Ubiquitous e-Teaching and e-Learning: China’s Massive Adoption of Online Education and Launching MOOCs Internationally during the COVID-19 Outbreak

ABSTRACT

China had made a remarkable headway in online education provision during the first quarter of 2020 due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, a global public health crisis that acted as a catalyst for the uptake in online education as a method for students’ e-learning and teachers’ e-teaching at a vast number of institutions worldwide. China’s launching of XuetangX Global and iCourse International, two massive online open course (MOOC) platforms in April 2020 to provide distant e-learning solutions to global learners at a time they were most needed, proves to be a timely move as the global challenge caused by this pandemic turned out to be an opportunity in disguise for online education internationally. This article centers around China’s opportune development in online education and launching university MOOCs internationally in the height of the worsening COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 and examines its preparedness, implementation, and impact.