tions seem unwilling to employ them.nesses. Radio is the dominant electronic communications
device in the world, but is sometimes cumbersome to use in
distance education without adequate recording systems. TV
is also popular but not as available as radio. Most African
countries, for example, have several hundred radio receivers
10
per 1000 inhabitants but less than a third of that for TV.
CD-ROM has the advantage of combining the best of WWW
and audio, but the disadvantage of requiring computer skills
and culture.
The yield of virtual universities in developing countries is
relatively low, compared with the cost. Virtual universities
are expensive, require good bandwidth, and need an ICT
infrastructure that is daunting, even for a developing nation.
While this method is ideal from a theoretical perspective, it is
not likely to deliver results proportionate to its cost for a dec-
ade or more. The most successful private virtual university
in the US, University of Phoenix, has market-driven entrance
requirements; i.e., students must be over 21 and have a job.
The degree programs cost between $20,000 and $30,000 per
student. Of course, the student must also have access to a
good Internet/WWW infrastructure. So far University of
Phoenix has less than ten thousand graduates, while most
11
other US private virtual universities have far fewer.
Internet Connectivity—the Digital ChasmInternet Connectivity—the Digital ChasmInternet Connectivity—the Digital ChasmInternet Connectivity—the Digital Chasm
Table 1 is a reminder of the severe difficulty that is entailed
by trying to implement a virtual university or any other
Internet-based Distance Learning approach in a developing
nation. It shows the numbers of Internet host sites and the
number of Internet users worldwide. Africa has approxi-
mately one-fifth of one percent of the world's Internet host
sites. Many of the poorest countries of Asia show Africa-
like numbers, too, since over half the Asia totals are due to
one country: Japan. (China is emerging rapidly—with over
20 million Internet users. See below) Even in the regions
where bandwidth and host site numbers are exceptional, as in
the US, Britain, Finland and Netherlands, the kinds of user
services needed for synchronous or asynchronous Internet
availability around the clock are still not adequate to provide
broadband service to a large population. So even the Inter-
net-rich countries do not have sufficient broadband service.
courses, to some原文请找腾讯752018766辣~文;论'文'网
http://www.751com.cn Internet-based courses, and ultimately to
completely virtual universities. An example can be found in
the experience of China in leveraging the potential benefits
of Distance Learning. The evolution of culture, infrastruc-
ture, technology, content and deployment has led to ex-
tremely rapid developments. The diffusion of the Internet
in China in business and government has been closely linked
to the rise of Distance Learning at Chinese universities.
China has experienced two generations of technology-
assisted Distance Learning. The first is broadcast/TV-based
Distance Learning, which has led to China having the largest
education network in the world. This network consists of the
Central Radio and TV University (CCRTV), forty-four Pro-
vincial TV Universities (PTVU's) and thousands of branch
schools and study centers. Over one hundred million Chinese
are currently receiving training or further education through
special television channels, and as of 1997, more than two
million Chinese had received university diplomas from these
12
TV universities. For more on China’s CCRTV, see “China:
Teacher Training with TV Technology,” TechKnowLogia,
November/December 2000.
China's second distance learning generation, based on Inter-
net technologies, began in mid 1990's. In 1994, the first
TCP/IP-based public computer network, China Education
and Research Network (CERNET), linked Tsinghua Univer-
sity and nine other universities in a manner similar to the
early BITNET in the United States. In 1997, Hunan Univer-
sity became China's first on-line university, and a year later
Recommended Approach: Slow, Volume-basedRecommended Approach: Slow, Volume-basedRecommended Approach: Slow, Volume-basedRecommended Approach: Slow, Volume-based
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