Educational technology and the National Quality Course Plan in China

The Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China (MOEC) in 2003 initiated the National Quality Course plan to deal with the issue of quality of teaching after an unprecedented expansion of the higher education system in the country. The plan included defining the National Quality Courses characterized by the first-rate teacher teams, learning contents, instructional methods, teaching materials, and teaching management. The plan aimed to encourage full professors to teach high-enrolment undergraduate courses with high quality and promote information technology to be integrated into course teaching and learning and reform the instructional methods. Prerequisite for a course to enter the Quality Course selection process is that there should be a course website that could promote integration between educational technology and teaching, and the reform of teaching methods.