Through the promotion of the National Science and Technology Program, National Science & Technology Program Office for e-Learning President/CEO Chen, Gwo- Dong said that Taiwan’s e-learning industry is not just an IT industry, but also an innovation industry, using new technology to create new value.

      When we look back on the history of e-learning, the early 1990s was the initial period of computer-based training (CBT), but this was only an aid to learning, changing traditional printed and sequential teaching materials into digital, hyperlinked data specifications. After 1995, with the progress of Websitepage technology, HTML document study applications started to appear, and in that year, the U.S., the EU, Japan, China and other nations started with leading national-level bodies to take responsibility for promotion and execution of e-learning projects, and this effort was seen as one of the standards for raising national competitiveness.

      President/CEO Chen, Gwo-Dong noted that since 2002, when the National Science Council ratified the creation of the National Science & Technology Program Office for e-Learning, Taiwan has established the initial foundation for a globally competitive digital content industry.

      Based on statistics of the e-learning project office, the e-learning industry’s production value has grown from  NT$400 million in 2001 to NT$12 billion in 2007. The growth rate in production value exceeded thatof the rest of the world. In guiding the e-learning industry, currently the proportion of large enterprises (Taiwan’s top 1,000 companies by production value) using e-learning has risen from 14% in 2003 to 52.3% by the end of 2007. In terms of study platforms, 85% used domestic solutions, and this was a substantial accomplishment for the domestic industry’s establishment and competitive advantage.

The significance of e-learning lies in digital added value

      President/CEO Chen, Gwo-Dong emphasized that e-learning is an R&D category that spans different fields and as IT tools and technology daily become more refined, study theory, the e-learning platform infrastructure, complete digital content and more must keep up with the pace. Unless this happens, no matter how good the tools and technology may be, they will only devolve into online games, chatting and social networking platforms, and their entertainment functions will far outweigh the study functions, or all that they will provide is incongruous information, and it will be impossible to offer complete knowledge sources. He said that e-learning should be directed toward increasing study opportunities and making study better and more effective.

      On this point, South Korea, which has treated the e-learning industry as a nationally strategic industry, has done better than we have. President/CEO Chen, Gwo- Dong explained that in the e-learning industry, Korea has pledged to become the nation with the world's largest production value, and in order to let e-learning be realized in the lives of urban residents, Korea from the very beginning established an extremely large broadband network, providing digital content and online games sufficient bandwidth and achieving the goal of smooth transmission.

      Moreover, to let the e-learning content industry enter supplementary education, President/CEO Chen, Gwo- Dong said Korea's supplementary education is the same as Taiwan's with a quite substantial production value. The Korean government has used national resources to establish the EBS (Education Broadcasting System) and later added the supplementary educational curriculum to the EBS system for public study free of charge and invited a number of well-known teachers to offer classes, attracting students to join. President/CEO Chen, Gwo-Dong added that Korea's EBS system is similar to Chunghwa Telecom's MOD, which is quite a large portal that can connect to the internet, television and various other media, enabling study at any time.

      For formal education, Korea has established the Keris system, which has converted formal education study materials into digital content, allowing different schools to use the same system to provide e-learning services, simultaneously integrating different schools'content and allowing them to engage in joint  studies. In addition, Chen, Gwo-Dong pointed out that the Korean government expects that in the next few years, the educational system will be completely digitalized, including the schools' classroom teaching materials and study tools.

      For Taiwan's e-learning to succeed, it must meet users' needs. President/CEO Chen, Gwo-Dong believes that Taiwan's IT infrastructure needs to pick up the pace, and while school teachers' IT capabilities are quite advanced, the education system needs a unified exchange platform for education resources, allowing the exchange of good study tools, study models and study materials, increasing students' study opportunities, even encouraging students to span schools, regions and nations and use the internet to cooperate on special subjects, which will contribute to narrowing the gap between urban and rural areas and foster an international point of view among students from a young age.

      In addition, the government should integrate schools, textbook publishers and even day-care centers to classify study materials and establish a study evaluation mechanism, allowing education to flourish because of better materials. When students become accustomed to e-learning, after they graduate, they will naturally choose e-learning, and the e-learning industry will prosper.

Creating successful examples, marketing our experience abroad

      In the past, Taiwan's e-learning industry has had a successful experience in terms of human resources and knowledge management, and to sell Taiwan's e-learning teaching materials abroad, President/CEO Chen, Gwo-Dong suggested that the whole world has become eager to learn Chinese. Chinese teaching materials could be promoted together with Taiwan's e-learning content because language is a platform and marketed worldwide together with Taiwan's culture, travel and even Taiwan's expertise in math education. He believes that if Taiwan can integrate e-learning businesses to provide Chinese teachers' educational materials together with aftersales service, the e-learning industry can increase its production value and help Taiwan gain prominence abroad.

      In addition, many of Taiwan's ICT products are the best in the world, and the Taiwan government should aim to become a leading ICT nation. If such powerful tools as PCs, notebook computers, mobile phones and similar products can be shipped together with e-learning content and teaching materials, it will help Taiwan's e-learning industry expand abroad.

      With regard to government assistance, Chen, Gwo-Dong believes that the Taiwan government should continue to use promotion projects and incentive projects, allowing busineses offering e-learning teaching materials to combine them with Taiwanese exports going to greater China and even European and American nations. Taiwan’s large enterprises already have experience with e-learning, and when these enterprises deploy abroad, Taiwan's providers of e-learning teaching materials will be able to publish materials in local languages and join with Taiwanese businesses in their expansion of foreign markets.