Why Do Students Engage in e-Learning: A Chinese Perspective

This paper presents a study on how Chinese students understand e-learning. Twenty university students who took part in a course “Introduction to e-learning” were interviewed and data were analyzed using the method of phenomenography. The findings can be presented as four qualitatively different conceptions of e-learning: e-learning as (1) supplement to face-to-face learning or the metaphor of after-meal dissert; (2) informal resource-based learning or the metaphor of a mobile library; (3) activity-based learning or the metaphor of a ladder to knowledge; (4) community-based learning or the metaphor of a food sharing banquet. The aim of the study is to shed light on Chinese students’ conceptions of e-learning, which are of significance to e-tutors in offering e-learning services.