This learning platform is an offshoot of the Hasso Plattner Institute’s social-learning network openHPI, which was launched 2012 in Potsdam. With its approximately 100,000 registered users, openHPI has participants from more than 114 countries. Interactive courses are offered on current topics of information technology. Chinese now joins German and English among the languages used.

The first online course will be conducted by HPI founder Prof. Hasso Plattner, co-founder and Chairperson of the Supervisory Board of the software giant SAP AG. The course offers an introduction to the subject of the revolutionary main-memory-database technology known as In-Memory Data Management. All learning materials, such as lectures, self-tests, homework, and exams, are available in Chinese; the English learning videos have Chinese subtitles.

"The Hasso Plattner Institute is pleased to be a pioneer of Massive Open Online Courses in information technology in the People's Republic of China," says Meinel. The openHPI.cn servers are at Guofu Data Cloud Computing in Shanghai, where SAP Labs is responsible for the support of Chinese participants in their native language. The learning materials are also translated into Chinese there. According to Meinel, Chinese online learners in all parts of the country will now be offered better technical quality via the China-based infrastructure than if they accessed the openHPI server in Germany. "I'm sure that our successfully functioning model will generate strong momentum for the offer of online courses in this populous country," Meinel said.