Building a district education data platform in Dadong

Building a digital foundation for education in Shenyang’s Dadong District

Han Dongxue  

Education Bureau of Dadong District, Shenyang  

Abstract:The Dadong District has innovatively established an educational digital foundation that features “data integration, intelligent driving, and agile collaboration”. Through comprehensive data governance, low-code platform support, and collaborative mechanisms between the district and schools, it addresses the problems of data silos and innovation barriers. This case details the “three-step” implementation approach: building the foundation, ensuring widespread application, and promoting continuous evolution of the ecosystem. It highlights three key measures: training and promotion, pilot projects, and the transformation of results. This provides a replicable, systematic solution for the implementation of a regional educational digital foundation.    

Keywords:Educational digital platform; digital transformation    

I. Analysis of Challenges: Obstacles Along the Path of Transformation  

The digital transformation of education is an inevitable trend. However, in the process of implementation, Dadong District in Shenyang faces numerous challenges and obstacles. These issues act as barriers on the path to educational digitalization, hindering its smooth progress.  

(1) The isolated islands have strict barriers, and the potential of data cannot be fully utilized  

Educational data is scattered across various business systems, creating numerous “data islands” that cannot be integrated to bring about greater value. As a result, the accuracy and scientificity of management decisions are greatly reduced.  

(II) The filling of the archives is complicated, resulting in low efficiency and frequent errors  

The information systems for students and teachers in each school can only be maintained and updated manually, which is not only inefficient, but also prone to errors.  

(3) Traditional evaluation methods; it is difficult to create a multi-dimensional profile.  

There is a lack of a well-developed evaluation model. The traditional evaluation methods are monotonous, and there is no support from information technology. As a result, it is impossible to conduct multi-dimensional evaluations of students and teachers, as well as to generate evaluation reports that reflect the characteristics of Dadong. Traditional evaluation methods often focus only on students’ academic performance and teachers’ teaching achievements, while neglecting the overall quality of students and the professional development of teachers. Such a monolithic evaluation approach not only fails to fully reflect the development of both students and teachers, but also hinders the overall development of students and the professional growth of teachers.  

(4) Insufficient application of individual characteristics; it is difficult to meet the requirements of management.  

At the district level and schools, there is a lack of personalized management applications, which cannot meet the needs of daily management. As educational management becomes increasingly complex, schools require various personalized management applications to improve management efficiency and service quality. However, due to a lack of appropriate technical, financial support, and development capabilities, it is difficult for districts and schools to obtain the personalized management applications they need.  

II. Base construction: Enabling the co-creation of data intelligence  

Faced with the numerous challenges and difficulties associated with the digital transformation of education, the Dadong District Education Bureau did not back down. Instead, it actively sought ways to overcome these challenges. Through thorough research and careful consideration, a new “digital foundation for education” was developed, featuring “data integration, intelligent operation, and agile collaboration”. This foundation provides strong support for the digital transformation of education.  

(1) Data connectivity: Breaking isolation and promoting sharing  

Establish unified data standards that cover various aspects such as student information, teacher information, and teaching resource information. This ensures that data from different business systems can be compatible and exchanged with each other. As a result, problems like inconsistent data formats and poor data quality are avoided, and data interoperability and sharing are achieved. At the same time, data governance in areas such as data quality management, data security management, and data lifecycle management is strengthened, ensuring that data is accurate, complete, timely, and secure.  

(II) Intelligent driving: providing management and strong support  

By actively integrating big data and artificial intelligence technologies, intelligent support can be provided for educational management. Big data technologies enable educational administrators to better understand the current state and development trends of education, thereby providing a scientific basis for educational decisions. Meanwhile, artificial intelligence applications such as intelligent teaching assistance systems and student evaluation systems can offer personalized learning suggestions and guidance based on students’ learning conditions and characteristics. They can also automatically generate evaluation reports that reflect the characteristics of Dadong, thereby providing insights for students’ overall development and teachers’ teaching improvements.  

(3) Agile co-creation: Integrating ecosystems to stimulate vitality  

Emphasizing the concept of “agile co-creation”, the district and schools work together through a collaborative mechanism to promote coordinated development in the education sector. There is regular communication between the districts and schools, allowing them to share information and resources, and jointly address challenges. At the same time, teachers are encouraged to engage in innovation through training, competitions, and project initiatives, thereby stimulating their creativity. Incentive mechanisms are also established to support this effort. Additionally, Dadong District actively fosters a digital education ecosystem. It cooperates with educational technology companies and universities to develop digital education products and services, as well as to conduct research. By organizing forums, exhibitions, and other events, information exchange and cooperation are promoted, helping to ensure the healthy development of the digital education industry and laying the foundation for the sustained growth of digital education infrastructure.  

