Recently, the 6th National Smart Education Innovation Conference and the 2025 Annual Meeting of the Joint Conference of the University Online Open Course Alliance, guided by the Department of Higher Education of the Ministry of Education and hosted by the Joint Conference of the University Online Open Course Alliance, concluded successfully in Wuhan, Hubei Province. Zhou Chuan’ai, a faculty member of Qingdao Binhai University, was honored with the Outstanding Case Award for Digital and Intelligent Technology–Empowered Course Development. This case was the only course-teaching–related outstanding case from private universities in Shandong Province selected for the national annual conference.

Zhou Chuan’ai at the Conference Venue

All outstanding cases presented at the national annual meeting underwent rigorous selection and recommendation processes by provincial course alliances. In Shandong Province, the Higher Education Course Alliance conducted multiple rounds of evaluation, including individual applications, institutional recommendations, and expert reviews, ultimately selecting 84 outstanding cases: 16 first-prize winners, 28 second-prize winners, and 40 third-prize winners. Based on these results, the alliance recommended 25 top-ranked cases for consideration at the national annual meeting, including 2 management-related cases and 23 course-teaching cases. Zhou Chuan’ai’s case, titled “‘Three-Realities Driven, Four-Dimensional Integration’: Smart Course Development Practice for ‘Business Website Operation and Management,’” was successfully selected and awarded the Outstanding Case for Digital and Intelligent Technology–Empowered Course Development.

The conference, themed “Smart MOOCs Leading New Paradigms of AI-Empowered Course Development,” brought together participants to engage in in-depth discussions on cutting-edge topics such as AI-driven course innovation, applications of educational large language models, and the integration of metaverse technologies into teaching. The event aimed to jointly explore practical pathways for the digital transformation of education.