China’s traditional schools embrace online learning as coronavirus forces students to stay at home

Like most senior high school students in China, 18-year-old Xu Yuting had planned to resume her studies earlier this year to prepare for upcoming college entrance exams. However, the spread of the coronavirus over the Lunar New Year holiday break has meant the postponement of school semesters, forcing students like Xu to stay at home.

Rather than fall behind, Xu and many others have already begun learning full time again – only from home – in what may become the largest online teaching trial the country has seen.

Traditional bricks and mortar schools in China are now exploring online education options as authorities postpone the new semester until the middle of this month or even into early March .

“There’s no choice [that we have to teach online now],” said Jessie Xie, a 24-year-old high schoolteacher living in Chengdu city. As such, she needs to learn new skills such as speaking naturally in front of a camera, using a digital red pen during PowerPoint presentations, and engaging students via online written comments.

Last week her school started coaching teachers on how to use Alibaba Group’s DingTalk to conduct live-streaming courses. “It’s not easy for some older teachers to learn how to do live-streaming courses. Yesterday one of my colleagues told me she still didn’t know how to use it [even after the coaching session],” Xie said. Alibaba is the parent company of the South China Morning Post.

Chinese authorities are calling on people to stay at home to help reduce the spread of the virus through human contact. Health authorities in China announced on Tuesday that coronavirus fatalities had risen to 425 nationwide and that total confirmed cases had reached 20,438 as of Monday.