The terms, classroom, distance and internet are
used in this paper to refer to three modes of delivery of education.
Over the last 4 years, the Ministry of Education has successively authorized
45 universities to set up online education colleges. It can be truly
said that the three modes of delivery are running abreast. Classroom
learning can now be said to represent traditional and formal education.
Distance learning in China has also a relatively long history, i.e.
over 50 years, if correspondence learning is taken into account. Online
learning, in contrast, is the latest and emerging phenomenon.
Since 1990 I have been involved in directing three
projects of in-service teacher training, viz. SMSTT (senior middle school
teacher training), DT-SMSTT (distance taught senior middle school teacher
training) and BOE (BeiWai Online Education). In spite of their separate
names, the three are actually not totally different projects in view
of content. The SMSTT was a 2-year enhancement training program for
senior middle school teachers of English, which was delivered face-to-face
in Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU for short hereafter). The
DT-SMSTT was to change the delivery mode from face-to-face classroom
to distance via TV networks, with tutorial support provided by China
Central Radio and Television University networks. The BOE was to change
the delivery mode again from distance to internet. So in a sense this
paper presents some of my critical reflections on the three projects,
the main objective of which was to change the mode of delivery from
classroom to distance, and from distance to internet.
As the projects are nation-wide with over a hundred
universities/colleges participating in them, claiming some 30,000 odd
registered students spreading all over China, it is impossible to offer
a detailed account of them here. Instead, I shall focus on exploring
the educational implications the change of delivery modes evokes, and
in particular, the social, political and educational difficulties online
education programs are currently facing. Before I plunge into this main
task, a brief historical survey of the three projects is in order, just
to put readers in proper perspective.
In the early 80s of the last century, the Ministry
of Education (the then called State Education Commission) sponsored
an in-service teacher training project for senior middle school teachers
of English in the remote and less developed areas, where the shortage
of qualified English teachers was most painfully felt. Five universities
were chosen with BFSU as the centre of coordination. Candidates were
selected from the target areas and brought to the five universities
for 2 year face-to-face classroom enhancement training.
The SMSTT turned out to be self-defeating: Only
few trained trainees returned to their former posts. So what the project
did to the target areas was not good service, but disservice! This prompted
us to look for an alternative way of delivering the training service,
hence the DT-SMSTT project. The first year work on DT-SMSTT proved to
be a total frustration. It had been thought that all DT-SMSTT would
do was adapt the existing SMSTT materials. A year’s attempt at the adaptation
led us nowhere except showing how naive we were: it simply would not
work. The mode of delivery from classroom to distance demands drastic
re-thinking and a fresh design.
A trial was made in the year 2000 to transfer
DT-SMSTT onto the internet. One-year-and-a-half practice has shown that
the change from classroom to distance to internet, sounding progressive
and even exciting at the first hearing, is anything but an easy task.
The crux of the matter has more to do with the mind rather than with
technology. The changes in the delivery mode challenge the very philosophy
of education and practice entrenched at the heart of Chinese civilization
and culture for thousands of years, which is still cherished by some,
if not the majority of learners, teachers, parents, administrators and
government officials alike.
The dimensions to be scrutinized below include
the assumptions and beliefs regarding the roles of the learner, the
teacher, the textbook, the classroom and the four-walled campus. Also
discussed are the initiatives which have been taken to bring about reforms.
In the animal kingdom, humans are the least equipped
at birth. The animals that are very much part of our everyday life companions,
such as dogs, cats, cows, sheep, have to learn little after birth for
survival and living: they are born with the ability. Humans, in contrast,
are virtually helpless, and have to learn almost everything. So learning
starts from the moment a baby is born. In pre-industrial days, schooling
took place in private tutorials or was mingled in religious practice.
For the majority learning and socialization were almost one and the
same thing. Apprenticeship, social interaction, work and labour together,
are all forms of learning.
The establishment of educational organizations
in modern times, such as kindergarten, primary and secondary schools,
colleges and universities, differentiates formal from informal education,
with four-walled campus and classroom symbolizing the former, and the
learning outside them being regarded as informal. Table 1 captures the
general trend of formal and informal learning across a range of age
groups in China.
Table 1 Formal and information learning across age groups
Plus sign + symbolizes the relative size of population, i.e. the more
plus signs,
the greater the relative population.
3.2 Features of formal tertiary
education: established practice and values
Formal tertiary education in China
takes place in an enclosed environment, often physically protected
by four walls with guards at the front entrance checking ins and outs.
