世論 What Japan Thinks

One popular survey from last year was a survey into what Japan thinks of OpenCourseWare, freely available university material. Recently, goo Research released the results of their second annual survey into these matters, namely making university lectures publicly available.

Demographics

The fieldwork for this survey was conducted between the 13th and 19th of December 2007, with 1,000 members of the goo Research monitor group completing a private internet-based questionnaire. The sample was split 50:50 male and female, with 20.0% in their teens, 20.0% in their twenties, 20.0% in their thirties, 20.0% in their forties, and 20.0% aged fifty or older. By educational history, 7.1% had only completed middle school (although given that 20.0% were in their teens, some may still be in high school), 27.5% high school, 10.8% vocational or other types of secondary schooling, 9.5% junior two-year college, 25.6% university arts course, 12.8% university science, 1.2% university medical or pharmacutical, 3.4% post-graduate or business school, 0.4% overseas university or post-graduate, and 1.2% other.

OpenCourseWare is the term coined to describe this phemonenom, pioneered in the USA by MIT’s OpenCourseWare project. In Japan there is the Japan OpenCourseWare Consortium, JOCW, based at Keio University.

Note that since the last survey it appears that Tokyo Geijutsu University and Hitotsubashi University have stopped offering OpenCourseWare, but Doshisha University, Ritsumeikan University, Kansai University, Kyoto Seika University, and Kagawa Education Institute of Nutrition have started.

Research results

Q1: What do you think are the benefits to society from universities making their lectures public? (Sample size=1,000, multiple answer)

Universities will become more open	58.3%
Can compare details of courses of universities	44.0%
Raise interest in universities in society	43.5%
Will promote life-long learning	39.6%
Can learn about many aspects of the one field	38.7%
Universities will share information	37.7%
Will encourage competition amongst universities	29.4%
Can use for revision	25.1%
Will raise Japan’s education level	23.5%
Will serve to encourage scholarship	17.1%
Other	1.4%
No benefits from it	1.1%

Q2: How do you evaluate publishing university lecture contents on the internet? (Sample size=1,000)

	Last year	This year
Extremely good thing	29.5%	33.2%
Good thing	62.7%	60.6%
Not very good thing	6.4%	5.9%
Not good thing at all	1.4%	0.3%

Q3: The following universities make their lecture contents available on the internet: Keio University, Osaka University, Kyushu University, Kyoto University, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo University, Doshisha University, Ritsumeikan University, Nagoya University, Hokkaido University, Waseda University, Tsukuba University, Kansai University, Kyoto Seika University, and Kagawa Education Institute of Nutrition. Did you know that they did? (Sample size=1,000)

	Last year	This year
Knew about all of them	1.2%	0.6%
Knew about some of them	17.5%	21.5%
Didn’t know about any of them	81.2%	77.9%

Q4: Do you intend to use sites where you can view various universities’s lecture contents? (Sample size=1,000)

Really want to use them	23.3%
Want to use them	60.6%
Don’t really want to use them (to Q8)	13.2%
Don’t want to use them at all (to Q8)	2.9%

Q5: Why do you intend to use these sites? (Sample size=839, multiple answer)

For my cultural education or out of interest in topics	69.3%
To gain qualifications or boost my career	39.6%
As additional material for personal study	38.5%
Curiousity	36.4%
I’ve got a subject I want to study	26.3%
To revise topics I’ve studied before	21.2%
Other	1.7%

Q6: What sort of lectures do you want to take? (Sample size=839, multiple answer)

Lectures directly related to obtaining qualifications	55.0%
Lectures from famous universities’ fields of speciality	48.0%
Noted lecturers’ lectures	47.8%
Lectures from my alba mater	15.7%
Lectures from univerisities I’m thinking of attending	13.1%
Other	4.8%

Q7: What lecture materials would you want to be available? (Sample size=839, multiple answer)

Lecture notes, reference material	70.1%
Lecture video recording	57.3%
Lecture transcript	31.0%
Lecture sound recording	24.2%
Communication tools for others using the same OpenCourseWare	16.5%
Other	0.8%

Q8: Which fields of study’s lectures do you want to view on the internet? (Sample size=1,000, multiple answer)

Economics	33.3%
Information technology	33.3%
Business studies, marketing	32.9%
Literature	27.8%
Medicine	23.4%
Art	21.9%
Sociology, social welfare	21.8%
Engineering	21.7%
Law	20.7%
Politics	20.7%
Biotechnology	18.4%
Nutrition	17.9%
Pharmacy	17.5%
Education	16.2%
Accounting	15.6%
Science	14.7%
Sports science	14.1%
Theology	13.0%
Hygenics	11.7%
Domestic science	8.3%
Nursing	7.8%
Veterinary	7.3%
Other	6.0%

Q9: What should be the scope of the universities that open up their lecture materials? (Sample size=1,000)

Just well-known public and private universities	20.0%
As many public universities as possible	11.6%
As many private universities as possible	2.3%
As many public and private universities as possible	65.2%
Other	0.9%

Q10: What do you think is the more important point regarding using OpenCourseWare? (Sample size=1,000)

Easy-to-understand lectures	28.9%
Rich selection of courses	20.3%
Interesting lecture themes	19.0%
Availability of audio, video of lectures	10.9%
Lots of universities participating	7.2%
Can buy text books on the High Street	4.3%
Can ask questions to the lecturers	3.6%
Highly-topical research fields	2.7%
Being able to communicate with others using the same OpenCourseWare	1.9%
Well-known lecturers	0.8%
Other	0.4%