This document discusses the development of linked learning in Chinese higher education. It provides background on higher education in China, noting that the earliest Chinese university dates back to 1100 BC. Linked learning in China has emerged from three generations of distance education dating back to 1951. While e-learning enrollment is growing, there are also significant barriers to linked learning in China, including insufficient infrastructure, government censorship, concerns about cheating, and pedagogical differences from traditional Chinese education. The document concludes that linked learning will continue playing an important role in the expansion of higher education in China.

1. PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING DESIGN
Linked Learning in Chinese
Higher Education
Paul Hofmann
Research Presentation
November 10, 2010

2. PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING DESIGN
Overview of
The People’s Republic of China
 Founded in 1949
 Estimated Population
of 1.3 billion
 Communist
Government
 Fourth largest
country in the world
by area

3. PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING DESIGN
Origins of
Higher Education in China
 Earliest Chinese University
dates to 1100 B.C. during the
Zhou dynasty
 During the height of the Han
Dynasty (206 B.C. – 220 A.D.),
more than 30,000 students
attended the main campus in
Chang ’An.

4. PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING DESIGN
Higher Education
in Modern China
 Today there are more
than 20 million
students are enrolled
in 2,000 colleges and
universities
 Project 211 and Project
985

5. PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING DESIGN
Origins of Linked Learning
in Chinese Higher Education
 Linked Learning in China has emerged from three
distinct generations of distance learning (Ding et al.,
2010)
 Correspondence-based education (People’s University, 1951)
 Central Chinese Radio andTV Universities (1960)
 Online Education (Qinghua University, 1998)

6. PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING DESIGN
Growth of Linked Learning
in Chinese Higher Education
 More than 166,000 Chinese students were
enrolled in recognized e-learning
programs in 2007.
 By 2008, e-learning enrollment in China
exceeds enrollment in the country’s radio
and television universities for the first
time.

7. PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING DESIGN
Barriers and Challenges to
Linked Learning in China
 Insufficient Infrastructure
 Government Censorship
 Issues with Approval and Administrative
Oversight
 Concerns about Cheating and a Perception of a
Lack of Rigor
 Legal Concerns
 Pedagogical Differences
 Teaching Differences
 Learning Differences

8. PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING DESIGN
Insufficient Infrastructure
 As of June 2010, Internet users in China reached
420 million (China Internet Network Information
Center, 2010)
 Despite being the largest linked market in the
world, approximately 900 million Chinese remain
unconnected.
 Building sufficient infrastructure is complicated
by a large geographic region with many isolated
rural areas.

9. PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING DESIGN
Government Oversight and
Authorization
 Information technologies are viewed as a
potential liberating force for democracy (Otani,
2010).
 Decisions are made by government bureaucrats,
not educators and learners (Carr-Chellman &
Zhang, 2000).
 Since 1999, only 67 COEs have been approved by
the Ministry of Education (Zhao & Jiang, 2010).
 Approval process is slow and highly politicized

10. PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING DESIGN
Cheating and a Lack of Rigor
 Concerns over quality control; rigor, and efficacy
(Ding et al., 2010)
 Lack of perceived quality and prestige
 Cheating is institutionalized in China
▪ GMAT (Damast, 2009)
▪ TOEFL / IELTS (Jaschik, 2006)

11. PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING DESIGN
Legal Concerns
 A lack of established laws governing the Linked
Learning Industry
 Faculty and Student Rights
 Concerns over Intellectual Property
▪ Curriculum
▪ Software
▪ Hardware

12. PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING DESIGN
Pedagogical Concerns
 Linked Learning is pedagogically at odds with
more than 3000 years of Chinese higher
education
 Teacher training is required to foster a student-
centered, collaborative environment
 Chinese Learners require more face-to-face
interaction with peers and instructors than
Linked Learning offers

13. PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING DESIGN
Opportunities
 Innovative partnerships with overseas
institutions
 Economic opportunities for hardware vendors
and foreign institutions
 Opportunities for ongoing social change in China
 Freedom of Speech
 Human Rights
 FairTrade

14. PRINCIPLES OF LEARNING DESIGN
Conclusions
 The development of Linked Learning in
China has mirrored the development of
the same in the United States
 Linked Learning will play an integral role in
the further expansion of Chinese Higher
Education.