We seem to think of distance learning as something new and radical, but China has been using television and telephones to educate people for years. During the period from 1960 to 1966, more than 8,000 students graduated from the Beijing Television University.
According to the article there are four kinds of television classes: classes run by local government bureaux, classes run by factories and mines, classes run jointly by medium-sized or small work units and classes run by local TVUs at various levels to cater for fresh secondary-school graduates waiting to be assigned jobs.
It is imperitive that TVUs adopt textbooks used in conventional universities and to choose academics with a university teaching background as presenters, so that a high standard of tuition can be guaranteed. These two measures have proved to be effective.
There is a question of how much TVU's cost, and are they effective. The amount of budget varies from place to place because of the unbalanced economic development in different parts of the country. It is also important to note that in general, TVU students are free from tuition fees except free viewers and listeners who have to pay for registration and examinations. This encourages more people to use TVU's as it is so much cheaper than studying at a college or university.
Showing posts with label Distance Learning. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Distance Learning. Show all posts
Friday, 6 March 2009
Week 7, Lecture Notes
Virtual Education is thought of as 'radical' yet it has been going on for years in other countries such as Australia, because of the distance some children had to travel to school.
With things like Open University courses, you can study at your own pace in your own time, and contact your tutor if you are struggling. Although I see this is a good idea and is often successful, I'm not sure this type of learning would work well for everyone. In my personal opinion, having seminars and discussing work with other students is just as important as learning the work itself. You see other people's opinions and view things from other angles you may not have considered.
Even though learning online creates a new online community, I, personally, prefer learning in more traditional ways, as you not only learn the set work, but with things like group work you learn social skills and how to communicate and work with eachother. Looking at what Evans said about reading other comments helps to 'confirm your understanding or modify it in the light of new information,' he seems to think that this is a successful way of discussing ideas. Personally, I think face to face discussion is a lot more successful but I can see this is a decent alternative when studying online.
With things like Open University courses, you can study at your own pace in your own time, and contact your tutor if you are struggling. Although I see this is a good idea and is often successful, I'm not sure this type of learning would work well for everyone. In my personal opinion, having seminars and discussing work with other students is just as important as learning the work itself. You see other people's opinions and view things from other angles you may not have considered.
Even though learning online creates a new online community, I, personally, prefer learning in more traditional ways, as you not only learn the set work, but with things like group work you learn social skills and how to communicate and work with eachother. Looking at what Evans said about reading other comments helps to 'confirm your understanding or modify it in the light of new information,' he seems to think that this is a successful way of discussing ideas. Personally, I think face to face discussion is a lot more successful but I can see this is a decent alternative when studying online.
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