Students' Attitudes towards Distance Education: A Comparative Study between Sino-Foreign Cooperative Universities and Typical Universities in China

The global pandemic in Spring 2010 catapulted hundreds of universities worldwide into the realm of online education. Technological advancements over the last two decades had made online education viable but it was still a relatively small part of higher education. For most students the move to online education was not a choice or an option but a necessity and their reactions will play an important part in strategic decisions made in higher education for years to come. It is important to understand their perception's and attitudes towards online education. The implications for Western universities with campuses in China are significant due to the vast differences in delivering US accredited course content online vs in person in China. Sino-foreign cooperative universities deliver Western curriculum courses in English thereby providing students with a different academic experience than typical Chinese universities. An exploration of whether the attitude of Sino-foreign cooperative university students and Chinese university students towards distance education is different is relevant at this time. Data was collected by an online survey completed by both students of typical Chinese universities and of Sino-foreign universities. The results suggest that students had a generally positive attitude towards distance education and that there were no significant differences in students' attitudes towards distance education as a function of the type of university they attend. The findings are of interest because if Chinese students prove receptive to online education in general, the type of opportunities for Sino-Chinese Universities are significantly changed.