Curriculum Guidelines of 12-year Basic Education was published in 2019 to guide high school students to explore their interests and foster their autonomous learning abilities through diverse fields of study. However, since regular and vocational high schools located in rural areas (hereinafter rural senior high schools) are inaccessible or too small in scale, they encounter challenges when offering elective courses or directing students to engage in independent learning. These challenges include difficulties in hiring teachers, insufficient teaching resources, and shortage of funds. In response to these obstacles, the National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University is promoting a massive open online courses (MOOCs) platform called “Two-Teachers Hand-in-hand Digital Learning” designed for high school students. These courses will allow students of rural high schools to connect with university teachers and courses through a dedicated online learning portal, thereby closing the learning resource gap between city and countryside.
To clarify the needs of rural high schools, the Ewant open education platform invited 26 high schools and vocational schools approved by the Ministry of Education to participate in an online conference to discuss the program. The rural senior high schools that were invited include Magong High School, Kinmen Senior High School, Matsu Senior High School, Houbi Senior High School, and Ren-Ai Agricultural Vocational Senior High School. The online meeting involved discussions on how to implement online learning, how to troubleshoot, and what forms of assistance are expected from universities and colleges.
The MOOCs designed for high school students are expected to promote online partnerships between university and high school teachers. These courses leverage comprehensive educational resources provided by university teachers to address the problems of insufficient classes, lack of lesson variety, hiring difficulties, and fund shortages encountered by rural high schools. This program also involves regular online meetings with administrators of rural high schools to encourage interschool exchanges and collaborations.
Related news:
Ministry of Education Newsletter: https://epaper.edu.tw/papago.aspx?papago_sn=2099&period_num=957
United Daily News: https://udn.com/news/story/6885/5162210
