Historical Comparisons of Distance Education in the USA and China

1840

When?
Isaac Pitman inventor of shorthand started teaching
shorthand via correspondence.

USA

1876

1883-1891

1891

Start of university level distance

education at Illinois Wesleyan
University

Degrees authorized by state of

of NY through Chautauqua
College of Liberal Arts
University of Wisconsin developed short courses and
farmer's institute in 1885.
Thomas J. Foster,editor of news-paper "Mining Herald"
started correspondence courses in mining and prevention of
mineaccidents.
International Correspondence
Schools was launced by Foster.

1900

First Department of correspondence

teaching opened at the University of
Chicago.

1920

In higher education, universities

were first to have courses via radio
broadcast.
Federal government authorized first
educational radio license for distance education courses.

1930 - 1950's

1960's- early 2000

2000 - 2013

World's first educational television

station airs its premier telecast via
campus radio station in 1933 in Iowa.
First educational television station.
Development of satellite technology
for instructional television.
First educationa satellite system "Learn/ Alaska" created in
1980.
Development of fiber-optic communication to
be used in two-way, high-quality audio & video systems in
education.
Course Notes Launched at UT Austin 2000422
Web Course Tools established in 2003
Youtube launched 2005
Youtube EDU offered free online lectures
iTunes offered lectures for download 2006
MIT and Harvard open online courses 2012
First online public university in the US 2013

Chinese government acknowledges the need

for western science and technology
1842

China

1905

Dismantling of civil service exams and

inauguration of primary, secondary and tertiary
education modeled after western societal models.

1921

Communist party attempted to modify new system.

1949

Japanese invasion changed previous system .

Current leader at the time used the Soviet Russian
model of education, ie, higher education.
Establishment of new polytechnic and comprehensive
universities.

1976
China

1985 - 1995

2000

2000 - 2006

2007

University system modernized to include industry,

agriculture, science and technology & national defense.
Only 1% of Chinese citizens had been enrolled in higher
education.
Search began for more flexible ways to educate more
people.
The "Decision of the Reform of the Education System"
lead to opening of university and technical college systems.
The Education Law of the People's Republic of China took
place in 1995.

Department of Higher Educatioin launched a 'New

Century Online Course Construction Project' and
built 200 online courses for elementary courses, case
library and databank of exam questions.
Basic teaching resources construction in pilot
universities to meet the needs of online teaching

Launched online educational selected courses

construction & evaluation, promoting the
construction and sharing of quality educational
practices.

Method of Delivery
First generation 1850's - 1960:
Print (1890+)
Radio (1930s)
Television (1930s and 1960s)
* Early distance education was limited
to one-way communication between
faculty and students.

Second generation 1960-1985:

Audio-cassettes
Television
Video cassettes
Fax
Print
The use of a mixed-media approach included text, audio and visuals
to be used via radio and television began with openening of British
Open University in 1969.

Third generation 1985 - 1995:

(Multiple Use of Technologies)
Computers & Computer Networking

Fourth Generation (current generation):

Combines third year and;
Desktop videoconferencing
Two-way interactive audio & video
Web-based media etc.

First Generation (Correspondence based educ):

Postal Communication
Printing Technology

Second Generation:
Radio
Television ( Done in two phases)
1. City universities used black & white television
networks around 1960 in Beijing & Shanghai
2. Radio & TV University System served whole
country and was based on color television in
1978.

Third Generation:
E-learning or online education used by
conventional universities such as Tsinghua
University in 1998. Characterized by
computer network technology, satellite tv
technology and telecommunications technology.

Achievements, Trends Current Status

Online enrollment was up by 1 million
students from 2009 - 2010. A 21%
increase from the previous year.

Since 2002 enrollment rose by 4 million

Arizona, West Virginia and Iowa had the highest percentage of students
enrolled in exclusively online courses, with 48 percent, 40 percent and 39.7
percent of all students

Online students are now a new subpopulation of higher education learners.

Online learners generally fall into 2

categories, yound and mature. The mature
learners tend to feel insecure about
distance education.

Graduate students are more likely than undergraduates to study exclusively

online. Of the 2.9 million graduate students in the
U.S., 22 percent of them studied exclusively online.

After 28 yrs of development, the system

of China Radio & TV universities have
formed a modern distance open
educational system across China.
67 national conventional universities have established a total of 5034 offcampus learning centres.