Volunteers honored for making a difference in city

More than 100 volunteers, 22 service centers and 15 programs were honored Wednesday for their outstanding voluntary efforts to build Shanghai into a world-class center of lifelong learning.

Shanghai Open University, the city's largest adult education institution, has established a huge volunteer army with more than 60,000 members delivering services in 228 service centers around the city.

The honored included Song Yajie, who since 2018 has volunteered to teach baduanjin — or eight-sectioned physical exercise — and qigong — an exercise system of coordinated body movement, breathing and meditation — at the community school in Xuhui District's Changqiao Subdistrict, which are very popular among local seniors.

After the outbreak of COVID-19, Song began streamlining his classes online and producing recorded classes for students. The videos were later promoted nationwide to widen their reach.

According to Shanghai Open University officials, the university has integrated digital-learning resources to create an "Air Classroom" — an online platform for lifelong learning that received more than 546,000 visits in two months.