Effective Technology-Mediated Education for Adult Chinese Learners

This chapter will address several areas relating to online learning and technology. We will report on work done in the development of four models that have been used to deliver effective professional development for adult learners. The courses are run in Taiwan from a base at Feng Chia University in Taichung, and all the attendees are Chinese. The key content is developed by instructors who are all native speakers of English from a range of countries. Some of this key content is delivered face-to-face and some is delivered virtually. Course facilitators are experienced in online learning and are Chinese. Our models thus utilize both internationally known teachers and local expertise. In addressing the training and education development needs of adult learners in a Chinese context, we needed to consider and accommodate three types of challenges: • Constraints and demands on busy adult learners • Challenges of second language learning • Use of technology-mediated distance education Each of these areas is challenging and complex in its own right. Many of the contributions in this encyclopedia will address one or more of these areas in some depth. This chapter should be considered as complementary to those focused contributions. Our globalized world is complex and multi-faceted, and this chapter attempts to show how the application of knowledge and experience in several areas can be combined.