Week 7, China's Distance Learning Programme

Ok so what is one of China's main problems when trying to educate the nation???

THE SHEER SIZE OF THE POPULATION!!! IT'S HUGE!!!!

Therefore China chose two of the most popular forms of medium to educate the country as effectively and efficiently as possible. And they were RADIO & TELEVISON and this began in the 1960's.

China's TVU system has changed and evolved over the years developing into a hugely successful scheme. As a result these television and radio universities have enrolled over the last eight years a staggering 1,291,833, in which 590,941 students have graduated.

These TVU's offer courses all at undergraduate level, and in the first 8 years of its existence, the CRTVU has offered 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. This is giving such a wide range of subjects and choices for students to make.

As mentioned before that the TVU system has continued to develop and it was only 1986 (not long after it first begun that it began to be satellite transmitted. Since the satellite transmission of TVU programmes, their social-science courses have increased greatly.

However the Chinese didn't stop there!!! In order to encourage more and more people to become students of this type of learning audio- and video-cassettes were used in some courses. This made learning more convenient and also allowed for insufficient transmission time.

AFTER THIS CAME:

Printed teaching materials were made available to supplement radio/television programmes for all courses. These materials are divided into three types: course books, reference books and study guides.

There was and is a huge attempt to make these universities similar to that of the conventional university classroom teaching. And with this the presenters were chosen from key universities all over China.

FACT: There are more than forty production centres within the TVU system.


HOWEVER

there are huge critizisms with this Distance learning system!!!
What about the students who don't understand and want to ask questions??
What about the students who just want a little feedback on their work?

Well China was ready for questions like this,
They developed a system whereby alongside the printed teaching materials, face-to-face tuition was also made available to students.

Tutoring was said to be necessary for two reasons:
(a) presenters of radio and television programmes cannot answer students' questions directly and no immediate feedback for the presenters to adjust their teaching.
(b) Registered students are organized into television classes, listening to and watching programmes together. Television image and radio sound may not be clear for technical or other reasons.

So what about COST??

The TVU system's budget comes from a variety of sources. The CRTVU is administered and funded by the State Education Commission with the CCTV and CETV being responsible for television transmission costs. It also receives financial support from ministries which ask the CRTVU to help train personnel needed by them.

DEVELOPMENT

China's radio-and-television university system has made great strides in less than ten years. Courses offered at all levels have been increasing year by year. Enrolled all-subject students have totalled over 1 million, and all-subject graduates have amounted to more than 500,000.


It is an attractive learning opportunnity due to its open and flexible style of training a variety of qualified personnel needed for economic development in various parts of the country.

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