# The future of Chinese Top Level Courses


Nobody knows what the future holds for the Top Level Courses Project,
which is scheduled to expire in 2010. It is probable that it will be
renewed, but this could be done either with large-scale changes in
organization, or relatively minor tweaks to assessment systems (Young
2010). Professor B3 believes that there will be more focus on producing
material that can be used directly by students, and more focus on
resource portals that organize this material. Another important step is
to check all the courses that have already been produced – this was
supposed to happen after a five-year period, but even though the first
courses were produced seven years ago, it has not yet happened (Ju Feng,
personal communications). As mentioned in the section on critiques,
there are statistics showing that many courses are no longer available,
or have not been updated.

According to Ju Feng, vice-director of the Top Level Courses Project
Resource Center (精品课程资源中心) which produces Jingpinke.com, the
Ministry of Education is planning for a shift in the role and function
of the Open University of China. When it was initially built, it was
intended as a stop-gap solution for students that could not be admitted
to regular universities because of capacity problems. Given the rapid
expansion of the regular system, almost all students who now go through
the university entrance exam (gaokao, 高考) are assured a spot at a
university, even though it might not be the university they wanted.

Therefore, the focus of the Open University of China will shift from
undergraduate degree programs to life-long learning and continuing
education. The 2010-2020 ten year master plan for educational
development in China released by the Ministry of Education calls for 350
million people involved in life-long and continuing learning by 2020
([Håklev
2010](http://reganmian.net/blog/2010/02/28/key-numbers-from-chinas-2010-2020-education-plan/)).
Although we have seen little evidence of Top Level Courses being used
for that purpose today, it could be one possible future direction.

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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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  formats, and supplementary
  material](http://reganmian.net/top-level-courses)

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