A Comparative Study of the Construction Practices of Online Learning Spaces in Higher Education in China and Australia

Abstract

Against the backdrop of digital transformation in education, online learning spaces have become a core vehicle for innovation in higher education teaching models. This paper, employing both literature and comparative research methods, focuses on the construction practices of online learning spaces in higher education in China and Australia, conducting a comparative analysis across five dimensions: construction philosophy, resource supply model, technology application focus, support service system, and evaluation mechanism. The study finds that China's online learning space construction prioritizes "equity first, serving large-scale education," leveraging national policy coordination to achieve balanced resource coverage and prioritizing the popularization of basic technologies and platform interconnection. Australia, on the other hand, prioritizes "learner-centeredness, focusing on individual needs," fostering a diversified resource supply through independent university decision-making and market participation, and prioritizing the deep integration and scenario-based application of intelligent technologies. The two countries also exhibit differences in their support systems and evaluation mechanisms, with differences ranging from "administrative-led multi-level support" to "service-oriented professional support," and from "quantitative evaluation of construction results to "multi-faceted evaluation of learning outcomes." Based on these differences, this paper proposes that my country, while balancing educational equity, needs to strengthen personalized services, introduce market dynamics to optimize resource supply, deepen the integration of technology and scenarios, and improve the professional support system, providing a reference for the high-quality development of online learning spaces in higher education.