The demand for high quality educational course materials, methodologies and resources has been growing in China as rapidly as its extraordinary economic development. With a population of well over 1.3 billion, the potential user base for open educational resources presents both an opportunity and a challenge.

It was in September 2003 at the International OpenCourseWare Forum in Beijing that a group of attendees including Prof Dick K.P. Yue, Ms Ann Margulies, Dr Catherine Casserly, Dr Marshall Smith, representatives of 26 IET member universities, presidents of 67 pilot universities for long-distance education and administrators from 44 China Radio and TV Universities decided that they could meet the opportunity and the challenge presented with a powerful movement, which would promote closer interaction and open sharing of educational resources between China and the world. This movement was called China Open Resources for Education (CORE) and it was inspired, initiated and supported by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE) and all the member universities in China and abroad.

CORE's objective is to introduce high-quality courseware from top-ranked universities around the world employing innovative technologies, methodologies and content for teaching and learning. Its mission focuses on providing a framework for Chinese-speaking universities to participate in the shared, global network of courseware with leading universities for all over the world and to assist in making the use of open educational resources more global and mainstream. CORE has developed cooperative relationships with many international partners including the Monterey Institution for Technology and Education (MITE) and Stanford University.

In China, the demand for OCW in universities is increasing rapidly, however the charges and restrictions on overseas website access by the China Education and Research Network (CERN) had been hindering the growth of use from students and universities. For this reason, a local MIT Open CourseWare (MIT OCW) mirror site is used as a solution to meet the fast growing demand in China. CORE member universities have established 7 mirror sites in different areas of China in an effort to promote open educational resources in urban, rural and remote areas in China.

In 2008, the total number of Chinese Quality OpenCourseWare (CQOCW) made available online exceed 1,800 at the national level, 5,000 at the provincial level and 10,000 at the university level. The CQOCW includes course notes, syllabus, assignments, lectures in audio or video format among others. The courses are translated into Mandarin with the help of expert translators for use by Chinese universities. Chinese member universities have also translated many CQOCW into English on topics such as Architecture, Chemistry, Electronics, Medicine and Geography to share with other universities internationally. The buzz around the CORE project is such that it has spurred a lot of research activity and the development of many international partnerships with universities worldwide. The reason is two-fold: i) the mass adoption and use of open educational resources on a global scale and ii) the opportunity to reach learners in remote areas, learners from low income families, learners that were just never before given the chance.