Language courses gain foothold online
Language learning is gaining an increasing foothold on the Internet, and is now one of the major growth areas in online education, an industry expert has claimed.
Most online courses were still information technology-related, said Eric Liang Gin-wai, chief executive officer of education consultancy Hong Kong Education Web. But there was a demand for well designed courses in other fields, particularly languages and business.
'It is no surprise that the bulk of online learning is related to computers and software, but we are now ready to explore other areas,' said Mr Liang during last week's E-Learn Expo Asia Conference held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Online language learning had two obvious advantages over traditional classroom teaching: the ability to control the pace of learning and interactive functions. 'The learner can listen to audio clips, watch videos, do exercises to develop weak areas. There is no getting left behind the rest of the class, because you are in control of what and when you learn.'
A new online programme that straddles language-learning and business is Credit Line, a multimedia English course dedicated to banking, finance and business language. This was launched in Europe in April and in Hong Kong at last week's conference.
Danielle Allen, international partnerships co-ordinator at Opera Multimedia, which is publishing the site developed by Multimedia Initiatives Ltd, said Asia's reputation for flouting copyright laws had been the deciding factor in not bringing out a CD-Rom for the course.
The company was expecting several similar online courses to be set up within a year, she said, and Opera Multimedia was looking for a local company to represent the package in Hong Kong. 'We don't have a fixed idea of the type of partner we're looking for. It could be an IT company or a more traditional language school,' she said.
The 300-hour Credit Line course is approved by the Chartered Institute of Bankers in London and costs US$750 (HK$5,850) for one year's site access. Learners take a test to determine their entry point into the programme.
In Europe the course is supplemented with face-to-face teaching by tutors approved by Opera Multimedia. The firm hopes to offer a similar service to local users by teaming up with a Hong Kong language provider.
Mr Liang said a recent survey had found that online courses combined with traditional classroom teaching made the most favoured format for learning. Online courses had come a long way in the last five years, he said.
