Online Education to Enhance International Educational Programs
Posted on January 14, 2010 by Li Feng
An increasing number of news stories are painting the picture of an influx of Chinese students to US colleges and graduate schools. Here is an example. American universities are not only figuring out ways to accommodate these students on campus, but also proactively finding Chinese partners to bring in more students from China. There are many models of collaboration between Chinese and American institutions, including the one cited about the University of Nebraska. In this example, undergraduate students study in China for two years and come to the U.S. to complete their bachelor’s degree. Another model is the UMass-Tsinghua academic bridge program that prepares high school graduates for American undergraduate education. (For more information about the bridge program, please go here.) No matter what model is being employed, the online platform can always be a nice enhancement to enrich students’ learning experience.
For example, in the UMass-Tsinghua academic bridge program, UMassOnline piloted an online economics course which is a 3-credit foundation course in the past spring. The students embraced the course and enjoyed their interactions with the instructor who is a UMass professor. The advantages of such online offerings include:
- the students can practice their English through authentic, meaningful communication with American faculty;
- the students can be acquainted with the way American professors teach as early as possible; and
- the students can start building credits even before they enter the U.S. I believe online education can enhance not only the bridge program model, but also other models of international collaboration, such as the University of Nebraska model.
It can also enhance other student exchange programs, such as study abroad programs for American students, summer programs, etc. Use online education creatively and wisely, we will see returns in terms of more effective programs and enriched learning experience for the students.
We look forward to your thoughts or comments on how online education may benefit international educational programs or the possible pitfalls. Please share with us here.
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Online education is also good specially if you have very good and talented students.*~”