(Photo: CGTN)
To help students make exercise a regular habit, a university in China has developed a smartphone app that tracks their running records and asked its users to upload a selfie to prove their daily accomplishment.
Students in Zhejiang University, a prominent research university in east China's Zhejiang Province, have recently been jogging in groups on campus in early mornings, late afternoons and even late at night.
They were motivated to put on training shoes and join the fitness trend after the university launched a running app, which monitors the students' exercise records and helps assess their performance in PE class, Shanghai-based media outlet The Paper reported.
To ace the assessment, female students are required to run at least 120 kilometers, while male students have to complete at least 168 kilometers over the course of a single semester, Zhejiang University announced on Friday on its account on Chinese social media platform WeChat.
Students are encouraged to jog for at least 2.5 kilometers every running session, and complete the exercise in 12 to 45 minutes. Uploading a selfie is required at the end of each exercise session to validate the record.
The new running app was designed by Zhejiang University as part of the school's effort to reform its PE course system and raise students' awareness about health and fitness.
To ensure students have extra time to hit the running tracks, the school removed one regular teaching session on weekday afternoons.
"If a student were to become a renowned scientist in the future, they might only live to the age of 80 without a good exercise habit," director of the school's sports and arts department Wu Yehai told video streaming platform Yishou Video. "But if they could exercise more, they might live to the age of 90."
The university's digital efforts to promote exercising has been received with mixed reactions.
"I wanted to lose some weight and started jogging so it's not a burden," a freshman told Yishou Video.
"Why don't we change our school name to 'Zhejiang Sports University'?" commented @DuoDuo on China's Twitter like platform Weibo.