Shen Fuke: Digital transformation of colleges and universities needs to return to education itself

The highest level of education informatization is: one grass and one book are "education". The digital transformation is under "education". The exploration of education is endless, and the digital transformation of education is always on the road.

"To put the digital transformation of universities in the context of building a digital China, think about and position the value of universities from it." When looking forward to the future direction of digital transformation of universities, Shen Fugo, Secretary -General of East China Normal University's Informatization Governance Committee. He said that if the focus and focus of education informatization is "informatization", then the focus and focus of educational digitalization will fall on "education" to answer the question of how education is transformed.

"Education" is both the original and the goal

"China Education Network": "Education Digital Transformation" is the "keyword" in the current field of education. So, what is the background of the digital transformation of education? What do you think is the connotation and ultimate goal of education digital transformation?

Shen Fugo: "The Fourteenth Five -Year Plan of the National Economic and Social Development of the People's Republic of China and the Outline of the Metropolitan Scenery Target (Draft) in 2035" proposed to welcome the digital era, activate the potential of data elements, promote the construction of a strong network, and accelerate the construction of the digital economy , Digital society, digital governments, use digital transformation to drive the overall production method, lifestyle and governance methods. In this wish, in early 2021, Shanghai proposed to comprehensively promote the digital transformation of urban urban, and urban construction has entered a new stage of development. Subsequently, in August 2021, the Ministry of Education approved Shanghai to become a pilot zone of education digital transformation, which is also the first and currently only pilot area for education digital transformation.

To answer the connotation of digital transformation of education, we must first understand the relationship between "digitalization" and "informatization".

First, "informatization" focuses on the perspective of managers and emphasizes the electronicization of management, processes, and models; while "digital" is more considering the perspective of the service object, considering the user's information and needs, and the teacher and students are the center Emphasize the redesign of management, processes, and models.

Second, the independent system established from the needs of the business process of the functional department, and it is easy to form information islands and digital islands. The explanation of data is inconsistent. The system is not connected to the system at first. ; Digitalization emphasizes the optimization of the overall process between different functional departments systems, emphasizing the interconnection and integration of data and business.

Third, "informatization" emphasizes efficiency, focusing on the responsibility of the IT department, and the IT department serves the business department through "informatization"; "digital" emphasizes the integration and win -win situation of the IT department and the business department. The two join hands with the change of organizational model, business model, and teaching model through "digital".

It can be considered that "digital" is an upgraded version of "informatization". This is also the origin of the digital transformation of education.

Through the above -mentioned background introduction and connotation analysis, I believe that the ultimate goal of the digital transformation of education is to answer: In the context of building digital China, how to implement the "production method, lifestyle and governance methods"? That is, how to change the education and teaching model, education management and service methods?

If the focus and focus of education informatization is in "informationization", then the focus and focus of education digitization falls on "education" to answer the question of how education is transformed.

"China Education Network": Corresponding to Abraham Maslo's "demand level theory", what do you think is the "Maslow" hierarchical model of education informatization? Among them, which level of digital transformation belongs to and how to understand?

Shen Fugo: Maslow's "demand level theory" (Figure 1-a) is a hierarchical model describing people's needs from psychology. The theory believes that human demand is divided into levels, from low to high. Corresponding to the demand level model, the relevant scholars have proposed the "XYZ Theory", which describes what kind of response methods and strategies should be used for the needs of different levels.

Figure 1-a Maslow demand hierarchical model

In the "Maslow" hierarchical model (Figure 1-B) and the corresponding XYZ theory of education informatization, the function content of each layer is different, and the focus is different. As the level of demand is getting higher and higher, the weight of "education" in education informatization has gradually focused on the weight of "informatization". The IT department gradually moves back, and business departments and teachers will gradually return to the front desk.

Figure 1-b corresponding to educational information level model

Figure 1 Maslo hierarchical model and XYZ theory of education informatization

Specifically, if the informatization construction of a school only needs to meet the requirements of "network access and basic services", then the relevant work is mainly borne by the school's technical department. , Departments and teachers and students provide services. The corresponding X theory is more composition, assessment standards, and service methods.

Above the basic requirements, it is a higher level of demand for "security requirements and information system services", "integration of information technology and business", "smart campus and smart education services". At this time, it is no longer a technical personnel who are engaged in related work. The participation of other business departments will become deeper and deeper, and the evaluation method of IT work will become different. In the "digital transformation" stage, what needs to be thought about is: how to cope with the challenges of management, process, and model reconstruction? Who are needed, how to participate, and how to evaluate?

