Smog alerts in China promote online education

Beijing’s recent red alerts about air quality and the suspension of classes at primary and middle schools in China’s capital  are linked to an increase in use of online education platforms, according to China Daily’s ‘Smog alerts promote online education‘. For example, 17zuoye.com, an Internet-based K12 homework service, reported that the ‘number of newly registered users on Dec 8 was almost three times as many as the day before, with 3,000 teachers and 160,000 students in Beijing assigning and doing homework there’. Other online sites report similar increases, although online education is still seen as an alternative, rather than a primary educational resource.