Recently, the results of the 2025 Global MOOC and Online Education Alliance Awards for Outstanding Courses were officially announced. Among the 20 award-winning courses from 20 universities across 14 countries, the Microbiology course developed by Professor Yuan Lin’s team from the School of Life Sciences, Inner Mongolia University, stood out and was honored with the prestigious “AI Special Award for Outstanding Courses”, alongside courses from Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Nanjing University.
The Microbiology course was one of the first international platform online courses launched by Inner Mongolia University in response to the Ministry of Education’s initiative to build a global higher education online platform. The course officially launched on the XuetangX platform in 2022. It was selected for the second batch of online courses exported to Indonesia in June 2023, and subsequently included in the Thailand course list in April 2024.
In recent years, the university has made education digitalization a strategic priority. Key initiatives include:
· Launching the region’s first dual-bachelor program in Ecology + Data Science and Big Data Technology;
· Establishing micro-specialty programs in areas such as Smart Breeding, Intelligent Chemical Engineering, and AI and Cross-Language Processing;
· Building a university-wide smart teaching platform;
· Pioneering AI general education courses.
The university has also developed 52 AI-empowered pilot reform and smart courses, and took the lead in the Ministry of Education’s AI-Powered Education Co-Construction Project, working with 47 institutions to address key challenges in AI curriculum development and the application of generative technologies in education.
In addition, Inner Mongolia University signed a collaborative agreement with Tsinghua University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and 47 other universities for the Disciplinary Knowledge Engine Co-Construction Project, positioning itself as an active contributor to the national smart education innovation network. The university also hosted the “AI-Empowered Higher Education & Disciplinary Knowledge Engine Conference”, which marked the official launch of its AI courses and offered new perspectives and pathways for education reform.
Leveraging this international honor, the university will continue to deepen the development of smart courses based on knowledge graphs, AI agents, and task engines, actively participate in global digital education cooperation, and contribute to building a more open, efficient, and intelligent first-class undergraduate education system.
