Let's E 2day~~~

Surprisingly, many of the presentations at the conference had little
to say about eLearning in China, instead addressing generic eLearning
topics. Nonetheless, some useful and interesting information and ideas
came out of the conference:
• Is China leapfrogging the West in eLearning and setting new
eLearning standards? Jonathan Levy of Harvard Business School
Publishing believes that China has a huge opportunity to define
搉ext-generation eLearning?in the area of personalized
performance support.
• China has an opportunity to leverage the best in other countries
into China抯 schools and higher education. One presentation
described an interesting project in Singapore and Hong Kong in which
students are using an eLearning platform for collaborative,
project-based learning that could see use in China in the future.
Another project, with European Commission funding, is leveraging the
outcomes of previous European Union– (EU-) funded projects in China.
• A growing number of universities around the world see exciting
opportunities to leverage their existing content and eLearning R&D
projects in China. A growing number of Chinese universities are moving
into eLearning, and many of them already have, or are establishing,
collaborative relationships with universities in other countries to
gain access to their online resources and expertise.
• Analysts disagree about the extent of near-term opportunities in
China抯 corporate or government eLearning markets, but most
agree that in the long term, the opportunities are likely to be
significant. Even in the longer term, however, operating in China will
pose significant challenges, in most cases requiring strong partners
with the right relationships and connections.
• Small, niche eLearning companies will likely need to partner with
larger firms that have the deep pockets and patience necessary to
succeed in China. Many small eLearning companies want to export to
China, but most of them have unrealistic expectations and have not
done the market analysis or collected the intelligence necessary to
develop successful strategies. Some smaller eLearning companies with
unique capabilities, perhaps with government support and good
connections to key organizations in China, may find success, but most
small players will find success elusive.
• Large technology companies have an opportunity to bundle eLearning
with other product and service contracts. Many large technology
companies—such as IBM, Sun, Cisco, and Oracle—may have a special
opportunity to help Chinese government agencies or state-owned
companies deploy eLearning by bundling or embedding eLearning
solutions with their existing or future projects. These companies
could, for instance, leverage some of the management-training
eLearning materials that they have developed for internal use and
share the knowledge and expertise that they have gained in building
their own, advanced eLearning programs.