Ningxia University: Innovating Education Models with 300 Futuristic Classrooms

In the wake of major technological advancement, the education industry is undergoing radical and fundamental change. With the ultimate goal of providing the basic human right of education to all, intelligent technology is guiding the sector towards more open, more efficient, and more sustainable models that can provide high quality learning resources to more teachers and students than ever.

Ningxia University has made great efforts to go smart. Ningxia University was a member of the former Project 211 and is one of the few universities in northwestern China — the only one in the Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region — that has been identified as first-class by the Ministry of Education. It has built 300 futuristic classrooms that combine our physical and virtual worlds through online and offline teaching. It has achieved integrated teaching management across multiple campuses. Empowering education through technological innovation, Ningxia University is accelerating intelligent development and leading the way in forward-thinking educational reform. It has set a golden example for the development of universities in China's western provinces.

Peng Zhike, President of Ningxia University, said their goal is to align technological innovation with strategic needs, establish a talent development and innovation hub for the western region, and offer technological and talent support for economic and social progress.

Create a Teaching Model More Suitable for Gen Z

As Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012) enters the university classroom, a crucial question arises: how can we incorporate smart technologies into education to pique the interest of these network natives who have grown up with mobile communications, social media, and digital technology? The answer has been illustrated in the futuristic classrooms of Ningxia University.

• In Professor Yang Yi's class at the School of Life Sciences, WeLink is used for sharing resources and interaction between the teacher and students. The courseware includes recent case studies and excellent papers from reputable journals such as Cell, Nature, and Science. This shift from one-way knowledge transfer to knowledge exchange has made previously tedious classes more engaging.

• Professor Zhang Qilong teaches history courses at the School of Ethnology and Historiography. The use of digital media such as videos, images, and virtual historical records allows students to immerse themselves in the subject matter and gain a deeper understanding of history. The IdeaHub is also used to display opinions and articles, encouraging discussion and leaving food for thought. This creates a favorable environment for spontaneous, lively, and engaging debates.

• At the School of Agriculture, Professor Gu Xin incorporates some of the most cutting-edge technologies into her classes. Before class, students prepare by using a cloud-based learning platform for self-study and taking quizzes. This provides them a basic understanding of new concepts. During class, Professor Gu encourages students to interact with each other and herself through the smart classroom and U-Class interaction system. This helps students gain a more thorough comprehension of the topic at hand, and fleshes out their knowledge frameworks. After class, students consolidate their knowledge by completing assignments and participating in online discussions on the cloud-based learning platform. Additionally, Professor Gu utilizes AI technology and big data to search for teaching resources and extract key information related to teaching and learning.

Smart classrooms represent a seamless integration of physical and virtual spaces. They allow for the use of effective teaching techniques such as flipped classrooms, hybrid learning, project-based learning (PBL), and structured discussions to promote personalized and self-directed learning. This student-centered approach shifts the traditional dynamic between teachers and students, and empowers students to take an active role in learning. Now, teachers guide and motivate students to learn independently. Ultimately, they impart knowledge and dispel ignorance.

"Ningxia University adapts to the new trend in education and is embracing digital technology to optimize the learning environment, develop new teaching models, and implement intelligent education," said Li Hao, Director of the Teaching and Operation Support Department at Ningxia University.

Smart Classroom Solution Breathes New Life into Classroom Teaching

Ningxia University has implemented a smart classroom solution that features digital, interactive, collaborative, and intelligent teaching. This initiative has resulted in the creation of 300 futuristic classrooms, the world's largest smart classroom project that looks to future-proof their campuses. According to Li Hao, Ningxia University has created various types of smart classrooms to accommodate different teaching scenarios. These include smart classrooms for regular recording, remote interaction, dual-screen teaching, seminars, and immersive teaching. They also have premium HarmonyOS classrooms for discussions.

The integrated and interconnected smart teaching space is revolutionizing lessons. Ningxia University's HarmonyOS smart classroom is equipped with the Huawei IdeaHub Board, which connects to Huawei Cloud and HarmonyOS ecosystems. The classroom caters to remote interactive teaching and regular in-person teaching. WeLink serves as the unified entry point for online and offline environments, creating an integrated smart teaching space for teachers, students, and administrators. The classroom meets requirements for teaching in a fully intelligent space and one-click teaching with minimal windows. This optimizes the teaching process and improves teaching quality.

In particular, the integrated cloud-based learning platform allows for the seamless interconnection of teaching content, activities, and data. With the content display and save functions, sharing classroom content is quick and easy, and class notes can be automatically saved by scanning the QR code. Group teaching support is also provided, which facilitates group discussions, inter-group competitions, peer assessment, and collaborative learning. Moreover, the university president has access to a dashboard that offers a range of functions, including remote interactive class observation, all-scenario data visibility, and intelligent O&M of all devices.

"Huawei and ULearning are using next-generation ICTs to serve industry application scenarios, reshape teaching processes, and develop the teaching ecosystem," said Jin Shanguo, President of Beijing ULearning , Huawei's partner in this project. "Our goal is to help colleges and universities go digital and make personalized learning a reality."

AI Empowers Teaching and Learning

Ningxia University is embracing Internet + Education by adopting AI to transform traditional classroom teaching and learning models. They are exploring novel ways to implement data-driven operations, decision-making, management, and innovation. By leveraging technologies like AI, IoT, and big data, the university can collect and analyze data and generate instant feedback reports on classroom interaction and teaching. This allows Ningxia University to offer precise, personalized teaching services and learning evaluations.

AI-powered classroom diagnosis is a more advanced way of evaluating teaching effectiveness compared to traditional methods such as self-reflection by teachers and class observation and evaluation by academic standards and quality assessment groups. It combines the evaluation of learning processes, learning outcomes, and teaching effectiveness through intelligent analysis and online data management. This approach enables the multidimensional, data-driven, and instant online evaluation of teaching. More importantly, teachers are able to consciously analyze and optimize their teaching methods and processes based on the data. This promotes the development of new teaching philosophies and also leads to more refined methods of teaching research.

In terms of student learning feedback, Ningxia University uses classroom playback to observe learning activities from multiple angles. This helps identify changes in student engagement and areas where students may be struggling. With this data, targeted instructions can be provided to improve students' knowledge, skills, and overall quality of learning.

Xia Zun, President of the Global Public Sector of Huawei Enterprise, believes that in today's digital, intelligent society, education tends to center on learners. "Huawei and partners have developed the future-proof Smart Classroom Solution, which helps Ningxia University accelerate the intelligent transformation of education and teaching, innovate different styles of teaching, and improve teaching efficiency and quality." He went on to explain that Huawei's Smart Classroom Solution utilizes AI, cloud computing, and IoT technologies to create a smart and manageable teaching environment. It combines functions such as smart recording, remote teaching, IoT management, teaching supervision and management, which seamlessly integrates physical and virtual spaces. This helps the university provide precise, efficient, and personalized learning services and implement smart teaching throughout the process.

The education industry will only continue to change, which will lead to new challenges for education models and the entire system. Ningxia University recognizes that in the Internet era, universities to need to re-examine their approach to education. They need to deepen the integration of technology into teaching and create smart teaching resources, facilities, environments, and services. It is also necessary to combine online and offline teaching, and achieve integrated teaching management across multiple campuses. This will result in a new education ecosystem and lead the way in forward-thinking educational reform.