eChina-UK Project

Research into Intercultural Professional Development for E-learning

The eChina Phase 2 project on intercultural professional development for e-learning involves three UK Universities: Lancaster University, the lead University, with consultancy expertise from the University of Sheffield and the Open University, and four Chinese universities in a Sino-UK collaboration.

In the UK, the project is funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), and is one of several current projects in this programme.

Those involved in the project include:

United Kingdom

Lancaster University, Centre for Studies in Advanced Learning Technology, Department of Educational Research.

Professor David McConnell, Project Director.
Dr Jianhua Zhao, Research Associate and Project Manager.

Consultants

Mr Vic Lally, University of Sheffield, and Mental Health Foundation UK
Ms Sheena Banks, University of Sheffield
Professor Peter Knight, Open University

China

Beijing Normal University School of Educational Technology (lead partner in China)

Prof. & Dr. Ronghuai Huang
Mr Liu Bangxiang, Beijing Normal University , Project Manager
Professor Geng Chen, College of Distance Learning and Continuing Education, Beijing Jiaotong University
Professor Jianping Zhang, Education College, Zhejiang Normal University
Professor Kedong Li, College of Educational Information Technology, South China Normal University
Dr Yueliang Zhou, Education College, Zhejiang Normal University

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AIMS

The project has three main aims:

The collaborative production of an intercultural, professional development e-learning and teaching course , to be run online and offered to higher education staff in the UK and China. This will involve the examination of intercultural (Sino-UK) conceptions of e-learning
The collaborative (UK-China) development of a new tool for supporting formative assessment and knowledge extraction in online group learning settings.
The development of a framework/model for planning and running intercultural professional development in e-learning.

PROJECT OUTCOMES AND DELIVERABLES

Collaborative Sino-UK development of an intercultural, professional development course in e-learning and teaching.
A report on the evaluation of the e-learning course aimed at informing both UK and Chinese higher education personnel, drawing out policy and practice implications
An evaluation of the tool for supporting collaborative e-learning, with particular attention given to the potential use of the tool in the UK higher education sector
A framework/model for planning and running intercultural professional development in the Chinese and UK higher education e-learning contexts.
A series of workshops in China and the UK aimed at disseminating policy, practice and research findings to the higher education communities.
A series of dissemination papers on the various outcomes of our collaborative work to be presented at international conferences, published in journals etc.
A report on intercultural conceptions of e-learning and teaching.

More>

More details may be obtained from David McConnell

< Back to Research Projects