Online schools in mainland China

Wang Nan
Beijing Normal University
Beijing, China

Qiao Ailing
Capital Normal University
Beijing, China

China has 250 million primary and middle school students, and 550,000 primary and middle schools. However, since its educational resources tend to be insufficient and unevenly distributed, there is a large market potential for e-learning. Online schools are now the most important form of distance education in Chinese primary and middle schools. This paper aims to:

• present the development stages and modes of the K–12 online schools in China; and
• illustrate online education practice, its current status and level, and its use of ICT through a case study.

The development of online schools was examined using document reviews, focus group discussions, field trips, questionnaire surveys and semi-structured interviews. The responses of students, educators and managers were considered. As the main survey tool, a questionnaire originally developed by the PANdora network team was customized for local administration. Its validity and reliability were checked, and some items were revised to make them more relevant to China’s online schools.

Although most of them still prefer face-to-face education, the students have a positive, optimistic attitude to the goals of online schooling owing to its flexibility in time and place. The delivery methods include a combination of the Internet, audio and video, CDs and textbooks. Students like to use multimedia content such as images and animation, but they suffer from a lack of Internet access. Most of them participate from home but many do not take an active part in online learning activities, such as online discussion. The most important problem currently facing online educators is how to increase students’ enthusiasm for web-based learning. With the introduction of new ICTs, K–12 online schools have scope to improve significantly, benefiting both students and teachers. The rapid developments in ICT will help these schools to mature, but similar developments need to take place in their learner support and teaching-learning methods.