III. The Path to Progress: Three Steps for steady and effective progress  

The establishment of the Dadong District Education Digital Foundation is not achieved overnight. It is carried out steadily through a three-step approach: strengthening the capabilities of the foundation, ensuring the widespread application of the system, and promoting continuous evolution of the ecosystem.  

(1) Foundation capacity building: Establishing a digital foundation  

The development of the foundation capabilities is the first and most crucial step in building an educational digital foundation. During this stage, Dadong District has mainly carried out the following tasks:  

1. Establish a solid hardware foundation. Infrastructure is the basis for digital education. Based on the existing digital campus facilities, Dadong District has upgraded and improved the educational network and equipment, thereby enabling the implementation of teaching applications across various scenarios. Through campus network construction, hardware upgrades, and software support, 43 gigabit network connections have been established for all educational stages within the district. 739 smart classrooms, 9 smart calligraphy classrooms, and 10 AI innovation laboratories have been built. Additionally, 9 smart sports fields have been put into use. Teacher tablets have been provided to 4735 teachers in the district, and student tablets have been given to 26,300 students in grades four through six of both middle and primary schools. The district has also established the first immersive education display and learning center in the province. These infrastructure developments provide strong hardware support for digital education.  

2. Develop core applications. Core applications are an important part of the educational digital platform. Based on the actual needs of educational management, Dadong District has developed several core applications, such as the Big Data Education Insights System, the Comprehensive Evaluation System for Students in the Five Educations, the Teacher Digital Profile System, the System for High-Quality and Balanced Education, the Precision Teaching System, the Smart Mental Health Education System, the Smart Sports System, the Smart Teaching and Research System, and the Resource Sharing Center. These applications constitute three core modules: smart teaching, smart learning, and smart management. This enables intelligent teaching and management services driven by big data across all scenarios. The district also actively develops platform resources, forming a team of experts in resource development and application. Measures such as uploading high-quality past resources, the “Hundred Sets of High-Quality Test Questions and Teaching Designs” program, and the “Hundred High-Quality Micro-lectures” program are implemented, thereby making it easy to access resources. The development of these core applications provides strong software support for educational digitization.  

(II) Full implementation of the system for all employees: Promoting the widespread use of digital technologies  

The implementation of applications for all employees is the second step in the construction of an educational digital platform. During this phase, Dadong District has mainly completed the following tasks:  

1. Integration of training and combat operations: Empowerment through a diverse training system. Through the project to improve the quality of teachers, efforts are being made to train future teachers and experts in think tanks, thereby laying a solid foundation for the development of smart education. Based on the current situation of teacher team building at the district level, a hierarchical training system is established. Adhering to the principles of “combining theory with practice,” “combining online and offline methods,” and “bringing in and sending out experts,” a variety of teacher training activities are organized, such as “expert training courses,” “expert lectures,” “Dongzhiyun courses” for online skill improvement, and “subject workshops.” Teachers are also sent to advanced smart education regions across the country for observation and exchange. So far, more than 70 such activities have been carried out, which has significantly improved teachers’ digital skills. In addition, activities such as teacher competitions and applications for teachers’ research and teaching achievements are conducted to stimulate the enthusiasm of teachers and administrators to apply these skills.  

2. Demonstration and leadership: Pilot schools serve as models. By selecting some exemplary schools as pilots for the application of educational digital platforms, we can explore various application models and methods. On the basis of these pilots, we organize experience-sharing meetings for these schools to exchange their experiences and challenges during the implementation process, thereby providing a reference for other schools. At the same time, we develop implementation plans to clarify the steps and methods for promoting these technologies, ensuring that the full implementation of these technologies can proceed smoothly.  

3. Closed-loop effectiveness: Evaluation and feedback to promote improvement. By conducting evaluations of the effectiveness of the educational digital platform, issues that arise during its use can be identified and resolved promptly, ensuring that the platform functions more effectively. The evaluation methods combine quantitative and qualitative approaches; this includes data analysis and statistics, as well as surveys and interviews with teachers and students. Issues such as poor system operation, data quality problems, and mismatched application requirements are identified and addressed from various aspects including educational management efficiency, improvement in teaching quality, and students’ learning outcomes. As a result, the educational digital platform is optimized and improved in a targeted manner, enhancing its usability and relevance.  

(III) Sustainable ecological evolution: Achieving digital sustainable development  

Ecosystem-based continuous evolution is the third step in the construction of an educational digital foundation, and it is also crucial for the sustainable development of educational digitization. At this stage, Dadong District has mainly completed the following tasks:  

1. Improvement: Continuous iteration of system functions. The Educational Digital Platform is a process of ongoing development and improvement. Dadong District has established a system optimization mechanism to regularly evaluate and optimize various applications within the Educational Digital Platform. The evaluations cover aspects such as system stability, security, usability, and functionality. Optimization measures include system upgrades, feature expansion, and performance enhancement, thereby continuously improving the system’s performance and capabilities to meet the ever-changing needs of educational management.  

