School of Educational Information Technology

The School of Educational Information Technology was established in June 2013. Its predecessor was the research group of large-screenTV using film shutters outside source (for short: the Research Group), which was founded by the Physics Institution of CCNU in May 1970. The Research Group wonthe National Science Conference Award in April 1978 as it filled a gap in the nationalTV industry. The Research Group was also awarded an “Advanced Group” withsignificant contributions by the State Science and Technology Committee. The ResearchGroup was renamed to the Institute of Applied Physics in May 1983.

In June 1985, the Educational TechnologyDepartment was established with an approval of the Ministry of Education, onthe basis of existing staff and equipment resources of the Institute of AppliedPhysics. Since then the department has focused on both teaching and research. InSeptember 1985, the department started to offer a bachelor degree program majoring in educational technology.In June 1991, the department became independent from the Institute of AppliedPhysics. In April 1993, the department was renamed to Information TechnologyDepartment. In May 2012, the university reformed and adjusted major subjects.The major of Electronic and Information Engineering was separated from theInformation Technology Department and merged into the School of Physics; theInformation Technology Department and the Journalism Department were combinedinto the School of Information and Journalism. In June 2013, the JournalismDepartment left the School of Information and Journalism and became an independentschool, and  the Information TechnologyDepartment was renamed the School of Educational Information Technology.

Currently the School ofEducational Information Technology has two departments (Department ofEducational Technology and Department of Digital Media Technology), threeresearch institutions (Educational Technology Research Institution, InformationTechnology Education Research Institution, and the Basic Education ApplicationInstitute) and one strategic research base (Science and Technology forEducational Innovation Strategy Research Base).

The School has two full-time bachelor programs(Educational Technology since 1985 and Digital Media Technology since 2006), oneJournalism and Information crossover program (since 2007), three masterprograms (Educational Technology since 1995, Digital Media Technology since2011, and Modern Educational Technology since 2010), two PhD programs(Educational Technology since 2005 and Educational Information Technology since2005). In addition, the School is authorized by the Ministry of Education to offeran EdD (Doctor in Education) program in Educational Technology; MED (Masters inEducation) programs for primary, secondary school teachers and tertiaryeducation teachers in Educational Technology, and an MED program in agriculturalapplication.

The Educational Technology subjecthas been approved as a key discipline in Hubei Province, a Hubei comprehensive reform major and anational special major. The Educational Technology subject has several keyinnovative platforms such as the National E-Learning Engineering Center, and theEducation Informatization Strategy Research Base of the Ministry of Educationand the National Arts and Experimental Teaching Center. It is one of the top majorsamong 200 universities that have this subject. It has played an important rolein educational information resource design and development, online learningprinciple and technology, teaching system design, and educationalinformatization. The Digital Media Technology subject is the strategic industrialtraining program which can offer masters’ degrees in Digital Media. It has becomean important base for training professionals in educational technology anddigital media technology.

In the past 30 years, the schoolhas developed a team of dedicated teachers with high academic levels, strongresearch abilities, and rich teaching experiences. The school has 58 academic facultymembers, including 14 full professors, 14 associated professors, 3 Chutian Scholars,2 candidates of the New Century Excellent Talents Supporting Program, 8 PhD supervisors,and 25 master supervisors. 80% faculty members are doctoral degree holders or havingoverseas studying background. It has more than 1000 students includingundergraduates, graduates and foreign students.

The school has 6 National Quality Courses, 2 ProvincialQuality Courses, and 2 campus principal courses. In 2014, three new national sharingcourses were developed: a sharing course of National Quality Level, a sharingcourse of National Online Quality Level, and a sharing course of NationalTeacher Education Quality Level. The Educational Technology Core Curriculum TeachingTeam has been awarded the first batch of outstanding teaching teams of CCNU. Inrecent years, the faculty members have got more than 10 grants of teachingreformation research projects of Hubei province and 6 national and provincial teachingachievement awards.

The school has set up the EducationalInformation Collaborative Innovation Center to promote the development ofinformation technology related disciplines. The school has also built upseveral interdisciplinary research platforms for sustainable development: The InformationStrategy Research Base of the Ministry of Education, the educational digitalmedia and visual innovation talents recruitment base (111 innovation talentsrecruitment base) by the State Administration of Foreign Expert Affairs and theMinistry of Education, a group of national and provincial significant researchbases and experiment centers such as the National E-Learning EngineeringCenter, the National Arts and Experimental Teaching Center, the EducationalInformation Collaborative Innovation Center, and the Social Networking and InformationCollaborative Innovation Center. The school is currently engaged in more than30 research projects such as the State Key Program of National Natural Science,the Research Foundation from the Ministry of Education, and the National KeyTechnology Research and Development Program. The school has received 5 provincialresearch achievement awards.

The school recentlyputs high emphases on international exchange and collaboration. It has recruitedan internationally well-known professor as the Dean and two Chutian scholar professors.About 30 faculty members have been to other countries such as USA, UK, Japan,Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Canada, Russia, Ukraine for further professionaldevelopment and research collaboration. Funded by CSC, the school has also selectedseveral talented students going to USA, Australia, UK, Korea, Japan for half orone year’s study exchange. Meanwhile, the school has also invited severalprofessors from Denver University and Oregon University to teach the digitalmedia creative design class, and some professors from University of Iowa and NanyangTechnological University to teach educational practices of technology with thesupport of the International talent recruitment project.

The existing strong trainingsystem, devoted teachers, and high-quality teaching and research equipment havecontributed to a large number of talented undergraduates, masters and PhDs. Theundergraduate students have won several national awards such as the ChallengeCup, the National Mathematical Contest in Modeling, the National ComputerDesign Contest, the National College English Contest and the Kexun Cup. The graduatesof the school are generally better employed than other universities in China. TheXinguang Service Group of the school has been awarded as an Outstanding ServiceGroup of Social Practice of China for several times.          

For more information, please visit:  http://it.ccnu.edu.cn/#