Free courses offered

With e-learning taking off nationwide, experts estimate that the viral outbreak will accelerate the convergence of the online and offline education sectors.

According to media reports, education companies such as Zuoyebang, Youdao and VIPkid are offering free online courses to expand their market presence.

Since Jan 25, the online education startup Zuoyebang has offered free classes on all major subjects from 8 am to 5:40 pm for primary and secondary school students nationwide.

Youdao, the education subsidiary of tech giant NetEase, is offering livestreaming classes for 470,000 students who have enrolled for the company's courses.

Li Fengqing, a professor in the Education Department at Shandong Normal University in Jinan, said, "The novel coronavirus outbreak has boosted awareness of and market prospects for online education."

In addition to education companies, video and social media platforms are playing a major role in the trend of studying at home.

On Feb 17, 50 million students and 600,000 teachers across the country used the livestreaming feature on DingTalk to hold online classes after the prolonged Spring Festival holiday.

Launched by video site Youku and DingTalk, the program has, since Feb 10, enabled primary and middle school students to attend free classes at home by logging in to apps.

The short-video platform Kuaishou is working with more than 40 online education platforms to provide free content to mitigate the impact of the delayed start to the spring semester.

However, there have been some glitches in the sudden switch to virtual classrooms and distance learning.

When most schools and colleges started their new semester online on Feb 17, many users complained of connectivity problems. By 8 am, more than 12 million users had overwhelmed the servers of the Chaoxing Learning app, which crashed. Service was fully restored in the afternoon.

For some, online teaching has its drawbacks compared with traditional learning in a classroom.