Digital school management and AI lesson planning in Qingdao

Ningde Ding: Building a smart school campus with DingTalk  

Gu Jundong, Wang Nini, Sui Wenjing  

Qingdao Ningde Road Primary School  

Abstract:In 2022, the Ministry of Education launched a strategic initiative for educational digitalization. The goal is to leverage information technology to facilitate the digital transformation and intelligent upgrade of education. With the rapid development of information technology, the intelligent transformation of school education has become an inevitable trend. In this context, Qingdao Ningde Road Primary School has developed the “Ningde Ding” intelligent management system based on the DingTalk platform. It has also created an AI assistant for lesson preparation based on the DeepSeek large model. This system is applied in various aspects of teaching management, effectively solving problems such as delayed information transmission and complex processes that are common in traditional management models. This helps the school achieve digital transformation in education, improves management efficiency and teaching quality, provides convenient and accurate educational services for teachers and students, and contributes to the advancement of the school’s smart campus development.    

Keywords:Smart campus; Teaching management; Digital transformation    

Driven by the global digitalization trend, the education sector is undergoing unprecedented and profound changes. In 2022, the Ministry of Education launched the Digital Education Strategy Action, aiming to empower education through information technology and promote its digital transformation and intelligent upgrading. In this context, “Ningde Ding” – a smart application platform for teaching management – offers significant opportunities for school teaching management due to its powerful functions and convenient operation. With the rapid development of generative artificial intelligence, its integration with the “Ningde Ding” platform further expands the scope of smart campus construction, providing new ways for school teaching management. As an important component of the intelligent transformation of education, smart campus construction enables the establishment of a digital and intelligent teaching management system, offering efficient and precise educational services for teachers and students. Under the “Double Reduction” policy, smart campuses must not only address the challenge of reducing the number of classes while improving their quality, but also achieve the goal of comprehensive education through technological support. The “Ningde Ding” intelligent management system, based on the Dingding platform, becomes a valuable tool for innovation in school teaching management.

1. Digital upgrading of daily management processes  

(1) Facilitate attendance management  

In school management, attendance is one of the key tasks that need to be handled regularly. The traditional fingerprint attendance machines have several problems in actual use: the operation process is complex, and the accuracy of fingerprint recognition is poor. Teachers often have to try multiple times to get their attendance recorded correctly when they come and go from work. During peak hours, there may be queues for attendance checks, which affects efficiency. The process of calculating attendance statistics is also inconvenient; the Excel files generated each month do not match the actual needs of the school. This seemingly simple task requires a complex statistical process, thereby increasing the workload.  

To improve this situation, the school has introduced the Dingjing attendance machine. As a result, the overall attendance efficiency has increased by over 80%. Additionally, the system’s automatic recognition mechanism reduces the need for human intervention, allowing the time required for monthly attendance statistics to be reduced from 3 days to just half a day. Many teachers say, “Now, we no longer have to worry about failing to punch in on time in the morning. The system is very sensitive.” Moreover, “Ningde Ding” also has an offline mode, which allows attendance to be recorded even when the network is unstable. Once the network is restored, the data is automatically synchronized, ensuring the integrity of attendance records. The system offers two types of attendance modes: “On-site” and “Off-site”. When teachers are within the school premises, they simply need to turn on their phones, and the device will automatically connect via Bluetooth, making it easy to complete the attendance process. This simple and efficient system greatly enhances the convenience of attendance tracking.  

For teachers who are unable to attend school due to special circumstances such as leave, business trips, or participation in teaching and research training, “Ningde Ding” offers a user-friendly function for remote attendance tracking. Teachers simply need to submit their leave applications through DingTalk; the relevant supervisor can then review the applications in real time via the “Ningde Ding” workbench, allowing for quick approval processes. This feature eliminates the cumbersome paper-based approval processes, simplifies the attendance tracking process, and improves the accuracy and efficiency of attendance tracking. It also provides more convenient data support for the school’s administrative management.  

(2) Timely issuance of announcements and notices  

The timely transmission of information is crucial for the proper functioning of various operations. The announcement function of “Ningde Ding” is highly convenient and immediate, making it an important tool for schools to improve management efficiency. These announcements are specifically used to release important notices and work plans. This feature ensures that information is delivered and received promptly, thereby eliminating the inconvenience caused by delayed information in the past. In the past, teachers had to turn on their computers after arriving at school on Monday in order to access the work plans for that week. There was a significant delay in receiving information, which made it difficult for teachers to plan their work in advance. Now, through the announcement function of “Ningde Ding”, school authorities can publish work plans in advance and ensure that they are delivered accurately to every teacher. On weekends, “Ningde Ding” provides each teacher with clear and detailed information about the work plans for the following week. Teachers no longer need to wait until Monday to know their work arrangements; they can receive the notifications immediately, allowing them to plan their work in advance and prepare properly for the new week’s teaching activities. This effectively avoids the problems caused by delayed information.  

