Week 7 - Distance learning in China

The information for this post has been collected from an online article by Zhao Yuhui and i will be analysing and discussing some of the main ideas developed throughout the article, 'China: Its Distance Higher-Education System'.

I find it intriguing that China developed distance learning, using televisions, in the early 1960's and then introduced television universities (TVU's). To me, this seems very early, and i believe the Chinese educational system took a risk in creating these learning facilities. Nevertheless it seems as though the learning technique works as the article provides evidence of the amount of students that have gained degrees from them, " During the period from 1960 to 1966, more than 8,000 students graduated from the Beijing Television University and over 50,000 students finished single-course studies through its teaching programmes." Therefore it has been successful and obviously worked in the early years of its introduction.

"The enrolment of these radio and television universities over the last eight years has totalled 1,291,833, and 590,941 students have graduated. The number of registered students in 1986 was 604,437 constituting one-third of the country's higher-education institute students." This shows that only less than half of the students who enrolled in these TVU's graduated, which is a very low percentage, proving that many students obviously find it difficult to connect with a screen or monitor, i think i would definately struggle to keep engaged and focused. It is also the fact that these TVU's are taking up one third of the countries educational system, which is too much, considering not everyone can connect with the process. However there is the point that Yuhui makes, stating that these universities needed fewer funds, and so more money could be used for staff training and other resources.

The TVU's educational system consists of five levels "corresponding to the organization of China's system of national and regional governments". It just shows the seriousness and amount of work that has gone into creating and sustaining this method of learning. The five levels succinctly define the terms and methods of learning that must be done and the guides for teaching them. I believe this outlines the positive future the Chinese educational board believe this method of teaching has.

The fact that technology is always developing and the new media scene is now occuring, it is apparent that this teaching method must be expanding and increasing its opportunities. This is proven through the increase in graduates and the amount of courses available, "Enrolled all-subject students have totalled over 1 million, and all-subject graduates have amounted to more than 500,000.","By 1990, about sixty new types of multi-media course will be developed." It is astounding the speed of the growth of TVU's and the standards are always improving as well.

Therefore, it is evident that the method of TVU's dived in at the deep end far too early, and many students suffered because of this, however this growth of resources and technology available, i think it is a great idea and has been very successful, and will only get better.

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