Campuses Enter the "Digital and Intelligent Era": Data-Driven Reshaping of Education's Future

Campuses Enter the "Digital and Intelligent Era": Data-Driven Reshaping of Education's Future

On the large screen in the teaching building, data from classroom teaching, energy consumption, and security patrols across the school flash in real-time. School leaders simply need to tap the screen to grasp every detail of the school's operations through the "data cockpit."

In today's campuses, data is quietly transforming traditional education models. At Lanzhou University of Technology's Digital and Intelligent Campus Operations Center, a massive electronic screen pulses with the campus's digital heartbeat, displaying key operational indicators from enrollment and teaching to scientific research.

Click the "School Cockpit," and the institution's overall operational status becomes clear at a glance; switch to the "Department Cockpit," and data on faculty and student numbers, talent structure, and more are clearly presented through charts; open the "Orientation System," and new student registration dynamics and student source structures update in real-time.

This signals that school governance is shifting from "passive response" to proactive anticipation, evolving from being experience-driven to becoming data-driven.

01 Origins of Change: The Evolution from "Digitalization" to "Datafication"

The journey of education informatization did not happen overnight. Looking back over more than 30 years of higher education informatization development in China, it has roughly gone through three stages.

From 1989 to 2009, it was the Information Age, where university informatization developed in step with information technology, progressing from computers replacing manual calculations to gradually achieving financial computerization, paperless offices, and management informatization.

From 2010 to 2019, it entered the Datafication Age, where universities basically completed the construction of major information systems and gradually moved from "informatization" to "datafication."

From 2020 to the present, the Intelligent Age has begun, with data and smart technologies comprehensively reshaping university governance models and leading innovations and reforms in talent cultivation and scientific research.

Professor Yang Junfeng of Hangzhou Normal University points out that school digital transformation can be divided into three basic stages.

The first stage is digital conversion, characterized by basic informatization equipment and preliminary technology application, emphasizing equipment procurement, digital resource development, and information platform construction.

The second stage is digital upgrade, characterized by data-empowered teaching reform, featuring complete information platforms for teaching, learning, management, assessment, and evaluation, and promoting data-driven intelligent decision-making.

The third stage is digital innovation, characterized by data-empowered morphological reshaping, promoting changes in organizational structure and teaching models based on the characteristics of the "digital generation."

02 Practical Exploration: Campus Digital Transformation Under Multiple Paths

Facing the tide of digital transformation, schools everywhere are exploring different paths based on their own conditions, demonstrating a rich variety of practical approaches.

Guilin University of Technology's "1+2+3+N" Model

Guilin University of Technology has constructed a data analysis-oriented smart campus paradigm using the "1+2+3+N" model.

"1" refers to one set of standards. The school comprehensively inventories public data assets, formulates data standards and resource catalogs, and builds a comprehensive, detailed informatization standard system.

"2" refers to two centers: the university-level data center and department-level data centers, achieving transparent management of the entire data lifecycle.

"3" refers to three levels of application: constructing application scenarios around university-level, department-level, and individual-level dimensions.

"N" refers to multiple types of data models, covering core areas such as assessment and evaluation, talent recruitment, and early warning decision-making.

Lanzhou University of Technology's "1481" Layout

Lanzhou University of Technology has created a "1481" digital and intelligent campus layout.

"1" refers to one operations center, integrating command, display, R&D, operations, and office functions.

"4" refers to four platform capabilities, including a data middle platform, visual middle platform, IoT middle platform, and business middle platform.

"8" refers to eight major application scenarios, covering decision support, smart party building, education and teaching, and other areas.

The final "1" refers to a one-stop service hall, ensuring that teachers and students need to "make at most one trip" for administrative matters.

The Pragmatic Digital Path for Rural Schools

Not only higher education institutions but also schools in remote areas are actively exploring digital transformation paths suitable for their own conditions.

Guangxi Hai Son Primary and Secondary School is located in a border area, with most students belonging to Dao and San Chi ethnic minorities.

The school uses limited resources to deploy electronic documents, online work schedules, and dedicated Zalo groups for task communication.

Most notably is the QR code check-in system at the school entrance. Students scan the code upon arrival and departure, and the data is instantly synchronized via API to parents' and homeroom teachers' Zalo accounts.

03 Technological Foundation: Building the Digital Infrastructure for Smart Campuses

Digital transformation relies on the support of a robust technological foundation, and major universities have undertaken comprehensive layouts in this regard.

Network and Computing Power Foundation

Tongji University has built a three-dimensional network architecture integrating "wired network + wireless network + 5G private network + IoT".

