Online Courses Get High Marks

Wang is now keen to take part in the online courses provided by Chinese universities.

NetEase says China's open online courses get 100,000 hits per day. The most popular courses at icourses.edu.cn are: Modern Manners, Guide to Six Ancient Chinese Classic Books and Speech and Eloquence.

For many of the participating lecturers, this is the first time their classes have been filmed - and watched across the nation. Even experienced lecturers say this is a different experience.

Yu Dan, a 46-year-old media scholar at Beijing Normal University, who attracted nationwide popularity for her televised lecture series on The Analects of Confucius, says she had to think carefully about the subject of her lecture.

"Online courses will be broadcast to the whole nation, from young students to the elderly, from people with limited education to renowned scholars," she says. "So I need to offer them something that is easy to start with, but is worth delving deeper into."

As such, Yu's online courses are centered on the theme of the moon's image in ancient Chinese poems, which she thinks is easy to access and is related to classical Chinese literature.

Over the past two weeks, the Modern Manners course that took the interest of Anhui student Liu Bing has topped the charts at icourses.edu.cn.

"This is one of our favorite courses," says 21-year old Zhu Lisha, a junior student at Hunan University. "At almost every class, there are so many students they have to stand at the back or on the floor."

"Some of my friends who watched Yuan's class noticed me in the video. They gave me a call and said, 'Hey, that's you on the screen!'" Zhu says, smiling. "It's interesting to be watched by so many people."

Yuan says she felt a lot of pressure to begin with, as she worried that her online students would not like her lecturing style and pick fault.

"But I found that it's not much different from my daily lectures, which I am confident about," she says. "So I gradually forgot about the camera in class."

Yuan often reads comments about her courses. She was surprised to learn that the suit she wears got high marks.

"Receiving so many compliments was a great pleasure," Yuan says. "As a teacher, I see this as my highest reward and very encouraging."

Yuan will attend an online talk show about her lecture on CNTV in early January, which includes interactions with netizens.

"I'm so looking forward to the chance to interact with them and find out how I can improve my lecture."

CNTV plans to offer some 30 online courses by the end of December, says general editorial assistant Wang Yiru.

Wang says the company's online course channel will develop into a comprehensive, free educational platform.

In addition to cooperating with the Ministry of Education, she says the channel is also seeking to collaborate with educational organizations, primary and middle schools and educational bureaus across the country.

By the end of 2012, video materials at the Web portal will expand to as many as 1,000 courses, ranging from primary school to university education level.

By Zhang Yue and Guo Shuhan

Source: China Daily 2011-12-22