In this September 2020 file photo, an employee from EEO Education Technology Co Ltd demonstrates an online education module during the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services held in Beijing. (MAO XUQIAN / CHINA DAILY)

While most of his classmates from Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government threw themselves into Wall Street, Frank Wu Jundong, a Chinese graduate in public policy, decided to become an online teacher back in China.

According to consultancy iiMedia Research, the total sales revenue of China's online education sector is expected to hit 485.8 billion yuan (US$71.8 billion) this year, a sharp increase from 387 billion yuan last year. The total user amount will hit 351 million by year-end

It was a decision which surprised his friends.

"It is widely divergent from the common choices of flowing into offline schools years ago, as the online education companies can offer teachers a generous return in salary, social reputation and a sense of accomplishment," said Wu, who is now an English teacher at Xueersi Online School, the online subsidiary of education giant TAL Education group.

"It is here in the country that I could step further to explore how technology will change the education sector and how an individual teacher can influence thousands, even millions of students, in front of the screen rather than a classroom," Wu said.

Wu was among a rising number of young graduates with higher education records－including top 10 universities worldwide and leading ones in China like Tsinghua University and Peking University－who jumped on the bandwagon of the booming online education sector.

Behind the trend is a huge, and still flourishing, online education sector in China. It offers graduates a high salary and a potential for more growth.

Several years ago, Chinese online education was still in its infancy where everything about the market was unknown. But now, the sector has become orderly, standardized and has its own unique market potential.

According to consultancy iiMedia Research, the total sales revenue of China's online education sector is expected to hit 485.8 billion yuan (US$71.8 billion) this year, a sharp increase from 387 billion yuan last year. The total user amount will hit 351 million by year-end.

Beijing-based online education app Qingbei Online School of Chinese tech giant ByteDance, offered annual salaries of more than 2 million yuan while another online tutoring firm NetEase Youdao said it was offering annual salaries of at least 500,000 yuan to new graduates who will teach high school students.

"The nation's online education market is becoming more mature by being more standardized and having a higher industry entry barrier. Almost all leading companies are leveraging advanced technologies including artificial intelligence to promote the industry's development," said Wu Liang, deputy director of the Information Center at the Beijing Academy of Educational Sciences.

Hao Yuefei, head of large-scale online classes at Xueersi Online School, said the entry barrier to become an online education teacher has become a systemic and scientific training system in TAL, which is quite strict to many freshman teachers.

"After passing the interview, this year's freshman teachers will go through a one-month full-time training and one-on-one grinding lessons for three to six months. These trainings are to ensure that these teachers have strong enough learning ability and whether they can continuously break through themselves in the teaching process," said Hao.

A timetable from Xueersi showed that all the teachers will go through test questions, two rounds of collective lesson preparation, three rounds of discussion, a first version trial, head teacher feedback, personal head lessons, second version trial lectures, feedback from the head teachers again, and the collective review of lessons.

While the arrangement is saturated from 9:30 am to 10:00 pm, Hao noted that online teaching requires much more input than offline, since companies must try their best to make sure that the learning effect won't be reduced online.

Five minutes before the start of a mandarin class at Xueersi Online School, a teacher named Qiangqiang joined the students attending the class so they can familiarize themselves with the classroom's rules, and quickly preview the main content of the course to them.

Then the course was cut to the main lecture part on the screen where the lecturer began the lesson.

TAL Education Group was among the first batch of online education companies that launched the business model combining the main lecturer and the head teacher, or a class tutor, where the two roles cooperate deeply in real teaching scenarios.

The main lecturer focuses on teaching while the head teacher is responsible for organizing and guiding students before and after the class.

"From the earlier recording and broadcasting class mode to the dual-teacher livestreaming class, and then to the introduction of self-developed AI technology into the class, we aim to offer more comprehensive and efficient online education solutions for global users," said Liu Qingxue, president of Xueersi Online School.

Xiong Bingqi, deputy director of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, said: "The biggest problem lies in how to solve the problem of individualization and interactivity. A class tutor can well solve the problem through using technical tools including big data analysis, AI recognition, and production-assisted tool development.

"They can provide students with more accurate and personalized service. The existence of tutors allows online education to truly reach the individual and teach students in accordance with their aptitude in the internet age."

The novel coronavirus outbreak has boosted the awareness and market prospects of online education firms in the country as the online education industry is quickly covering and penetrating into many corners of the nation during the special period.

Zhang Lijun, education veteran and partner of Sinovation Ventures, a venture capital firm

A report published by the School of Statistics of Beijing Normal University and leading online education startup Zuoyebang showed young graduates are becoming a major segment of class tutoring on online education platforms, as over 75.39 percent of graduates surveyed were born after 1995.

READ MORE: Zuoyebang to further online efforts

Graduates born after 1996 and graduates born between 1990 and 1994 accounted for 24.16 and 23.81 percent of the class being tutored respectively. Only 0.8 percent of tutors in the online education sector were born between 1985 and 1990.

Industry insiders said the online education also plays an important role in stabilizing employment, as many of them are facing tough times due to the economic uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic globally.

Though the epidemic has affected many industries, surging demand for online study from hundreds of millions of students has boosted online education to new highs. The education sector, which traditionally relies heavily on offline schools and institutions, is moving online overnight, creating a unique homebound economy.

"The epidemic is directly driving the online education industry to make a big leap forward in the country. It has now become a large-scale education experiment," said Zhu Yongxin, deputy secretary-general of the Central Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and vice-chairman of the Central Committee of the China Association for Promoting Democracy.

ClassIn, an online classroom service provider of educational firm EEO, received nearly 3,000 registrations from various educational institutions in a single day. The company temporarily enlarged the capacity of its system by 20-fold, but still had to restrict new entries to keep its system stable.

"The novel coronavirus outbreak has boosted the awareness and market prospects of online education firms in the country as the online education industry is quickly covering and penetrating into many corners of the nation during the special period," said Zhang Lijun, an education veteran and partner of Sinovation Ventures, a venture capital firm founded by noted investor Kai-fu Lee.

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Zhang said it's now easier for companies to acquire users at comparatively lower costs than before and the penetration rate of online education is expected to grow by around 10 percent after the epidemic.

Another interesting phenomenon is that widespread online courses in the country have also led to booming sales of electronic devices. These include iPads, laptops, printers and even projectors as some parents are afraid that longtime learning in front of computers and smartphones will harm their children's vision.

According to secondhand platform Zhuanzhuan, the transaction volume of tablets and computer products through the platform increased 84.7 percent from Feb 1 to Feb 13 compared with the same period the previous month.

Of the total, the transaction ratio of third, fourth and lower-tier cities has reached 45.7 percent. Tablet products such as the iPad Air and Huawei M6 were among the top sellers.

READ MORE: Education technology: Going beyond online teaching

While online education continues to boom, Zhang from Sinovation Ventures pointed out that many challenges still exist.

"It will be difficult for companies to retain users on a sustainable basis and for them to become loyal customers after the epidemic. The online education sector is unlikely to replace offline businesses in the long run," she said.

"Offline education will once again be the priority for many parents because some of them don't have the time and energy to take care of their children all day in front of a computer, while others want to protect their children's eyesight," she added.

Her words echo some parents' claims that online classes are not easy to control and the effect of studying is not as good as that found in classrooms. Others argue the network is not always stable due to the huge amount of users.

"With many people stuck at home for long periods, there is the possibility that once the epidemic is over, offline consumption will see explosive growth, which in turn will lead to a downturn in online demand," said Xu Linfeng, a senior analyst at Huaxi Securities.

chengyu@chinadaily.com.cn