Open Courses From America Find Eager Audiences in China - Online Learning - The Chronicle of Higher Education
abernard102@gmail.com 2012-10-06
Summary:
"Mo Li, a Chinese postdoctoral fellow at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, wrote to a Yale University philosophy professor last year with a strange request. Mr. Li had never met the professor, Shelly Kagan, nor had he ever attended Yale.
But while working on a doctorate in developmental biology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, in Beijing, Mr. Li and his girlfriend had watched free online lectures of Mr. Kagan's philosophy course 'Death' in the summer of 2010. They liked the course—and the professor—so much that when the two decided to marry, Mr. Li asked Mr. Kagan to surprise his future wife with 'a sentence or two of congratulations on our marriage.' Mr. Kagan did, and Mr. Li and his wife were delighted to hear from the professor whose open courses have made him a star in a country he has never visited.
As more and more courses are offered free to anyone with an Internet connection, some American professors have developed a huge following abroad, particularly in China. Another such scholar is Michael J. Sandel, a Harvard University professor whose highly popular political-philosophy course 'Justice' was the first Harvard course to be offered free online.
He and Mr. Kagan are among the most recognizable American professors in China, says Cici Yue, a graduate of Nankai University, in Tianjin, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The courses are widely accessible there, especially after being subtitled in Mandarin by a group of student volunteers ... The most recent Google Analytics numbers, from July 2009 to January of this year, show that Mr. Kagan's videos on the Open Yale Courses Web site were receiving 3,000 hits per week from China, says Diana Kleiner, director of Open Yale Courses. The actual number of viewers is probably much higher: Since the videos are licensed under Creative Commons, they are also available through third-party sites, such as Youku and Tudou, used by many Chinese students to gain access to the videos ... As for Mr. Sandel, he was named the most influential foreign figure of the year byChina Newsweek, a state-run magazine, last year and commanded huge audiences at lectures he gave during a recent trip to China. Students staked out the lecture hall hours in advance, hoping to get a chance to hear him speak... One explanation for the huge following may be that these courses provide a glimpse into a very different educational system, says Jing Lei, an associate professor of education at Syracuse University. The Ivy League brand is also a big draw, and the courses help people improve their English.
But there's another important reason. Mr. Sandel and Mr. Kagan both believe that their popularity also stems from the big-picture questions that 'Death' and 'Justice' discuss. In China, where the educational focus is largely on science and engineering, attention to such questions has captivated students. 'I think there is a great hunger, especially among students around the world, to engage with big philosophical questions that matter to their lives,' says Mr. Sandel...' Ms. Lei of Syracuse thinks that such open, online liberal-arts courses are shaping a new generation of Chinese students who are seeking intellectual interaction and want to ask questions..."