BEIJING -- About 1.98 million college teachers in West China have been trained on massive open online courses (MOOC) since the country launched a special campaign in 2013, according to the Ministry of Education (MOE).

Up to 590 million students have benefited from the MOOC through the initiative that aims to improve talent nurturing in the country's less-developed western region, the MOE said at a recent meeting.

Over the past decade, the initiative has offered 207,000 MOOCs and other online courses in total to colleges in the western region.

The ministry said the program will focus on the needs of college majors and seek innovations enabled by artificial intelligence to contribute to the region's high quality development and high-level opening-up.