2. Tuowei: Diversified expansion of application scenarios. The application scenarios of the educational digital platform are constantly expanding. Dadong District encourages schools to actively explore new models and methods for using the educational digital platform in education and teaching. For example, the administrative department uses the low-code capabilities of the educational digital platform to develop electronic office collaboration systems, enabling efficient and secure document circulation between the department and schools; schools utilize the teaching resource sharing center provided by the educational digital platform to offer personalized learning resources and advice to students; the educational evaluation system offered by the platform provides personalized educational evaluation services for students and parents; schools can use the communication platform within the educational digital platform to enhance communication with parents, thereby promoting the healthy development of students; teachers use the intelligent teaching assistance system within the platform to conduct hybrid online and offline teaching, improving teaching effectiveness; teaching researchers use the online teaching platform system to carry out teacher training, group lesson preparation, and remote teaching activities, breaking through the limitations of time and space. By expanding application scenarios, the scope of use of the educational digital platform is extended from educational management to various fields such as teaching, education services, and more, achieving comprehensive digitalization of education.  

3. Symbiosis: Ecological co-construction through cross-border cooperation. The sustainable development of educational digital platforms depends on cooperation and exchange. Dadong District has strengthened its cooperation with technology companies, and together they carry out research and development in educational digitalization, providing technical support and innovative impetus for the continued development of these platforms. By participating in various educational digitalization forums, exhibitions, and other activities, Dadong District can engage in deep exchanges and cooperation with experts and enterprise representatives in the field of educational digitalization, thereby learning from their advanced experiences and practices, and serving as a reference for the continued development of educational digital platforms.  

IV. Empowering Transformation: Digital achievements are fully realized  

Through the “three-step” implementation approach, the digitalization of education in Dadong District has achieved significant results. The efficiency of educational management and students’ learning outcomes have both been greatly improved.  

(1) Breaking through the barriers of isolated islands: A significant improvement in management efficiency  

Through data integration, Dadong District has eliminated data silos and achieved the connection and sharing of data. The efficiency of educational management has been significantly improved, and educational decisions become more scientific and accurate. In the context of smart education applications, the time required by middle school teachers for preparing lessons has been reduced by 29.7%; the ease of accessing resources has increased by 17.4%, and the speed with which educational information is obtained has improved by 14%. The time spent on grading assignments has been reduced by 15.2%. For primary school teachers, the speed of obtaining educational information has increased by 15.3%, the ease of accessing resources has increased by 14.2%, and the relevance of assigned homework has increased by 15.2%. Through data collection and AI technology, students’ weak areas can be identified accurately. Frequent mistakes are sorted out intelligently, and personalized exercises are provided, resulting in personalized learning guides. This allows for “customized” homework assignments. So far, 164,329 personalized learning guides have been produced for junior high school students, and 2,409,338 exercises have been provided. The number of inefficient, repetitive exercises has been reduced by 31.41%, the rate of error correction has reached 10.06%, and students’ weak areas have improved by 74.25%.  

(II) Intelligent transformation of processes: a revolution in the efficiency of document management  

Through the application of the Educational Digital Base, the maintenance of some student and teacher information is now automated and can be imported using a single button, resulting in a significant increase in work efficiency. The student comprehensive evaluation system enables comprehensive management of student information and real-time data collection and updating. Teachers can easily access basic information about students, thereby reducing the workload and time required for parents and students to manually collect and fill in data. The period for completing comprehensive evaluations has been reduced from one month to one week, greatly improving the speed of report generation. The teacher information management system also allows for batch management of teacher information; teachers no longer need to manually update their records regularly. Schools can easily access the latest basic information, teaching achievements, and professional development of teachers, resulting in a significant improvement in efficiency.  

(3) Evaluation and standard setting: Reconstructing the paradigm of scientific assessment  

Through the application of the Educational Digital Base, a multi-dimensional evaluation model is established, making the evaluation process more scientific and fair. Relying on the advantages of being a pilot area for comprehensive student evaluation under the Ministry of Education’s information technology support, Dadong District has established deep cooperation with expert teams. Innovative evaluation tools have been developed, and data support has been strengthened. Focusing on the core goal of “promoting all five aspects of education,” information indicators related to students’ growth are collected from five dimensions: moral character, academic performance, physical and mental health, artistic ability, and social practice. In total, 302 indicators are used to conduct a longitudinal evaluation of students’ development across all stages and periods of their learning, as well as a comprehensive horizontal evaluation covering all aspects and scenarios of moral, intellectual, physical, artistic, and labor skills. A data-driven solution for evaluating students’ overall qualities is developed. A total of 743,200 pieces of relevant data have been uploaded, and more than 37,800 comprehensive quality reports have been generated. “Digital growth diaries” are created for students, allowing a full and dynamic display of their growth process. At the same time, information on teachers’ development is collected from 102 indicators in three dimensions: basic information, professional development, and teaching and research capabilities. This leads to a digital portrait system for teachers, making their career development paths clearer and more precise. As a result, a team of teachers with broader perspectives and stronger skills is formed.  

