On the afternoon of March 13th, Prof. Yang Bin, Vice President and Provost of Tsinghua University, convened a video conference with Dr. Marielza Oliveira, Director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in Beijing, to exchange views on emergency responses to the epidemic, including online education. Other participating UNESCO representatives included Mr. Miao Fengchun, Chief of Unit for ICT in Education of the UNESCO Headquarters in Paris, Mr. Wesley Teter, Senior Consultant for Higher Education of the UNESCO Bangkok branch, and Mr. Robert Parua, Programme Specialist for Education of the UNESCO branch in Beijing.
Prof. Yang conveyed Tsinghua's appreciation to UNESCO for its continued support to Tsinghua University. "Tsinghua looks forward to working with UNESCO in the field of online education and sharing experiences with universities globally. Tsinghua University will continue to deepen cooperation and exchanges with UNESCO," he said.
Dr Oliveira said that many countries in the Asian region have been learning of Tsinghua's response to the outbreak and that problems such as poor regional infrastructure, lack of online capabilities are all challenges that various countries and universities are facing. "Tsinghua University's positive response to the outbreak and its achievements in online education are admirable. I believe Tsinghua's experience will inspire UNESCO and many other universities and institutions, and I hope the two sides will actively explore the possibility of deepening cooperation," she said.
Mr. Miao Fengchun cited the deepening education disruption that COVID-19 is causing, and that the Chinese experience is worth learning from. "UNESCO hopes to establish cooperation with Tsinghua University to strengthen communication and provide support to countries and universities that need it," he said.
Dr. LI Jinliang, Dean of the Office of International Affairs of Tsinghua University introduced the measures taken by Tsinghua University to prevent and control the epidemic, including large-scale online education practices using platforms such as "Rain Classroom". Open courses and online teaching resources are offered to the society, and platform support and "clone class" educational resources sharing are provided to many universities in China. Tsinghua is also actively communicating with university partners around the world.
Mr. WANG Shuaiguo, President of XuetangX introduced the development of the platform. Founded by Tsinghua University in 2013, XuetangX is the first online MOOCs platform in China. There are now thousands of courses offering educational support to tens of millions of users worldwide. As of February 2020, Tsinghua Rain Classroom platform had more than 10 million active users. Students can learn via online classes and participate in classroom interaction, while the platform can apply Big Data to facilitate real-time evaluation and further development of teaching outcomes.
Ms. Meng Bo, Associate Dean of the Office of International Affairs introduced Tsinghua's scientific research related to COVID-19 and related achievements. "Tsinghua hopes to continue to strengthen its cooperation with UNESCO and share its online education practices with educational institutions in different parts of the world in different forms such as collaborative research and joint forums," she said.
Mr Wang Hui, Associate Dean of the Office of International Affairs introduced the online education of Tsinghua University affiliated primary and secondary schools. "Using online tools such as Rain Classroom, they provide many practical courses to exercise fundamental skills, enhance awareness and ability of independent learning and self-planning, and promote the healthy growth and overall development of students," he said.
Afterwards, the representatives exchanged views on UNESCO's educational cooperation in Southeast Asia and discussed the difficulties encountered in online education and possible solutions.
