China Distance Learning Study Award

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China Distance Learning Study Award

• 15th Annual WCET Conference
• George Bagwell, Prof., Colorado Mountain College,
  LBagwell_at_coloradomtn.edu, http//faculty.coloradom
  tn.edu/bagwell/

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China Distance Learning Study Award

• Who? Recipients of the China Distance Learning
  Study Award and traveling companions were George
  Bagwell and Randy Tatroe, Director of the Media
  Center, Auraria Higher Education Center in
  downtown Denver.

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China Distance Learning Study Award

• What? The Awards, sponsored by the IET
  Foundation and the Telecommunications Cooperative
  for Colorado (TELECOOP), included airfare,
  domestic travel by land, lodging, meals, and a
  1,000 stipend. The recipients visited higher
  education institutions in China to learn about
  the status of distance education in the country,
  observe practices, investigate needs, identify
  potential areas of collaboration between U.S. and
  Chinese educational institutions, and make
  recommendations.

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China Distance Learning Study Award

• Where? Beijing and Tianjin, China
• When? March 17-30, 2003

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China Distance Learning Study Award

• How? The Award recipients were lodged at the
  Beijing Mineral University Conference Centre.
  Distance learning facilities and staff at several
  universities and a community college were
  visited. The IET Foundations Beijing office and
  the China Central Radio and TV Universitys
  Department of International Cooperation and
  Exchange provided principal hosts and
  interpretive services.

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Wednesday, March 19

• Visited Beijing Radio and Television University.
  Met with Deputy President Zhang Daixia and
  others. Toured facilities.
• Notes Open admissions wide variety of courses
  and programs entry exams for some programs
  37,000 students and growing fast minimum age 17
  most students are 20-30 must have graduated from
  secondary school print-based/textbook media is
  major modality

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Beijing Radio and TV University

• 5/6 of courses are asynchronous correspondence,
  telecourse, and small but growing web courses
  1/6 of courses are synchronous two-way
  interactive courses on network of many study
  centers in the service area students must
  demonstrate self-discipline and have email and
  internet skills student success rate is 60
  overall but as low as 30 in some programs
  importance of pre-entrance education
  (orientation to distance learning modalities)
  emphasized

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Beijing Radio and TV University

• also, importance of training faculty in various
  DL modalities was emphasized.
• Visited a Beijing Senior Aged University
  computer lab classroom.

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BRTVU Senior Aged University computer lab
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Standing in a sea of one days snail mailings
to/from DL students at BRTVU
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Thursday, March 20

• Visited China Central Radio and TV University.
  Met with Vice President Yan Bing, who is also
  Principal of China TV Teachers College and Editor
  in Chief of the monthly publication China
  Distance Education, and with Prof. Li Yawan, who
  is Director of the International Cooperation and
  Exchange Department, and others.
• Toured China Educational TV-Online facilities,
  live transmission classroom, library, and
  bookstore.

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A broadcast studio at CCRTVU
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Interactive, live transmission classroom at CCRTVU
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View from a CCRTVU office window
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From within the Forbidden City
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On the Great Wall
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Beijing skyline from atop Summer Palace
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Martial arts class at Nankai Community College
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With TRTVU and NCC staff. Banner reads Welcome
American Remote Education Experts to Our College
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A computer lab at Nankai Community College
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Thursday, March 27

• Visited Tsinghua University. Met with Vice
  President Cen Zhangzhi and Senior Engineer Yue
  You of the China Education and Research Network
  Center and others.
• Notes 35,000 FTE students in mostly science and
  engineering programs, 13,000 undergraduate/
  22,000 graduate want to move to 50/50 ratio and
  use distance learning modalities to increase
  undergrads 100 teaching centers across the
  country receive satellite downlink and students
  use internet/email as return medium

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Tsinghua University

• now has 12,000 students online most curriculum
  is professional continuing education now
  initiating online masters degree programs but
  will require some on-campus residency (come to
  campus to recognize your own home) concern
  expressed for ensuring credibility and
  accountability of distance learning programs
  over 100 TU faculty have been sent to U.S. to
  learn to teach their courses in English

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Tsinghua University

• common DL subjects include economics, law,
  computing, biology, and others by demand budget
  for DL is planned to grow to US122,000,000 in
  five years expect more use of internet as
  bandwidth connections improve expect satellite
  delivery to be primary.

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Interactive video classroom at Tsinghua University
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Behind the instructors desk
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Friday, March 28

• Met with Ministry of Education P.R.C. official Li
  Ping, who is Director of the Division of Distance
  Education and Continuing Education of the Higher
  Education Department. Learned of Chinas
  increasing interest in receiving a wide variety
  of curricula in English from U.S. and U.K.
• China expects to host international conferences
  of distance learning educators and
  products/services providers in the near future.

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Randy, Fun-Den, and staff in IET Beijing office
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The IET Foundation

• Fun-Den Wang, Professor Emeritus of Colorado
  School of Mines, and his wife Agnes established
  the IET Foundation in 1993 in Colorado, and its
  affiliate in Beijing was established soon
  thereafter.
• IETs endowment comes from International
  Engineering Technology, Inc.

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The IET Foundation

• Its mission is to help people obtain knowledge
  and skills for meaningful and productive lives,
  serving society with dignity and integrity.
• Its goal is to enable access to education for
  anyone with a desire to learn.
• It recognizes a challenge to teach ourselves and
  future generations how to use the classical
  wisdom of the ages to enrich current
  instructional approaches and technologies.

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The IET Foundation

• Since 1994, many scholarships and research awards
  have been bestowed on students and teachers from
  a wide variety of fields. Presently, the
  Foundation concentrates its efforts in its
  founders homeland of China and where they
  currently live and work in Colorado. More than
  25 higher education institutions in China and
  Colorado are affiliated with the IET Foundation.