Shortest distance to a new skill

While some of his classmates struggled to open their e-mail, Dong Chen whizzed through sample English-language lessons during an orientation session at a Chinatown computer lab. He eschewed the lab's flat-screen monitors and fast Internet connections for his own mini-laptop, which he had bought in China.

''It's the shortest way to learn. I want to go faster," said Chen, 42, who emmigrated from Guangzhou province in China last year and has been studying English for eight months.

Using a combination of sitcom-like videos, electronic messages between teacher and student, and multiple-choice quizzes that are graded instantly, the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center started a new course late last month for motivated students like Chen. Known as distance learning, such classes have for a number of years offered scheduling flexibility and eliminated the commute for an array of students, from those in corporate training sessions to others in university courses and home-schooling situations.

Those supervising the course at the center say distance learning has much appeal for adult-education students, particularly those who are learning the most basic of skills needed to survive here, communicating in English. Such classes can supplement an already rigorous schedule of English classes or help students squeeze vocabulary and pronunciation practice into a schedule strapped by work or home demands.

For now, with a $10,000 grant from the Harbus Foundation, a nonprofit student-run organization affiliated with the Harvard Business School's newspaper, the neighborhood center is rolling out an initial program with 40 students who have intermediate English-language skills. Eventually, the hope is to accommodate more students, possibly including beginners, and share resources with other Chinatown agencies. The center enrolls 400 students a year in various adult-education programs.

The distance-learning course will use a free software package that covers workplace issues such as how to obtain a job, discrimination, and harassment. Students may choose to complete class work using the Internet, CD-ROM, or video, or may use the center's computer lab, although a number of students either own computers or are willing to buy one.

''Computers aren't a big deal. In China, everyone has one," Chen said afterward in his preferred language, Cantonese.

Students will be required to complete a calendar mapping out which slots of time they will devote to their online studies.

''A student has to be able to say, 'I'm going to watch this video or do this lesson Tuesday night after the kids have gone to bed'," said Roger Hooper, the center's adult-education director.

Researchers at the Boston think tank MassINC, which has been studying distance-learning programs, call this skill -- time management -- an essential part of developing the local workforce, Hooper said.

Students come to distance learning with different levels of skill and experience, and thus need varying amounts of interaction with a teacher, through e-mail, phone calls, or in-person meetings. But distance learning also helps students develop the ability to work independently, another high-level skill, Hooper said.

''You can be very lazy. 'I'll just tell Yen I did it'," teacher Yen Chun Liu, 28, teased her prospective students during the orientation, about her seemingly Big Brother role. She stepped toward a computer, opened her own computer account, and students' names appeared, along with a record of recent computer activity and quiz scores.

''I can see all of you. So this is how I check," she said in a mock-menacing tone. ''So don't lie to me."

Greater autonomy and ease in navigating a still-foreign society are what students said they are hoping to acquire with the help of this flextime learning.

''You want to be independent and deal with situations yourself. It's all in English, so if you don't understand, you can't respond," Chen said. He said he liked the idea behind the new course, where ''there's no limitation on the time and place. If you have questions, you can use e-mail or phone."

After a whirlwind two hours, students had to decide whether they could handle such tasks and sign a contract committing to the full 20 lessons.

All 11 in that session, even those who struggled most, decided to forge ahead.

''Because my computer today wasn't that good, I didn't want to do the lesson," said Peici Li, 36, who had owned a pharmacy in China. But like several of her classmates, Li, who just bought a new computer the previous week, said she wanted to make more progress. ''I didn't know anything before, so I'm much better."