Govt recommends online courses to boost MOOC

The Chinese government has announced a list of 801 recommended online courses of the year 2018, a move to boost the development of massive open online courses (MOOC) in China.

The universities and colleges that opened online courses included the top-notch Peking University and vocational schools like the Nanjing Institute of Industry Technology, according to a document published on the Ministry of Education (MOE) website Tuesday.

The subjects vary greatly from traditional science subjects such as physics and chemistry to those of profound cultural essence such as the analysis of Chinese literature masterpiece "The Dream of the Red Chamber" and ancient medical classic "Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon."

A number of courses also focus on specific vocational skills such as dentistry and veterinary medicine.

The recommended courses should be available to the public for no less than five years after the announcement of the list, according to the ministry.

The ministry will conduct inspections on the courses regarding their operation, effects and updates. Courses that fail to meet the standards will be removed from the list.

The online courses recommendation project was first introduced in January 2018 with the release of a 490-course list. It is among the country's latest efforts to develop an advanced system of MOOC and is expected to supplement school education as well as contribute to education equity, according to a previous MOE statement.

The government plans to form a list of 3,000 recommended courses by 2020, according to Wu Yan, head of higher education departement of the ministry.