The Ministry of Education has announced that the 2024 World Digital Education Conference is scheduled to take place in Shanghai from January 29 to 31. With participation anticipated from over 70 countries and more than 400 guests, the conference will center around the exploration, exchange, and advancement of digital education. Various concurrent sessions will address key themes such as enhancing teachers' digital skills, Artificial Intelligence and ethical considerations, as well as the evaluation of digital education. This marks the second edition of the conference, following the inaugural event held in Beijing in February of the previous year. Liu Jin, the Director of the Department of International Cooperation and Exchanges at the ministry, highlighted plans to establish a global alliance for digital education during the upcoming conference.
Simultaneously with the conference, the Digital and Smart Education Future Exhibition is set to take place, featuring topics such as digital transformation and advanced educational technology, according to Liu Jin. Additionally, an international version of China's Smart Education, an online educational resource platform, will be unveiled. Zhou Dawang, the Director of the Department of Science, Technology, and Informatization, reported that since its launch in March 2022, the platform has attracted over 100 million registered users and accumulated 36.7 billion views. The platform offers more than 88,000 educational resources for primary and secondary schools and boasts over 10,000 high-quality courses for vocational education, he added.
According to Song Yi from the Department of Higher Education, China boasts the largest scale of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) globally, and its MOOC system has gained international recognition in higher education. He mentioned that last year, China organized the Global MOOC and Online Education Conference in Milan, Italy, making it the first time the event took place outside China. Song Yi noted that Chinese MOOC platforms have introduced 341 courses on a global scale, attracting nearly 25.4 million participants thus far.
