Smart Education Platform of China: Laureate of UNESCO Prize for ICT in Education

“Smart Education of China” (SEC), implemented by the National Center for Educational Technology of China, has been awarded the 2022 UNESCO ICT in Education Prize, which focused on the use of the public digital platform to ensure access to digital learning resources. We will delve into the depths of this project, exploring its key features and impact.

Rolled out in 2020, Smart Education of China is a platform that caters to all levels of education, consolidating a wide array of learning resources and providing “one-stop” education-related services for teachers, learners, and families. Arguably one of the most extensive repositories of digital learning resources in the world, SEC’s resources are mostly in Chinese, and comprises three sub-platforms, each focused on Basic Education, Vocational Education, and Higher Education. It also features a Service Hall, and a portal that connects to regional platforms administered by local authorities, among others.

The learning resources on the platform are curriculum-aligned, including 44,000 pieces for basic education, covering all grades and subjects; 19,000 pieces for vocational education; and 27,000 Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) for higher education. Additionally, the platform includes a rich pool of extracurricular materials on wide-ranging topics such as mental health, well-being, sports and arts. With 13.15 million registered users, the platform played a pivotal role in facilitating large-scale distance learning in China during the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiative provides digital competency development and has trained more than 10 million teachers, as well as reaching learners in remote and rural areas, thus contributing to the quality and equity of education in China. Notably, the platform’s "MOOCs for Western China" initiative, targeting underdeveloped regions, has provided 170,000 MOOCs and customized courses, used by more than 700 universities in the western regions of China.

The platform’s vast collection of resources has been made possible through sustained financial investments from the government, and long-running initiatives to encourage original creation and contribution from different sources: teachers, universities, publishing houses, museums, television stations, etc. As a centralized platform, it simultaneously promotes the open sharing of resources amongst regional platforms, thereby enhancing the benefits and reach of resource construction and sharing.

While the platform became fully fledged during the pandemic to facilitate distance learning, its vision extends far beyond. Initially, it was created to foster educational equity and bridge the digital divide across regions, urban and rural areas, and schools, notably through rendering quality learning content accessible to all. As an added value, the platform serves as a convergence point where students and teachers can easily access services to enable online processing of public services, including employment, examinations, academic degree issuance, and studying abroad.

Recognizing the diverse local systems and specific needs within the country, measures have been implemented to encourage and support local schools, teachers, and students in utilizing the platform in an effective manner. These efforts include awareness-raising activities to introduce the platform to society at large, expert team workshops, and forums to guide teachers, students, and parents in engaging with the platform. The use of the platform was also integrated into teacher training programmes across all levels in which teachers are trained on how to use the resources for teaching. Capacity-building efforts have also been made to enhance students' competency in searching for, identifying, selecting, and utilizing resources. Additionally, as part of the project, best practices have been gathered from schools, teachers, and students to promote effective engagement with the platform, creating a repository of exemplary cases that serve as inspiration for others.

To ensure the platform's effectiveness and assess how users engage with the resources, the platform conducts regular analyses of user engagement online to gain insights and track feedback. Each of the four sub-platforms allows for analyzing user behavior and delivering more precise and personalized resource recommendations. Questionnaires are regularly administered to collect input from schools and teachers, enabling ongoing optimization of platform functionalities, enhancement of user experience, and improved support for classroom teaching. Ultimately, these measures are aimed at continuously refining the platform's performance and adapting to the evolving needs of education.

The platform has emerged as the cornerstone of the country's digital transformation in education, especially to ensure the continuity of learning during school closures, facing a country with 293 million students at all levels. Going forward, it is poised to further contribute to the “Double Reduction Policy” in China, a call for a reduction in the excessive homework and burdens of off-campus tutoring, with a view to fostering a well-rounded education and the provision of education as a public good. The platform will also enhance its digital education teaching resources and comprehensive educational services, catering to students' independent learning, facilitating teachers' professional development, encouraging the sharing of high-quality educational resources in rural areas, and promoting effective home-school collaboration. By doing so, it will contribute to building a networked, personalized, digitalized, and lifelong high-quality education system in China.

Established in 2005 and supported by the Kingdom of Bahrain, the Prize rewards every year individuals and organizations that enhance teaching, learning and overall education performance. The 2022 edition of the Prize, under the theme “The use of public platforms to ensure inclusive access to digital education content”, recognizes projects that have made learning content more accessible via digital learning platforms. The Award Ceremony will be organized on 7 September 2023 during Digital Learning Week (4 – 7 September, Paris, France).

• Learn more about the UNESCO ICT in Education Prize