On May 19, 2025, Yu Yunfeng, Party Secretary and Director of the Ministry of Education’s Center for Language Education and Cooperation, led a delegation to Central China Normal University (CCNU) for a research and exchange visit. The visit focused on key areas such as international Chinese language education, educational internationalization, and digital transformation. CCNU President Peng Shuangjie, along with Vice Presidents Ren Youzhou and Liu Sannüya, held in-depth discussions with the delegation. Leaders from the Office of International Cooperation, the Faculty of Artificial Intelligence in Education, and other relevant departments also participated in the exchange.

The visit began with a tour of a smart classroom at the Nanhu Complex, where Director Yu and his team observed demonstrations showcasing CCNU’s latest achievements in intelligent teaching. Highlights included smart international Chinese language instruction, the application of the Xiaoya platform in the engineering course C Programming, and an interdisciplinary teaching case from Digital Theory and Practice of Music Education—together demonstrating the university’s innovation in smart classroom development and multimodal pedagogy.

The delegation then visited the exhibition hall of the National Engineering Research Center for Educational Big Data Application Technologies. There, they explored CCNU’s leading-edge developments in educational data analytics, the Xiaoya intelligent teaching platform, the Shishuo large language model, intelligent assessment systems, and personalized learning technologies.

During the roundtable session, Vice President Ren Youzhou provided an overview of CCNU’s international engagement strategy and key accomplishments, particularly in international Chinese language education, the development of Confucius Institutes, and international student programs. Vice President Liu Sannüya gave a detailed introduction to CCNU’s approach to education informatization, highlighting the practical value and global potential of the Xiaoya platform and Shishuo model in international Chinese language teaching.

Director Yu praised CCNU’s achievements in leveraging artificial intelligence for education, advancing international Chinese teaching, and driving digital transformation. He expressed strong interest in deepening collaboration and jointly exploring new models of international language exchange and cooperation. He emphasized that the field of international Chinese education is at a critical juncture, with unprecedented opportunities for growth, and that AI technologies must be harnessed to accelerate the development of online teaching and teacher training systems. With its deep expertise and strong foundation in digital education, CCNU is well positioned to contribute meaningfully to the global development of Chinese language education.

During the visit, President Peng Shuangjie and Director Yu held a productive dialogue, further strengthening ties between CCNU and the Center for Language Education and Cooperation. Their exchange laid a solid foundation for future collaboration in areas such as smart education and international Chinese language teaching.