# Two stages of development of the Chinese National Top Level Courses Project


The Top Level Courses Project’s official title was “Project for the
quality of teaching and reform of teaching in institutions of higher
education, work on the construction of Top Level courses”, and was
always meant to be a part of a larger project for enhancing quality and
reforming teaching in higher education. In 2007, the State Council, the
Ministry of Education, and the Ministry of Finance officially launched
the three year "Project for Reform of Teaching and Improvement of
Teaching Quality in Institutions of Higher Education", usually referred
to as the Quality Project (zhiliang gongcheng, 质量工程). The project
launch had been preceded by more than a year of investigation, research
and open meetings with stakeholders (Li Bin 2007).

This project targeted 1000 universities with 10 million full-time
students, and was to cost approximately USD \$365 million. The targets
were as follows: Help 3000 professors and administrators to develop peer
training exchanges, select 1000 national-level teaching teams, give
awards to 500 top national teachers, develop 500 experimental teaching
centers, 500 individual talent development and creativity areas, and 500
high quality bilingual classes (Jingpinke 2010). In addition, the
project would restructure majors, publish teaching evaluations and data
on teaching and learning, promote mutual assistance between universities
in Eastern China and universities in Western China, and promote
self-study, learning through research, and practical learning to improve
initiative and creativity among students (Wen 2007).

As for the Top Level Courses Project, the first stage from 2003 to 2007
had produced 1,500 national Top Level courses, with the focus on
commonly taught basic undergraduate courses. The second stage, beginning
in 2007, had a target of constructing 3,000 national level Top Level
courses. That year, the Ministry of Education also expanded the project
to include online courses, and during the next three years of operation,
evaluated 149 national level online Top Level courses. After this
expansion, including online courses, and also courses from public
security and military schools, the project covered a total of 700
institutions of higher education in every part of China. From 2003 to
2010, 3790 national level courses have been produced, including 2528
undergraduate courses, 1037 vocational courses and 209 online courses.
In addition to the national level courses, more than 6000 provincial
level courses, and a large number of university-level courses have been
produced (NTCP 2010).

In addition, the 2007 stage called for the creation of an organized
system for sharing the course materials generated, and supporting the
development of software and portals that could facilitate this sharing
(Wang Xueyin 2008). This would later become the Jingpinke.com portal,
which will be discussed in a separate section.

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The quotes in this text is from the MA Thesis "The Chinese National Top
Level Courses Project: Using Open Educational Resources to Promote
Quality in Undergraduate Teaching" by Stian Håklev, University of
Toronto 2010.

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