What is the interview about?

Interviewer (W) Professor Gu (M)
W: What are the advantages of (1-1) E-education, Professor Gu?
M: There are at least four advantages. First, (1 - 2) with access to the Internet, students can overcome barriers of space and time. For example, we can make educational resources in Beijing available to students in Xinjiang. Second is the easy access. For example, we can put multimedia resources libraries (1 -3) on the Internet and students can have access to these libraries just by clicking the mouse. The third advantage is the optimization of resources. For example, we can tape the lectures given by very prominent professors and broadcast them live in China and even in the entire world through the Internet. Because of these three advantages, there is another big advantage, that is, the Internet technology makes mass education possible. As you know, it is simply impossible for the whole population to receive education on campus. It is impossible economically or otherwise. And this is where (2) the greatest advantage of E-education lies. It offers mass education and education for lifetime.
W: (1- 4) Can you briefly tell us the history of China’s E-education, Professor Gu?
M: (3) E-education in China started eight years ago when the Internet technology began to prevail. People realized that the Internet technology was more powerful than TV, because it really created the opportunities for students to interact with teachers and among themselves. In 1996 or later than that, the Ministry of Education initiated a piloting project using the Internet technology to promote education.
W: My understanding is that an online education project may involve a large amount of money and yet most investors would expect a quick return for their investment, so how did you solve that problem?
M: This is the lesson that lots of investors have to learn from this initial investment into online education program. Initially, they thought it might be possible to have a quick return of cash after the investment for one or two years. It is a misconception of online education. Sometimes, I used a metaphor of building a supermarket. If you want to build a supermarket, first of all, you have to have these infrastructures. On top of the building, you have to develop various goods that people like. It’s the same with education. You must realize you have to develop courseware that people really love. And it takes quite a long time to develop really good courseware.
W: Then, how do you look at the so-called digital gap between the rich and the poor, between the urban areas and the rural areas in China?
M: Actually, (4) the Internet technology can bridge the gap between the poor and the rich. Take the development of the northwest China for example. I used to think it would be very difficult for the Internet to be widely accessible in those areas. But actually the government invested money and made the broadband Internet access possible in Guizhou and Gansu because the government realized it is impossible to have so many teachers in those areas.
W: Perhaps the local officials in those areas are just attracted by the idea of E-education, but nothing has been seriously translated into action.
M: You are right. The problem of local authority is that they have the technologies, but they don’t make good use of these technologies. So I think the biggest problem of online education in China is not the electric mind. It is the human mind.
W: The biggest problem that E-education is confronted with is probably the development of good courseware. What are the difficulties involved?
M: To me, the most difficult part of courseware development is that it is hard to develop courseware simply by putting in the concepts of learning process. We have to humanize technology. This is the greatest challenge in courseware development.
W: I have a question about conducting examinations online. How do you make sure the results of the examinations are reliable online?
M: This is a big question and the big headache for us at the moment. We have developed the online testing program. However, we can’t implement it because we have no way to check whether the examinee is the real examinee. So at this moment, (5) we cannot do any serious online testing except for what we call " safe monitoring testing" . The students can test themselves for their own purpose and check their own progress. Any serious examinations have to be done in the traditional classroom.
W: Given the problem of taking examinations online, how can you persuade your students to accept the online exam as a viable option?
M: We have adopted the third party policy. By the third party, it means we authorize the Examination Center under the Ministry of Education to conduct examinations for us.
W: Professor Gu, two years from now I’d like to interview one of your degree-holders from Beiwai Online so that he or she may testify to the effects of online education.
M: That would be a great idea and you are very welcome to do that.