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Teaching venues are playing an important role in the filed of open and distance education (ODL). In China's ODL system over 70% enrolled students are from Radio and TV Universities (RTVUs). Many off-campus teaching venues of e-colleges in 67 conventional universities have been established in RTVUs at prefecture and city level. In this article, the authors have done a direct survey on the data of distance education cost over the past consecutive 4 years in 21 RTVUs at prefecture and city level from 3 provinces (Xinjiang, Hunan and Fujian) in China's western, central and eastern areas, and empirically studied the scale effect in teaching venues at prefecture and city level under the hypothesis condition-teaching effect of ODL and conventional education is the same. The study result illustrates that the average student cost of RTVUs at prefecture and city level demonstrates a scale economy feature, that is, with the expansion of enrolled students scale, there is a fall in the average student cost. The study indicates large differences between average student variable cost and average student cost, which shows a possible average cost reduction in RTVUs at prefecture and city level. In terms of geographical and economic differences, some imbalances of development have been found among RTVUs at prefecture and city level. A quadratic form regression model has been established for doing this research in the perspective of education economics. The results of the regression show that the optimal enrolled student number of RTVUs nationwide at prefecture and city level is around 7,800. For provinces, the most optimal enrolled student numbers are as follows: 9,100 for Fujian, 3,800 for Hunan, and 2,200for Xianjiang, which can serve as the reference for expanding scale economy in ODL. The research finding also indicate the changes in student average cost resulting from the changes in scale, the problem of determining investment direction. It is suggested that more input which benefit the quality improvement of distance education should be made.

In the field of education in China, a large number of learning management systems have been deployed, in which vast amounts of data on learners and learning processes have been stored. How can one make use of these data? How can one transform the data into information and knowledge that inform decision-making in teaching and optimize learning? These questions have become a matter of concern for educators and learners. Learning analytics helps to unlock the value of the learning process data, so that the data can become an important basis for prudent decisions and process optimization. 'Learning analytics' was listed in the 2013 NMC Horizon Report as one of the emerging technologies that will have a great impact on learning, teaching and innovative research in higher education in two to three years. The report notes that learning analytics aims to decipher trends and patterns in the teaching and learning process from educational big data. In this paper, an online course on the Moodle platform is used for the research. The study examines reflection on online teaching and learning based on massive records of the learning process from the perspective of a tutor employing learning analytics. It is a brand new form of reflection on teaching and learning. The analysis of interactive course forums can help tutors to focus on key teaching and learning activities, and achieve more accurate analysis than with conventional face-to-face teaching activities. The research indicates that learning analytics is effective in supporting tutor reflection on interactive online teaching and learning.