Arnold (Cairui) Fu, Founder of Hujiang EdTech, a Unicorn company in online education
With the appearance and wide spread popularity of such online learning platform like Coursera, more and more people started taking online courses appreciating its convenience and the possibility to save the time. Nowadays, there are quite a lot of educational online platforms offering all types of courses; moreover, some universities even started offering the possibility of getting an online degree.
I’ve been working as an English tutor for almost 8 years and since 2012 I’ve been conducting English lessons online. When I ask my students about online learning and why they’ve decided to take classes online, all of them answer that it’s much more convenient than face-to-face learning, saves a lot of time and gives more flexibility compared to face-to-face learning. So, does it mean that online education will supersede classical learning? And what is the future of education?
Recently, I’ve had an opportunity to conduct an online interview with Mr. Arnold (Cairui) Fu, the founder, chairman and CEO of Hujiang EdTech (leading online education company headquartered in Shanghai, China), who has given deeper insight on the online education, its pros and cons, challenges and further expectations.
Mr Arnold Fu, could you tell us what is the main difference between classical and online education? What are the pros and cons of online education?
It depends on both internal and external factors. With regard to external factors, if one is unable to access adequate products and services, he or she will be unaware of online study opportunities, even if he or she is a very good potential consumer in this industry.
As for subjective factors, that is to say internal causes, HJCLASS has done extensive research on the kinds of people for whom online education is suitable. There is an essential difference between traditional and online learners. Relatively speaking, online education requires its users to have a high level of self-discipline. Compared with classical education, users studying online may not be able to follow teachers in-person, face to face for a long period of time, or may not have time to attend classes within a required set of hours. In sum, online education enables e-learners to follow a more casual schedule and affords a larger degree of freedom and flexibility.
However, for those lacking self-discipline, even if they have access to online education, the results will probably not be as good as for those who are self-motivated and can manage their time effectively. This is exactly the dimension we are concerned with.
Another dimension concerns individual learning attitudes and dispositions.
Some people tend to enjoy showing what they are learning to others, while some prefer to learn privately. Obviously for the latter, online study is something easier to do privately. So, it is hard to conclude which group is more suitable for online education, and which group is unsuitable. However, it is more appropriate to say that online education is accessible to anyone irrespective of different or unique demands.
And how is your idea of creating the online education platform, Hujiang EdTech, was born?
Back in the days when most were busy making a fortune through selling language courses, I took a different road, a lonely road, and tried to realize my very own dream: an online platform which creates more equal access to educational resources.
A decade ago, online education was given little attention. Recent years, with radical development of technology, this industry has been so popular that it constantly attracts a large number of entrepreneurs.
In 2001, when I was still a junior in college, I discovered that many people have needs for online language study. With great passion and faith for Internet, I launched a campus BBS – lwoods.net, mainly provided a platform for English learners to share resources and experience, which later became Hujiang EdTech. Together with seven other people, including schoolmates, friends and some of my users, we became the founding team of Hujiang EdTech. We had nothing but hearts for online education and dream of changing Chinese education.
Through the years, Hujiang EdTech is driven by passion, not money. It holds the dream of making education easier, fairer, and more enjoyable, more importantly, serve the public good. As Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” And I deeply understand that education is a cause which has a great impact on everyone at all times. People could gain power through knowledge, and the power would help to cultivate their lives. Lately, my team has been working on new projects providing access for children in rural areas where they don’t even have teachers. With Hujiang EdTech offering more opportunities and possibilities, their lives will be changed forever.
What are the main criteria for hiring teachers for Hujiang EdTech? Do you hire teachers globally? Do you only hire native speakers to teach English and how do you make sure that teachers get along well with the students? Do you cooperate with TESOL and do you think it's necessary for the teachers to have TESOL (TEFL) certification?
The first criteria are the understanding and passion for online education. We would like for our teachers to possess the belief that through the Internet, we can make education easier, fairer, and more enjoyable.
The second would be the requisite knowledge, skills, and ability to teach online.
The third would be for candidates to be tech savvy or have the technical competence to teach online.
We hire teachers globally. Certified teachers with perfect English skills and teaching experience are preferred. We do train teachers on cultural awareness, the learner profile, language grading, interactive skills and so forth. Teachers and students also have tools and assistants available for support in the beginning. As learning progresses, the bonding and communication between the teacher and learners becomes more and more natural.
