Nie Fenghua gives a talk on MOOC at UM
The University of Macau (UM) today (12 October) held a talk on massive open online courses (MOOC). Dr Nie Fenghua,deputy director of the Ministry of Education Research Centre for Online Education,deputy secretary-general of Tsinghua University and director of the university’s Online Education Office,and board chairman of Beiing Muhua Information Technology, was the keynote speaker. During the talk, Nie discussed the current development and future trends of online education. At the same event, UM signed a collaboration agreement with Beijing Muhua Information Technology on the establishment of an online education platform.
During the talk, Nie discussed the development of online education in mainland China. He pointed out that Tsinghua University launched a MOOC platform in 2013, which marked the starting point of the rapid development of online education in China. The platform was jointly developed by Tsinghua University and companies, and is operated by Beijing Muhua Information Technology. As of September 2017, the platform has offered over 1,000 courses with 8.2 million registered students. Courses on this platform have been selected 10 million times. According to statistics from the website Class Central, Tsinghua University’s online education platform was the third largest MOOC platform in the world by the end of 2016.
According to Nie, one of the highlights of MOOC is its ability to use big data and artificial intelligence in calculation, which can increase the effectiveness and performance of teaching and make cross-disciplinary, cross-school, cross-country, and cross-age education possible. MOOC has also created more opportunities for people to receive education. Thanks to the variety of courses on the platform and the fast transmission of data on the internet, MOOC makes teaching and feedback-giving more efficient and enables more interaction in teaching and learning. Nie predicts that MOOC will develop further from the current model of offering higher education courses to new models that offer high school and middle school courses, as well as continuing education courses, which will help to promote lifelong learning and education for all.
In order to better promote online education in Macao, UM and Beijing Muhua Information Technology signed a strategic collaboration agreement on jointly designing MOOC courses and establishing an online education platform for small private online courses. The agreement was signed by Lionel Ni, vice rector (academic affairs) of UM; and Nie Fenghua, board chairman of Beijing Muhua Information Technology, with Tertiary Education Services Office Assistant Coordinator Chang Kun Hong and other guests as witnesses.
