ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the mechanism of how broadband affects education and human capital via analyzing the learning mode of learning-via-broadband. The analysis of this learning mode is based on the reviews of other two learning modes: learning-from-media and learning-from-others. The connections between this learning mode and other major human capital accumulation mechanisms – learning-by-doing and learning-by-schooling are also discussed. As broadband has been diffused across the world rapidly and widely used in formal and informal education in many countries, its impacts on education and human capital accumulation have been more prominent than ever before. Based on the theoretical analysis, this chapter conducts a case study that illustrates how broadband has been used in China's universities. The practices of the Open University of China (OUC) and Tsinghua University are discussed. This chapter also conducts regression analyses that examine the impacts of broadband on the productivity of China's higher education sector. The time series analysis shows that the number of broadband users have positive and significant correlations with the number of students attending universities/colleges as well as the number of students graduated from online universities/colleges/degrees. The panel-data analysis shows that number of broadband users have positive and significant correlations with the number of students attending universities/colleges as well as the number of students graduated from universities/colleges.
Keywords: Broadband, education, human capital, case study, China
