HISTORY

　The Graduate Institute of Network Learning Technology(NLT) at National Central University (NCU) in Taiwan traces its origin to the Learning Technology Lab in the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering (CSIE) which was led by Chair Professor Tak-Wai Chan who had undertaken plenty of pioneering research in the digital learning filed.

　In 2000, with the sponsorship of the Ministry of Education and National Science Council, a sub-project of the Program for Promoting Academic Excellence of Universities, Learning Technology-Active Social Learning and Application, was conducted in NCU, and the goal of the Program for Promoting Academic Excellence of Universities was to develop academic features. NLT was founded in 2002 under the College of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science (CEECS) in NCU, and the master program was established in the same year. In 2006, the Ph.D. program was created to further advance the field of network learning studies. In 2010, an in-service master’s program was set for providing students with multi-access channel of learning.

Academic Research and University Social Responsibility

　Many of our teachers join Higher Education SPROUT (Sustained Progress and Rise of Universities in Taiwan) and University Social Responsibility(USR) Projects. Please refer to figure1for more details about these projects.

　The Higher Education SPROUT Project is launched by Ministry of Education（MOE）. With funding support, NCU aims to develop the creativity of teaching and encourages cooperation between colleges. Under the project, NLT collaborates with CSIE and Department of Electrical Engineering(EE) to promote the teaching innovation, for example, carries out Capstone curriculum through flipping classroom and reciprocal teaching methods to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of teaching.

　Under the USR project, launched by the MOE, allowing universities to emerge as active contributors to local sustainability. Our teachers led 「The Aboriginal Tribes Reading School：Fuxing District Atayal Reading Promotion Project」, and practice university social responsibility by serving rural junior and elementary schools regularly.

Figure1. SPROUT and USR projects are led by NLT

　For industry-academia collaboration, we assist found the Innovative E-learning Platform and Academia-Industry Alliance Origination. The core value is Interest-Driven Creator Theory (IDC), which was developed by NCU and international scholars. IDC enables students strengthen habits of learning by developing interest in subjects, be immersed in the learning and creation process.

　「iReading」 is a joint development learning platform with a company in 2015. Through technical guidance and cooperation, ‘Smart Learning Companion’ was constructed in iReading.