Online Education: A University without Walls
December 3, 2001

Recently, over 200 students received their graduate diplomas from Zhejiang University through online education. At the same time, the experts attending the " International Seminar on Higher Education Reform and Development " were expressing their views on the same issue. They believed that the construction of ' Universities without Walls' is a key step to popularize higher education in China " .

In order to speed up economic development and national revival, the Chinese government has launched the project of developing education, whose target is to raise the gross college enrollment by 15% in the year of 2010. However, statistics indicates that this target could only be met when the GNP reaches US$2500 per capita, which our current situation is still far away from. Under this circumstance, the conflict between the inflated demand for higher education and the scarcity of educational resources stands out and becomes very urgent.

As a brand-new teaching method free from time and spatial limitation, on-line education offers a satisfactory solution to the conflict. Its digital and multimedia interface, rich and updated information, high interactivity and wide coverage provide thousands or even millions with the precious opportunity to receive higher education. Some experts even regard it as the strategic measure to develop higher education under current practical conditions. So far, some universities, including Tsing-hua University, have proposed to establish a " digital campus ". And Peking University is considering to encourage students to get one third of their credits from the network. Statistics also indicates that the on-line education colleges of nearly 20 key universities of China together with the broadcast universities will enroll as many as 1 million distance-learning students in 3 years.

However, compared with the on-line education systems in developed countries, ours is not without problems, one of which concerns developing teaching materials. " Traditionally, teachers and professors compile their own teaching materials and lesson plans, thus owning the copyright of these materials. Now, they are invited to design on-line courses. The on-line universities want to possess, partially or even completely, the ownership of these materials. There comes the complicated issue of intellectual property. " says Zhang Xiaopeng, associate professor of Higher Education Research Institute of Fudan University. Besides, the facilities of on-line education are not satisfactory, either. As Zhang points out, " nowadays Chinese people can't enjoy a high prevalence of computers. The online transmission speed is low, the quality and stability of broad band net is not good enough, and the fee is high. All of these problems are seriously hindering the development of on-line education."

Experts are urging governments at various levels to make policies concerning the copyright issue and other favorable policies to encourage teachers to involve themselves in the on-line teaching work. Moreover, fundamental facilities of on-line education are to be improved to guarantee high-speed and high-quality online services. And the last but not the least, preferential policies and subsidies are also needed to support the initial steps of developing online education.