1. Longitudinal impact of visiting scholarships on the professional practice of scholars from China
An eSTEeM project
Mark Endean & Daphne Chang School of Engineering & Innovation, STEM

2. What are OU scholars?

3. Policy towards visiting academics
The Open University (OU) has always welcomed a wide variety of visiting academics and values the contributions which can be made by them. We encourage the appointment of such individuals, including non-academic specialists working with OU academics in areas such as research impact and enterprise.

4. Where do our scholars come from?

5. Distance Education in China
1953 Correspondence education
1960 Radio & TV education
1981 State examination system for self-study learners
1998 Online Education
Courtesy Bai Bin, Beijing Normal University

6. ‘Modern Distance Education’ in China
1998 Chinese MoE endorsed online education (MDE)
1998 MoE accredited 4 universities
1999 MoE accredited another 2 universities
2000 MoE accredited another 25 universities
2001 MoE accredited another 14 universities
2002 MoE accredited another 22 universities
2003 MoE accredited another 1 universities
Courtesy Bai Bin, Beijing Normal University

7. Total of 68 recognised ‘online colleges’ 67 general universities
MDE 1998–2018
Total of 68 recognised ‘online colleges’
67 general universities
China Central Radio TV University (CCRTVU)
Courtesy Bai Bin, Beijing Normal University

8. 1000 municipal RTVUs (formerly ‘branch schools’)
The RTVU network
44 Provincial RTVUs
1000 municipal RTVUs (formerly ‘branch schools’)
2000 county-level RTVUs (formerly ‘work stations’)
tutorial centres

9. Started in 2010 – Education Reform Plan 6 RTVUs change to OUs
New OU System
Started in 2010 – Education Reform Plan
6 RTVUs change to OUs
CCRTVU = OU China (OUC)
Beijing OU
Shanghai OU
Jiangsu OU
Guangdong OU
Yunnan OU
Change from 2012
OUC in process of forming alliances with PRTVUs

10. Some former scholars’ origins
CCRTVU/OUC (21)
Anhui RTVU (1)
Guangxi RTVU (2)
Guizhou RTVU (1)
Sichuan RTVU (1)
Xi’an RTVU (1)
Beijing Open University (4)
Beijing Normal University (2)
East China Normal University (1)
Peking University (Telemedical School) (2)
Shanghai JiaoTong University (7)
South China Normal University (1)
Zhejiang University (2)

11. What did we do?

12. How did the scholars benefit from their time at the OU?
Research questions
How did the scholars benefit from their time at the OU?
What influence did the scholar have on their ‘community’ post visit?
How does the OU benefit from welcoming and supporting scholars?

13. Approach Email to make initial contact and brief participants
‘Priming’ contact form
to establish baseline information and negotiate contact arrangements
Semi-structure interviews
to gather qualitative data on individuals’ motivation, experience, perspective, value and reflection over a period of time
Beijing May 2018
chosen because of high concentration of visiting scholars
9 interviews
Beijing and Shanghai November 2018
5 further interviews

14. What have we found out (so far)?

15. good balance between early, mid and late career scholars
Scholar profiles
6 male participants
8 female participants
good balance between early, mid and late career scholars
cross section of academic and academic-related staff

16. Early Findings
Lasting personal, institutional and national impacts
Personal impacts
personal growth
job promotion
positive influences on teaching practices
Institutional impacts
improvement of systems, practices,
staff becoming more motivated/innovative
better scholarship/academic outputs
better staff development opportunities
raised international profile
National impacts
some evidence to suggest that the ODL sector has became more outward

17. Unintended outcomes
As a result of our findings, our initially inward-looking study revealed the profound influence the OU has had on many DE communities and has triggered a number of initiatives to promote inter-community collaboration.

18. THANK YOU

19. Workshop session

20. Discussion points
What aspects of international collaboration have you heard about today (or know about already) that you could engage in to enhance your professional practice? 
What needs to change in order to allow that to happen? 
How could the University more actively promote international collaboration for the purposes of professional development? 
Anything else?