The article about Chinese learning surprised me in that face-to-face tuition was offered alongside distance learning. Yuhui says that tutoring is necessary because tutors cannot answer students' questions directly and presenters cannot adjust their teaching without it, which answers a concern raised in the lecture that radio & TV learning did not account for feedback and individual questions. It is clear the model in 1988 was successful, having only a 31% drop-out rate and students achieving fantastic marks in Maths & Science.
Now 21 years old, much of this article's points and the RTVU model could now be irrelevant in the internet-age, so I found a journal article by Jianqiang & Zhaohao which although short, was useful in bringing the topic up to date. The Radio & TV University System (RTVU) has now trained four million graduates, and since the late 1990s has offered web-education to 180,000 students (to March 2001).
Yet at present there is no Web-only university as China lags behind other developed countries with its internet use. Most students do not have personal computers and it is difficult to achieve distance learning through the internet. However Jianquiang & Zhaohao see that the RTVU system will play an important role in Web education in China in the near future - an old model therefore is still relevant and can be improved with today’s technology.
It was surprising to learn that radio & TV tuition in China is largely free, with only printed materials & stationery to pay for (and exams for free viewers & listeners) as it is funded by the State Education Commission and at a lower-level, work sponsorships. However with the economic downturn in full-swing, I question how long this tuition can remain free.
Yuhui, Zhao (1988) "China: Its Distance Higher-Education System." Prospects 18(2): 217-28.
Jianqiang L., Zhaohao S. (2004) "Internet/Web Technology in Higher Education in China,", Fourth IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies (ICALT'04), http://doi.ieeecomputersociety.org/10.1109/ICALT.2004.1357736.
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Excellent stuff. I'm impressed that you found something more 'webby' to inform you. The 'digital divide' between China & the West is almost a surprise isn't it? There's so much in our news about the techno development of China, it's a shock to be reminded that for the vast majority of the population, Inet access is still a real problem. This is also my experience in India. But the 'patchyness' is the real shock. 'Connected' people in these countries may well put our general e-connectedness to shame, but they're a tiny fraction of a fraction of the population.
ReplyDeleteDid you get any sense of how much their e-learning programme was a remediation of their Radio/TV education? Were any issues of CofP, virtual community -or 'trust' raised for you?