A review of e-Learning policy in school education in Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Beijing: implications to future policy planning

Abstract

The acceleration of e-Learning around the world has driven the major cities/regions in the Asia-Pacific region such as Singapore, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Beijing to plan and implement official policies on e-Learning for enhancing the quality of school education. This article aims to review experiences and then draw lessons of these four major Asian cities/regions in the development of e-Learning policies on the dimensions of infrastructure, curriculum integration, students learning, teacher professional development, as well as leadership and capacity building. It is identified that each of the four major Asian cities/regions has its own area of emphasis in the planning of future e-Learning policies, with Singapore focusing on scaling up good practices of e-Learning among teacher community; Hong Kong focusing on creating digital classrooms supported by wireless networking for student-centered learning; Taiwan focusing on cultivating students with 21st century skills through daily subject teaching; and Beijing focusing on providing digital resources and e-textbooks geared to school curricula.

The distance education process in K–12 schools during the pandemic period: evaluation of implementations in Turkey from the student perspective

“…Lastly, Taiwan placed distance education at the forefront of education policies. To this end, emphasis was placed on developing digital resources for K-12 education to be used by teachers, students and citizens, and to construct the hardware infrastructure necessary for distance education (Kong et al, 2014). Thus, it can be seen that even before the Covid-19 outbreak, distance education for K-12 was being implemented in countries around the world in such forms as digital campuses, online training, e-content, educational videos, mail, educational radio, DVDs, mobile phone connections and videoconferences in accordance with the needs and education policies of individual countries.…”

Teachers’ and Students’ Views on E-Learning Readiness in Kuwait’s Secondary Public Schools

“…The vigilant assessment of e-learning readiness postpones the implementation of e-learning. Yet one of the difficulties of adopting e-learning is the absence of appropriate consideration of the individual and organizational factors affecting e-learning readiness (Azimi, 2013; Kong, Chan, Huang, & Cheah, 2014). E-learning readiness, indeed, satisfies the needs of the implementers to trust technology through reassuring effective learning interactions.…”

“…Addressing e-learning readiness should allow both teachers and learners to accomplish their purposes in the most protected and confidential way. Assessment of security and policy elements provides more control over the learning process, with greater consideration toward learning pace and topics (Kong et al., 2014; Memene & Simmons, 2015). In their study of e-learning readiness and online learning environments, Lin et al.…”

Analyzing ICT Policy in K-12 Education in Sudan (1990-2016)

“…In the same context, Tairab, et al, demonstrated that ICT policy is one of the main factors that can drive the educational progress in K-12 education in Sudan (Tairab et al, 2016). In addition, in their study for e-learning policy- (Kong, Chan, Huang, & Cheah, 2014) identified five dimensions or factors to examine the status of the policy: (a) infrastructure, (b) curriculum integration, (c) student learning, (d) teacher professional development and leadership, and (e) capacity building. Before that, UNESCO identified an approach to IT policy and boosts that, this approach consists of "policy -curriculum, assessment resources, professional development, beside the fund generation" (Tilya, 2008).…”

“…In 2001 china followed five years' strategy for ICT (2001)(2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015) (Kong et al, 2014). In addition to enhancing teachers' competencies, school infrastructure, learning resources, China is using OER, and looking forward.…”