From the bottom to the highest level, it is getting closer to "education" itself. The highest level is: the environment in the information age is education, and one grass and one book are "education". The digital transformation is located on the 5th floor, which is under "education". Therefore, the exploration of education is endless. In this sense, the digital transformation of education is always on the road. Digital transformation is not a "upgrade", but "revolution"

"China Education Network": You mentioned that in digital transformation, universities need to build sustainable information technology bases. So why should you build a technical base? What are the functions of sustainable information technology base and how to build it?

Shen Fugo: The process of digital transformation of colleges and universities is a process of deep integration that integrates information technology with the education and teaching, and management of the college. It is a process of running a school in the two spaces of physical space and digital space. This is a very complicated process of construction. It involves all aspects of the school. We need to think: What are the responsible subjects of the two spaces? How to set up their duties? How to cooperate organically?

The current business systems of colleges and universities frequently appear "information islands", lack of effective coordination mechanisms, and informatization has not achieved the core work of supporting school development. In this case, colleges and universities should focus on the construction of the business system focus on the business itself, and take out the public service required for the construction of the business system to form a modular support platform that covers public support services in all aspects, that is, Informatization support base.

In the digital transformation of universities, whether it is "physical space" or "digital space", multiple subject departments need to participate together to complete and complete. Each subject should find their corresponding positioning in the digital space, and play their own different roles. Among them, the core mission of the university's informatization department is to "connect the main body", which is responsible for building an information support base that supports multiple subjects.

As a basic interactive platform, this base will coordinate the design of basic data, status data, and behavioral data, and provide credible collection and scientific analysis basic tools and standard specifications, so as to be the education, teaching and science of various functional departments, colleges and departments of the school, Management and decision -making services provide technical support, which is the technical support for continuous energy in informationization.

At the same time, under the overall technical framework of the digital campus (Figure 2), colleges and universities should also give the function, technical requirements, and application goals of the support base.

Figure 2 Digital transformation technology architecture of colleges and universities

The construction of the information support base should be flexibly adapted at the bottom layer to support the diverse and rich applications of the upper levels; the basic tools, basic platforms and API provided by the base should be simple and open, so as to support multi -business systems when supporting multi -business systems. Flexibility and ease of use. In addition, we should also consider how to cooperate with mechanisms to allow the information support base to play a core interaction during digital transformation:

For resource adaptation, we must be adapted and supported by all -source, the integration of data must be cleaned and returned, and the open cooperation under the open authorization (gateway) must be achieved. Zhongtai support, etc. The openness of digital capabilities allows colleges and universities to gradually open various data interfaces and service interfaces, simplify development, open cooperation to the outside world, and eventually form an open and sustainable information ecosystem.

"China Education Network": Please analyze the realization of digital transformation in universities. What are the focus of attention in each implementation path?

Shen Fugo: Education digital transformation can be divided into three periods: planning period, construction period, and innovation period.

In the planning period, the school starts from the organizational business (teaching, learning, management, service, decision support, etc.) to carry out a new top -level design. For example, through the financial system, financial and related data are obtained from the full cycle of financial budget, execution, evaluation, and feedback to complete the integration and governance of basic data such as organizational finance and KPI indicators. For another example, from the perspective of talent or human resources, from the enrollment/ recruitment, training/ training, examination/ assessment, comprehensive evaluation/ social evaluation of students or employees, complete the acquisition of students, employees and related data, and achieve the most effective effect of school training. The strongest of excellent or teachers.

The focus of attention during this period is "redesign". During the planning period, the decision makers of the school's development plan must realize that the digital transformation of colleges and universities in the information age is to seek the integration of "physical space" and "digital space", which is redesigned a school. It is not a simple upgrade version of education informatization, but a "revolution".

During the construction period, the problem that colleges and universities need to solve are: How to based on school characteristics, the best evaluation, optimal, and strongest? During this period, the school aimed at educating people, building an initial digital platform, and obtaining data through the platform immediately, and proposed key data to analyze key data from a large amount of static and dynamic data. With evaluation indicators, you can better make diagnosis and analysis. At this time, through data "speaking", constantly iterating adjustments, innovative service evaluation models, "forced" management and service model changes. Therefore, the focus of attention to the construction period is "iteration" and "forced". Through data mining, the decision -making support value of data is used, and the evaluation mechanism is improved.

