On December 22, 2024, the “General Academic English (Skills)” MOOC, developed by the Undergraduate Academic English Teaching Team of SFS, was awarded the "National Exemplary Case for MOOC Teaching" at the 5th National MOOC Education Innovation Conference in Qingdao. Qian Xi, the project leader and faculty member of SFS, attended the ceremony.

Hosted by the Joint Conference of Higher Education Online Open Course Alliances and 27 MOOC alliance partners under the guidance of the Ministry of Education, the conference aimed to showcase exemplary digital teaching resources and reforms, promote "X+MOOC" and "AI+teaching" models, and explore innovative practices for smart education and talent development. “General Academic English (Skills)” advanced through university-level selection, provincial evaluation, and rigorous national competition to secure this prestigious award.

Launched in March 2019 on the "China University MOOC" platform, the course has attracted nearly 80,000 enrollments, been adopted by over 50 universities globally, and was recognized as a "National First-Class Undergraduate Online Course" in May 2023. Aimed at fostering academic English competence for future specialized learning, this course aligns with China's "Four New Disciplines" initiative to cultivate interdisciplinary innovators. Over 13 iterations, it has innovated through interactive learning, multidimensional engagement and diversified assessments boosting student participation, AI integration, smart tools and human-machine collaboration ensuring sustainable development, seamless integration of online and offline resources, data, and evaluations and explicit and implicit political education elements achieving holistic education goals.

The Academic English teaching team has pioneered IT-education fusion and digital transformation. Their courses, including General Academic English and IELTS Speaking, have earned national and provincial accolades, such as "National First-Class Online Course" and "Shaanxi Province Excellence Case for Online Teaching during COVID-19". In October, they launched Shaanxi's first AI avatar-based MOOC, Academic English Speaking Foundations, featuring AI-driven instruction. In November, the team won the "Dragon Cauldron Award"—the top prize at the "5th National Metaverse Digital Teaching Innovation Competition (AIGC Track)." This latest award underscores their leadership in smart education reform.