On July 25, Peking University (PKU) signed a cooperation agreement with DeTao Group that the two parties will carry out in-depth collaboration in education, research and technology development. In particular, they will jointly work on the development of “Massive Online Open Courses” (MOOCs), to build a MOOCs system that synchronizes with the world, as well as to promote the popularization and development of online open courses in China.

On the ceremony held in Chen Shou Ren International Conference Center at Peking University, President of PKU En’ge Wang, Provost of PKU Song Gao, Dean of PKU Graduate School Shiyi Chen, Secretary General of PKU Education Foundation Ya Deng, Associate Dean of College of Engineering (COE) Duoxiang Wang, and many other PKU leaders witnessed the moment with Chairman of DeTao Group Zhuozhi Li, President of DeTao Jun Xia, Operation Chief Lin’En Xu, and many DeTao masters.

MOOCs are free non-degree online courses with open unlimited global enrollment to anyone who desires to learn, and regardless of their current educational level. Compared to traditional courses taught in virtual classrooms, it provides unprecedented openness and no limit to audience. Every student in the world could easily access high-quality courses of interest with a networked computer.

“Building a platform for online open courses is not only a measure that PKU takes to meet the challenge of the new mode of web education, but a practice of the ideal of equal education that PKU has always advocated,” said Wang in his speech, “PKU has many of the best disciplines in China, and it’s obligatory for PKU to open its high-quality education resources to more students and help advance the level of higher education in China.”

According to Wang, PKU has been among the first to raise the curtain of online open courses undertaking in China. It joined the platform of edX on May 22 as one of the first Asian university members.

DeTao Group is a knowledge-based, innovation-oriented conglomerate that focuses on cultural education and innovation industry. With a mission of “converge world masters, collect global wisdom, nurture industry elites, and help enterprise grow", it has brought together more than 500 international industry leaders and established more than 150 DeTao Master Studios, involving industries of green architecture, environmental protection, industrial design, film and television animation, and exhibition.

In the future PKU-DeTao MOOCs learning platform, traditional PKU quality programs, courses on innovation, DeTao master classes as well as foreign courses of distinguished universities are planned to be continuously uploaded. Students not only can learn online courses, but also will receive all-round support through online and offline ways.

To enable the successful running of the platform, DeTao has agreed to donate 5 million RMB to PKU. Besides the MOOCs platform, DeTao also signed an agreement for strategic cooperation with COE.