Wu Jialu, a college teacher in Qinghuangdao, Hebei province, said: "For me, online classes deprive students of the benefits of being in a classroom, such as teacher-student interaction. Many students have complained that too much screen time is harming their health.

"But under such special circumstances, the internet helps make education more accessible," she added.

Despite such concerns, online education has made great strides in recent years.

According to a report by the Qianzhan Industry Research Institute, based in Shenzhen, Guangdong, the market size of China's online education sector exceeded 230 billion yuan ($33 billion) in 2018, up from 70 billion yuan in 2012.

A report by iiMedia Research said that by this year, some 296 million people, equivalent to one-fifth of the nation's population, will be using such services.

The rapid development of technology such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality has enabled online education to become more manageable and accessible.

To keep up with this trend, many academic institutions, including Peking University and Tsinghua University, have livestreamed open classes via video platforms.

On Feb 3, Tsinghua University began livestreaming open classes on the video-sharing site Douyin, covering topics such as international relations, public speaking, traditional culture, interpersonal relationships and dance appreciation.

On Feb 5, an open class given by Yan Xuetong, director of the Institute of International Studies at Tsinghua University, attracted some 160,000 viewers. Yan used the emergence of the viral outbreak－and global reaction to it－to analyze the basic principles of international relations.

On Feb 13, Ke Jie, a leading player of the ancient board game Go, held an online class to pass on his skills as part of the open class program at Tsinghua University. "Faced with this outbreak, I hope I can contribute something meaningful, such as this lesson," Ke said.

At the end of the class, he gave a demonstration of Go chess, using the pieces to form the Chinese characters for "Stay strong, China".

Within three days, the course had received more than 12 million views.