The Report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed that "education, science and technology, and human resources are the foundational and strategic pillars for building a modern socialist country in all respects," and clearly required that "we will promote the digitalisation of education and build a society and country of learning where lifelong learning is pursued by all."
Advancing digitalisation of education is of great significance for providing education that satisfies the people and accelerating the construction of a high-quality education system. Digitalisation of education is an important engine for promoting high-quality education development, a key measure for promoting the sharing of high-quality education resources and driving education reform, and a powerful lever for promoting educational equity. By fully utilising information technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence, a networked, digital, personalised, and the lifelong education system can be constructed to expand lifelong education resources through multiple channels, meet diverse and personalised learning needs, and better build a society and country of learning for anyone, anytime and anywhere.
To lead the construction of a high-quality lifelong education system with education digitalisation, we must continuously provide education service products that are of higher quality, more equitable, offer more choices, are more convenient, more open, and more flexible. Reforms must be implemented to promote the development of digital education, and new teaching and management models such as smart testing and big data teaching quality monitoring should be actively explored. Innovation should be driven by targeted problem-solving, and practical difficulties and application pain points in the digital transformation process should be identified to carry out technological and methodological innovation. Efforts should be made to digitalise learning resources, teaching processes, exams and assessments, management and services, and other aspects, to achieve all-round education and teaching reform, optimise enrolment, academic affairs, management, and services, and ensure that course selection, classes, tutoring, and assessments are easy, scientific, reasonable, and accurate.
As an "Internet +" new type of university, the Open University of China (OUC) is committed to promoting the deep integration of modern information technology and education, and promoting the sharing of high-quality educational resources. The OUC’s lifelong education platform based on digital education has been launched, bringing together over 620,000 high-quality courses from the university's own courses and partner resources. The platform for sharing elderly education resources and public services has gathered 407,000 courses of elderly education resources nationwide and is open to the public for free. At the same time, the “One College Student Per Village” Programme is being implemented to use artificial intelligence technology to provide high-quality learning opportunities for learners in rural and remote areas, serving rural revitalisation.
In the future, the OUC will take digitalisation as an important strategic direction for school reform and development, deeply integrating digital education into the whole process of talent cultivation, teaching reform, educational management, and social services. The university strives to become a major platform for lifelong education and online education, and a platform for flexible education and international cooperation in China, making a significant contribution to building a society and country of learning where lifelong learning is pursued by all.
Author: Jing Degang, President of the OUC
Source: People's Daily, 12 February,2023, page 05