On April 2, 2022, XuetangX, a global partner of UNESCO International Centre for Engineering Education (ICEE), held an activity on "National Dialogue on Effective Teaching Model Among Chinese Universities During Epidemic Prevention and Control". Prof. YUAN Si, Director of Online Education Research Center of the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China (MOE), Vice Chairperson of Tsinghua University Council, former Vice President of Tsinghua University and Executive Director of ICEE attended the event and delivered a speech. This activity was guided by the Online Education Research Center of the MOE and hosted by XuetangX. It was held online through Rain Classroom (Yuketang), and more than 10,000 universities teaching administrators and front-line teachers watched the live broadcast. This newsletter is a verbatim transcribed version of Prof. YUAN’s speech.

The theme of this forum is " Response Proactively to Overcome Difficulties". "Overcome Difficulties" reflects the difficulty of online education and integrated teaching in the context of the epidemic situation in some regions, while "Response Proactively" reflects that people are more confident in facing of sudden changes in the teaching environment and calmer in their actions.

The outbreak of the pandemic in the spring of 2020 was like a historical dividing line, and even online education was clearly divided into "Pre-Covid19 Online Education" and "Post-Covid19 Online Education". On the one hand, due to the objective impact of the pandemic, schools, teachers and students have become more and more familiar with online education. On the other hand, the pandemic has accelerated the development and evolution of online education tools and the research and progress of online education-related teaching methods. How to ensure the quality of teaching in emergencies is a major question that all colleges and universities are facing after the large-scale start of online teaching in 2020. It is an important test for the education and teaching reform of colleges and universities and their own digital competencies in the digital age.

In the face of the big test, Tsinghua university adhering to the "Educating People is the Non-renounceable Responsibility of University", and set several expert groups up, such as the online teaching steering group, online education technical security group, online teaching quality assurance group, student learning ensure group, come with an online teaching command center, 24 hours on duty every day. It successfully carried out the whole system real-time online interactive teaching practice, and effectively guaranteed a higher level of online teaching quality. At the same time, online examination, online dissertation defense, online postgraduate guidance and other teaching activities are carried out in the cloud. These online practices reshape the ways of teaching and learning, realize reform and innovation, and accumulate rich experiences for the online talent selection. In epidemic prevention and control during routine, by conducting the information technology and education teaching fusion, successful implementation of the whole system fusion type of online teaching, and continue to expand the connotation of "integration", actively grasp the internet in the context of the digital transition opportunities, continuing to explore the fusion of online and onsite teaching, interdisciplinary integration and fusion of academia and industry, We will further innovate education scenarios, reform education models, renew education concepts, and actively build a university that is more open, integrated and resilient.

Tsinghua university has been experimenting with digital and online education. In 2013, Tsinghua University launched XuetangX to provide high-quality learning resources for global learners. Make use of XuetangX research and development team and work basis to carry out teaching technology innovation. Launched in 2016, Tsinghua University launched the smart teaching tool -- Yuketang, to enhance high frequency interaction between teachers and students, according to the big data of teaching and learning behavior, the artificial intelligent algorithm for the analysis of teaching behavior, improve the teaching evaluation, promoting teaching management to data driven, currently has more than 64 million teachers and students to use, since the pandemic prevention and control, Yuketang has been more widely used.

Tsinghua University has always been adhering to the motto of " Self-discipline and Social Commitment". If the whole system of Tsinghua online education is the A side of Tsinghua's "Self-discipline", then we actively use Yuketang "Clone Class" technology, to share the curriculum with Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Xinjiang University, Xinjiang Agricultural University and other sister universities is the B side of Tsinghua's "Social Commitment". It has to be said that it is the deep integration of education and digitalization that makes it easier to share high-quality educational resources. For the students of these universities, having classes and discussions with Tsinghua faculties and students is just a short distance away.

Some teachers say that after the in-depth of online learning, we will never go back to the traditional format of the classroom. Even if the pandemic prevention and control order become normal, not only the teachers but also the students hope to continue to use digital teaching tools. It can be seen that online teaching is not a forced response, but a reconstruction after a disaster. Teachers have rebuilt their teaching philosophy, students have rebuilt their learning habits, and schools have rebuilt their teaching management and evaluation systems. These reconstructions are bound to take root and sprout in our teaching activities for a long time.

We’ve known very well that at this moment, the pandemic is still spreading in many parts of China, and normal teaching work in some schools has been affected once again. Each one of us has truly felt this feeling and suffering. At such moments, we gather together in the cloud to share and discuss how to turn crisis into opportunity, coordinate and promote various work, and ensure the effective implementation of teaching on the line. The pandemic has separated us physically, but online education has connected our hearts. Education delivers the most warm and penetrating love, warms the world and gives people hope. We are committed to openness and cooperation, working with universities nationwide and around the world to promote reform and innovation in higher education.

We believe that only through mutual exchange and learning can we draw on each other's strengths and explore a new model of higher education with continuous iteration and vitality. Only with solid practice can we work together to address the severe challenges COVID-19 has brought to higher education teaching order.

(Edited by XuetangX；Reviewed by XU Lihui)