The Chinese online learning portal XuetangX, owned by Tsinghua Holdings, and the African Engineering Education Association (AEEA) reached a cooperative intention in 2016 to establish an online learning platform of engineering education at the University of Lagos.

A delegation including Yuan Si, executive director of the International Center of Engineering Education under the Auspices of UNESCO (UNESCO ICEE), Lin Jian, professor at Tsinghua University's Institute of Education, and Nie Fenghua, vice-director of the Ministry of Education Research Center for Online Education, was invited to the sixth African Conference on Engineering Education in Bloemfontein on Sept 20-23, 2016.

A screen grab shows the MOOC platform built by XuetangX for the University of Lagos.

During the event, Yuan and AEEA Chairman Funso Falade reached agreements on a string of projects, including a deal for XuetangX to build a Virtual Private Cloud platform for the University of Lagos, Nigeria.

Falade said they will study China's online learning model and promote engineering education with the combined efforts of the AEEA and the University of Lagos. Yuan pledged that UNESCO ICEE will deepen cooperation with Africa on engineering education.

The online platform for the University of Lagos (http://lagos.xuetangx.com/) is now accessible via XuetangX.com, offering 12 English courses for free.