With a relatively stable digital platform and business model, we can enter the period of innovation and change. The innovation period emphasizes the changes of the organizational structure, the changes in departmental responsibilities, the changes in business models, and changes in the quality requirements of the personnel of the personnel, and emphasize the integration of the system and the interconnection of data. In the period of innovation, universities complete change through the continuous integration and dynamic integration of technology and business to complete the change. The purpose is to promote data structured, business fragmentation, process customization, refinement of service, scientific decision -making, and reconstruction of fragmentation, miniaturization Business unit. The focus of attention during this period is "duct" and "gradient". The process of change is often the fusion of "dang" and "gradient". Universities expect to be "ductive", but in the process of transformation, they often need to experience the "gradient" process. Rebate Chinese University

"China Education Network": During the "14th Five -Year Plan" period, what are the key tasks of promoting digital transformation in universities? What are your prospects and ideas for the future information construction of colleges and universities?

Shen Fugo: Just mentioned that "digital" is an upgraded version of "informatization", so the previous information practice of colleges and universities is the basis for digital transformation today. During the 14th Five -Year Plan, we must strive to explore and practice, and strive to answer the following questions:

The first is about data analysis. Data analysis is an indispensable key to digital transformation. The purpose and direction are "educating people". How to serve the management process, teaching mode, evaluation method, etc., so as to serve education?

The second is about organizational structure. What is the organizational structure of the transformed university? How to redefine the different responsibilities of different functional departments? How to transition from the traditional architecture to the ideal architecture while ensuring that all business and teaching must be carried out at the same time during switching?

The third is about talent training. The scope of talents includes teachers and managers. The new business platform requires the comprehensive improvement of employee business and technical skills. At the same time, the skill evaluation of each employee needs to be mastered in real time. How to cultivate talents that match job needs? How to discover talents, use talents, develop talents, and evaluate talents?

The fourth is the positioning of personnel. Consider and define the role of teacher. Teachers with forward -looking vision are necessary conditions for digital transformation of universities. How do teachers find out where students are, where they are lost, and what difficulties are there to help students grow? Considering the role of human resources in the organization, that is, at different development stages of the school, how to use human resources to achieve the best goal of the school?

Fifth, it is about automation or AI. In digital transformation, which links need to be used, and how to use big data and automation AI? How to improve the personalization and humanization of user services through AI, and find a combination of "AI+artificial" to play the optimal effect?

"China Education Network": What else do you have to summarize and view the digital transformation of universities?

Shen Fugo: There are many topics that can be explored about digital transformation of universities, such as "platformization", how to open up platform strategies, so as to promote the change of teaching model, management and service model? For example, "collaboration", how to promote the coordination of IT and functional departments, AI collaboration with people, online and offline collaboration, role and responsibilities of teachers and students?

Among the many topics, two are particularly worthy of our attention.

First, under the requirements of the digital transformation of colleges, the IT department itself must also transform. What is the name of this department is not important? It is important to change responsibility and personnel organization. Under the premise of IT thinking, the new IT department generally has three requirements:

First, we must master strategic research and actual combat, know how to teach and manage, and can assist the school's overall business process design and change; second, we must be proficient in transactional services. Previously In addition to understanding business, we must cooperate with other functional departments from the perspective of business optimization, and gradually complete the transformation from the "single -line technical support department" to "comprehensive basic department".

Second, the digital transformation of universities requires us to think about "redefining universities". More and more people have begun to pay attention to and think about the value and role of university. Furthermore, redefine a university, we can emphasize more "redefining Chinese universities."

From a macro perspective, what role should universities play in the journey of achieving the "two hundred years of struggle and achieving the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation? This requires that we must transform the digitalization of colleges and universities in the context of the construction of digital China, and think about the value of the university from it.

From a micro perspective, in the future, we strive to retrieve the value of "people" in college. More and more faculty employees hope that the university can bring inspiration and knowledge skills to themselves, hoping to get more opportunities to participate in universities, get more recognition, and build better interpersonal relationships.

As a result, "redefining university" is actually in the context of building a digital China. All teachers and students of the school have given full play to their own potential. In the digital transformation of the university, innovation and innovation can be learned every day. Think from phenomena and promote school change step by step.

Editor -in -chief: Xiang Yang

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