The “Ningde Nail” announcements offer convenience and flexibility in accessing information. Teachers do not need to rely on computers; they can simply open their mobile phones to view the announcement content at any time. This way of accessing information anytime, anywhere eliminates restrictions on time and space. Teachers can keep track of the latest developments and work requirements of the school promptly, ensuring that no information is missed. This helps to ensure that all school activities proceed smoothly, reducing delays caused by incomplete information, and improving the school’s management efficiency.  

(3) Full process online approval  

In the daily management of schools, there are numerous approval processes related to attendance, class schedule adjustments, and technical requests. The traditional paper-based approval system has problems such as complex procedures, low efficiency, and difficulty in keeping records. Take attendance as an example: when a teacher needs to take a leave due to training, illness, or other reasons, he or she must write a handwritten leave note specifying the reason for the leave and the duration of the leave. This note then needs to be signed by the head teacher or the principal, among other relevant officials. During this process, it is also possible that the officials are away for meetings or classes, which can lead to delays in the approval process. The whole process is cumbersome and time-consuming. The same is true for technical requests: when a teacher’s computer fails and requires repair, the school staff responsible for this matter must first report it to the relevant leaders and the logistics department, and then contact the technical staff. This requires multiple communications and coordination, resulting in a long processing time for such requests.  

The OA approval function of “Ningde Ding” has transferred the entire offline approval process to an online format, resulting in a significant improvement in management efficiency. Teachers can open the “Ningde Ding” workbench on their mobile phones or computers, enter the OA approval interface, select the appropriate approval type according to their needs, and fill in the required form information as prompted by the system. When filling out the form, they can add photos or attachments to provide detailed descriptions of the situation. For example, when applying for repair approval, they can take photos of the equipment malfunction, allowing the approver to understand the issue clearly and improve the accuracy of the repair process. After the teacher submits the application, the system will directly send it to the appropriate approvers. The approvers can immediately see the detailed information and take action upon receiving the approval notification. During the processing of each approval item, the teacher will receive progress updates, enabling them to keep track of the approval process at all times. All approval processes are recorded in the system, allowing teachers to review each stage of the approval process at any time, ensuring fairness and compliance in the approval process.  

In practical applications, the OA approval function of “Ningde Ding” is continuously optimized and improved according to the actual needs of the school. Different templates and processes are provided based on the type of approval, making it easier for teachers to fill in application information accurately. The school also has a feedback mechanism for approvals; teachers can report their objections to the approval results through the system, and the relevant personnel will handle them promptly. This online approval method not only saves time, but also improves the transparency and efficiency of the approval process.  

II. Closed-loop optimization of teaching quality and implementation assurance  

(1) Intelligent scheduling and substitution of classes  

During the teaching process, the schedule arrangement is influenced by various factors. Adjusting classes or substituting teachers is a common requirement in teaching management. In the past, the process of adjusting classes relied on manual operations by teachers, which was not only inefficient but also prone to many problems. Under the traditional system, teachers had to manually check the paper class schedules and contact other teachers individually to negotiate class adjustments. This communication process was slow, and there were often issues with information transmission and inconsistent coordination, leading to failed class adjustments. Additionally, teachers had to fill out paper forms at the teaching office, and subsequent inquiries and statistics required checking those paper records.  

The “Ningde Ding” digital educational management system provides a comprehensive intelligent module for scheduling classes across various scenarios. This module is primarily used for intelligent class scheduling in schools. For ordinary teachers, it offers functions such as viewing class schedules and temporarily adjusting class schedules. When a teacher enters the scheduling interface, they can directly select the classes that need to be adjusted on their personal interface. Based on the class schedule data of all teachers in the school, the system uses intelligent algorithms to identify suitable candidates for adjustments, and the possible adjustments are indicated with different colors, allowing teachers to quickly identify the candidates. After selection, teachers can send the adjustment request with just one click; this request is then sent to the other teacher via a mobile notification. The other teacher can then decide whether to accept or reject the request according to their own work schedule. If the adjustment is successful, “Ningde Ding” will send detailed records of the adjustment to both parties involved and the school administrator.  

