A student downloads "Rain Classroom", a smart mobile app for blended learning jointly designed by Tsinghua University and XuetangX. [Photo/xuetangx.com]

XuetangX, the world's first Chinese MOOC (Massive Open Online Courses) platform run by Tsinghua University, announced on June 21 that accredited Tsinghua courses will be online soon.

The online accreditation program marks another milestone in China's development of MOOC integrating production, teaching and application.

Apart from being a short-cut towards certificates and credits, the program aims to endow students with various skills and abilities that can win them an upper hand against their peers in the workplace.

It's also the first heavy-weight move between Tsinghua University and XuetangX to reform the Chinese MOOC industry.

XuetangX will carry out supervised online exams and favorable rewarding mechanisms to motivate more students to finish the courses they have signed up for. Tsinghua University, on the other hand, is pulling together efforts to design more accredited courses regarding computer programming, basic finance, big data and IP service.

In addition, the new program has made four major breakthroughs in terms of job opportunities, postgraduate education, curriculum systems and network effects.

Over the past five years, the wild growth of the MOOC industry has boasted many fruitful achievements such as the overwhelming popularity of blended learning.

Nevertheless, a significant number of improvements in supporting technologies, course design, teaching modes and especially the MOOC idea are still in the ascendant, according to Yang Bin, vice-president of Tsinghua University.

"Nowadays, learners in almost any profession prefer flexible online courses for up-to-date knowledge over traditional programs for degrees," Yang said, "Our cooperation with XuetangX is a creative exploration of non-degree education where the applicability of each certificate should be hailed as the priority among priorities."

Established in 2013, XuetangX has become the perfect tool for people of all ages to keep up with the latest trends and advances with a minimal investment in time and money. At present, it has over 10 million registered users and some 1300 MOOC courses.