A practical model of development for China's National Quality Course Plan

Abstract

The Chinese National Quality Course Plan is a large-scale project by the Ministry of Education, which has led to the production of more than 12 000 courses from some 700 universities since 2003. This paper describes in detail the purpose of the project and how it is organized at all levels, including how individual courses get selected at university level, provincial level and national level. The paper discusses the similarities and differences between the Chinese project and Open Educational Resources projects around the world, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) OpenCourseWare. The Chinese project is unique, not only because of its highly centralized organization and funding but also because its purpose is not just to produce open resources but to use the production of open resources to drive curriculum reform and quality improvement in Chinese higher education. © 2011 The Authors. British Journal of Educational Technology © 2011 BERA.