A series of training sessions on open courses have been initiated by NEFU Center for Faculty Development in order to further advance the progress of open online courses and MOOCs in NEFU. The team, one of the top ten MOOCs teams in China, headed by Professor Zhang Haixia, was invited to present a splendid lecture titled “How to Prepare MOOCs in an Effective Manner”. This lecture was presided by Deputy Director Jiang Zhongzhu and 168 teachers attended.  

Professor Zhang Haixia talked about the practices of how to share teaching among universities as well as the achievements and perception when applying MOOCs to teaching. Prof. Zhang started her research on talent cultivation mode when she attended the commencement of a program in the U.S. and became concerned about the employment of university students, which gave birth to “Innovation Engineering Practices”. The teaching of this course adopts the pattern of MOOCs, featuring enhancement of interdisciplinary mode, expansion of innovative thinking, emphasis on innovation and practice, training of practical skills, mutual improvement between teachers and students and instruction focused on delight and fun. It applies a variety of modes including live broadcast, remote interaction, local organization, exchanging ideas via Wechat, off-line homework, internet forum and bullet screen etc., to the teaching of MOOCs. Within the short period of only 1 year, this course has been selected by 100000 students in more than 300 universities in China. She holds that in order to be proficient in MOOCs, teachers should know their own competence as well as the essence of MOOCs, make unremitting efforts, keep abreast of time, conduct in-depth research focused on the core with rigor and accuracy.

Liu Lu, Director of the Wisdom Tree Team expounded the six steps in the preparation of a MOOC by explaining a MOOC under construction: design of course guideline, constitution of teaching teams, construction of online courses, construction of face-to-face courses, course appraisal modes and curriculum dissemination patterns. Meanwhile, she illustrated the issues that demanded attention in terms of MOOCs construction and presented the operation of “Innovation Engineering Practices” on the platform via a mobile phone, which directly indicated the operation process of MOOCs by means of a wide range of data reports based on data analysis.

At the end of the lecture, Prof. Zhang Haixia, the Wisdom Tree Team exchanged ideas with attendees on the construction of MOOCs, offered clear answers to the questions raised by attendees and provided their own proposals.

This lecture helps all the teachers present acquire a more profound understanding of MOOCs and serves as a crucial guidance and reference for the construction of online courses in NEFU.