Summary:

China’s Sina Education Channel, Sina Big Data Centre and Baidu App Store jointly released a report analysing the behaviour of users of online education materials and assessing the performance of online education products. The report covers four major areas, namely language learning, preschool education, primary and secondary education, and examination preparation, in addition to research on e-learning platforms.

The results show that 18 to 22 year olds are by far the largest consumers of online education products, making up 44 per cent of all users, followed by the 23 to 30 age group who make up a further 31 per cent. According to the report, only one user in 20 is under the age of 18.

Users are most active after 8 pm, and slightly over half of users prefer to access online education material from mobile devices (38 per cent on mobile phones and 19 per cent on tablets), while the remaining 43 per cent prefer using personal computers. Users in their mid-20s and above tend to prefer studying on computers, while under-18s have a strong preference for mobile phones. Almost 90 per cent of parents of primary and secondary students support online education, and 76 per cent of them believe that online courses could replace offline courses.

Users are still predominantly located in China’s largest and most developed cities. Although users in third-tier and fourth-tier cities are growing rapidly as their spending power increases, they are less likely to use online education in general and particularly less likely to use products and services costing over 500 RMB. Among teachers, acceptance of online education products is higher among younger teachers, but even among teachers aged 40+ the acceptance rate is 70 per cent.

Beyond this, the report also predicts growing demand for mobile learning that can split across multiple short periods of time, online learning that is more relevant to specific situations, and platforms that give instant feedback.

According to another report, the “Bluebook of Education Technology 2015”, jointly released by JMD Education, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and Future Works, China’s online education market has been developing rapidly in the past few years, both in terms of the number of education products and the amount of financing it is attracting. Since 2013, the number of education technology enterprises and start-ups has been growing at an average rate of 50 per cent per year. In September 2015, the number of online education products surpassed 3,000, and by November 2015, financing for China's online education market had grown to a total of $1.76 billion.

Analysis by Kevin Prest, Senior Analyst Analysis and Liu Xiaoxiao, Education Services Manager:

The findings of this survey show that there is strong and growing acceptance of online learning in China, but that university-age students in larger cities still make up the bulk of online education users. Although the two reports seem to show that online learning is largely driven by the private sector, the Chinese government does play a role and is supportive to these developments, as seen for example in the announcement of a 10-year plan to popularise ICT in the field of education across China.

UK institutions developing online education products are advised to consider the above findings on user behaviour to optimise performance.

Sources:
1. http://www.jyb.cn/china/gnxw/201512/t20151222_647434.html
2. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2015-12/18/content_22739624.htm
3. http://www.shedunews.com/zixun/shanghai/gaodeng/2015/12/17/2031556.html
4. http://www.moe.edu.cn/jyb_xwfb/s6192/s133/s166/201512/t20151216_225113…
5. http://review.qianlong.com/2015/1210/160336.shtml
6. http://slide.edu.sina.com.cn/slide_11_73162_31929.html