ew Development, New Ecosystem, and New Journey in the Digital Era: The Fifth UMOOCs Conference and the Second VSE Conference at SUSTech
The Fifth Conference of China’s University Foreign Language MOOC Alliance and the Second Conference of Virtual Simulation Experimental Teaching Innovation Alliance were successfully held on April 14, 2023 at the Conference Center of SUSTech, under the theme of "New Development, New Ecosystem, and New Journey." The conference was jointly hosted by SUSTech, UNESCO Higher Education Innovation Center, and Beijing Foreign Studies University.
The conference brought together leaders, experts and scholars from the Ministry of Education, Chinese Universities in Foreign Language MOOC Alliance, and the Virtual Simulation Experimental Teaching Innovation Alliance to discuss future talent development in the context of new humanity education and explore the new developments and dynamics of foreign language education based on MOOCs, virtual simulation experiments, and industry-education collaboration to promote the digital transformation of higher education in China and improve education quality.
SUSTech Vice President, Professor Fang Hongwei delivered a welcome remark in the opening ceremoney. He reaffirmed the university's commitment to innovation in education technology, promoting digital campus, and accelerating the construction of a world-class university and digital transformation of higher education. SUSTech will fully participate and integrate in the global trend of digitalization of higher education, promote global sharing of higher education resources, and contribute to building a global education community.
Mr. Song Yi, the director of the Higher Education Department of the Ministry of Education, delivered the keynote speech "Firmly Promoting the Strategic Measures for Digitizing Education and Building New Strength for Higher Education Reform and Development" at the conference. He pointed out that China's digital transformation of higher education is making steady progress in the context of global digital transformation, vigorously promoting the construction and application of MOOCs at various levels, and gaining wide recognition in the world. In the future, China will actively implement the strategic measures to digitize education under the five aspects of "teaching, learning, management, research and exchange," continuously improve the service level of intelligent education platforms, pilot the construction of a group of "future learning centers," strengthen the supervision and management of online credit courses, deepen the theoretical research on the digitization of higher education, and continuously expand the leading role and international influence of China's MOOCs and online education.
Mr. Wang Dinghua, Chairman of the China University Foreign Language MOOC Alliance and Party Secretary of Beijing Foreign Studies University, reported on the work of UMOOCs and said that the UMOOCs are actively responding to the national "Belt and Road" initiative and actively serveing the international dissemination of Chinese culture. In the future, the UMOOCs will play a greater role in the digitization of foreign language education.
Prof. ZHAO Jianhua, the Deputy Director of the SUSTech Future Education Research Center and Senior Expert at the UNESCO Higher Education Innovation Center, presided over the keynote speech at the conference.
During the conference, Professor Han Wei, the Executive Director of the UNESCO Higher Education Innovation Center and Professor at the Higher Education Research Center of SUSTech, gave a presentation titled "International Practice of Developing College Teachers in the Context of Educational Digitization: A Case Study of IIOE." Professor Han shared how the Center is building an international network to promote online and hybrid teaching among college teachers and improve the quality of education for students. She also talked about the Center's practical achievements in promoting digital transformation in higher education, expanding lifelong learning opportunities, and providing new ideas for digital transformation in higher education.
In addition, Dr. Li Yuan, the Director of SUSTech Center for Language Education, gave a presentation titled "Exploration of Foreign Language Facilitated Innovative Talent Development in the Digital Era: SUSTech's Practice." She talked about the opportunities of foreign language learning in the digital era and how to help students develop strategies for foreign language learning in this context. She also presented SUSTech's practice in term of foreign language education positioning, strategies, and course system design, as well as the English language framework for general education and student learning support. 
The conference was held both offline and online and attracted nearly 60,000 attendees nationwide. More than 600 representatives from universities across China attended the conference at the SUSTech campus and expressed their admiration for SUSTech's achievements in nurturing innovation talent, the beautiful SUSTech campus, and the university's commitment to the digital transformation of higher education.
