Press Releases

Open University of China provides free services to support MOE’s “Home Study” Initiative

Source: www.moe.gov.cn
2020-01-31

In response to the Central Government’s call to join forces in the fight against the novel coronavirus outbreak, the Open University of China (OUC) has mobilized its digital educational resources as backing in the wake of the MOE’s decision to delay the start of the spring semester, to support students at all education levels to continue studying at home, to publicize measures aimed at preventing the spread of the virus, and to meet the needs of diverse learners.

he OUC has opened multiple free platforms to support various education institutions. In cooperation with a number of higher education institutions (HEIs), it has provided free online courses via the MOOC2U.com to people who want to pursue higher academic degrees through continuing education programs. Primary and secondary schools, vocational schools and colleges, education authorities and training institutions across the country may apply for the use of its cloud education and learning platforms for free, supplemented with over 3,000 digital textbooks and online ideological and political courses that are easily accessible with a mobile phone. The OUC will also provide a Chinese learning mobile app “Shu Xiao Tong” targeting primary school students for free during the outbreak.

The OUC has also introduced mobile phone-based knowledge services to raise public awareness about the virus and circulate relevant preventive and control measures. It has provided a rich variety of free online lessons for the general public, including 515 episodes of expert lectures, 20 series of OUC Lectures and 37,000 five-minute courses covering topics such as general knowledge, vocational skills, advice on healthy living, agriculture and community issues.

In addition, the OUC will also give full support to teachers and students in open universities across the country to ensure the start of new semester on time by using its information technologies and online teaching models.