Week Seven - Task One: China's Distance Learning

Read http://www1.worldbank.org/disted/Technology/broadcast/tv-02.html and comment.

In the UK’s culture, some people find ‘distance learning’ to be a radical concept compared to traditional teaching methods. However, like Australia, China was one of the first countries to introduce a distance learning scheme, dating back nearly fifty years to 1960.
It was in 1976 when the culture of distance learning, which in China is mainly radio and television broadcasting, really took off following the country’s “modernization of industry, agriculture, national defence and science and technology”.
Before this type of learning was introduced at higher education level, China didn’t have many people registering at H.E institutes (in 1975, only 2% enrolment rate, compared to 4% in other developing countries).
Due to Chinas vast population, this concept proved ideal for teaching the masses and also came at a lower cost, meaning more people could enrol on higher education courses, but without the hassle of a traditional university; students could now choose their own time and pace as well as save money. Distance learning also spread out from just higher education to secondary education, colleges, home and places of work (Ma and Hawkridge).
Along side the radio and television broadcasts, which are basically conventional lectures that would typically be given IRL, students have course books, reference books and study guides along with face to face tuition so that students can ask questions to their tutors.
Similar to how engineering students have to carry out work experience, students undertaking courses which are laboratory-based need to also pass practical experiments. However, the problem with this is that there is not an equal standard of labs across the country; therefore some students have the advantage of accessing better equipment.
This method of learning has been extremely successful for China, and in 2004 there were 15.8million non-traditional learners (Wang and Kreysa).
As a traditional student, I think that having all lectures and seminars delivered via television or radio would be difficult in terms of not being able to as questions at the time and the interactivity of being physically in the same room. However, the article suggests that the pass rates are high and students are passing and being employed into industries which need the staff so this must not be a problem the TVU students have. This problem may be resolved now, as the article was written ten years ago, but I think another issue would be the unfairness of all students not having the same level of practical learning environments. Despite these ideas, I think that this method has clearly been very successful and is very practical for China.

Wang, V and Kreysa, P (2006) “Instructional Strategies of Distance Education Instructors in China”, The Journal of Educators Online, Vol 3 (1) http://www.thejeo.com/Archives/Volume3Number1/WangFinal.pdf

Ma, W and Hawkridge, D (1995) “Chinas Changing Policy and Practice in Television Education” Int. I. Educational Development, Vol 15 (1) http://www.scribd.com/doc/6724261/China-Tv-Policy