E-learning proves a real class act during outbreak

HANGZHOU－The school closure during the epidemic outbreak has not stopped Chinese students from learning as they turn to the internet to attend classes, bolstering the rise of e-learning.

Shen Xiang, a sixth-grader in East China's Zhejiang province, now uses Alibaba's communication app DingTalk proficiently to clock in and take classes.

"School notices, homework, daily health checks and videos sent by teachers are all available on the platform," Shen says.

DingTalk, originally a mobile office tool for white-collar workers, has been adapted to offer online services for schools amid the virus outbreak, welcoming the classes of nearly 600,000 teachers across hundreds of cities on Feb 10, the first day of online schooling in many parts of China.

Even in Wuhan, Hubei province, the epicenter of the epidemic in the country, more than 700,000 stuck-at-home students ushered in their new semester that day on DingTalk.

With the help of booming virtual platforms, eye-catching and innovative livestreaming classes are being launched across the country. A popular online video shows a teacher using green onions to help teach a lesson and a high school counterpart in the southwestern Chinese city of Nanchong, Sichuan province, even relocated to teach geography remotely.

Downloads of DingTalk rank high in the Apple App Store due to the wide application of online classes in China, coupled with the work-from-home policies of many firms.

"We deployed more than 10,000 new cloud servers within just two hours, a new record for the rapid capacity expansion," says Zhu Hong, CTO of DingTalk. "The epidemic further prompted the demand for online education."

Despite being a leader in the category, the hot app gets a surprisingly poor grade. Negative comments, however, seem to be mainly from house-bound students who had to start school in the virtual world instead of enjoying a protracted holiday as they hoped.

So far, schools in more than 300 cities in provinces including Hubei, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Jiangsu have launched online teaching through DingTalk, covering tens of millions of students.

"The epidemic is like a catalyst for many enterprises and schools to adopt digital technology platforms and products," Zhu says.