We now have a strategic partnership with TESOL and there are many opportunities for TESOL and Hujiang EdTech to build bridges for teachers. We do prefer teachers to have at least a TESOL/ TEFL certificate or equivalent.
Are there any courses that you feel cannot possibly be taught online? If yes, which ones?
This is an interesting question. As far as we know, there are already lots of interest and skill-oriented online courses in Hujiang EdTech’s platform, such as different sports, culinary arts, flower arrangement, etcetera.
So far, perhaps swimming and driving are the only courses that I feel would be difficult to teach online. However, it is still too early to draw such a conclusion about what can or can’t be done in the future. As AI (Artificial Intelligence) and VR (Virtual Reality) develop, even those skills training courses that are in high demand will be able to be offered online.
Tell me a bit more about the education charity program, Hu+ Project? What is the main goal of the project? What are the main challenges you've faced with it so far?
Launched in September 2015, the Hu+ Project is an education charity program sponsored and operated by Hujiang EdTech. The program provides online education tools and other resources, free of charge, to elementary and middle schools in rural and underdeveloped areas in China, and helps them develop innovative online curriculums.
The aim of the project is to help raise awareness and promote education equality in China, enabling elementary and secondary schools in rural and underdeveloped areas to connect with high-quality educational resources, and gradually narrow the educational gap between rural and urban areas.
Ever since Hujiang EdTech introduced the ‘Internet+Educational Poverty Alleviation’ project to the public last year, we have encouraged other charitable organizations and enterprises to collaborate with the Hu+ Project regardless of their industry.
So far, the main challenges we have faced lie in people’s perception of the importance of making good use of the Internet and technical resources. Most people, especially those teachers and parents living in rural and underdeveloped areas, are only aware of schools’ adoption of new technologies. Unfortunately, they neglect another vital fact: technical adoption is meaningless without the ability to connect with good educational resources. Thus, the Hu+ Project routinely offers seminars and conferences to teach people to match high-quality resources with different schools and students to meet their various needs.
We believe that the Internet has the advantage of cost effectiveness, and as such, makes it easier for the public to adopt and replicate models for intelligent poverty alleviation; a milestone in promoting education equality in the entire education industry.
Could you share some of your plans for the future? In which direction, do you want to move with Hujiang EdTech, what is the main goal you are trying to reach with this online education platform?
As the technology of AI continues to evolve, Hujiang EdTech will generally shift focus to intelligent learning in the future.
Online education is rapidly growing, but it requires tremendous infrastructure, which will take a long time. Thus, the completion of online education will not reach 100 per cent. Our ultimate goal is to allow millions of users to accept better educational resources. And what we have been doing and will keep on doing is building up the infrastructure for online education eco-system.
Now China has entered the age that everyone could be an online teacher, we call that “iTeacher”. For decades, Hujiang EdTech has been waiting and preparing. And when the time is right, we create this platform.
This year is my 11th year in online education industry. We spent the first ten years to work on the infrastructure of online education eco-system. The fast growth of online payment and logistics industry are the major reasons why E-Commerce is so developed in China now. We have been preparing for today in the last decade, and today, we will work even harder to prepare for the coming decade. As we surpass many other countries in online education industry, I believe that in ten years, China will be one of the most developed countries in the field of education.
What are your predictions for the future? Do you think that online education would entirely supersede classical education?
In my point of view, online education and classical education will never become the contradictions.
With AI technology, the product will be designed to satisfy needs of different people. This is to say that the contents of courses vary based on learning ability and how well they master the courses. In this perspective, as the traditional way of one-on-one teaching is not applicable when it comes to the hundreds of millions of students, AI technology will be the best and only way to assist millions of users to gain access to educational resources.
Generally, AI will replace the repetitive tasks. However, the creative part of the work will still be completed by people. In the future, education will be the combination of artificial intelligence and human intelligence, which means that the classical education and online education will be firmly integrated and becoming one.
Reference: Arnold (Cairui) Fu, an accomplished Chinese entrepreneur, is the founder, chairman, and CEO of Hujiang EdTech, a Unicorn company in online education.
Headquartered in Shanghai, China, Hujiang EdTech is a leading online education company that strives to make high-quality education more accessible and enjoyable through mobile learning applications, online courses, and interactive online teaching platforms.