Virtual Filming Studio Opens for Making More Digital Courses

A professional, virtual filming studio was in place to produce more and better digital videos of online courses as Soochow University unveiled it on December 26^th, 2018. With brand-new equipment purchased by the funding received February, 2018, from the Ministry of Education’s Higher Education Sprout Project, the studio is expected to significantly improve the quantity and quality of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), which the University started to develop in 2016.

In the opening ceremony joined by SCU President Wei-Ta Pan and Vice President Wei-Liang Chao, Pan said that in this digital era, online learning has been on the rise globally, which is why Soochow has been offering distance learning courses since 2010, and constantly updating its hardware and software in hopes of providing faculty with the best environment and tools to create digital education materials.

As a part of demonstration, a digital teaching assistant appeared on the screen to introduce the new equipment to the audience, and the guests were given the opportunity to test out the new virtual studio themselves by making videos and taking pictures together, creating a lively and interactive atmosphere for the event.

Joining the school’s existing multimedia studio in Room 0507 of the D Building, the new virtual studio, initiated and established by Soochow’s Teaching and Learning Center, would make it easier for faculty members to use innovative teaching strategies such as a flipped classroom and situated learning.

Soochow University has developed numerous Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) since 2016. In 2017, Soochow University received funding from the Ministry of Education’s MOOCs New Star Project for the first time with the “Let’s Learn about Copyright!” course. That same year, its “Everybody’s Crazy About Exercising!” and “Senior Welfare & Care of the Elderly” were two of the twenty courses nationwide that have received government funding for the MOOCs Projects. Also, “Let’s Learn about Copyright!” and “MVP Dream Factory: Basketball Training,” have been certified as credit courses by the Ministry of Education’s Non-formal Education Programs Accreditation Center.