Network Education

Donghua University is one of the key universities directly under the State Ministry of Education and one of the 100 universities implementing the ¡°211 Development Project¡±(the Project of entering the 21st century to build 100 best universities out of 1000 universities in China), jointly administrated and funded by the State Ministry of Education and Shanghai Municipal Government. The university was founded in 1951 with the former name of East China Textile Industrial College. In 1985, it changed its name into China Textile University. It got its present name in 1999. After 50 years of exerting its utmost to make itself strong and prosperous, the former specialized college has evolved into a general university with 18 secondary colleges having the functions of school running and administration, 9 branches of learning as well as 15 doctor¡¯s programs, 2 post-doctor research stations, 40 postgraduate and 37 undergraduate programs. Facing the new century, new opportunity and new challenges, Donghua University has set the overall goal of ¡°constructing a nationally prestigious, internationally influential high-level university with its own features boasting coordinated development of the courses of engineering, science, administration and liberal arts while taking engineering course as the major one¡±. The university has also set up the development idea of ¡°bringing the university into flourishing through notion, learning and management.¡±

In accordance with the document No.7 [2001] of the Department of Higher Education of the State Ministry of Education, Donghua University secured the formal approval of the State Ministry of Education to be one of the 68 experimental institutions for modern distance education. Network Education College of Donghua University was formally established in Nov. 2001. The college is also a member of the cooperation team of network colleges set up by the eight experimental higher institutions for modern distance education of Shanghai. College of Network Education is a secondary college of the university with Associate Prof. Zhu Deming as the dean and Associate Prof. Gong Xiaoyang as the deputy. The college has 4 functional departments i.e. office, student department, department of academic affairs and department of technology.

Ever since its establishment, relying on the excellent computer network environment of the campuses of the university, the Network Education University of Donghua University has made an investment of over RMB 2 million yuan in equipping high quality servers and storage array systems with large storing capacity, widening the bandwidth and increasing the accesses of the network to secure a good environment for network learning. At the same time, the college chooses the high-grade service platforms for teaching and learning and provides self-support study system, text on demand (TOD) and the software and hardware environments to facilitate the cooperation and interaction of the teachers and students during the processes of teaching and learning. Currently the college can provide the students with three ways of studying: One is self-support study in which the students can conduct web browsing and VOD on the internet; The second is cooperative study in which the teachers and students can carry out question and answer sessions, BBS, E-mail and other interactions for teaching and learning; The third is personal instruction and tutorship in which the teachers can undertake face-to-face instructions and tutoring for the students. All the above can reliably guarantee the performance of network education. 

The orientation of College of Network Education of Donghua University is taking continuous education as its major task, provide better service for different trades concerned and for the construction of a learning society and lifelong education. During years¡¯ of practice in running a school, the college insists on promoting and popularizing the motto of Donghua ¡°strict, diligent, realistic and innovative¡±, and takes ¡°standard school-running, strict administration, stressing features and ensuring quality¡± as the basic conception of the college. The college persists in the idea of humanism, and commits itself to train excellent, applicable and special talents for the society. Up to now, the college can offer the multi-level vocational training and regular undergraduate courses with 9 majors such as computer science and technology, modern logistics, garment arts and design and international economy, trade, etc. The undergraduates and vocational training school students who have finished the courses and other tasks prescribed in the teaching plan and have obtained qualified achievements can be granted the diplomas of Donghua University (A note of¡°¡Á¡Á Speciality of Network Education¡± shall be added.) acknowledged by the state and e-registered by the Ministry of Education. Those who are qualified for degree application can be conferred the degrees of bachelor by Donghua University with their own application and the approval of the Academic Degree Evaluation Committee of the university.

One of the important tasks of the College of Network Education of Donghua University is to respond to the strategy of Development of Western Regions made by the Central Committee of the CPC. With the support of the university¡¯s leaders, the college has participated in the project of Baiyulan Distance Education Network of Shanghai to provide modern distance education service for Tibet, Xinjiang, Yunnan and the Three Gorges Reservoir Area. Currently the College of Network Education is just setting up Huamao Study Center in Anqing, Anhui to initially undertake experiments for modern distance education and make preparation for boosting toward the Western and outlying regions.

During the development in the future, the College of Network Education of Donghua University will always abide by the managing principle of ¡°human the basic, service the first¡±, conform to the instructions on the guideline of ¡°active development, standard management, strengthening service and ensuring quality¡± on network education made by the Ministry of Education, maintain the conscientious attitude toward work, and exert our strength to boost the development of modern distance education. College of Network Education of Donghua University is now rapidly advancing toward the direction of healthy and sustainable development.

Organizational Structure

College of Network Education is a secondary one affiliated to Donghua University with Associate Prof. Zhu Deming as its dean and Associate Prof. Gong Xiaoyang as its vice dean. The college has altogether 9 members in its teaching staff and 4 functional departments i.e. office, student department, department of academic affairs and department of technology.
Among them:

1
£®Student Department
It is responsible for enrolment and enrolling propagation, research on the problems occurring during the experiments of network education and conducting foreign cooperation etc. 
2
£®Department of Technology
It is responsible for construction, operation and maintenance of system platforms, construction, development and maintenance of the course resources, preparation of the network communications and support, and service for distance study platform, conducting application research and assisting various stations in technical services.
3
£®Department of Academic Affairs
It is responsible for the organization, implementation and management of teaching including teaching management, administration of student records, plans of teacher training, preparation of teaching materials, organizing research and design on the contents of teaching and training, and assessment of quality of teaching.
4
£®Office
It is responsible for the administrative affairs of the college and takes part in the specific logistic and supportive work for college-running, etc.

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