Courses Without Borders: MOOCs provide an open, online solution to education in China

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A type of online education called massive open online courses, or MOOCs, are becoming increasingly popular in China. These courses have helped fill the education gap providing an online solution without geographical barriers. Natasha Hussain has more.

How can a student from west China study at the iconic Peking University in Beijing?

It's just a click away.

With massive open online courses, lectures from any prestigious school can be reached from any household no matter how far away, or whether it's in a big city or rural area.

Wang Xun, a 13-year-old boy from a mountainous area in Yunnan, is a fan of palaeography. He can now finally study this field something not available locally. And knowledge imparted from professors from prestigious schools gain a bigger audience.

PROFESSOR YE LANG PEKING UNIVERSITY "In the past, I could only give lessons to 600 students. Now with this new class model, over 330 thousand students take this course at the same time."

XU TIANYI, TEACHER DOUGE MIDDLE SCHOOL, LINCANG "It's a fresh and new way for kids to experience college courses."

A wide range of topics from astronomy, military and politics. A total of over 70 million registered users watch lessons live and join the real time interaction. Since being introduced in China in 2013, more than ten platforms have created over five thousand courses, ranking top in the world.

Wang Shiyu, famous Kun Opera artist at Peking University, gives his lectures live. Classes like this one are being shown across 700 schools in China.

ZHANG YONG, TEACHER SHIHEZI UNIVERSITY "The new course model helps to share the resources of high quality teaching, especially for universities in border lands. It is a big benefit for us."

Strict standards are in place to ensure the quality of courses, as more embrace distance learning, thus helping narrow the education gap in China. Natasha Hussain, CGTN.