China-Yale Advanced Leadership Panel focuses on challenges of remote learning

10/27/20

Thirty officials from Yale and top universities in China participated in the China-Yale Advanced Leadership Program titled, “Online Education in COVID-19: Practice and Cooperation” on October 22. The online program engaged attendees in high-level educational exchange and discussion as a follow-up to their previous leadership program participation.

Pericles Lewis, Yale’s Vice President for Global Strategy and Vice Provost for Academic Initiatives, and LI Zhaohu, President of Huazhong Agricultural University, led the event. In their opening remarks, they focused on how universities have adapted to the challenges presented by COVID-19 and a remote learning environment. Both speakers also highlighted the potential benefits of remote learning, such as improved ability to exchange knowledge and ideas.

After the opening remarks, two representatives from Yale’s Poorvu Center for Teaching and Learning discussed their five-point plan for a successful transition to a remote learning environment. The Poorvu Center has taken charge of Yale’s transition to remote learning, helping students and professors to navigate its difficulties. Their plan included new and creative approaches to traditional assessments, as well as ways to address inequities within the student body which have made online learning more challenging for some students.

The Vice Presidents of Central South University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, and Tongji University also presented on their schools’ experiences transitioning to remote learning, highlighting their successes and difficulties with the new form of schooling.

Hosted since 2004 at Yale and in China, this gathering of China-Yale Advanced Leadership Program participants was held remotely due to COVID-19 restrictions. It allowed participants to discuss the pressing issues facing institutions of higher education this year and to continue building on relationships formed in previous years.

Read more about previous Leadership Program in 2018 here.