The physical enclosure is an outward expression of a deeper value
of social and educational nature. The enclosed four-walled campus
has long been sociologically assigned the roles of (1) offering formal
education, particularly knowledge, to its citizens; (2) carrying out
research; (3) developing new technology; (4) implementing the belief
that the better education leads to better life and social advancement.
Social institutions with such roles seem to be bestowed with a sense
of holiness: What is inside should be pure and honorable, viz. nothing
but learning. Learners should be protected from ill social influence
or practice.
The style of learning can be captured
as teacher-led, classroom-dependent, and textbook-based. Syllabuses
are pre-arranged with timetables fixed. Students and staff are all
allocated to their own places. In short everything is supposed to
be carried out in an orderly, procedure-like manner with maximum convenience:
Classrooms, library, labs, AV centers, clinic, functionary offices,
sports facilities, shops, dining halls, groceries, restaurants, student
dormitories, staff residents, etc. are all provided and within walking
distance.
From the perspective of learners, campus education means many things
in one basket. They can have direct access to teachers, learning facilities
(AV centers, library, reading rooms, etc.); lab facilities; health
and recreation facilities (clinic, sports grounds, etc.); peers and
friends. Years of study will prepare them for a degree and a job potential.
This in turn means gaining access to social mobility and a step up
on the ladder of social stratification. To some students it also means
getting away from poor and underdeveloped hometown.
In view of parents, campus education
is responsible for the following: (1) Provide their offspring with
qualified staff and facilities; (2)Keep their offspring engaged in
learning; (3) Make their offspring acquire the prescribed knowledge
and skill; (4) Make sure that their offspring be awarded with the
prescribed degree or certificate; (5) Protect their offspring from
ill or undesirable influence; (6) Provide personal security.In this
system the role of academics is to feed the knowledge-hungry students,
and the role of administrators is to make all the necessary arrangements
for both students and academic staff in such a way that the latter
can concentrate on learning and teaching with minimum detraction.
3.3 Pros and cons of campus formal
education, and arising social needs
The system can be captured with
a set of paired adjectives with opposing values. On the one hand,
it is focused in subject matters; fixed with programs and timetables;
orderly with bureaucratic procedures; exclusive with closed memberships;
protective with four walls; convenient with the essential provisions
made close at hand; and caring by treating students like children.
On the other, the same system can be said to be narrow without paying
due attention to the growing social needs; inflexible with no consideration
to those who have no blocks of time for study; unnecessarily bureaucratic
with no incentive for efficiency; unaccommodating and unwelcoming
to visitors; forbidding to "outsiders" by creating an artificial
island of society; making the occupants difficult to adapt themselves
once outside; and spoiling by making students totally dependent on
the system. After graduation, students are said to "go to society"
, viz. entering into a real social world. They have to re-learn a
lot of things, because the real social world is supposed to be different
from campus life, particularly from that of classroom.
The way formal education is conducted
is increasingly being undermined by the ensuing social changes. The
annual enrollment has been exploding in number, and the class size
is getting twice or many times as big as it used to be. The ratio
between teacher and student is almost doubled, if not tripled. Campus
dormitories can no long accommodate all the registered students, some
of whom now have to stay in rented rooms outside the campus. Moreover,
continued education such as second degree programs, in-service training,
vocational training, special skill program and so on, are no longer
peripheral. In fact they have already outdone regular campus education
in the number of students enrolled.
All these changes have brought with
them some important repercussions. On the one hand, they are making
the distinction between formal and informal education more and more
obscure, and on the other, will seriously undermine the quality of
formal education, if no reform measures are undertaken resolutely
now in order to catch up with the rapid social changes. It is so because
the closed door system and the personnel that staffs it are not prepared
both mentally and materialistically for the arising needs.
4. Distance Education
Distance education in China has
long been regarded as being peripheral in status, and second class
in quality. If campus education is for the elite, and the able, distance
education is for the populace and the less able. The only merits distance
education seems to deserve, if one is charitable enough to say so,
are twofold. One is that people can study while working or staying
at home. The other is that it can be delivered to those who are denied
access to it due to territorial barriers or financial circumstances.
These two merits are particularly appealing and appropriate, considering
the fact that China is geographically immense and diversified with
the biggest population in the world, in view of which those who are
able to receive formal education become a negligible minority.
Another factor which contributes
to the lower status of distance education is the way it has been conducted.
Formal education is regarded with awe, and treated as the model (not
even a model) for distance education. Consequently the materials designed
for face-to-face classroom are adopted in a wholesale manner without
even asking if they are appropriate for the purpose. Assessment including
examination is similarly modeled, thus leading to demoralizing results.
