Commenting on Western Open Courses by Chinese Learners

Abstract

This article examines web comments written by Chinese learners on online open courses that are originally produced by leading universities in the United States and United Kingdom and are later introduced to China with Chinese translation. It applies the thematic discourse analysis strategy to classify the comments into themes to explore the patterns of studying behaviors of the Chinese learners. The analysis reveals that open access as the concept and practice of educational resources sharing is overwhelmingly supported. With regard to open course content, the Chinese are more interested in course materials that echo their daily experience than in courses that merely deliver knowledge and skills. A debate on the social effect of foreign open courses on Chinese ideology is discussed.

Chinese Open Universities

“…Overall, the Chinese self-learners give credits to open educational resources and appreciate the efforts of various contributors for making open educational sharing possible. Chinese are more interested in courses that echo their daily experience than courses that merely deliver knowledge and skills (Xia, 2013). These open online courses help Chinese have a better understanding of international education concepts, contents, models, and processes (Sun, 2013).…”