Report shows Chinese students have most positive attitude toward online courses

BEIJING - Chinese high school students had the most positive attitude toward online learning compared with those in the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK), according to a report released by China Youth Daily.

The report showed that most of the surveyed students in the four countries embrace online learning. "Online learning is important" was perceived by 87.1 percent of Chinese students, and "online learning is interesting" was supported by 91.2 percent of Chinese students, both higher than that in any of the other three countries.

More than 94 percent of Chinese high school students believed that online learning can expand their scope of knowledge, while 86.8 percent believed that they can learn from first-class teachers via the internet, according to the report.

Though online learning can push the boundaries of time and space, the report said the students were easily distracted, adding that students in the four countries expressed similar concerns such as poor vision, reliance on the internet and less effort in problem-solving on their own.

The study, jointly conducted by researchers at China Youth & Children Research Center and their counterparts in the other three countries, covered 3,903 Chinese high school students, 1,521 US high school students, 2,204 Japanese high school students and 1,618 high school students of the ROK.