As pointed out above, our first
year experience in adapting the existing classroom materials for the
distance program has taught us a good lesson. We failed to take into
serious consideration the impacts that are created by the ensuing
factors: (1) the physical separation of learners from teachers; (2)
the absence of care-taking campus with all the essentials readily
provided; (3) the conflicting commitments (e.g. work vs. study, study
vs. housework) of learners (or to put differently, the multiple roles
learners assume simultaneously). Under these three constraining circumstances,
a successful learner needs these qualities:
1) be able to learn, to a great
extent, independently
2) be capable of self-discipline — putting pressure on him/herself,
no indulgence in watching TV, etc.
3) be capable of self-management — managing time well
4) be capable of self-monitoring — recording one's progress, diagnosing
one's own problems, and assessing one's own achievement
5) be capable of initiative-taking — overcoming the habit of waiting
for spoon-feeding, and taking initiative in and responsibility for
one's own learning
6) be confident and persevering
7) be capable of developing one's own learning style and strategies
As we are all painfully aware, these
qualities are not the sorts of things Chinese educational systems
at whatever levels, primary, secondary or tertiary, are geared for.
As pointed out in section 3 above, formal education is spoon-feeding,
protective, parent-like, and in short spoiling. So any successful
distance education program must first and foremost train learners
to challenge the established values and foster new qualities on which
the success of the program crucially depends. Moreover, teachers,
parents, and administrators must, too, critically reflect upon the
roles they play in formal education. Take the role of a teacher. It
would be totally inappropriate to teach a lesson to a class of distance
learning students the way it is done to their campus counterparts,
for the obvious reason that face-to-face tutorial is a luxury to the
former, but a commonplace to the latter. The issues concerning learner
support, and learning process monitoring, which are part of everyday
work of a campus teacher, become problematic with distance education.
Similarly the materials prepared for campus students, which may be
quite adequate and effective with teachers explaining or filling in
the gaps in class, will be unworkable with distance learners who do
not have a teacher at their elbow.
Take parents for another example.
In formal education, students, no matter where their original locations
are, all come to stay on campus. This creates a separation of home
from an educational site, which can mean a great improvement for some
students: they are not only away from a much poorer home, but also
an opportunity for social mobility. This, however, is not the only
thing that makes parents feel proud of the separation. Some also look
at campus as the place where their offspring can concentrate themselves
on learning, and are looked after by authorities (both academic and
administrative). This inadvertently imposes a baby-sitting function
on campus. All of a sudden, distance education declares that their
offspring simply stay where they are and study. The news can be quite
explosive. Self-study, or independent study, or autonomous learning
is regarded as being informal, hence not learning proper. Our three
year trials (from 1996-1999 with a total of some 3000 odd students)
have shown it is a painstaking job to persuade the parents and students
to digest the message that any form of learning, in the final analysis,
boils down to self-learning. The simple truth of "No one can
learn for someone else" turns out to be anything but simple!
The biggest challenge to the administrative
role in distance education is the willingness in adopting a much more
flexible service-like procedure of handling students’ affairs. Flexibility,
once translated into action, often means late working hours, and working
even on public holidays. This is so because others’ holidays are distance
learners’ study time. Another challenge to administrators who tend
to resist it is the adoption of a new assessment scheme, which is
more appropriate to distance learning. In the last five years
(from 1996 to 2001) we tried to
argue that distance learners should be assessed differently from campus
students, on the ground that their abilities in self-study, self-management,
self-disciplinary control, and particularly in managing conflicting
multiple roles, should be taken into account. Our appeal landed in
a deaf ear. A second thought to the issue brings a much deep-seated
value to surface, viz. in the current educational philosophy in China,
the knowledge learning is valued much more highly than ability development.
5. Online education
In a way online education is a sub-category
of distance education. What is discussed on distance education above
is equally applicable to online education. Having said this, we must
not forget its distinctiveness and the ever-lasting impacts the information
and computer technology (ICT) has made and will continue making on
life patterns in general, and on education in particular. Here two
features, viz. the modes of learning and teaching practice, are to
be highlighted for discussion.
In China's current state of affairs,
some regions are now far more advanced technology-wise than others.
Even within one and the same administrative region, due to the uneven
distribution of wealth, or owing to harsh geographical environment,
some people are much better-off than others. Distance learners hence
are quite diversified in terms of access to resources. We can meaningfully
differentiate five modes of learning.
(1) No regular access mode
Under this mode, students are not assumed to have regular access to
computer, or even to a VCD machine. They rely heavily on the print
and audio materials for regular study at home or in the workplace.
They are of course entitled to have access to weekly or monthly or
term-wise tutorials provided at the local tutorial center. Their contact
with their tutors is rather traditional, i.e. via phone or written
correspondence.
