"China was one of the first countries to use radio and television for higher-educational purposes. During the early 1960s, soon after television broadcasting began to develop in China, the first television universities (TVUs) were founded in the capital, Beijing, and other principal cities to meet the demand for adult education.-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" this to me shows what a good thing online learning can be, as it gives people who may not be able to go to a physical located university a chance to get a degree or some kind of education.
However in1976 and the socialist modernization project (the modernization of industry, agriculture, national defence and science and technology) calls for a large number of trained people which resulted in 3.5 million teachers being trained. this meant that by them being trained at a TVU it would cost the government less money meaning they could train more people via the CRTVU - 'the Central Radio and Television University', which was a good thing because hte CRTVU runs at five different levels:
- 'The CRTVU, at the highest level, is under the direct leadership of the State Education Commission (formerly called the Ministry of Education).
- The PTVUs, at the second level, are under the auspices of provincial governments.
- Their branch schools, at the third level, come under profectural/civic governments.
- Work stations, at the fourth level, are run either by district/county education bureaux or by a particular industry.
- The teaching and learning classes (usually called television classes), at the lowest level, work directly with TVU students'
The CRTVU could offer "150 courses in the subject areas of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, mechanical engineering, electronic engineering, chemical engineering, civil engineering, economics, accounting, statistics, finance, banking, industrial management, commercial management, archives management, journalism, law, library science and Chinese language and literature"many of these courses where offered at a undergraduate level, some of the course are available as a short course, this may have been because they needed to get people into jobs in specific fields.
Something i do not understand about online education in subjects such as science and engineering is the fact that you can learn everything via a video tape, i think that for these kind of subject you need the hands on approach.
However i do thing distance education is a good idea because it allows people in rural areas to get some degree of education even if it is just basic.
In the article it mentions that some of the units require physical-learning too such as labaratory stuff, so I don't think everything's entirely through videotape. Just most of it!
ReplyDeleteIt does allow people to get education in rural areas but what if these people cannot afford it? Tuition fees are free at the CRTVU but the course materials would cost a lot for those in poverty, I'd imagine. x
Try not to spend as much of your post reiterating what the source tells us (it's a set reading isn't it?)
ReplyDeleteInstead, show off your knowledge of the unit via the way you approach the issues you choose to write about.