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LoD Travel Report: Future Opportunities in China's eLearning Market
August 2003
Author: Eilif Trondsen
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About This Report
This report presents observations and insights emerging from the eLearnChina conference on 21–23 July 2003 in Edinburgh, Scotland. The organizer of the conference was SunV Europe Ltd., a software-development company that markets and localizes products and services around the world, including in China. Although many attendees wondered why planners decided to locate a conference on this topic in Scotland, organizers chose this location for good reasons (beyond the fact that Edinburgh is a beautiful and historic city). Scotland is home to a large number of eLearning companies with strong export ambitions—many of which see China as an interesting, emerging market—and a variety of organizations in the country, such as the eLearning Alliance and Scottish Enterprises, provide support and assistance to eLearning companies. Many Scottish universities—including the University of Abertay Dundee, which is a key player in the Games2Play initiative (see the LoD Bulletin, Fourth Quarter 2002)—are developing innovative eLearning solutions. Moreover, several universities are participating in collaborative research programs with China, such as the Sino-Scottish Institute, or are developing online-learning programs with Chinese universities.
Surprisingly, many of the presentations at the conference had little to say about eLearning in China, instead addressing generic eLearning topics. Nonetheless, some useful and interesting information and ideas came out of the conference:
- Is China leapfrogging the West in eLearning and setting new eLearning standards? Jonathan Levy of Harvard Business School Publishing believes that China has a huge opportunity to define “next-generation eLearning” in the area of personalized performance support.
- China has an opportunity to leverage the best in other countries into China’s schools and higher education. One presentation described an interesting project in Singapore and Hong Kong in which students are using an eLearning platform for collaborative, project-based learning that could see use in China in the future. Another project, with European Commission funding, is leveraging the outcomes of previous European Union– (EU-) funded projects in China.
- A growing number of universities around the world see exciting opportunities to leverage their existing content and eLearning R&D projects in China. A growing number of Chinese universities are moving into eLearning, and many of them already have, or are establishing, collaborative relationships with universities in other countries to gain access to their online resources and expertise.
- Analysts disagree about the extent of near-term opportunities in China’s corporate or government eLearning markets, but most agree that in the long term, the opportunities are likely to be significant. Even in the longer term, however, operating in China will pose significant challenges, in most cases requiring strong partners with the right relationships and connections.
- Small, niche eLearning companies will likely need to partner with larger firms that have the deep pockets and patience necessary to succeed in China. Many small eLearning companies want to export to China, but most of them have unrealistic expectations and have not done the market analysis or collected the intelligence necessary to develop successful strategies. Some smaller eLearning companies with unique capabilities, perhaps with government support and good connections to key organizations in China, may find success, but most small players will find success elusive.
- Large technology companies have an opportunity to bundle eLearning with other product and service contracts. Many large technology companies—such as IBM, Sun, Cisco, and Oracle—may have a special opportunity to help Chinese government agencies or state-owned companies deploy eLearning by bundling or embedding eLearning solutions with their existing or future projects. These companies could, for instance, leverage some of the management-training eLearning materials that they have developed for internal use and share the knowledge and expertise that they have gained in building their own, advanced eLearning programs.
We welcome feedback about this report and the program, and we encourage you to contact us with any questions or suggestions. For more information, contact Eilif Trondsen, director, Learning-on-Demand (LoD) Program; telephone: +1 650 859 2665; fax: +1 650 859 4544; e-mail: etrondsen@sric-bi.com. We appreciate your support of our program and look forward to working closely with you as a Learning-on-Demand sponsor.
Table of Contents
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| About This Report |
1 |
| Demand Perspectives |
2 |
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An Optimistic View of the Future Chinese eLearning Market |
2 |
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More Realistic View of the Future? |
5 |
| Supply Perspectives |
8 |
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Network-Training Collaboration in Europe and China |
9 |
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The U.K. eUniversities Initiative in China’s eLearning Market |
12 |
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K–12 eLearning Projects in Hong Kong and Singapore as Test Beds
for China |
13 |
| Emerging Opportunities |
14 |
| Challenges |
17 |
| Outlook |
18 |
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| Tables |
| Impressive Economic Statistics |
3 |
| The Changing Learning Environment in China |
5 |
| Demand-Moderating Factors |
6 |
| Project-Based Learning |
14 |
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| Figures |
| Universities’ eLearning Role in China |
7 |
| Course Production, Delivery, and Presentation |
11 |
| Bundling or Embedding of eLearning in Other Contracts |
16 |
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| Boxes |
| China as a Consumer-Electronics Producer and Outsourcing Center |
8 |
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