exploring the Integration of "Curriculum-Based Ideological and Political Education" into Professional Course Teaching

Through studying the content of curriculum-based ideological and political education and the series of lectures on ideological and political courses, I have gained a deeper understanding of curriculum-based ideological and political education. While attending a teaching seminar at Peking University, I demonstrated my classroom teaching, and the professors and teachers at Peking University made suggestions on how to integrate ideological and political elements into the course content. After the guidance from the experts, I delved into the ideological and political elements contained in the knowledge points of each course, applied teaching examples to the teaching process, and deeply integrated the professional course content with ideological and political elements. In 2020, the teaching plan I designed won the first prize in the Ideological and Political Teaching Design Competition at Shandong Open University (OU). The same year, the teaching plan also won the third prize in the Ideological and Political Teaching Design Competition for Political and Legal Categories at the OUC.

(2) Exploring the Construction of More Attractive Online Course Resources

With the continuous changes in educational methods and software updates, the attractiveness of resources made using past technologies and methods gradually decreases. There is a need to explore the construction of high-quality online course resources with greater appeal. By teaching myself video editing software, I have created courseware with dynamic backgrounds and animation effects. During the three-year training period, the works I made using the knowledge I learned won several honors: The "Digital and Image Processing" series won the second prize in the Micro-course Competition at Shandong OU; the two series of micro-course resources I produced were selected by the Shandong Provincial Department of Education as excellent course resources.

II. Scientific Research Promotes Teaching, Self-improvement

During the training process of the OUC Outstanding Young Teachers Training Programme, I mastered the procedures and techniques of project application, the types and methods of project research, gained a deeper understanding of scientific research, which significantly improved my own level of scientific research.

(1) Clearer and More Innovative Research Ideas

When Shandong OU issued the project application documents, I proposed a research topic based on the management of the teaching quality of ideological and political courses. The expert group unanimously believed that the perspective of the topic was novel, the research methods were unique, and it passed the project establishment smoothly. In the process of project research, I used the research methods I learned during the Training Programme to write the proposal, mid-term, and final reports in an orderly manner, and passed the expert group's appraisal, successfully completing the project.

Using the practical context of the rural revitalization strategy, I focused on the specific research object of the Rongcheng City Grassroots Cadre Quality Improvement Class, exploring new paths for the education of grassroots cadres in rural areas. The project expert group unanimously believed that this topic is based on practicality and has strong practical value. The project passed the approval process and was successfully established.

These experiences have made me increasingly confident in project research, and the thinking process of project research has become clearer.

The three-year Training Programme has come to a successful conclusion, but the pace of striving for progress cannot stop. I want to take this learning and growth as a new starting point, strive for progress with determination, maintain my original intention, move forward, and be a dream chaser on the path of education.

By OUC News Network