Open Education at Scale: Stories from the Open University of China

Anyone seeking a degree from a higher education institution today realizes that learning is more open and available (often for free) with the push of a button or blink of an eye. Not surprisingly, there are seemingly countless words that have sprung up to describe this increasingly "open" world. There are open access journals, open educational resources (OER), opencourseware (OCW), open teaching, open pedagogy, open educational services, open education practices, open-source software, and open universities. Clearly, there is a push toward open forms of education. This newfound sea of openness is moving us from an age of information scarcity to one of information abundance. Enter the Open University of China (OUC). The OUC is one of the largest open universities in the world, with an enrollment of five million adult learners for higher education and 20 million elderly learners. The OUC is dedicated to providing its learners with a wide range of educational opportunities and learning resources. The advance of digitalization has brought many opportunities for the development of the OUC, and challenges as well. We will share our understanding of these opportunities and challenges in this episode. We will also present an AI-supported language English teaching innovation project initiated by the Faculty of Foreign Languages at OUC. The project aims to promote large-scale and personalized learning with the integration of AI technologies. Join us for Episode #206 of Silver Lining for Learning and discover what makes OUC so unique and important in the lives of millions of people.

Dr Li Wei is an associate researcher and serves as Director of Department of Learning Resources of the Open University of China, and Deputy Secretary General of the Scientific Research Institute Working Committee of the Chinese Association of Adult Education. Her research areas include lifelong learning, online education, and digital resources. Dr. Li Wei has published five monographs, including "OECD and the Development of Lifelong Learning for All" and "Comparative Study of the World Open Universities." She has published more than 30 SSCI and CSSCI papers, led 6 national projects from the Ministry of Education, and participated in the drafting of more than 10 policies on lifelong education and continuing education. Dr. Li Wei won the Best Paper Award of the 26th ICDE World Congress and the National Young Adult Education Academic Scholar in China. She can be reached at: liwei@ouchn.edu.cn.

Dr. Qi Li is Vice-Chair of the Department of English, Faculty of Foreign Languages, at the Open University of China. She is a lecturer of English as a Foreign Language (EFL). She teaches EFL courses to both English and non-English majors at college levels. Qi Li’s research focuses on technology-enhanced language teaching and learning, CALL teacher education, and AI and open education. Before that, she received her PhD from Indiana University Bloomington, U.S.A., where she majored in Literacy, Culture, and Language Education, and minored in Instructional System Technology. Her dissertation project was a design-based research study of building an optimal language learning environment by integrating multiple technologies to support authentic input, sufficient output, timely feedback, and personalized learning. Dr. Qi Li can be reached be at sophia.liqi@hotmail.com or at liq@ouchn.edu.cn.