China Leads World in Massive Open Online Courses: Ministry of Education

Photo: Snapshot of the official website of the conference

China has established the world's largest online education system, according to a document sent by the Ministry of Education to the Global Times on Wednesday. 

As of now, the country has developed over 30 various online course platforms, with more than 97,000 massive open online courses (MOOCs) made available, 483 million registered users, and 1.39 billion learning instances. Additionally, 440 million instances of students obtaining course credits have been recorded, making China's number of MOOCs and learners the highest in the world, according to the document.

Furthermore, a national smart education platform - the Smart Education of China in Higher Education - has launched 31,000 high-quality online courses, with 78,000 teachers participating in teaching and over 16.82 million users visiting, with more than 93 million visits, covering 183 countries and regions worldwide. Many of these courses have garnered high praise among global students. 

Ada, a South African student from the School of Public Policy and Management at Tsinghua University, participated in a course themed "China's Perspective on Global Development Initiative."  She told the Global Times that the course provided her an excellent opportunity to interact and share ideas with classmates from diverse backgrounds, enriching her knowledge through their experiences. Valentina Bachelova, a doctoral student from the School of Materials Science and Engineering at Tsinghua University from Russia, told the Global Times that the MOOC course covered many aspects of modern life and was very comprehensive, offering a rare learning experience. She also expressed her hope to gain a deeper understanding of China through this course.

These impressive numbers as well as more reports will be released at the upcoming 2024 Global MOOC and Online Education Conference, which is set to commence at Queen Mary University of London on Thursday. The conference, themed "Reimaging the Future Higher Education in the Intelligence Era," will be held in a both online and offline format, with participants from 28 countries, over 130 universities, online education platforms, international organizations, and government agencies. The Global MOOC and Online Education Conference has been held for four editions since 2020, and this year it aims to create a global digital education event that fully embodies technological and international standards, according to the document.