Coping with the Challenges of Open Online Education in Chinese Societies in the Mobile Era: NTHU OCW as a Case Study

In an era witnessing the rapid development of information technology, mobile devices have brought revolutionary changes to learning. A single conventional media platform is not enough for the various mobile devices. Technology-enriched educational environments supported by different devices are impo...

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Main Authors: Shelley Shwu-Ching Young, Hui-Chun Hung
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Athabasca University Press 2014-07-01
Series:International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1742/2908
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author Shelley Shwu-Ching Young
Hui-Chun Hung
author_facet Shelley Shwu-Ching Young
Hui-Chun Hung
author_sort Shelley Shwu-Ching Young
collection DOAJ
description In an era witnessing the rapid development of information technology, mobile devices have brought revolutionary changes to learning. A single conventional media platform is not enough for the various mobile devices. Technology-enriched educational environments supported by different devices are important research issues nowadays. To capture the rapid growth of mobile users in Chinese societies, OpenCourseWare (OCW) needs to move their learning models toward the mobile sphere. Therefore, this study reports the three years of empirical experience in implementing the upgraded National Tsing Hua University OCW platform and analyzes how users access the platform with various devices. The results indicate a responsive web design and cloud-computing provide great accessibility to meet the diversity of various mobile devices from Chinese users throughout the world, including 466,429 visits with 264 different mobile devices from 146 territories. Moreover, the proposed solutions make the workflow of OCW production more efficient. The study further discussed the importance of both tablets and smartphones. Moreover, to expand the reach of open educational resources (OER) in Chinese societies, the critical issues of fair use and sustainability of OER should be of concern. The findings of the study provide valuable references for web engineers and educators to explore cross-device online learning using PCs and mobile devices.
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spelling doaj.art-1109779d44074db6aaa77e8ca45755362022-12-21T18:27:25ZengAthabasca University PressInternational Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning1492-38312014-07-01153Coping with the Challenges of Open Online Education in Chinese Societies in the Mobile Era: NTHU OCW as a Case StudyShelley Shwu-Ching Young 0Hui-Chun Hung 1National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan National Tsing Hua University, Taiwan In an era witnessing the rapid development of information technology, mobile devices have brought revolutionary changes to learning. A single conventional media platform is not enough for the various mobile devices. Technology-enriched educational environments supported by different devices are important research issues nowadays. To capture the rapid growth of mobile users in Chinese societies, OpenCourseWare (OCW) needs to move their learning models toward the mobile sphere. Therefore, this study reports the three years of empirical experience in implementing the upgraded National Tsing Hua University OCW platform and analyzes how users access the platform with various devices. The results indicate a responsive web design and cloud-computing provide great accessibility to meet the diversity of various mobile devices from Chinese users throughout the world, including 466,429 visits with 264 different mobile devices from 146 territories. Moreover, the proposed solutions make the workflow of OCW production more efficient. The study further discussed the importance of both tablets and smartphones. Moreover, to expand the reach of open educational resources (OER) in Chinese societies, the critical issues of fair use and sustainability of OER should be of concern. The findings of the study provide valuable references for web engineers and educators to explore cross-device online learning using PCs and mobile devices.http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1742/2908mobile learning; OpenCourseWare; online courses; Chinese society; cross-device learning
spellingShingle Shelley Shwu-Ching Young
Hui-Chun Hung
Coping with the Challenges of Open Online Education in Chinese Societies in the Mobile Era: NTHU OCW as a Case Study
International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning
mobile learning; OpenCourseWare; online courses; Chinese society; cross-device learning
title Coping with the Challenges of Open Online Education in Chinese Societies in the Mobile Era: NTHU OCW as a Case Study
title_full Coping with the Challenges of Open Online Education in Chinese Societies in the Mobile Era: NTHU OCW as a Case Study
title_fullStr Coping with the Challenges of Open Online Education in Chinese Societies in the Mobile Era: NTHU OCW as a Case Study
title_full_unstemmed Coping with the Challenges of Open Online Education in Chinese Societies in the Mobile Era: NTHU OCW as a Case Study
title_short Coping with the Challenges of Open Online Education in Chinese Societies in the Mobile Era: NTHU OCW as a Case Study
title_sort coping with the challenges of open online education in chinese societies in the mobile era nthu ocw as a case study
topic mobile learning; OpenCourseWare; online courses; Chinese society; cross-device learning
url http://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/1742/2908
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