In terms of practical effectiveness, the digital educational management system ensures that class change information is transmitted efficiently and accurately among relevant personnel. Back-end synchronization automatically generates statistical reports on class changes; teachers involved in class changes can also query these records. Through the full-process data tracking, the standardization and transparency of teaching management are improved. To address the issue of forgetting about class changes due to emergencies during teaching, “Ningde Ding” includes a pre-class reminder function. 15 minutes before the start of each class, the system automatically sends a reminder to the teachers’ mobile phones, prompting them to arrive at the classroom on time to begin teaching. This function, together with the intelligent class change function of the digital educational management system, creates a dual-loop mechanism for ensuring proper teaching. This not only improves the efficiency of class changes but also ensures the actual implementation of teaching through technical measures.  

(II) Systematization of the teaching feedback mechanism  

Teaching feedback is a crucial element in effective teaching management and the optimization of the teaching environment. Traditional feedback methods suffer from problems such as irregular records, delayed information transmission, and difficulty in summarizing and analyzing data. The log function of “Ningde Ding” breaks through the superficial recording aspects of traditional feedback methods, providing the school with a systematic feedback module.  

A major advantage of this function is its flexible template creation mechanism. Schools can customize feedback templates according to their own teaching management and team collaboration needs. For example, in order to ensure meticulous campus hygiene management, teachers can create special hygiene feedback templates, and publish the results of hygiene inspections through DingTalk logs every day. When designing the templates, inspection items such as floor cleanliness, table and chair placement, cleaning tools, window opening for ventilation, and eye exercises can be predefined. These items can be further detailed into specific inspection criteria and scoring rules. During the inspection process, teachers can add pictures and attachments at any time, record detailed information about each class’s hygiene conditions, and send them to relevant personnel via the system, ensuring that the inspection results are reported promptly. This immediate and intuitive feedback method not only improves the efficiency of feedback, but also helps class teachers to promptly identify hygiene issues in the class and take effective measures to ensure a healthy learning environment for students.  

In the context of teaching and research activities, the school’s teaching and research groups have created a structured template that includes key elements such as the time of the activity, the presenter, the subject area, the topic of the research, the participants, and the records of the activity. At the end of each teaching and research session, the recorder only needs to fill in the relevant information in the template; additional documents such as photos from the discussion can also be added. This results in detailed records of the activities, which provide valuable data for the final analysis of subject quality and the summary of teaching and research efforts.  

(3) Data-driven assurance of teaching quality  

“Ningde Nail” achieves seamless integration of teaching feedback mechanisms and execution support functions through deep integration of technology and data. This results in a closed-loop management process that involves “feedback – improvement – execution – further feedback”. By automatically linking feedback data with execution data within the system, the time required for manual coordination is reduced.  

For example, in the area of dynamic synchronization, the class adjustment system and pre-class reminders have been integrated, and the results of class adjustments are updated in real time. Teaching feedback is no longer limited to problem records; it directly drives the optimization of implementation strategies. The implementation data are no longer merely used for keeping records, but become the input for further improvement. The records and reminder logs form a complete implementation chain, providing a basis for data archiving.  

III. The digital transformation of teachers’ work efficiency  

(1) Intelligent interaction to create a platform for teaching and research exchange  

The “All-Teacher Circle” function provides a platform for teachers to communicate and discuss with each other. Teachers from the school’s renowned teaching studios regularly post educational topics on the “All-Teacher Circle”, sharing their teaching experiences and insights. The topics cover various aspects such as teaching methods, curriculum design, and educational insights. This helps other teachers with valuable learning resources. All teachers can comment on and interact with the topics posted by the renowned teachers, thereby creating a positive atmosphere for teaching discussions.  

Taking the interdisciplinary teaching themes of this semester as an example, renowned teachers in Chinese, mathematics, science, and music in the school have successively posted teaching design and practical examples related to interdisciplinary learning activities in the “All Teachers Circle”. All teachers in the school received these messages, actively commented on the topics in the circle, shared their own learning experiences, and discussed their challenges in the context of teaching practice. This has facilitated the exchange of experiences among teachers, broadened their teaching perspectives, and helped them continuously think about and improve their teaching methods. As a result, their professional skills have been enhanced, and the overall professional development of the school’s teaching team has been promoted.  

