One of China’s most successful portals, Sohu, has developed the Learning Channel for Chinese users, which includes free English language tutoring centers, children’s reading materials, foreign study guides, and graduate exam prep materials.
The Learning Channel is allegedly the first large scale Web site in Mainland China
designed to deliver high quality educational material to the nation’s
growing online population.
Sohu CEO Charles Zhang sees Web-based
education centers such as the Learning Channel as a window into the
future of education in China.
“We cannot fathom the education system of the future. But, I assure you
that it will involve the qualities of the Learning Channel,” said Zhang.
“It will feature interactivity and instant access to huge databases of
information. Its online convenience will also allow adults to implement
continued education programs into their daily lives.”
Sohu’s educational site is targeting the growing audience of information hungry Net users.
According to the China Network Information Center, there are more than 2
million Internet users in Mainland China, of which 95 percent consider
information access as their main purpose for using the Web.
The Learning Channel is divided into three sub-channels: Children
Education, Teen Education, and Adult Continued Education.
The channel features content and interactive bulletin boards
using the latest Web technologies such as Flash, VRML, Dynamic HTML, and
Shockwave and was developed with the assistance of several local software companies that specialize in educational software and CD-roms.
