On March 25th, 2014, the annual academic meeting of Chinese Society of Educational Development Strategy (CSEDS) was held in Beijing. Its purpose was the study and implementation of the ideals of the Third Plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, as well as to serve as an academic review of 2013's major research advancements.

Yang Zhijian, President of the OUC, attended the meeting and delivered a speech about the “Exploration of the Fusion of Education and Technology” at the OUC.

Min Weifang, Executive President of CSEDS, delivered the opening speech. Hao Keming, President of CSEDS, delivered a report on major scientific projects’ status and results. Concerning implementation of the ideals outlined in the Third Plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, and in accord with the practice of education development and reform, recent experiences related to major strategic issues such as “the decisions of the Third Plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee and the future China” and “focus on the direction and key points of comprehensive reform in educational field”, were presented at the meeting. Major research topics and advanced questions were discussed at the meeting, including different approaches to building the index system of learning society, the position of Chinese education in the worldwide education development structure and suggestions for it, and digitization’s application in education. During the meeting, Peking University Founder Group made a donation to CSEDS in order to help set up an educational strategy research fund.

In the report entitled “Exploration of the Fusion of Education and Technology”, President Yang analyzed the characteristics of the OUC as a new university and the inevitable move towards education digitization. He illustrated the technical support pattern, teaching application pattern, resource construction pattern, intelligent management pattern, project research and development pattern, etc of the “university on the cloud”. Focusing on the online core courses and 5-minute lessons, he showed several 5-minute lessons, including “What is the Gini Coefficient” and “Coronary Bypass Operation”. Thus were the attendees to this meeting introduced to a new state-of-the-art university characteristic of our modern times. Li Renhe, deputy President of CSEDS, hosted and commented that “the education digitization  construction of the OUC characterizes a new university model. If other universities don’t keep up, they may be surpassed by the OUC in some ways.”

This meeting was hosted by CSEDS, and organized by Peking University's Graduate School of Education, and Peking University Founder Group, with more than 200 representatives from various cities attending.

By Yuan Songhe, the OUC