(II) AI integration to create intelligent teaching assistants  

In everyday teaching scenarios, AI assistants have become indispensable intelligent partners for teachers. Their one-click functionality enhances efficiency in teaching. To provide more accurate support to teachers, schools have developed AI assistants for lesson preparation based on the DeepSeek model. When teachers input their teaching requirements, the AI assistant can quickly generate a well-organized lesson plan, incorporating various teaching resources and diverse activity suggestions, thereby offering comprehensive support for teaching. For example, when Chinese teachers prepare the text “Moonlight over the Lake”, the AI assistant recommends information about Zhu Ziqing’s life, related literary reviews, and additional questions suitable for classroom discussion. This intelligent support significantly reduces the time teachers spend searching for materials, allowing them to focus more on the actual teaching design. According to incomplete statistics, after using the AI assistant, teachers’ preparation time is reduced by an average of 30%, while the quality of teaching is significantly improved.  

In addition to the teaching preparation functions, the AI assistant also provides a range of practical teaching support tools. For example, it can generate intelligent text content efficiently, such as notifications regarding student attendance tasks, personalized homework assignments, competition announcements, and motivating comments for students. This helps reduce the administrative burden on teachers. With the overall design of knowledge in various subjects, teachers can also use the AI assistant to organize the content related to each subject, summarize key concepts and explanations, and create exercises of different difficulty levels and types based on teaching objectives. As a result, more targeted and personalized teaching plans can be developed.  

Thanks to the intelligent features of the AI assistant, “Ningde Ding” has been integrated with the school’s teaching resource database, providing teachers with a rich resource platform. Teachers can upload their teaching materials, lesson plans, and exercise questions into the database, allowing other teachers to refer to and use these resources. To further enhance the functionality and usefulness of this resource platform, the school regularly organizes sharing activities, encouraging teachers to upload their excellent teaching achievements into the database, thereby enriching the school’s teaching resources. All teachers can search for the resources they need in the database, and modify and apply them according to their actual teaching needs. This creates a favorable teaching environment and a mechanism for resource sharing.  

IV. Continuous optimization to create a new ecosystem for smart education  

(1) Expanding the application scenarios of generative AI  

Looking to the future, “Ningde Ding” will further develop in the direction of intelligence and personalization. The school will continue to explore the various applications of “Ningde Ding” in areas such as AI-driven support, teaching management, sharing of teaching resources, and teacher communication. It will also continuously improve and optimize the platform’s functions. Efforts will be made to explore the multiple applications of generative AI in teaching, such as using it for intelligent tutoring and personalized learning path planning, thereby providing students with more precise and personalized learning services. Applications of AI in classroom evaluation will also be explored, with a attempt to establish a dual system combining AI and human assessment, so as to make teaching evaluations more scientific and accurate. At the same time, efforts will be made to strengthen integration with other educational information platforms, enabling the sharing of data and resources.  

Expand the application areas of generative AI in teaching. For example, use AI technology to analyze students’ learning behaviors and data, thereby providing teachers with insights to adjust their teaching strategies, and enabling dynamic optimization of the teaching process. Strengthen teachers’ information technology skills, enhance their ability to apply information technology in teaching, and encourage them to explore practical applications of information technology in teaching.  

(2) Establishment of an information-based incentive mechanism  

Taking into account the school’s cultural traditions and development stage, a scientific and reasonable blueprint for information technology development can be formulated through curriculum evaluation. Diversified incentive mechanisms such as points and medals should be established, and quantitative evaluations and rewards should be given for the use of the platform and participation in learning activities. For example, teachers can earn points based on the quantity and quality of teaching resources they upload, as well as their level of engagement in online teaching activities; these points can be exchanged for corresponding performance rewards in the form of medals. Through such incentive mechanisms, the activity level and usage rate of the platform can be improved, thereby creating a favorable ecosystem for smart education applications.  

V. Conclusions and prospects  

“Ningde Ding” has created a new scenario for intelligent applications. By improving management efficiency, assisting teachers in their work, and supporting teaching activities, it has laid a solid foundation for the digital and intelligent development of schools. With the widespread use of “Ningde Ding” on campus, significant improvements have been achieved in school teaching management. In the next stage, the school will, based on its own development stage and the core elements of school culture, focus on the key factor of curriculum evaluation to develop an information-based development plan. The information platform will be enhanced to play a motivating role in learning both inside and outside the school. By implementing incentive mechanisms such as points and medals, teachers and students will be encouraged to actively use and engage in activities related to the platform, thereby increasing its popularity and usage rate. Additionally, the school will explore a step-by-step approach to implementing classroom evaluation in the information-based environment, and develop a classroom evaluation system that suits the actual situation of the school. By integrating classroom evaluation with the teaching process, the quality of teaching will continue to improve. In the future, as the functions of the platform continue to improve and evolve, “Ningde Ding” will play an even greater role in school education and teaching, serving as a powerful tool for the school’s development and helping the school reach a new level of intelligent empowerment.