DESPERATE SARS-HIT HONG KONG RESORTS TO INTERNET TO SAVE ITS EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM

E-learning company has answer for schools closed by Sars crisis
By Mark Nicholson in Edinburgh and Joe Leahy in Hong Kong
Published: May 2 2003 5:00 | Last Updated: May 2 2003 5:00

Hong Kong's education authorities have turned to a Scottish e-learning company to help to rescue the city from an educational crisis caused by the Sars epidemic.

As high school students head for their summer exams in the midst of school closures forced by Sars, the Hong Kong authorities have accepted an offer from Edinburgh's Interactive University to make its online teaching package available to 30,000 students.

The online materials will enable the China-based students to study from home, rather than risk infection by attending classes.

Many Hong Kong schools have already resorted to conducting classes through the internet or putting homework online so that students can continue their studies at home.

Since it emerged in Hong Kong in the middle of March, Sars has shut much of the territory's education system.

The city's primary schools closed five weeks' ago but are expected to begin classes again next Monday.

Hong Kong students will be able to sign on to the e-learning scheme from today.

The IU has offered its service free of charge to the city's education authorities until August.

The emergency enrolment will take to 87,000 the number of students with access to IU's science-based e-learning package known as Scholar, making it the world's largest single online study programme.

The IU, a non-profit company formed last year to design and market Scottish e-learning products from its universities, contacted the Hong Kong authorities through a locally-based partner in the city already using its online programmes.

Scholar already delivers 40,000 on-line learning hours daily to 57,000 Scottish students in maths, biology, chemistry, physics and computer studies from 44,600 websites.

Scotland claims to be the only country in the world to offer a nationwide online education service of this kind.

David Farquhar, chief operating officer of The IU, said the Scottish company contacted the Hong Kong authorities though its local partner, the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

The Scholar programme has also been used as a foundation course for 2,000 teachers in Malaysia.

It is available through all Scottish education authorities and is the flagship product of The IU, an independent organisation based at Edinburgh's Heriot-Watt University.

The IU was formed last year, backed by £2.3m from Scottish Enterprise, the development agency, to maximise the potential for e-learning from Scottish-based institutions. http://www.interactiveuniversity.net

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