(2) VCD mode
Like those in no regular access mode, students under this mode are
not assumed to have regular access to computer. They too rely heavily
on the print and audio materials for regular study at home or in the
workplace. However, they are a bit better equipped with a home VCD
machine so that they can watch VCD programmes as extra-supplementary
materials. They are of course entitled to have access to weekly or
monthly or term-wise tutorials provided at the local tutorial center.
Their contact with their tutors is again rather traditional, i.e.
via phone or written correspondence.
(3) PC mode
Students of this mode have either their own personal computers or
regular access to desktop computers in the office. They can run VCD
programs or CD-Rom courseware. They can even choose to have some e-library
resources installed on the computer. Some may seek occasional access
to internet, and use free email service. Obviously they are much better
equipped than the previous two classes of students.
(4) LAN mode
LAN is an acronym for local administered network. It can be any computer-linked
systems such as campus network, community network, and department
workstations. Ideally LAN system providers download the courseware
from the headquarters and run the downloads for the local students.
Those who are regular students on campus with good LANsystems and
who would like to do an extra certificate or degree may also find
this mode of study very attractive. The least scenario of using LAN
is to download the tutorial sessions from the headquarters and run
them later as the primary source for their own local tutorials.
(5) Online mode
The luckiest of students have access to broad band internet service,
thus enjoying the privilege of having full access to all the resources
provided by the headquarters. Presently they are the luckiest few.
But the population will grow fast, as broad band service is bound
to increase.
Understandably no regular access
mode of study is predominant, with the online mode emerging. It is
estimated that VCD and PC modes will soon assume the predominance.
And eventually the online mode will overtake all the others, and even
overpower them by driving them out of educational platform, which
is likely to be quite a distance away from now.
As a practical measure, for the
first three or five years, i.e. from 2001 to 2005, no regular access
mode of study is taken as a default mode of learning with all the
rest modes as being extra and supplementary to the default. The biggest
of implications of this policy is in the area of the assessment and
examination. All the students will be assessed and examined with regard
to the learning of print and audio materials. However, this does not
mean that the VCD programmes, CD-Rom and internet courseware play
no more than a decorative role and are there for window-shopping purpose.
No! They should be designed in such a way that they enhance the effectiveness
of print/audio based learning on the one hand, and increase indirect
interactions with the built-in expertise and virtual tutors on the
other. On this regard, students should be encouraged to seek access,
by whatever means, to these extra resources. Students should be advised
to overcome the habit of clinging to the past, or ICT phobia, and
adopt a more forward-looking attitude, ready to embrace what is innovative.
Like students, teachers will also need to upgrade their teaching practice
by tapping the potentials ICT has for teachers. Apart from using a
multi-media classroom, it is now quite feasible for teachers to construct
a personal multi-media e-library, as software for sound and video
editing is robust, reliable, cheap, and easy to use. So a lesson with
the multi-media materials that are particularly tailored to suit the
particular needs of learners is as easy to prepare as print materials.
Moreover, teachers can collect and mark assignments through e-mail
exchanges, and chat with students via internet.
6. Concluding remarks
Finally it is time to ring this
message: Online education calls for a new philosophy of education,
and a thorough rethinking of what it means by learning and teaching
online. What has been discussed above is at best the touching of the
tip of an iceberg. As a way to conclude the paper, let us take another
probe into the matter. As we know, on the face of it, enrollment,
dropout and graduation are administrative business. In a way this
is true of campus education. For enrollment and graduation are very
rare in conflict in China: Once enrolled, graduation is almost secured,
with few or even no dropouts. It will not be the case with online
education. Enrollment does not automatically lead to graduation, contrary
to the vehement expectations of the students and parents. Dropouts
can be very serious at times. It is very dangerous, however, for us
to see it as a matter of administrative business, having little to
do with syllabus and courses provided. At the deep level, it is the
syllabus and the way the courses are offered to the students that
have a lot to account for. It is so easy to blame students for their
failures, and it is much harder to look critically inwards to hold
ourselves as "culprits"!”!
References
Gu, Yueguo, 1999. A Guide to Success
1: Orientations. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press
Gu, Yueguo, 2000. A Guide to Success
2: Learning Strategies. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research
Press
Harry, Keith, Magnus John and Desmond
Keegan, eds. Distance Education: New Perspectives. London: Routledge
Rowntree, Derek, 1977. Assessing
Students. London: Harper & Row Ltd
Rowntree, Derek, 1991. Teach Yourself
with Open Learning. London: Kogan Page Ltd
Worsley, Peter, 1970. Introducing
Sociology. Penguin Education
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