Monday, October 15, 2001

For Sale: A Distance-Education Platform Developed in China By JEN LIN-LIU Shanghai The Chinese government is offering to sell for $9.67-million a software package for online education that was developed by Hunan University, local newspapers reported on Thursday. The multimedia software package was created for China's first online-university project, developed at Hunan University in 1998. Since then, the government has chosen Qinghua University, Beijing Communications University, Zhejiang University, and Peking University, among other institutions, to carry out distance education through computer networks. Local newspaper reports say that as many as 45 universities in China provide online education, serving more than 50,000 students. In July, the Ministry of Education said that China was planning to spend $43-million over the next two years to help the country's disadvantaged and remote western regions begin distance-education projects. Wang Zhuzhu, an official with the Education Technology Office of the Ministry of Education, said that the government had made it a priority to expand distance education in China, particularly in remote areas, to enable more people to get university degrees. The government hopes that distance education will also allow several million high-school students who are rejected from traditional universities each year to further their education. Background articles from The Chronicle: Chinese Government Predicts Strong Growth in Online Education (5/21/2001) China Plans to Expand Distance Education in Western Regions (7/13/2000) Easy-to-print version E-mail this article

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