Usage and purpose

There is not much in the literature about how students and teachers are using the TLCP material. Beijing city used external evaluators to conduct an in-depth study of the city-wide TLCP program in 2005, but most of the feedback was focused on how the materials were used in the class for which it was created - in other words, the TLCP functioned more as a generic learning management system. However, data also shows that while most students accessed material relevant to their current school work, a number of high school students used the material to check out interesting college courses, and some students accessed material purely related to their interests. Teachers were also said to use the material to prepare for classes, but it was not clear whether they were using their own material to prepare for their own classes, or if they were consulting material prepared by other teachers (Ding & Wang, 2005).

Discussions with professors and graduate students at South China Normal University has revealed that while TLCP was initially set up to improve the quality of undergraduate teaching, most contributors see it as aiming to fulfill four different goals: involve more high-level professors in the teaching of undergraduate students (which is rare in China) and increase the interaction between senior scholars and young professors or lecturers; support self-learners; inspire other professors to improve the quality of their teaching; and develop high quality teaching materials. One of the problems with much of the Chinese literature is that it does not sufficiently separate between these four goals, and thus the analysis becomes muddled.

D10

10) criteria of highest quality distance courses. 

promote life-long learning, learning society. 

talks about how students use TLCP in class? sites provide lot's of discussion forums, BBS, personalized features like notebook, diary/schedule etc. compared number of features between two (randomly selected classes). best TLCP are the ones that allow for lot's of interaction with students. personalization etc.