They have deployed over 30,000 wireless access points, covering all teaching and office areas across the campus and more than 16,000 student dormitory rooms.

Lanzhou University of Technology's data center is equipped with 144 high-standard IT cabinets, providing 100P of computing power and 850T of storage space, laying a solid foundation for the stable operation of various campus systems.

Data Resource Integration

Guilin University of Technology has completed the comprehensive collection, storage, cleaning, and standardization of business data from 33 systems.

The basic data platform built by Tongji University aggregates a data lake comprising 54 systems and 2,408 data tables, promoting data interoperability.

AI Empowerment

Tongji University, relying on the localized deployment of over 40 leading industry large models, has built an AI application innovation platform.

They provide large model interface services, lowering the barrier to using AI. Teacher and student teams can fine-tune models via interfaces based on their needs.

04 Scenario Innovation: Data-Driven Reform of Teaching and Learning

Digital transformation ultimately needs to be implemented in specific application scenarios, where major universities have achieved significant results.

Smart Decision-Making Scenarios

The "School High-Quality Development Evaluation Indicator" platform created by Lanzhou University of Technology acts like an "intelligent dashboard" sensing the school's development态势.

This platform includes four major sections: quality assessment and assurance, core indicator monitoring and early warning, and target responsibility management.

The core indicator monitoring and early warning section intuitively presents the achievement status and potential risks of various indicators through "red, green, white, yellow" four-color signal lights.

Personalized Teaching Scenarios

The "Xiao Zhou" digital and intelligent learning companion developed by Tongji University integrates multi-type learning data and automatically generates 266 sets of course knowledge graphs.

It constructs a teaching service support system covering personalized learning resource recommendations, targeted generation of knowledge point quizzes, and dynamic planning of growth paths.

Discipline-Specific Tools

The School of Civil Engineering at Tongji University independently trained a civil engineering专业知识大模型, CivilGPT.

It covers over 50 professional courses, 14 types of professional engineer exam content, and more than 2,600 course textbooks and specification documents.

05 Challenges and Responses: Key Elements of Digital Transformation

The path of digital transformation is not smooth, and schools face many common challenges.

Resource Challenges in Remote Areas

The case of Guangxi Hai Son Primary and Secondary School shows that schools in remote areas face numerous difficulties in the digitalization process.

The school lacks subject-specific classrooms, computer labs, and has imperfect interactive equipment and multimedia teaching support systems.

Many parents and students lack smart devices, have poor network connectivity, and find it difficult to access digital learning materials.

Insufficient Teacher Digital Capability

The situation at Guangxi Hai Son Primary and Secondary School also indicates that some teachers have limited information technology skills.

Facing this issue, Linshui County, Guang'an City, systematically carries out teacher digital capability training, implementing a project to enhance the application ability of information technology.

They have trained 7,251 teacher人次 cumulatively, enabling 98% of subject teachers in the county to possess practical platform operation skills.

Data Silos Problem

During its digital transformation process, Guilin University of Technology faced challenges like information silos, data烟囱, and low data quality.

Through data governance and big data analysis technologies, they created multi-scenario data applications to maximize the release of data dividends.

06 Future Trends: Intelligence and Deep Integration

With the continuous development of technology, new trends are emerging in campus digital transformation.

Deep Integration of Artificial Intelligence is becoming a major direction. Tongji University has conducted dozens of "AI Bootcamp" activities for teachers, students, and management teams, with teachers and students independently designing and developing over 13,000 AI agents.

They have formed a sustainable innovation ecosystem of "everyone learning AI, everyone using AI, everyone creating AI".

Green Development is also receiving increasing attention. Relying on digital twin technology, Tongji University has conducted comprehensive spatial data collection and 3D refined modeling of the campus environment, buildings, and important landscapes.

They have achieved real-time monitoring of the carbon sequestration capacity of 3,278 trees on campus and the energy consumption of 220 buildings.

Integrated Virtual and Physical learning spaces are taking shape. Professor Yang Junfeng points out that the integration of learning spaces is a basic trend.

This includes the integration of physical spaces, the integration of virtual spaces, and the integration of physical and virtual spaces.

At Shannan No. 2 Senior High School in Tibet, students interact with teachers through tablet computers. VR classrooms and National Common Language Learning Rooms allow them to enjoy high-quality educational resources even on the snowy plateau.

Principal Ge Xuan said that Anhui Province began "group-style" educational aid to Tibet in 2016, having dispatched 155 volunteer teachers to the school.

Digitalization is no longer just about cold equipment and data, but carries the hope for educational equity and quality.

It is quietly leveling the gaps between regions, allowing every child, whether in a bustling metropolis or a border village, to embrace an equally brilliant future.