On September 22, Qi Jing, member of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and Minister of the United Front Work Department, visited and inspected the China Online Education Group (COE) and held discussions with COE's founder and CEO Zhang Bangxin and COE's President Wan Yiting.

Qi Jing and the delegation visited the COE exhibition hall

First, the delegation visited the COE exhibition hall, where they gained a detailed understanding of COE's development history and technological exploration. At the product experience area, Qi Jing learned about the "AI Teacher Chinese Learning System," independently developed by Xueersi Online School, a subsidiary of COE. Earlier this year, as the only educational informatization project in China, the "AI Teacher Chinese Learning System" was selected as one of the top five winners of the 2019 UNESCO Hamdan Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Foundation Prize for the effective use of ICT in Education.

Qi Jing and the delegation held discussions with Zhang Bangxin, founder and CEO of COE, and President Wan Yiting

During the discussion, Zhang Bangxin provided a detailed introduction to COE's development history. In 2003, Xueersi was established. From the very beginning, they established the concept that extracurricular tutoring should be "multiplicative" with school learning, hoping to inspire children's interest in learning and to help them gain a sense of achievement and develop a love for learning through two hours of extracurricular tutoring. This would change the way children learn in school from five days a week, and truly stimulate their motivation and cultivate their abilities.

"You are essentially giving children a key to learning, rather than simply imparting knowledge," Qi Jing praised Xueersi's educational philosophy. "How is your online business developing? What are your core strengths?" Qi Jing was very concerned about the development of online education.

Zhang Bangxin explained that COE started preparing for its online business in 2008, and Xueersi Online School was officially established in 2010. Today, the number of online students has exceeded the number of offline students. With the continuous development of the industry, in recent years, many Internet giants have begun to enter the field of online education. Xueersi Online School maintains its core strengths in teaching, educational research, and educational technology development through years of educational experience and firm investment in technology.

"Online education is a sunrise industry. I hope that you will stay rooted in the soil of China and maintain a clear and calm development strategy. I hope that COE continues to grow and develop," at the end of the discussion, Qi Jing also inquired about the development of the COE's European and American Alumni Association, and encouraged COE to make more contributions to educational development.

The delegation was accompanied by Tang Hailong, Deputy Secretary-General of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee, Zhang Ji, Deputy Director of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee's Cyberspace Administration, Zheng Yongnan, Vice Chairman of the Beijing Municipal Federation of Industry and Commerce, Geng Chaodong, Director of the Office of the United Front Work Department of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee and a Level-2 Inspector, Liu Guowei, Director of the Big Data Standards and Security Division of the Beijing Municipal Economic Informationization Bureau, and Zhang Chenlin, Director of the Non-Public Sector Economy Division of the United Front Work Department of the Beijing Municipal Committee.