(4) Customized applications: Enhanced convenience in daily management  

Through the low-code development platform of the Education Digital Base, Dadong District has developed over 10 customized management applications, making daily management more convenient. For example, the Smart Education Equipment Management System can automatically generate records related to equipment management and maintenance logs, providing a scientific basis for the allocation of idle equipment. The Leave Approval System enables online processing of leave applications for all levels of personnel, and automatically generates statistical reports, making it easier to conduct teacher performance evaluations and handle student meal reimbursement matters. The Intelligent Class Schedule System can automatically generate reasonable class schedules, significantly improving the efficiency of scheduling, avoiding human errors and conflicts during scheduling, and making the course management by higher-level departments more intuitive. The Printing Management System enables the digitalization of the printing of school test papers and other materials; teachers can submit requests for printing online, and teaching administrators review these requests one by one before printing begins, thus avoiding the complexity of offline application and approval processes, as well as the difficulty of manual registration and difficulty in keeping records.  

V. Condensing Insights: Generation of Regional Practice Paradigms  

The exploration and implementation of the Dadong District Education Digital Base provide a replicable, systematic solution model for the practice of regional education digital bases. The insights gained from this experience mainly include the following aspects:  

(1) Planning first, then acting: Strategic guidance through top-level design  

“If we plan ahead, we will thrive; if we act without planning, we will fail.” Top-level planning is a fundamental prerequisite. The Dadong District Committee and the district government attach great importance to the digital transformation of education. They have developed comprehensive plans for construction and invested significantly in funding, thereby providing strong support for the establishment and implementation of digital infrastructure for education. The District Education Bureau has established a leadership group for smart education initiatives, guiding the digital transformation efforts in the region. Plans for development, clear goals, tasks, and measures have been defined, and a series of institutional frameworks have been created. All these factors contribute to the stable and efficient progress of the construction of digital infrastructure for education.  

(II) Blueprint development: Planning for phased implementation  

Based on the actual conditions of educational digital transformation, Dadong District has formulated a “three-step” implementation plan: building foundational capabilities, ensuring widespread application of digital technologies, and promoting continuous evolution of the ecosystem. Only through gradual and phased implementation can the various aspects of educational digital transformation be carried out smoothly, ensuring the successful progress of such transformation.  

(3) Technological foundation: The internal driving force driven by innovation  

The reasonable application of technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data can provide strong technical support for all aspects of educational digital transformation. At the same time, teachers and administrators who actively participate in innovative efforts related to educational digitalization also contribute to the innovation-driven development of educational digital transformation. Only in this way can we harness the powerful momentum for continuous progress and breakthroughs.  

(4) Ecological co-creation: A source of vitality through collaborative efforts from multiple parties  

Establishing a collaborative mechanism can promote the coordinated development of the educational ecosystem. It encourages governments, schools, and enterprises to participate jointly in the digital transformation of education, thereby creating a mutually beneficial and cooperative environment. This, in turn, brings vitality to all aspects of the digital transformation of education.  

(5) Iterative improvement: The sustainable path to dynamic optimization  

Conducting evaluations of the effectiveness of the application of educational digital platforms enables the timely identification and resolution of issues encountered during their implementation, thereby ensuring that these platforms can perform their intended functions. Only by continuously optimizing and adjusting educational digital platforms according to actual conditions can they keep up with the evolving needs of education, and their value be maintained over time.  

VI. Conclusion: Smart innovation shapes the future; laying a solid foundation continues to write a glorious chapter  

The exploration and implementation of the Dadong District Education Digital Foundation represent an important achievement in the digital transformation of regional education. Through the Education Digital Foundation, which features “data integration, intelligent driving, and agile collaboration”, Dadong District has overcome the problems of data silos and innovation barriers, thereby achieving the basic goals of educational digital transformation.

In the future, Dadong District will build its foundation on the educational digital infrastructure, and use educational digitalization as a driving force. It will lay the groundwork for the future and initiate new developments. The district will make greater contributions to the cultivation of talents with both moral integrity and professional skills, as well as to the high-quality development of regional education.