Distance education in rural China achieves inter-school collaboration and increased access to education

Abstract

Interscholastic collaborative learning could not only develop student integrated skills but could also promote sharing of teaching ideas and methods among schools. The purpose of this study was to design and use scaffold strategies to conduct a cross-regional collaborative learning activity among secondary schools in China. The three thematic learning activities - under the theme of Athletic Sport & Culture were designed for online collaborative learning. Specific scaffold strategies were designed to encourage effective online collaborative experiences for all participants. Thirty-six secondary schools, ranging across the most to the least educationally-developed areas in China, were selected and participated in the study. The study found that systematic scaffold strategies were essential for a variety of students to have effective cross-regional online collaborative learning experiences. The authors suggest that educational scaffold strategies should not only be used at the beginning of learning, but should also be provided at each stage of collaborative learning as a system. © ASODE 2008.