June 19-20 saw the convening of the 2014 MOOC Development Forum of Chinese Universities in Beijing. With the theme Initiating a New Era of MOOC Learning, the forum, sponsored by Distance Education in China, focused on the new characteristics and trends in future university education, highlighted discussions on MOOC’s new thoughts, new methods and new measures in promoting teaching mode innovation and improving education quality. The Open University of China (OUC) shared its experience on MOOC practice in the past two years.
The forum was opened with the release of Massive Open and Online Course (MOOC) in an International Perspective: New Global Agenda for Innovation in Higher Education compiled by the OUC President Yang Zhijian. The book, compiled by Mr. Gard Titlestad, Secretary-General of the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) was introduced and translated by the the OUC. Titlestad summed up the views and opinions on MOOC of a host of scholars from universities and international distance education institutions throughout the world and wrote a report based on further and in-depth studies.
Director Li Zhimin from the Science and Technology Development Centre, Ministry of Education, Secretary-General Yan Jichang of the National Modern Distance Education Coordination Group, and Counsellor Tang Min of the State Council made keynote speeches respectively at the forum.
The OUC Vice President Zhang Shaogang attended the forum and delivered a Report on the OUC’s MOOC Practice. Zhang said in his report that Openness was a major gene rooted in the historical development of the OUC, and the university had been exploring an open path in the 35 years since its establishment.
Zhang Shaogang introduced the OUC’s practice around MOOC in the past two years. The firstly there has been the launch of the web for five-minute online courses, and the contents and system of five-minute micro courses. By now, more than 8,000 five-minute courses have been developed, and another 30,000 courses are planned to be developed in the next 3 years. The OUC has built Building Blocks of massive knowledge through the five-minute courses and laid an important foundation for large scale MOOCs. Secondly, in 2013, came the launch online of 1354 iTunesU courses whose major contents are resources for teaching Chinese as a second language and teaching Chinese culture. Phonetics learning, Chinese character learning and language courses from beginners to intermediate level and appreciation courses of Chinese culture are available for learners of Chinese language and culture at home and abroad. Thirdly is building core specialized courses for each major into online courses, namely, the OUC MOOCs. The development of the first batch of 123 courses are planned to be completed and the second batch of 200 courses are planned to be started in the 2014 plan. By 2015, compulsory courses for all available specialisms are to be developed into core online courses. Fourthly is to put online courses for teaching Chinese as a second language. At present, 1000 free learning resources have been loaded, attracting 12,000 learners from 160 countries. Fifthly is to initiate the learning of information technology and application for all. By now, this has been organized twice and and about 100 learning projects have been exchanged..
According to Zhang Shaogang, the consistent heat of MOOC in the recent two years is having, no doubt, a great impact on the change of educational concepts, systems and modes. It is the catalyst for traditional universities to start their collective online “business”. MOOC has shown us the conscious social responsibility of elite educational institutions, and we are obliged to face and solve the great many difficult problems incurred in the existing educational system. Zhang gave a further explanation of the core problems to be solved in online education, including breaking existing learning habits, ensuring effective learning processes and establishing a long-term guarantee mechanism, providing necessary learning content and support service, designing individualized and socialized learning schemes, providing learning skills that meet the needs of learners, and formulating a credit evaluation system of teachers. As such, the students can learn what they want to learn in an effort to claim their cultural and historical identity.
Experts, including Director Li Zhimin from the Science and Technology Development Centre, Ministry of Education, Vice President Huang Zhen of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, President Li Qingquan of Shenzhen University, He Shan, a member of Peking University Online Open Course Construction Group, President Pang Dingquan from the Online Learning Work Group of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and Zou Jingping, a course committee member of the Department of Educational Technology of Tamkang University in Taiwan, had high level talks about what Chinese universities can do in the face of MOOC competition from famous foreign universities, the difficulties and problems in MOOC practice of universities, the relationship between MOOC and teaching reform of universities and how to achieve the localization of MOOC in Chinese universities in combination with the characteristics of each university. The high level talks were chaired by Zhang Shaogang.
The presidents and scholars from Peking University, Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Tamkang University, Shenzhen University and other famous institutions of higher education respectively made academic and practical reports on MOOC. Vice President Zhang Tiedao from Beijing Open University interpreted the Horizon Report (2014 higher education edition) of the New Media Consortium of the United States. Director Jiang Guozhen of the Department of Information Technology, gave a report From MOOC to MOOR: New Developments and Strategies of Massive Online Open Courses.
About 300 people, including leaders, experts, scholars and teachers from regular national institutions of higher education, military academies, online schools of continuing education of universities, radio and television universities and vocational colleges and schools attended the 2014 MOOC Development Forum of Chinese Universities.
By Jin Hongyu, the OUC