From May 6 to 7, the "2023 Student Project Exhibition and Competition and Curriculum Development Seminar" of the 4th Association of the Interdisciplinary Social Innovative Course was opened grandly in Xi'an Eurasia University. The Seminar was undertaken by the School of Culture & Media of Xi'an Eurasia University and co-initiated by the Academy of Future Education of Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University. Zhang Na, Deputy Director of Department of Academic Affairs of Xi'an Eurasia University, Cao Xiaojuan, Assistant Dean of School of Culture & Media of Xi'an Eurasia University, Shen Juming, Director of Future Education Center of Academy of Future Education of Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Li Li, Director of Beijing Office of Macao Tong Chai Charity Association, Di Xiting, Project Manager of Beijing Office of Macao Tong Chai Charity Association, Han Zhulin from Academy of Future Education of Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, etc. attended the event.

At the opening ceremony, Cao Xiaojuan, Assistant Dean of School of Culture & Media of Xi'an Eurasia University, represented the organizer and extended a sincere welcome to all teachers and students attending this grand event. Based on her R&D experience, Cao Xiaojuan emphasized the importance of universities in cultivating students' interdisciplinary problem-solving and analysis capabilities in today's social environment and wished the conference a smooth success, "I hope teachers and students from afar can take advantage of the event and come back with expected achievements."

Shen Juming, Director of Future Education Center of Academy of Future Education of Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, pointed out at the opening ceremony that issues in today’s society are too broad and complex to be solved by knowledge or technology from a single discipline or major alone. Hence, it is crucial to integrate multidisciplinary insights and build a more comprehensive understanding. Meanwhile, he encouraged students to explore interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary problem-solving ways of thinking in combination with the implementation process of social innovation projects. Finally, he wished everyone could gain more in the social innovation achievement presentation to be held that afternoon and leave an unforgettable experience of college life.

More than 100 teachers and students from 23 universities in China, including Chongqing Jiaotong University, Dalian Maritime University, Henan University of Economics and Law, Nanjing Tech University, and Southwest Jiaotong University (see the end for a complete list of institutions), participated in this event. The colleges and universities of the Alliance jointly recommended 37 groups of students’ social innovation projects for poster presentation. A total of six groups of works from the School of Culture & Media were shortlisted. Students of our school conducted in-depth exchanges and discussions with teachers and students of other schools based on their own project implementation experience.

As the highlight of this event, student project report meetings were held simultaneously in three sub-venues on the afternoon of May 6. A total of 33 groups of works from universities and colleges participated in the meetings. Students from different universities introduced their project processes over the past year in terms of problem identification, investigation, and solution seeking, as well as product design, testing, and optimization. Among these works, “Rushing to Go Toilet In— Exploration and Suggestions on Reasonable Design of Public Toilet Space in Xi’an under the Sex Perspective”, “Fight Collaboration App—Enhancing College Students’ Learning Motivation and Promoting Efficient Collaboration”, and “Nuanyang (Warm Sunshine) Technology—Making Home-based Elderly Care More Reassuring” by students from our university were well presented. “Fight Collaboration App—Enhancing College Students’ Learning Motivation and Promoting Efficient Collaboration” was recommended as an excellent work in the sub-venue and nominated for the grand prize.

After the report of each group, five judges in each sub-venue would ask questions about their reports. The communication between the judges and the student teams was full of creative sparks. Many hopes and suggestions for the future development of the product were heatedly discussed by teachers and students in the Q&A session, echoing the original intention of this activity.

On the evening of May 6, Dr. Vita, a teacher from the School of Culture & Media, organized an ice-breaking fellowship cross-cultural exchange activity for students in the university and beyond. Based on the students’ different geographical, cultural, and discipline backgrounds, Dr. Vita fully enhanced their understanding through participatory activities, which also laid a good foundation for cross-university visits and interdisciplinary cooperation among students in the future.

On the morning of May 7, teachers and students of the Alliance held a round-table discussion on the continuous construction of the Alliance’s future courses. The teachers’ round table thoroughly discussed the applicability and challenges of curriculum core links to the university, the future development and promotion plan of the university’s curriculum, opinions and suggestions on future projects of the Alliance, improvement suggestions for the construction of learning resources of the Alliance, the applicability and application plans of various learning resources in the practice of the university’s curriculum, and possible problems, challenges and solutions when using various learning resources in our school’s curriculum.

Students discussed the use of video resources in social innovation curriculum learning and project practice from four dimensions: identifying and determining research problems, data collection and integration, teamwork, and finding effective solutions.

After the round-table discussions between teachers and students, both teacher representatives and student representatives summarized and reported on the problems discussed in each group. The faculty team focused on how to define and span the interdisciplinary social innovation curriculum system, which still needed to be closely centered on the keyword of interdisciplinary in the future continuous construction. In addition, it also discussed how the Curriculum Development Seminar (Competition) could better promote research-oriented learning in the future and how to design curriculum ideas so that research-oriented learning could better arouse students’ enthusiasm for learning and promote students’ independent learning.

On the afternoon of May 7, the “2023 Student Project Exhibition and Competition and Curriculum Development Seminar” of the 4th Association of the Interdisciplinary Social Innovative Course had a much-noticed award ceremony. “Fight Collaboration App—Enhancing College Students’ Learning Motivation and Promoting Efficient Collaboration” by Fa Yufei’s team and “Nuanyang (Warm Sunshine) Technology—Making Home-based Elderly Care More Reassuring” by Zhang Yuan’s team won the first prize; “Rushing to Go Toilet In— Exploration and Suggestions on Reasonable Design of Public Toilet Space in Xi’an under the Sex Perspective” by Xue Ying won the second prize and the single award of Best Cooperative Team in the competition. In addition, the works of our university’s students, including “Changxiao Easy Station”, “Shanyicun (Quick Storage)”, “Shi Chai”, and “Worry-free ‘Mirror’ Enjoying” won the third prize.

After the lively award ceremony, Li Li, Director of Beijing Office of Macao Tong Chai Charity Association, delivered a closing speech. Li Li elaborated on the value of public welfare activities in his interactive Q&A with students. As a supporter of this activity, Macao Tong Chai Charity Association hoped to influence more students to pay attention to social issues and contribute their wisdom to social innovation projects. She also thanked colleges and universities and teachers who had joined the Alliance, hoping that they could continue to help social welfare undertakings in the future.

Appendix:

Participating universities and colleges of the Association of the Interdisciplinary Social Innovative Course include Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chongqing Jiaotong University, Chongqing College of Mobile Communication, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian University of Technology, Henan University of Economics and Law, Huazhong Agricultural University, Jianghan University, Jinzhong College of Information, Lanzhou Bowen College of Science and Technology, Nanjing University of Technology, Inner Mongolia University, Shandong University of Technology, Shanxi Normal University, Shijiazhuang Tiedao University, Sichuan Normal University, Suzhou University of Science and Technology, Taishan College of Science and Technology, Xi’an Eurasia University, Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University, Southwest Jiaotong University, Zhejiang Industry Polytechnic College, and China University of Mining and Technology.