Editor's Notes: The Open University of China (OUC) has initiated a programme to nurture candidates for the inaugural session of "Outstanding Young Teachers," resulting in 104 teachers being bestowed with the esteemed title of "OUC Outstanding Young Teachers."
By sharing the stories of some of these young teachers and highlighting their experiences of learning and personal growth, our aim is to showcase the dedication and enthusiasm of all OUC teachers who are devoted to contributing to the establishment of a lifelong learning society for all.
Yang Jiaqi, a Party member, associated professor, and teacher at Shenyang Open University, joined the workforce in March of 2015. He is a coordination teacher for the course of Elevator Installation and Maintenance Technology, also responsible for the course; Electromechanical Integration Design Basis, and a member of the core teaching team in the system of OUC. Yang Jiaqi has been named on the list of Ten Thousand Talented People (the 12th group), which constitutes a high-level talent award programme called “Name Lists of a Hundred, Thousand and Ten Thousand Talented People” sponsored by the provincial government of Shenyang. He has won many titles and honours, including Outstanding Employee in the branch centre of the National Digital Learning Resources Centre, Outstanding Contribution Award, Outstanding Party Member and Outstanding Teacher in Shenyang Open University. Additionally, he is a member of Shenyang City Lifelong Learning Research Society, and an expert in the Teaching and Research Group on Elevator Theories, Liaoning Province Elevator Industry Association.
Firmly holding onto the ethical bottom line and living up to the professional standards
Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC Party, General Secretary Xi Jinping has attached great importance to strengthening professional ethics and competencies of teachers, as revealed in his significant statement: “the first criterion to evaluate teacher qualifications should be their professional ethics and competencies.” The Open University has always considered the professional ethics level and competencies to cultivate talent as an important index to assess teachers, and education on professional ethics and competencies runs through the entire process of the OUC Outstanding Young Teachers Training Programme.
By internalising the important statements on integrating ideological education in academic courses, by General Secretary Xi Jinping, the idea of coordinated education has taken root in my mind, and patriotism and craftsmanship has become the underlying theme of my courses, which have won an excellency prize in the first competition for model engineering courses integrated with ideological education organised by OUC, and a second prize in the first competition for model academic courses integrated with ideological education, organised by Shenyang Open University.
Strengthening disciplinary and professional knowledge
In 2015, I held my first open education course, Electromechanical Integration Design Basis, which launched my career as a teacher working in distance education. Later, I participated in the building of the online version of the core course and simultaneously joined the core teaching team, which gave me the opportunity to make progress with the outstanding teachers within the running system of OUC.
As the university developed the new programme in Electromechanical Integration Technology (with focus on Elevator Engineering Technology), I was assigned the required course across the programme, Elevator Installation and Maintenance Technology. Under the leadership of Professor Tan Zhen, who was responsible for the programme, we leveraged the opportunity and initiated an in-depth collaboration with companies such as Shanghai Mitsubishi Elevator Co., Ltd. on practical teaching, which helped me make great progress, not only in theory but also in practice.
I have also been engaged by Liaoning Province Elevator Industry Association as an expert in the teaching of, and member of research groups on elevator theories, to participate in professional qualification accreditation for employees in elevator installation and maintenance. In addition, since I joined the OUC Outstanding Young Teachers Training Programme, I have published more than 10 academic papers, coedited one textbook, obtained one practical new patent, and led two municipal-level research projects.
Enhancing competencies in distance education
While in the workshop, I was impressed by the training intended to improve the data literacy of the trainees, presented by Dr Wei Shunping. Based on the method introduced in the training, and subsequently through deep learning, I got the hang of Citespace, a piece of data visualisation software. After managing to publish a paper with knowledge graph analysis, created by using the software, my confidence was boosted and my enthusiasm for further learning was sparked.
In the transboundary study visit to Chengdu, Huang Dafang, with the Learning Support Service Centre, Chengdu Branch of the OUC, pointed out an approach to enhancing online teaching competencies by way of a three-step process, namely, introducing online courses to learners, building effective course platforms, well designed and meticulously presented course teaching, from which I benefited a lot.
At the special training camp in Zhejiang University, the person who left the deepest impression on me was Professor Huang Lixin, vice dean of Smart Education Research Institute, Zhejiang Normal University. So far, his sharing on construction and application of high quality online open courses, still serves as a guidance on my practice. Besides, the distinctive features of the Zhejiang branch have also been unforgettable to me.
From now on, I will keep working on my professional qualifications, ethical virtues and competencies in distance education. By following the example set by outstanding teachers, I myself strive to become an outstanding open university teacher, and contribute my share of wisdom and force to the cause of open distance education.
By OUC News Network